Principal's Weekly Update

Your student will come home with an order form next week. You can also order on line at the links below. www.ordercamposphotos.com, enter the "order key" YA295ABP

Attendance: Did you know?

September is Attendance Awareness Month! Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. Half the students who miss 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school. Start positive attendance habits early and have attendance conversations all year through.

The 23-24 gifted education identification process has begun. Students will be identified when they exhibit exceptionality plus evidence of need in one or more areas. Need may be found in
-general intellectual ability
-specific academic aptitude
-creativity
-problem solving/critical thinking
-leadership (4th grade and up)

-and artistry (5th grade and up)

Parent nominations are invited to identify students with high performance or potential. Nominators are invited to give information about fast learning, skill and knowledge, interest and motivation, and creativity related to academic areas. These descriptions will be compared to identified gifted students to decide whether further testing is necessary. Parent nomination window is 9/12 - 10/03. Use the links below to submit a nomination.

English-Language Parent Nomination
https://forms.gle/5g4ZM4cVyXbQLGVB9

Spanish-Language Parent Nomination
https://forms.gle/kUJhC6NrJrmzaqan8

Please contact Andrea Felix or Elisha Morrison, Gifted Education teachers, with any questions. afelix@sfps.k12.nm emorrison@sfps.k12.nm

Please take a moment to review the attached 2023-24 Covid Guidelines for schools.

We open the doors at 7:35 am. Our warning bell is at 7:55 am. The late bell is at 8:00 am. If you arrive AFTER 8:00 am, parents need to walk their students to the front door to fill out a tardy pass. Students should enter the building and go to class while the pass is being filled out. This helps us to keep accurate records of our students for the day. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance with this.

We still have spaces for students in Yoga and First Serve Tennis programs. Click here to see a description, what grades they include and the process for registering. We will add more offerings in the next few weeks. These clubs are funded by our ESSER funds so they do not require a fee this year. Thank you!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1160nxPlztnHQBXNkdfxROqhpihqvie3z/view?usp=sharing

Watershed Cleanup

During the Santa Fe Watershed Fest this year, the SF Watershed Association will be screening a documentary called Acequias: The Legacy Lives On - They will also be hosting a family friendly event on September 16th - an arroyo clean up combined with recycled art making. Flyers for these events are attached here.

Our 3rd-6th graders will take the beginning, middle, and end of year i-Ready assessments this year in place of the iMSSA. K-2 will continue to use iStation for their progress monitoring. We will be administering these assessments in the next few weeks. Once we have our schedule, we will share it with you. Here is a link to a letter that provides information about the i-Ready platform.

For all grades: If you arrive from 7:35-7:45, you may only enter the school from the front doors on E. Booth St. Students stay in cafeteria for this 10 minutes. At 7:45, 5th and 6th will go to the gym. 1st -4th stay in the cafeteria. Kinder will go to their classrooms at 7:45.

Kinder: Go straight to their classrooms at the time they arrive (after 7:45)

1st-2nd: Enter the building on Webber St. (East side), students walk to the cafeteria. They will wait there until their teacher picks them up at 8:00.

3rd-4th: Enter the building from the front doors on E. Booth St. They will wait in the cafeteria until their teacher picks them up at 8:00.

5th-6th: Enter the building from the front doors on E. Booth St. They wait in the cafeteria until 7:45. They then move to the gym from 7:45-8:00. Their teacher picks them up from the gym at 8:00.

We handed these out at Back to School night. Here is a copy!

It contains contact info, PTC info, and Remind info!

Remind is the platform we use to provide information to our parents. You can receive Remind updates as notifications on your phone and as email. In order to receive this information, please follow the following steps.

Good attendance is critical for a student to fully participate in and benefit from the academic program. This applies to tardiness as well. Remember, you are your child’s first teacher and role model, and it is up to you to ensure your student is on time and ready to learn each and every day. This is also an important life skill that it is never too early to impart.

The Attendance for Success Act outlines guidance for school attendance. Those guidelines can be viewed here. The SFPS Board Policy for attendance is here. Our overall attendance rate factors into the new school rating system starting this year by the PED.

As per Board Policy, “Excused absences are absences from school or a class that are short and long term mental or physical illnesses, observance of religious holidays, bereavement, suspensions, court summons, school sponsored/school sanctioned activities, hazardous weather conditions, pre-approved parent requested absences (as outlined in the Administrative Regulations) and activities approved or sponsored by the school, the Board, the NMPED, accepted by the Superintendent or the school principal, or their designees as a reason for excusing the student.

Students who are on transfers to WG sign a contract that they will adhere to our attendance policy. As stated in the contract, failure to adhere to the policy and go over 10 days absent for the year could result in a revocation of the transfer.

Please plan vacations or fun days for your student during planned school breaks (Fall and Spring Breaks, Holidays). As per the Board policy, “Parent Requested Absences for Educational Travel: Opportunities may be designated as an excused absence if approved by the principal and the assigned schoolwork is completed within two weeks of return to school or another agreed upon timeline.” Therefore, if you have an upcoming educational travel experience that you would like to be excused, you must send Principal Lindeen (klindeen@sfps.k12.nm.us) an email with detailed information stating the purpose of the trip, the dates, and what kinds of educational experiences will be undertaken. The request and approval must occur PRIOR to travel for it to be excused.

Excused vs. Unexcused Absence Determinations

EXCUSED ABSENCES

Bereavement

Short-Term Illnesses (fewer than 3 consecutive days)

Long-Term Illnesses (more than 3 consecutive days; must have a doctor’s note at 3 or more)

Hazardous weather conditions

Late bus arrivals

School sponsored/sanctioned activities

Other emergencies or set of circumstances

UNEXCUSED ABSENCES

Woke up late

Doesn’t want to come to school

Vacation or Travel

At 10 or more absences, Administration will meet with the family to make an attendance improvement plan. As absences increase, our SFPS Social Engagement Officer will be involved and possible outside agencies contacted.

Absences are sometimes unavoidable. Please either call the front office 467-4800 to notify our secretary of the reason your student is not at school. If you get the voicemail, please leave a message as we check our voicemail regularly throughout our day. You can also email our secretary, Shannon Cordova, at shcordova@sfps.k12.nm.us.

Our school system has an attendance monitoring program called Attention to Attendance, or A2A. Our school’s attendance support team looks at student attendance data from A2A every week; letters of concern regarding attendance are generated by the A2A program. You will receive a printed letter at 4, 7, 12 and 18 absences. On the letter, it says to contact us. You do not need to contact us or justify the absences/excuses in the letter. The letters state a total amount of absences, both excused and unexcused. We have those marked accurately in our powerschool program. The letters are to inform you of the total of absences. Ms. Lindeen or the Attendance Team will contact you if we need to discuss attendance. You can find more information about student attendance outlined on the district website, www.sfps.info .

Please place a printed sign in your front windshield with your students' name on it. This makes it easier and more efficient to get your student to your car (and not having to ask who your student is).

Anyone who has driven to Wood Gormley knows that for all of its neighborhood charm, it is a challenging school to access for drop-off and pick-up because it is in a neighborhood with tight streets. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that parents/guardians and “people who pick up your student” understand how our drop-off and pick-up needs to go. We like to be good neighbors so please follow these protocols.

1. Slow down. Go 5 miles per hour. Do not pull into our crosswalks.

2. Turn off loud music in your vehicle prior to accessing our streets outside of our school.

3. Slow down. Speeding and road rage could lead to a student being injured. Being a few minutes late to work is always better than causing harm.

4. Respect our crossing guards. Do NOT cross until a guard indicates you that you can cross.

5. Review the route maps below for your student’s grade level. Adhere to them. If you have more than one student, follow the route of the youngest student. Older students can walk the sidewalk to the front of the school to enter. We can adjust as needed.

6. For grades 3-6, Drop-off and Pick-up will only be permitted at the designated cones/spots. Stay in your car and wait for your child to come to your car. Wait until asked to pull forward to exit. There is no “leap-frogging” other cars. Wait your turn.

7. If a staff member (in the yellow vest) asks you to slow down or to not park or to wait, please be courteous and compliant. We will not tolerate uncivil behavior.

8. We are doing our best to keep traffic moving, efficient, and most of all, SAFE.

9. Please remember that we encourage our families to bike to school. Cars MUST yield to our bikers to keep them safe. I would much rather you YIELD to a biker and be late to school than be on time.

It is a good idea to drive your route prior to the first day of school if you are unfamiliar with the streets. There are some confusing one ways going on over here!

Students may not be dropped off at school prior to 7:35 am. After 8:00 am, students must be walked to the building and a tardy pass filled out by a parent.

Arrival begins with the students who ride the bus and/or go to the cafeteria for breakfast. Teachers are assigned duty Monday through Friday from 7:45 a.m. until school starts at 8:00 a.m. Students should never be dropped off without staff present.

Our updated website is up and running and will be your first stop for all information about Wood Gormley! There, you will find a button that takes you to these Principal's Weekly Updates, a button for our school's calendar which will have all school events and after school offerings, a button for learning about Standards Based Learning/Grading, and other important information. The page also has a news feed, live feed from the district and much much more. You can access here at this link.... https://woodgormley.sfps.info/

Interested in getting involved with our PTC? Click the link to find out more about our very involved and supportive parents and teachers! https://woodgormleyptc.com/

WG will host many after school programs for our students. We will post after school programs in a few weeks so stay tuned!

Our aftercare program is M-Th from 3:15-5:30 pm and Fridays from 1:05-5:30 pm. Aftercare is first come first serve and staff dependent. Contact our Aftercare coordinator, Christine Walsh at cwalsh@sfps.k12.nm.us. Click here for a link to the 23-24 Aftercare program registration form. You can send it via email to Christine Walsh.

Click here for the WG Community Calendar!