My heart was broken when I rolled into the parking lot early this week and saw the field was torn up and the trees in a pile. I knew it was being developed into houses, but for the past three years we have enjoyed having a hawk that lives in the trees in the field and sits on the light pole in our parking lot each day scouting out his daily meals. Now the construction is happening, the hawk has moved on to another spot and doesn't hang out at Bridge any longer. Progress....while we love to see it with our kids in reading, writing and math, this type of progress makes my heart a little sad.

Thank you to all who donated paper towels in lieu of cash for today's Dress Down Day donation. This was our first time trying something like this and it worked very well. We were in need of paper towels and decided that instead of using money to order them we wold just forgo donations and instead see if parents would prefer to grab a roll from their home and drop them off at the school. Now, we can use the money we normally would have used to purchase paper towels to buy Watch Me Learn prizes instead - it's certainly more fun than buying paper towels.

MATURATION

Bridge does NOT have a big assembly and bring the 5th or 6th graders together to talk about maturation. Some schools still do this because "that's how it's always been done" - shoot it was done that way when I was a kid close to a 1,000 years ago. Instead, in the February newsletters, Bridge will include the information and links to the information on maturation that parents and guardians can use, in their own homes, to share with their student.

Bridge uses this method for couple of reasons. First, nature determines when a child is maturing and going through puberty, not a grade level. For example, girls in 3rd and 4th grades have already started menstruation so a presentation in 5th grade would be a little late for them. Because of medication and environmental factors, some boys are also starting puberty earlier.

Next, some parents would be offended and their children mortified, if the anatomically correct names of body parts were used by someone that was NOT a family member while other parents prefer we share everything right down to conception.

Finally, Bridge is of the opinion that determining when your child is ready for the maturation conversation and how much information is shared is based on the specific child and a parent is the best person to decide WHEN and WHAT that should be. So, we will give you the information and you can do what you do best, which is parent, and determine how much you want your kid to know and when you want them to know it. So we will stick to what we do know best and when, developmentally it should be taught - reading, writing and math, and you can tackle maturation with the resources you choose or the resources we provide.

NOW HIRING FOR OPEN POSITIONS NEXT YEAR

Interested individuals should email resume to Lani@BridgeCharter.org

• 4th Grade Para Educator
• 5th Grade Para Educator
• 1st Grade Teacher (MUST have professional license, 3+ years experience and LETRS)

LOTTERY IS OPEN - MAKE SURE YOU ENROLL ANY INCOMING SIBLINGS!!!!!!

Please let your friends and family know the lottery is open. We keep our advertising pretty minimal as we have very few spots available and our parents do a great job of spreading the word about our school. This is also where you will enroll any siblings who you want to attend Bridge next school year. If the sibling is not enrolled by the time we run the first lottery on February 7, we cannot guarantee they will have a spot for next school year.

The link to enroll in the lottery is:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/enroll-today

FREE COMMUNITY GIVE AWAY

Bridge has joined with Utah Foster Care for another FREE community give away. This will be held Saturday, January 28, 10 - 1, at Bridge Elementary in the gym. Everything - shoes, toys, clothing, is FREE. This is open to the entire community to bring your friends family and neighbors. See further below in the newsletter for more information. The only access to the school is through the south gym doors. No public restrooms will be available.

STAFF HIGHLIGHTS

This week's staff highlight features our AMAZING special education teacher, Diane Nelson. Keep reading below to learn more about Mrs. Nelson.

Mark you calendars for the following days of NO SCHOOL

• February 20 (President's Day)
• March 9 & 10 (Parent Teacher Conferences)
• April 3 - 7 (Spring Break)
• May 26 (Teacher work day)
• May 29 (Memorial day)

Upcoming Events

• FREE Community Give Away - January 28, 10 - 1 (Bridge Gym)
• Middle of Year Progress Reports - February 3
• Roy City Fire Department Safety Assembly - April 19
• Classic Skate Night - May 3

Please keep reading for more information about this past week and events for the upcoming weeks.

As always, thank you for sharing your kids with us!

Lani Rounds

Principal

Students can choose to bring cards/treats to their homeroom class, to their entire pod or not at all. There is NO requirement to participate nor is there a requirement to distribute to all the students in the pod. If a child chooses to participate an easy way is to just enter a FROM and not enter a TO, then you don't even need a class list.

Kindergarten = 78 total = 26 per class

1st Grade = 87 total = approximately 30 per class

2nd Grade = 90 total = 30 per class

3rd Grade = 83 total = approximately 28 per class

4th Grade = 81 total = approximately 27 per class

5th Grade = 54 total = approximately 18 per class

6th Grade = 56 total = approximately 28 per class

Students can bring candy or toys to distribute; however, students will NOT open Valentines at school. Students may NOT eat any of the candy at school. ALL cards, treats and prizes must be opened after school at home.

https://www.bridgecharter.org/2023-2024-calendar

Unfortunately, the system is NOT fool proof as it relies on lots of things - teachers updating the attendance in the classroom accurately, students being in their correct spot when attendance is taken and not in the restroom or at their locker, students moving their magnet in their classroom for lunch count, students taking the green "check in" slip when they come into the office after 8:30 am, the office entering all of the excused absences correctly using the data described above.

Sometimes, with all of the steps required to ensure attendance is completed correctly, we inadvertently send a message to a family when their child is in fact at school. If this occurs, please do not panic. Assume we have made a mistake - which thankfully, so far, in every single instance is what has happened. However, to ensure your child is safe, please call the school and we will go into the classroom to determine that your child is in fact in class.

We apologize profusely when this happens as we know it can cause panic. We do ask for understanding, patience and forgiveness as there are a lot of moving parts and we are all doing our very best to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be before the One Call message is sent. Many schools do not bother with this process. This is a procedure we choose to do at Bridge just in case there ever is a chance that a child, for whatever reason, is not at school and the child should be. We believe that making a couple erroneous phone calls is worth the safety of our students just in case there is one day when a phone call identifies when a child is actually missing.

Again, if you receive a phone call, please assume it was in error but call the office (801)499-5180 and we will verify your child is at school.

I will:

• Be an "energy giver".
• Smile.
• Encourage others.
• Treat every job as important.
• Not be discouraged by failure.

https://www.bridgecharter.org/character-first

We are looking for donations for our game booths. Students play games and win prizes. These are not elaborate prizes. We are looking for simple things like you get at Zurchers, pick up in packs at the Dollar Store, or buy from Oriental Trading. We also need tons and tons and tons of cans of soda for the ring toss. Please drop your donations off in the office and remember to enter your donations (converted to hours) into our volunteer tracker so your family can be place into our Frog Pond in the front foyer.

https://www.bridgecharter.org/volunteer-opportunities

School Website: https://www.bridgecharter.org/donate

Amazon Smile

I love being part of the Bridge Elementary team. I have worked for traditional districts schools for over 20 years and I have finally found an educational model that I believe in. I have a bachelor's degree from Weber State and a master's degree from the University of Alaska Southeast. I've taught in Idaho, California and Alaska, but Utah is my home. I learned that my ancestors fought hard to be here so I shouldn't be so quick to leave. I love it here and all of my family live close. My passion is teaching and helping children find success. I have a son, two teenage daughters and a husband who are all my joy. My hobbies include genealogy, history, geography, and traveling. I also love rocks!

Code = BridgeES

Pre Pay code = BridgeYB23

Link to Order: YEARBOOK ORDER

When payments are made online we must complete several steps to get the payments moved to Aspire. We do this every Monday and Wednesday. After we run the online report it takes another day for the money to post to your student's Aspire account. Please allow 3 - 5 days from the day you make the online payment to the day the information posts in Aspire.

The link to make payments online is found on our website by selecting the MEALS icon.

https://www.bridgecharter.org/lunch

• Cutting Watch Me Learn tickets (stop by the office)
• Pulling weeds in the rock areas and park strips (we have all the area in front of the school and up 4800 S along the school fence).
• Using rakes and shovels to redistribute the gravel from the bottom of the retention area in front of the school to the top area to cover the black landscape screen.
• Parking lot duty before and after school (just check in at the office, put on a yellow vest and talk to Travis in the crosswalk for instructions)

https://www.bridgecharter.org/volunteer-opportunities

Once your family has logged 30 volunteer hours they will have a frog put into our Volunteer Pond in the foyer.

If you want to volunteer but do not have the time, you can donate $90 to cover the 30 hours. If you choose to donate, complete the volunteer form. You can donate in the office or by using our DONATE icon on the home page of our website.