Principal's Newsletter
October 4, 2021
Principal's Message
Dear Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion families,
I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. At the Principal's "Cafecito" last Friday, Child Nutrition Services Director Anna Lague spoke to us about the School Lunch program and listened to and answered or addressed parents concerns. In particular, parents are concerned about sugary items at Brunch such as the chocolate milk and the Mexican Sweetbread("Conchas"). She explained to us that the chocolate milk is low fat and low sugar and does satisfy the protein requirements for students. As many students will not drink the regular milk, they have been offering the chocolate milk so students get some protein. However, she did say in the future they will not offer chocolate milk when there are prepackaged items such as the Mexican Sweetbread "Conchas". Ms. Lague explained they will work towards revamping the menu(e.g., offering bagel and cream cheese or cheese sticks, crackers, and sliced apples at Brunch), but that they are sometimes limited this year in regards to pre-packaged items that can be offered due to COVID-19 supply chain issues. She also spoke about the Federal Lunch Program requirements she must follow in terms of serving portions, protein, vegetable, fruit, and grain that must be offered. Ms. Lague will begin sharing the Weekly Menu of items School Lunch Menu with families so that they can make an educated decision whether or not to send a Snack/Lunch from home in a lunchbox, or have their child get a Brunch/Lunch from the cafeteria: October 4th-8th(English) 4-8 de octubre (Español). I appreciate child Nutrition Services and Ms. Lague listening and trying their best to provide healthy and nutritious food that students enjoy.
A few more things:
- On School Picture Day(either Tuesday or Wednesday) it is Free Dress for students
- Trunk or Treat : Will be on Friday, October 29th 3:00-5:00pm Drive Through Only. Please note the Front Parking Lot will be closed all day so Trunk or Treat volunteers can decorate the trunks of their cars and we can host our event after school. It is a regular school day on Friday, October 29th-students may come in Free Dress as it's the last Friday of the month, but not in Halloween costumes please. We need your HELP PLEASE with candy donations: nut free candy only due to allergies. If you would like to volunteer/participate(bring and decorate your car and give out treats, please let Jose Luna know).
Stanford Research Study Advocates for Dual Immersion Programs(reprinted with permission from Jorge Quintana,Communications Director RCSD)
All Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion families and staff should be aware and proud of the positive results from a recent research study from the Stanford Sequoia Research Collaborative, "Longitudinal Study of a Spanish Dual Immersion Program" (Amado et al), concerning the effectiveness of our Spanish Dual Immersion program over time. The study concludes that local high school students who graduated from Redwood City School District’s (RCSD) Dual Language Immersion Program in Spanish are reaching high levels of academic achievement and outperforming their peers. That’s the conclusion to which a team of Stanford University researchers arrived after performing a longitudinal study following several cohorts of Spanish Immersion graduates into middle school and high school.
“We’re proud of what Stanford concluded about our program,” says RCSD Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Liz Wolfe who served as Adelante Selby’s First Principal earlier in her career. “While research has always shown that bilingualism has many benefits including increased cognitive development and academic achievement, we’re pleased that Stanford has reached a similar conclusion after studying our data. This tells us that we’re doing a good job as we help students master English proficiency and learn a new language.”
Findings from the Stanford University study show that enrollment in the Dual Language Immersion Program (DLI) propels students faster toward English proficiency, supporting the reputation RCSD has earned for expertise in language acquisition.
While the target language is Spanish, results from the study also show that most graduates of the DLI program, who are initially classified as English Learners (ELs) in Kindergarten, are reclassified as fluent English proficient prior to graduating from the program in the 5th grade, a goal that RCSD holds for EL students, but it is not widely met for similar peer groups. The study explained that ELs who are reclassified make significant progress toward closing the achievement gap.
When graduates of a DLI program are reclassified, they often have higher performance benchmarks as well, the study concluded, reaching “high levels of linguistic proficiency and academic achievement.”
Following student groups through middle and high school, the study found that graduates of the DLI program had higher middle school STAR scores (a previously used assessment program) than those that did not participate in the program. By high school, DLI students and English-only speaking peers had equivalent state assessment scores and GPAs.
Optional Weekly COVID-19 Testing Now Available at our School Site Tuesdays and Thursdays:
The school district has contracted with Bay PLS to help out with student/staff COVID-19 Antigen Rapid testing at ALL school sites. We will have testing available here at Adelante Selby for students and staff on Tuesdays: 1:30-4:30pm or Thursdays 10:15-12:15. The School District will send out a Google Survey to parents who have registered with Primary Health every Friday afternoon to give consent for their child(ren) to be tested the following week (we will get the students from class or REACH/YMCA for testing). We will only test students if the District Appointment Google form is filled out on Fridays. Please complete the Primary Health registration form so that your child may be tested(this only needs to be completed once):
- To test in our School District: One time Registration and Consent for COVID-19 Antigen Testing with https://primary.health/
Hello Adelante Selby Families!
Unidos PTO would like to tell you a little bit more about our fundraising efforts at Adelante Selby. We are constantly fundraising either through specific School events or through opportunities in our Community. All funds that are raised go directly to maintaining our extracurricular programs, such as dance, art, and garden, supporting our teachers and students by funding instructional aids, and a variety of other areas including supplies and field trips. For a breakdown of how we spend our money please visit Unidos website to see our budget. For now, many of our School event fundraisers have been postponed due to COVID-19, however we are continuing with our Annual Direct Drive. This is an opportunity for our families to contribute financially to our school. In our community we will be hosting several “Dine Out” events throughout the school year. These events are a fun way to build community while raising money for our school. They provide families with the opportunity to take a night off of cooking and support one of our local restaurants, but most importantly, to support our school! If you know of any restaurants that would like to participate, please contact us at fundraising@unidosPTO.org. Our first Dine Out event will be at Celia’s Mexican restaurant on El Camino on Wednesday, October 13th for lunch dinner and take out! Please come out and eat with us! 15% of the earnings come to us, so please we need YOU to join! We wanted to remind you that there are several ways to earn money for our school when you shop online at certain retailers. We have partnered with these businesses to help our school maintain our quality programs. Here is a link to all of our online partners. Please visit our Fundraising Page for more information!
Thank you so much!
Ivanna Zelaya Clark, Community Fundraising Officer And Mom to 4th grader Javan.
Office Hours
Our school office is now open and the office hours are 8:00-4:00pm. Entering the office, all visitors must:
- wear a mask
- have your temperature screened at the kiosk
- use hand disinfectant when entering the office also at the kiosk
Please visit our school website , Adelante Selby Facebook Page and our PTO/Unidos webpage and social media accounts: unidospto.org, Facebook and Instagram for more information.
Regards,
Director Warren
Important October Dates
- 10/5 Unidos PTO Parent Meeting 7:00 pm: Google Meet By Phone: US) +1 413-561-7722 (PIN: 613651684)
- 10/5 and 10/6 LifeTouch School Photo Day: FREE DRESS ON YOUR PICTURE DAY ONLY
- 10/11 No School: Indigenous Peoples Day
10/13 Celia's Dine Out Night Fundraiser(see flyers attached below)
10/14 Food Distribution, 3:30-5:00pm: All Welcome!
10/18 ELAC meeting, 4:00pm
- 10/20 School Site Council Meeting, 3:00pm
- 10/21 Earthcapades School Assemblies
- 10/21 PJ Story time Read Aloud con Directores Pati y Warren; 6:30pm: Meeting ID: 814 0615 4964 Passcode: StoryTime
- 10-25-11-7: Scholastic Book Fair(virtual)
- 10/28 Food Distribution, 3:30-5:00pm: All Welcome!
- 10/29 Trunk or Treat 3:00-5:00pm(Drive through only), Front Parking Lot Closed All Day