North Plains Hawks News
Principal Newsletter
Week 4 - 9/22/2018
Today is the first day of fall! And wow, did we have some beautiful weather this week. Although it is a bit chilly, it is really fun to stand outside in the morning and enjoy the beautiful view while greeting students and parents at the turn-around. And just in case you don't know who she is, the wonderful lady who is often there with me or in my place is Mrs. Peterson. She is a gem!
I have some great news! Due to our increased enrollment, the district has given us 1 1/2 teachers! We have decided to create a new K/1 class so we can lower the numbers in those grades from 29 and 31, to 24. This means the 7 kinders from each class and 5 1st graders from each class will need to be moved into the new class. I know this really difficult, and I'm sure no one wants their child to be moved, however it will make a huge difference in students' ability to learn and teachers' ability to support them. After talking with the teachers, we've decided the most fair way to choose the students is to do a lottery, so this week we will do that process and choose the students to move. I will personally call all of the families whose child will be in the new classroom by Friday of this coming week, Sept. 28 and the class will begin the following week, probably Wed. or Thursday depending on when we can get a teacher hired. Our wonderful substitute and beloved retired teacher, Debbie Krueger, will be pulling groups of students that will be moving to do some community building with them and help them with the adjustment before the actual change takes place. Thank you all in advance for being understanding and supportive through this process!
The additional 1/2 time teacher will go to support our bursting 4-6 classes. The new teacher will take students from all three grades (at different times of course) and be the math teacher for those groups. That position was just posted, but we hope to begin this Oct. 8 if at all possible. More change of course, but math groups of 20 ish is far better than 33-35! Again, thank you in advance for your support as we make these positive changes!
I want to alert you to an email scam that happened to my staff this week, and staff at least one other HSD school. Someone is using principal names with a made up gmail account starting with "headofschool". This person poses as the principal and asks email recipients to purchase gift cards promising reimbursement. I have no idea how this person got the staff emails, likely just from our website, but wanted to alert you in case he or she was able to hack my contacts and send you something. If you ever get an email from me, be sure it is from an hsd email!
Our annual Fund Run is this coming Friday and is going to be a lot of fun! The weather looks amazing through the end of this week and I hope you can come join us for a fun day! Use the following link to sign up to volunteer: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040b4caca92aa64-north17
Picture Day is Monday. Be sure to send the packet back with your student or purchase pictures online!
This Thursday morning is a PTO meeting at 8:00AM. Come and learn about all the wonderful things our PTO is doing at NPES!
We have a couple of other fundraisers coming us soon! On Oct. 10, come eat at the Spaghetti Factory from 4:30 - 9PM and 15% of the proceeds go to the North Plains Elementary PTO! Then the following Wednesday, bring the family to the NP McDonald's where the school staff will be serving you between 5-8PM. Last year was a lot of fun and I'm excited to be doing this again!
Choir is starting soon, so if your child is in grades 4-6 and enjoys singing in a group, watch for the flyer to come home this week to sign up for choir!
Please see below for dates and times of all the upcoming activities - it's a busy fall already! I'm sorry there are no new pics below, It was just a really busy week:(
Enjoy this beautiful weekend!
Becky Smith
This week:
Wednesday, Sept. 26 - vision screening
Thursday, Sept. 27 - PTO meeting at 8AM
Friday, Sept. 28 - Fund Run
Coming Events:
Oct. 8: PBIS assembly - Safety
Oct. 9 - "Screenagers" at Jackson Elementary School 6PM
Oct. 10 - Old Spaghetti Factory Fundraiser, 4:30 - 9PM
Oct. 11 - 12: No school
Oct. 16: Choir begins
Oct. 29: Right Brain begins with Photography Artist Julie Keefe
Oct. 31: Anything is Possible Rap assembly. Grades K-2 8AM, 3-6 9AM
Ms. Ravins takes a selfie with Shadow Hawk!
Casey meets our mascot "Shadow Hawk"
Aris tries out his flying machine in Ms. Schwartz' class
Coming soon....
Glencoe notes
other important weekly information!