Principal Update - October 2019
From Ms. Smith
Fammatre Elementary School
Website: https://www.cambriansd.org/fammatre
Location: 2800 New Jersey Avenue, San Jose, CA 95124
Phone: (408) 377-5480
October 28, 2019
Dear Fammatre Families,
It is hard to believe October is already drawing to a close. What an exciting month it has been! I want to personally thank our Monster Boogie Bash Planning Committee - Denise and Eric Fulton, Jennifer Lozzio and Kelly Hodge and all of the many volunteers who made this fabulous event possible. It was an incredibly well organized, fun-filled evening - what a joy it was to see so many families turn out for this Fammatre tradition.
I would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Lacy Derringer for her leadership as the HSC Giving Campaign Coordinator. On a daily basis, our students have opportunities such as 1:1 Chromebooks in grades 3-5, Art Vista, Field Trips, Assemblies, Makerspace, Starting Arts, and many more engaging activities that would never be possible without the generous donations of our Fammatre families. We are grateful for all you do to support our students and staff.
Now that Parent-Teacher Goal Setting Conferences have wrapped up, we would love to hear your thoughts about this new approach. I hope all of you found the time meeting with your children’s teachers to be meaningful and productive. Please take a few minutes to complete this short parent survey: https://forms.gle/34HfBbvMcV8GmVHi6. Your input is critical to helping us improve the process going forward.
Finally, I would like to make you aware of an upcoming change we will be implementing. We have given our morning assemblies some deep consideration over the last month. Although gathering daily for the start of school has been a tradition for the last several years, we have reached a decision that beginning Monday, Nov 4 we will shift to having morning assemblies ONLY on Fridays. Below is the rationale driving the change and the new morning process.
Why reduce morning assemblies to only Fridays?
Preserve instructional time. With additional time during the instructional day dedicated to enriching activities such as Starting Arts and Makerspace, we need to find ways to gain back time in the schedule to focus on core instruction. Most days we lose at least 10-15 minutes of class time to the morning assemblies. By cutting the assemblies down to one day per week, our students gain back 40-60 min of learning time each week.
Significant numbers of Tardies: School starts at 8:05. On most days 20-25% of our students roll in late during or after morning assemblies. We need to re-establish expectations around school start time.
Best practices across the district: all other Cambrian schools have already reduced the number of days for morning assemblies to 0 or 1 day per week (one school is doing 2 days per week).
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What is the new morning routine?
Mondays - Thursdays
7:55: Gates open. Students may sit quietly in the quad or play responsibly on the back playground.
8:03: Students line up quietly by classrooms, hang backpacks on hooks when the first bell rings.
8:05: Class starts, Pledge with your class, attendance, begin morning classroom routines.
Tuesdays ONLY - at 8:07: 2 Student Council Reps will join me in the office to say the Pledge over the intercom and make any announcements for the week (e.g. Spirit Days, student meetings...). I will work with them on the script.
Fridays -
8:05: Morning Assembly on Blacktop; All Fabulous Falcon award winners for the week will come up and be recognized together. Fammatre cheer, pledge, then dismissal to class.
Our teachers will be discussing the change to our morning routine with their students this week.
Warmly,
Jacqueline Smith
Principal
Fammatre Elementary School
Upcoming events/dates:
11/1/19: Applications due to participate on CSD’s Budget Advisory Committee:
11/1/19: No School, Professional Development Day for Teachers
11/4/19: School Site Council (SSC) & English Language Advisory Committee (ELAC) 4-5 pm in the Library. We are looking for parents to Participate on ELAC and our District English Language Advisory Committee (DELAC). Please contact the Fammatre office if you are interested.
11/4/19: Fammatre Home & School Club Meeting 7-8 pm in the Library
11/7/19: CSD Board Meeting 7:00pm at District Office PDC
11/13/19: English Language Arts (ELA/ELD) Curriculum & Bi-literacy Info Night https://www.smore.com/gf1nz
11/19/19: CSD Special Board Meeting 7:00pm at District Office PDC
11/21/19: CSD Board Meeting 7:00pm at District Office PDC
11/25/19-11/29/19: Thanksgiving break