Cordata Chronicles Newsletter
October 2021
From the Principals...
It’s been a busy and successful start at Cordata this year! As we launch into October, we’re looking forward to another great month at Cordata Elementary School. October calendar items include ongoing early release days each Thursday @ 12:45 pm. There will be a “Purple Friday” on October 15th, which means students will not have school that day. Purple Fridays, noted in purple on the district calendar, occur four times throughout this year and are teacher workdays. During these teacher workdays, staff engage in a variety of professional learning, communication with families, and planning for student instruction.
One of our goals at Cordata this year is to grow meaningful family involvement. This newsletter is one way that we hope to share the good news at school with families. We’re also striving to provide “two-way” communication where we not only share, but listen to your interests as families. You are an integral part of your child’s education and we want your leadership in defining Cordata’s vision for your child and every student who attends this school! In that spirit, we’d like to launch a family leadership group this year. This could take the form of a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) or Parent Teacher Association (PTA), but for now we’d just like to start a conversation with interested parents and/or caregivers about this possibility. Cordata has not had a parent leadership organization for the past couple of years, and we feel that it’s an important element of a thriving school. If you’re interested in helping to launch a parent/caregiver leadership team or have questions, please email Craig Baldwin at Craig.Baldwin@bellinghamschools.org or call our office @ 360-676-6461. Once we have feedback, we’ll plan to set an initial meeting for late October or early November.
Fall Conferences are just around the corner. Later this month, we’ll send out information about how to sign up for conferences. Conferences will be available virtually or in-person. If your family would like an interpreter, please let your child’s teacher know.
Finally, we’d like to thank our families and staff for supporting such a great start to this school year. As always, the start of the school year is a momentous act of planning and collaboration, especially in these unique times! It takes involved families and staff to make everything go smoothly in our first months of school. Thank you to everyone for your commitment to making Cordata Elementary School a great place for our students. We appreciate you!
Have a great October everyone!
Craig Baldwin - Principal
Eva Chazo - Assistant Principal
Introducing Payton Spiva- Cordata Staff Star!
Payton Spiva is a new 4th grade teacher at Cordata Elementary this year. She has been working with kids in schools since 2015 when she started Running Start at Everett Community College. Payton has worked with every elementary grade and special education setting under the sun as well!
Her favorite thing about Cordata is how supportive every single staff member is. According to Payton, she has felt SO welcomed coming into this school. She can tell every single person cares about this school so much.
Ms. Spiva's favorite thing to do in her spare time is to be in the woods or mountains. Payton loves kids BUT if she could get paid to hike with her dogs all day long, you would never see her again. 😉
Payton is getting married October 9th! Instead of doing a honeymoon she and her husband plan on building a camper van so they can spend summers and school breaks visiting cool places and seeing cool things!
Welcome to Cordata Ms. Spiva! We're so happy you're a Cordata Bobcat!
Counselor's Corner
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Bullying can impact a student’s education, physical and emotional health, and their well-being.
Occasional aggression (and certainly conflict) is typical in children and every child can have a “mean moment”. The three distinguishing characteristics of bullying VS conflict are: 1. The behavior is repeated over and over, 2. The behavior is intended to do harm, and 3. The bully has more power than the target (this could mean social power or physical size). Kids bully each other for lots of reasons, but usually people bully to gain power and get an emotional reaction.
Bullying is more than teasing or a mean moment. It’s done to hurt someone on purpose, over and over. If not addressed, it can make someone feel depressed and anxious. In more recent years, cyber bullying, which means using the internet and social media to bully, has become a much more common way that students bully one another.
Talking to your child about bullying before it happens can help them to understand that it’s ok to come to you for help if it happens to them. Let your child know that you will help them and that together we will all work to make it stop. It is important to let your child know that it is never ok to bully someone else or join in when another student is being bullied.
How we as adults model managing a conflict may be the most important way to prevent bullying. People who bully others have often been exposed to environments where conflict is managed through aggression, both verbal and physical.
Teaching your child to walk away or turn off their computer (but not erasing the content) when bullying is happening can reduce bullying because it prevents the bully from getting the power (emotional reaction) they want. The most important thing someone needs to remember is that bullying only works if the bully gets what they want. They want attention or to get a rise out of you. So, ignoring the bully is the best thing to do. You can brainstorm and practice with your child a few things they can say so they can walk away without giving the bully what they want.
One of the best ways to stop bullying is for kids to stand up for each other. Encourage your child to make a pact with their friends to stand up for each other. If bullying continues, let an adult at school know about it, whether it’s in-person or online.
To raise awareness and increase understanding about bullying prevention, Ms. Sabrina and Mr. Dan will be teaching lessons in all grades this month about how students can be UPSTANDERS (vs bystanders) when they see bullying. In being an upstander, students will recognize that they can be problem solvers and take action to counteract bullying. Actions students will be encouraged to take to stand up to bullying are:
tell an adult
speak up about the bullying for themselves and friends- tell the child who is bullying that it’s not okay
be a friend – buddy up
interrupt/intervene – help in removing the target from the situation
Together we can create communities that are kinder, more inclusive and accepting for all students. We hope that families will take action at home, in your neighborhoods and in the community to help prevent bullying.
By Mr. Dan and Ms. Sabrina
Cordata Counselors
Bobcat Bus Tales
“The Wheels on the Bus Go ‘Round & Round,” ….My new favorite song!
Hello Cordata families,
If you see me at your child’s bus stop, please say hi! I’m your Assistant Principal, Eva Chazo and I’m riding the buses. In the past two weeks, I’ve ridden most the afternoon routes, and a morning route. I’ll be riding bus 76 on Monday afternoon, October 11. For the rest of the school year, I will ride a bus each week. Supporting our students and drivers is super fun on our movable classroom, otherwise known as the bus! A great benefit is that I’m also meeting some of you. If you see me at your bus stop, please say hi, and if you want a longer conversation, ask me for my card and give me a call or send me an email. I am so glad to get to know our awesome Cordata community better. Every week, I’ll also write a short little “Bus Bobcat Tales” featuring stories about our students, drivers and bus adventures.
Ms.Chazo -Assistant Principal