Lloyd Road School Newsletter
March 2020
Monthly Dates to Remember
March
2--Read Across America Week (see daily theme days below)
2-6--Winter Linkit Assessment administered
6----Yearbook Grade 5 baby photos, event photos, good luck lines due
(email to lryearbook2020@gmail.com)
9----Board meeting at Cambridge 7PM
11---9:45 a.m. PTO meeting in cafeteria
13---No school for teacher in-service
17---St. Patrick's Day
17-19--Grade 4 CogAT assessment
19-20--PTO School Store during lunches
20--PTO STEAM Night 6:30
23--Board Meeting at MAMS (6PM Executive session begins/General meeting 7PM)
23-25--Book Fair
31--Spring photos through Lifetouch
Principal's Update on LRS goal areas
Dear Lloyd Road School Parents and Guardians,
In our September newsletter I shared some of our building's focus goals for this school year. Now that we are midway through the year I wanted to share some updates in our goal areas.
1. Math focus: improving students' problem solving abilities with fractions.
Updates:
- Our math teachers met several times during the year to analyze data from various assessments to determine trends we see in terms of skills and standards the majority of our students performed stronger on and areas we saw as lower performing.
- Math teachers then identified curriculum areas that matched the lower performing areas and determined how and when to add in additional instruction in these areas.
- Focused interventions and additional emphasis has been given to lower performing areas including problem solving with fractions through small instructional math groups or full class practice when appropriate.
2. Language Arts focus:
- Interpret visuals in informational text to answer a question or draw more information about the text.
- Key ideas and details
- Recognize text structures and text types (i.e. fiction/nonfiction; compare/contrast, sequencing, cause/effect, etc.)
Updates:
- Our Language Arts teachers also worked together to analyze data from various assessments to check students' progress on grade level skills and standards.
- This analysis led to our teachers and curriculum department identifying the need to develop short writing units for a Research Simulation Task (RST) and Literary Analysis.
- In addition to the new mini RST and Literary Analysis units, the teachers continue to work with students in small groups to target skill and standard areas students have struggled the most in.
3. Expanding social-emotional learning through implementing morning meetings and mindfulness activities following lunch and recess each afternoon.
Updates:
- Teachers have shared successful morning meeting ideas and structures
- Classes are using morning meetings to occasionally discuss struggles or conflicts they see students having with the goal being to address observed concerns immediately.
- Teachers have identified mindfulness activities their particular students enjoy and prefer the most and that help them start their afternoons in a more relaxed and focused frame of mind.
4. Promoting a positive school culture and climate with a focus on promoting equity, access, and inclusiveness across all grade levels and content areas.
Updates:
- Guidance counselors are carrying out monthly lessons that focus on our monthly character traits. Teachers then continue that character emphasis through each day.
- A caught being kind ticket system was put in place for the October Week of Respect. However, due to positive student and staff feedback, this positive behavior recognition system has been continued all year.
- All LRS staff have reviewed our practices, procedures, and curricula in various meetings and continuing to work to implement equitable practices in all we do. We are also working with our curriculum department to review our curricula to continue to make adjustments to assure it is as inclusive and accessible as possible for all students.
- We continue to emphasize general kindness in words and actions as well as the importance of using the conflict resolution process to handle conflicts before they become worse.
Grade 5 Promotion Information
Students of the Month!
Congratulations to our Students of the Month for February! It is always a pleasure eating lunch with all of you and getting the chance to talk more. The selected students were as follows:
February (Fairness theme)
Grade 4:
Roi Habib---------Za'Sean Gray------Dylan Sierra------Dayana Sierra-------Ariannas Villa
Lando Collins----Landon Collins----Briana Juarez----Bernard Segebade--Maks Sieredzinski
Katelyn Brennan--Megan Rojas-----Ashlynn Harris---Weston Zuppa------Brett Mandarino
Grade 5:
Olivia Rice------Ryan Capriotti------Gabriella Marroquin------Jack Lorig------Daniel Bautista
Gianna Becker--Chelsie Garcia-----Arianna Fernandez------Jade Lopez---Asael Pelaez-Pena
A.J. Aversano---Justin Gonzalez---Anthony Attardi----------Avery Cali----Jordyn Monsanto
Morning Car Drop Off safety reminder
- Whenever it is possible, have your child exit from the driver's side as this prevents the student from having to walk in front or behind your car. We know that this is not always possible so then always wait to pull away until you see your child cleared from the front or back of your car and close to the building entrance.
- There should never be any vehicles passing around other vehicles on the right. We never know if a child has to exit out of the right side of a vehicle. Waiting for the car in front to pull away only takes an extra few seconds so we ask for patience and student safety to always be the main priority.
Thank you.
Grade 4 Counselor information:
Ms. Giacchi is our school's Title 1 school counselor for climate and culture and Grade 4
Ms. Giacchi can be reached through email at ggiacchi@marsd.org or by calling the main office at 732-705-5700.
Grade 5 Counselor information:
Mrs. Tay is our counselor for Grade 5 and is our school's antibullying specialist.
Mrs. Tay can be reached at ktay@marsd.org or by calling the main office at 732-705-5700.
Throughout the month of March our guidance team will be focusing on promoting our monthly character trait of Courage as well as continued emphasis on using conflict resolution when conflicts do arise. These two focus areas will be emphasized through classroom lessons, classroom morning meetings, morning announcements, and our daily interactions with each other.
District Strategic Planning Process
This link will bring you to our district's Strategic Planning website and a video from a planning workshop.
Dear Members of the MARSD School District Community:
As President of the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools, it is our pleasure to invite you to participate in our Strategic Planning Renewal Committee. This committee will be a focused group of 40 or more community and school leaders. We will work together to identify both the strengths of the school district (those special attributes that we can build on as we move into the future) and the critical issues that we will face (the challenges that the district must be prepared for in the future).
This group will meet for two Strategic Planning Goal Setting Renewal Days on Friday, March 20, 2020 from 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM and Saturday, March 21, 2020 from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM at Matawan Regional High School. We will work in both small and large groups, and discussion will lead us to a consensus document that will develop goal areas focusing on the future of our schools. The Board of Education will use this document to help shape strategic goals for the district as we move forward.
We hope that you will offer to participate and will encourage others to do so. If you are available and can commit to both dates, we would be honored to work with you on this critical vision-setting project. Please complete the MARSD Strategic Planning RSVP - 2019-2020 CLICK HERE to let us know if you will be able to join us in this exciting and important opportunity to assist in shaping the future of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District.
Sincerely,
Allison Friedman
President, Matawan Regional School District
Board of Education
Joseph G. Majka, J.D.
Superintendent of Schools
As we approach the middle of the school year, it is a great time to not only review academic progress but also attendance since we know how closely related school attendance is to academic achievement. Last year the Department of Education updated what can be counted for excused absences.
As per the New Jersey Department of Education School Register, the NJDOE recognizes only the five allowable reasons listed below as a “state-excused absence:” As a result, the district has updated attendance procedures in order to facilitate accurate and efficient state attendance reporting to the New Jersey Department of Education.
Religious observance (N.J.A.C. 6A:32-8.3(h)
A college visit (up to 3 days per school year, only for students in grades 11 and 12)
“Take Our Children to Work Day” (pursuant to the Memo - Click Here issued by the Commissioner to all districts on April 25, 2017) or other rule issued by the Commissioner
Participation in observance of Veterans Day (N.J.S.A. 18A: 36-13.2) or district board of election membership activities (N.J.S.A. 18A: 36-33)
The closure of a busing district that prevents a student from having transportation to the receiving school.
A brief bulleted summary of the main points of the district policy are:
- There are now only 5 reasons the state recognizes to be counted as excused absences.
(see the letter for those reasons)
- Our student information system, Realtime, generates letters automatically at 4,8,12,16, 20 and 24 absences.
-The attendance reminder letters are then sent home with students in a sealed envelope and ask that a parent signs it and sends it back. We try and keep track of certain situations that we have been made aware of that may have affected a student's attendance such as days off for a death in the family, chronic health condition, etc. However, the letters may still be sent home depending on the overall number of absences.
- As is noted in the district letter, the school counselors, special services case managers or administration do call home to check in on higher absences.
- In person meetings are then set up for absences around 8-10 absences depending on any known circumstances.
-In person meetings will be needed especially for situations where a student has had excessive absences over multiple years showing a pattern.