Sea Lion Spotlight

Malibu Elementary Parent Newsletter #2 - August 2023

Highlights

Below are some photos highlighting the good work being done at MES this month! There are more photos in the last section of the newsletter! Send your submissions to Principal Hertz! Does anyone have great first day photo?

All of our trees are being trimmed. This will help them when the strong winds arrive this fall.

Important Dates

Full Academic Calendar Link

M-W 08/14-08/16 Office Closed (Diane Out)
Thur 08/17 Office Reopens / Registration Resumes (Kim is back)

Volunteer Training / 1:15 - 1:30pm @ MES Office (See article below) (Repeats third Thursday of the month)
Clever Rolls Over - Students may temporarily lose some access to online programs until the new school year gets going

Fri 08/18 Prospective Family Tour of MES / 1-1:45pm
Wed 08/23 Class Placement emails to parents from Principal / AM

Welcome emails to parents from Teachers / PM
New Family Milk & Cookies Tour / 2 - 3 @ front gate
PTA Annual Giving Campaign launched!

Thur 08/24 First Day of School

Parent Complete Annual Forms online begining today (See article below)

Parent Coffee Meet Up / 8:30 - 9:30 @ Le cafe De La Plage
Minimum Day / 12:45 dismissal
Fri 08/24 Minimum Day / 12:45 dismissal (Repeats every Friday)
Tues 08/29 Minimum Day / 12:45 dismissal

Back-to-School Night for K-2nd / 5 - 6

Fri 09/01 Annual Family PicNic (See article below) / 11:30 @ field
Sept 01 - 04 Malibu Chili Cook Off (See article below)
Mon 09/04 Labor Day Holiday / No School
Tues 09/05 Minimum Day / 12:45 dismissal

Basic Comfort Bag Program Begins Again (Parents put child comfort items in a 1 gallon ziplock and send it to the teacher. /details link/sample family note)
Back-to-School Night for 3-5th / 5 - 6

Principal's Message

Hello New and Returning MES Families,

I hope the summer finds you refreshed and ready for the coming school year. Returning to school can evoke a wide range of emotions for our young students. The staff and I hope the idea of returning to MES on Thursday, August 24, is filled with excitement, curiosity, and positive anticipation. As a staff, we will work carefully to help your children maintain their enthusiasm for school.

Summer campus projects are wrapping up. Exterior painting has been completed. The library mural is done and looks amazing. The primary boys' bathrooms have been remodeled. We replaced the entire restroom floor tiles, urinal tiles, replaced 10 urinals and new flush valves (5 in each restroom), installed a drain line in each restroom so our custodian can easily rinse our restrooms down. In addition, we installed urinal dividers/partition walls, and paint. See pictures below. All the classrooms have been cleaned thoroughly. Our new perimeter fence around the field will be installed this week. Our beautiful and numerous trees have been pruned, our perimeter jogging track is being regraded, and mulch is being spread over the perimeter gardens. Power washing of the hallways and picnic tables is underway. In all, we hope everyone will take pride when we reopen for students on Thursday, August 24.

I strongly encourage parents to keep their children engaged with academic activities every morning. Not only will you be helping your child academically, but importantly, you will help to lower anxiety about the first days of school in a new grade.

Throughout the school year, if you have photos you would like me to consider adding to my newsletter, please email them to me and I will try to include several. Thank you for your contributions!

Enjoy the last week of summer! I will be in touch weekly moving forward.

Thank you for your partnership,

Proud Principal Chris Hertz

Looking farther forward...

Mon 09/11 "Before-school Power Hour Program" begins / 7:15 - 8 @ Computer Lab (Repeats every Monday and Wednesday through May) (See article below)
Wed 09/13 Classroom Complaint Period Closes / 2pm (see article below)
Wed 09/20 Picture Day (Details coming..)
Fri 09/22 International Peace Day - Zoe's Lunchtime Theater - Audience: K-5 / 9am @ field
Sat 09/23 Coast Clean Up Day / 8 - 12noon @ Zuma Lagoon/Westward Beach (see article below)
Mon 09/25 Local Holiday - Yom Kippur / No School
W-F 10/18 - 10/20 5th Grade Overnight Trip to Pali Camp (Bus rolls at 8am on Wednesday the 18th)
M-Th 11/06 - 11/09 Parent-Teacher Conference Week

Articles for Parents

First Day Packet - Annual Forms to Complete are Now Digital

Beginning August 24, 2023

ACTION NEEDED: Malibu Elementary’s annual registration process is now completed in the Aeries Parent Portal. We have many important documents and plenty of information for your family within the online registration site, accessed via your Aeries Parent Portal. Note: You must complete data confirmation for each student.

Beginning August 24, 2023:

Log in to your aeries parent portal.
Be sure to read, review, and discuss all the materials with your student.
Very Important: We need to gather information from you for emergency contacts. Please add at least two non-parents. While there are many boxes to fill, at minimum include name, relationship, and phone number.
We also need to gather information from you for health documents.

Note: You may decide to print some of the documents for future reference. For a tutorial on how to complete this process, please click here English

Again, MES and SMMUSD have worked to digitize the compliance and document portions of the “First Day Packet.” The Data Confirmation process is easy for you and your student through Aeries Parent Portal in place of our previous process. This includes items like Emergency Cards, Parent Handbooks and Policies and Authorizations. We have many important documents and plenty of information for your family within the online registration site, accessed via your Aeries Parent Portal. Note: You must complete data confirmation for each student. Please be sure to read, review, and discuss all the materials with your student. We also need to gather information from you for emergency contacts and health documents. You may decide to print some of the documents for future reference.

For a tutorial on how to complete this process, please click here English

New Family "Milk and Cookies" Tour

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

2:00 – 3:00pm

We’d like to welcome new families to our MES campus on the day before school starts for a brief orientation. No RSVP is needed. We gather at the front of the school and walk the grounds and learn about the great curriculum and programs at MES.

Safe Student Drop Off and Pick Up Plan

This plan was developed to ensure that students are safe while arriving and leaving school. Please refer to this Traffic Map as you read the information below to help ensure our students are safe. Link to plan.

Changing Your Child’s Classroom / “Complaint Window”

Class assignments will be emailed Wednesday, August 23rd in the morning. Please help us embrace the new year with enthusiasm and positivity. We want your child’s return to school to be met with joy, curiosity, and wonder. Children look to you for guidance and if they see you are excited about the new school year, they too will feel good about the year to come. We believe deeply in all our teachers here at MES. No changes to class assignments will be made during the first three weeks of school and we prefer not to make changes at all. On September 13 we will be closing our three-week "complaint" window to request a different classroom for your child. Parents and guardians are asked to wait for three weeks before we begin making any changes. After Thursday, September 13 the Malibu Elementary office will no longer accept such requests for consideration, so please communicate your concern to me before Thursday, September 13; use this e-Complaint Form. With this aggregate information, the best decisions can be rendered.

By or on Friday, Sept. 15 I will contact each parent and let him or her know if I will honor the request. All changes will go into effect on Monday, Sept. 18 after the parent has spoken to their child about the move and teachers have had a chance to coordinate between classes. Please, we do not encourage requests, nor will we be able to honor most requests, but we recognize that we do not always understand the “whole picture” and want to hear from you in writing to determine if a change of placement may be a sound decision.

Link

Minimum Days / 12:45 dismissal

August 24, 2023
August 25, 2023
August 29, 2023
September 5, 2023
November 7, 2023
November 8, 2023
November 9, 2023
May 23, 2024
June 11, 2024
June 12, 2024

Early Release Fridays
Every Friday, beginning August 25th, students are dismissed at 12:45 pm. The remainder of the school day is reserved for teacher and staff development meetings and trainings.

School Breakfast and Lunch - No Charge

Again this school year, there will be no charge for student breakfast or lunch regardless of ecomonic status.

Join the PTA!

The simple act of joining the PTA provides instant financial support for our students! It's also a great way to stay informed about what's happening at school, and connect in meaningful ways with other parents. https://www.malibuelementary.org/membership

Back-to-School Nights

5:00-6:00 pm

Tuesday, August 29th - grades TK-2nd

Tuesday September 5th - grades 3rd- 5th.

These events will be held on campus this year. We will provide further details/schedules as the dates approach.

Malibu Elementary Parent Handbook

This handbook has a wide variety of resources for parents. Link

Coast Cleanup Day at Zuma Lagoon/Westward Beach

8 - Noon

Saturday, September 23rd

Hello Parents of Malibu Elementary,

I am reaching out to see if you would like to volunteer for our local Coastal Cleanup Day. This is one of the biggest volunteer events of the year nationwide. This year, the City of Malibu is the Captain of the Coast Cleanup Day at Zuma Lagoon/Westward Beach on September 23. There are two ways to get involved:

(1) Volunteer for the behind-the-scenes of the event from 8am to 12pm. These tasks can include:

Helping volunteers sign-in and sign waivers
Giving safety talks before volunteers cleanup
Distributing cleanup supplies
Overseeing the volunteers
Giving away raffles during and after the event

Please email me directly if you are interested in volunteering for these tasks.

(2) Volunteer to cleanup at the beach from 9am to 12pm at the Eventbrite link. All minors will require parent/guardian supervision. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coastal-cleanup-day-2023-tickets-681853782017?aff=oddtdtcreator

Please help us make Coastal Cleanup Day a zero-waste event by:

Signing safety waivers online (for adults)
Bringing a complete, signed waiver to the event (for minors)
Bringing a bucket, garden gloves, and filled reusable water bottles

To provide some background information, this is the 34th annual Coastal Cleanup Day hosted by Heal the Bay. There are over 55 locations in Los Angeles County alone that will be cleaned up this September 23rd. The City of Malibu has captained a cleanup and partnered with Malibu Elementary several times since 2006 and is excited to do it again!

I am so grateful for your assistance and desire to protect our environment,

Solishia Andico

Environmental Sustainability Analyst | Environmental Sustainability Dept.

Office: (310) 456-2489 ext. 292

sandico@malibucity.org

23825 Stuart Ranch Road | Malibu, CA 90265

===============================================================================

Reposted Articles

Instructional Assistant Needed!

We are looking to hire one new Instructional Aide for the 23-24 school year (Job Duties).

The position is for 3.9 hours / five days (5) week position, paid $16.00 - $20.45 Hourly. Ideally the hours are 8:10 - 1:34.

The Personnel Commission will be scheduling interviews soon. Click here to apply. If anyone may be interested, please have them email me at chertz@smmusd.org. My goal is to fill this position before August.

Instructional Aides are critical to helping teachers run centers, differentiate instruction, prepare supplies, and supervise children at play.

Transitional Kindergarten Program at MES Update (Aug 14, 2023)

Details - click here

School Supplies

Parents will not have to purchase basic supplies. Office staff have worked with teachers and we have received all the supplies already! Thanks to our PTA, each teacher has additional funds to purchase supplementary supplies. Again, parents do not have to provide basic supplies for their students.

Volunteering at MES / To Be A Cleared Volunteer

Details - click here.

Annual Malibu Chili Cook Off

Details - click here

Family Picnic / Friday, September 1

Details - click here

"Before School Power Hour Program" Begins on Monday, September 11th

This academic support program runs 7:15 - 8 @ Computer Lab. Students will work on DreamBox/Lexia. (Repeats every Monday and Wednesday through May) All students are welcome. Contact Principal Hertz if you have questions. Mr. Hertz is the teacher.