Grizzly Gazette
Dec. 4th, 2022
Principal Message
Hello Cedarhome Families -
We had a fun and exciting week at Cedarhome with some snow, some third grade swimming, and some fun collaborative events between our buddy classrooms! We are looking forward to our upcoming events this week, first our winter concerts Wednesday night, then our PTO movie night on Friday. This event starts at 6 PM. A reminder that students need to be accompanied by an adult for this event.
We are doing a food drive this week for the Stanwood Camano Food Bank. Thank you for your donations for this important event!
Kimberly Caldwell — Cedarhome Elementary School Principal
From the Cedarhome Students
Swimming lessons
Alex and Adrian
This month, third grade classes are going to the YMCA to have swimming lessons. The teachers had us swim a little to decide which group we were in. Then we got into our groups and our teacher taught us many different things. Some things we learned were backstrokes, diving, front crawl (ice cream scoops), side breathing, front gliding, kicking in the Goldilocks zone, treading water, and bobbing. We also learned to hum under water so water doesn’t go up our nose. One of our favorite parts was when we swam down really deep to get a green ring. We improved so much and could swim 5-25 yards. We are so happy the YMCA invited us!
A huge thank you to our YMCA for helping this experience happen for us!
PTO Happenings
CFAC
As you have heard by now the District is looking at adjusting our school boundaries due to unbalanced enrollment. We work alongside a community group called the Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC). Anyone can join this group: The next meeting is at 5:30 p.m. December 12 at UTSALADY
We are reviewing the district’s projected enrollment through 2031, studying current overcrowding, and analyzing new boundary options to recommend to the school board in the spring. Please consider joining the CFAC or attending one of our community feedback sessions. We want your input! All of the details are HERE.
Inclement Weather
Inclement Weather
As the weather forecasts indicate, we may see cold weather this winter. I wanted to share with you how we make the determination to delay or close schools due to ice, snow, flooding, etc.
Safety first! We consider the safety of our children on buses, our student drivers, families driving and walking to school, and the safety of our staff, especially our bus drivers.
We monitor weather patterns using multiple methods 24/7. In particular, we use a tool called Accuweather that is specifically designed to support school districts in looking ahead at weather patterns.
When there is a concern about school starting on time, our staff begins driving the roads throughout the district as early as 2 a.m. We take photos, check road conditions, monitor traffic, look for hazards, etc. We typically drive the roads multiple times in the early morning to determine if conditions are improving, worsening, or staying the same.
We strive to decide about the school day by 5 a.m. Once the decision is made, we begin communicating with families and staff. We communicate through:
Autodialer (via School Messenger)
Email (via School Messenger)
Website
Flash Alert
Predicting the weather is a challenge, and our primary goal is to ensure that the roads are safe, our campuses are easy to navigate, and the weather does not impede a safe school day. Find the 2022-23 snow routes HERE.
Holiday Concert Details
Hello Grizzly Families! For those of you who were able to join us for our Veterans Day program, thank you. For your service, for supporting our school, for taking time out of your day to be part of our school community. I'll say it a thousand times, it wasn't the same when you were gone.
My December lesson plans include activities based on The Nutcracker (if your kids don't already know Tchaikovsky, they will by winter break), listening to hundreds of students’ overly-excited Elf on the Shelf stories, scraping your children off the ceilings 17,539 times, and also throwing together holiday concerts, a field trip, and choir parties (Treble Maker parents have a whole other newsletter to read).
As many of you remember, we have too many students at Cedarhome to have one concert (and a lot of parents who know fire code and our gym capacity…) I have always done two concerts split by last name, but out of fairness I'm reversing the alphabet this time.
L-Z will perform at 5:30pm and A-K will perform at 7pm.
K-1 grade students, please report to the gym when you arrive. K and 1 will be picked up from Mrs. Burke's Classroom after the concert. 2nd and 3rd grade students please report to Ms. Koster's classroom. They can be picked up from this same room at the end of the concert. Fourth and fifth, please report to the library. They will go from the stage to parents at the end of the concert.
FERPA
We have lots of fun events happening that we would like to share pictures on our website and in our weekly Smore newsletters. If you would like to opt your child out of having pictures included in these ways, please fill out the linked form. If we do not have a form, we will assume you are comfortable with having your child's picture shared.
December Menu
Upcoming Dates
Dec. 7th - Late Start Wednesday
Dec. 7th - Winter Concerts
Dec. 9th - Color/Patterns Day
Dec. 9th - PTO Movie Night
Dec. 14th - Late Start Wednesday
Dec. 16th - Festive Day
Jan. 3rd - Back to school after winter break
Jan. 4th - Late Start
Jan 11th - Late Start
Jan 16th - No School
Jan. 18th - Late Start
Jan. 25th - Late Start
Jan. 30th - No School
We Love our Volunteers!
If you have interest in volunteering this school year, please visit the links below.
The SCSD information about volunteering is located at https://www.stanwood.wednet.edu/community/volunteer.
For those who would like to begin applying, the key links are below:
Cedarhome Elementary School
Email: kcaldwell@stanwood.wednet.edu
Website: https://cesweb.stanwood.wednet.edu/
Location: 27911 68th Avenue Northwest, Stanwood, WA 98292, USA
Phone: 360-629-1280
The Stanwood-Camano School District does not discriminate in employment, programs, or activities on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. Inquiries regarding compliance and/or grievance procedures may be directed to the District's Title IX/Affirmative Action Officer and Civil Rights Compliance Coordinator, Maurene Stanton (mstanton@stanwood.wednet.edu), or the Section 504/American Disabilities Act Coordinator, Robert Hascall (rhascall@stanwood.wednet.edu) Stanwood-Camano School District, 26920 Pioneer Hwy, Stanwood, WA 98292. Telephone: (360) 629-1200.
El Distrito Escolar de Stanwood-Camano School District no discrimina en sus programas o actividades por motivos de sexo, raza, credo, religión, color, origen nacional, edad, condición de veterano de guerra o grado militar, orientación sexual, expresión de género o identidad, discapacidad o uso de perro guía entrenado o animal de servicio, y ofrece igualdad de acceso a los Boy Scouts y a otros grupos de jóvenes especificados. El empleado mencionado a continuación ha sido designado para atender consultas y quejas de supuesta discriminación: Título IX / Oficial de Acción Afirmativa y Coordinador de Cumplimiento de Derechos Civiles, Maurene Stanton (mstanton@stanwood.wednet.edu), o la Sección 504 / Coordinador de la Ley de Discapacidades Estadounidenses, Robert Hascall (rhascall@stanwood.wednet.edu), Distrito Escolar Stanwood-Camano, 26920 Pioneer Hwy, Stanwood, WA 98292. Teléfono: (360) 629-1200.