News from New Haven
Posts from the Principal
February 2017
Announcements to make note of....
Dodgeball is Friday, MARCH 3rd! :) It's gonna be cold outside, hoping that our moms and sons come to play inside! See our PTA website for specific information. Flyers were sent home with all students several days ago.
Our Carnival is right around the corner! We have tons of fun planned! Including a dunk tank and Jail for our teachers! Don't miss out on all the fun. SAVE THE DATE: March 31st.
Want to get involved? JOIN our PTA! I would love to see more parents involved in our planning of events and activities at NH. Even if you can't be involved all of the time, please consider supporting in an area of your expertise!
News to share....
Parent Pick-up: Thank you for those that provided feedback to us regarding our parent pick up procedures. They were very enlightening, and I feel like we got some great ideas that we are going to try to work with. However, what's the point of a survey if you don't get to see the results yourself? I've attached some of the visuals of the questions (see below), and then I've also answered the questions / listed suggestions that you had for us. For those of you who are data people, there were 83 people who completed and submitted the survey. (to give relevance to the percentages)
We do recognize that something needs to be done, especially concerning the vehicles along 42. We are taking all of the suggestions and are meeting with our safety committee to discuss possible solutions. At this time, I can't give a specific timeline, but I would like to try to work something out for bot our student drop off routing, and pick up situations.
Questions / Suggestions from the survey: (some questions have been condensed / combined with like comments)
1) Could the buses leave in 2 phases? - Actually, they all have to be dismissed at the same time, and busses take priority because they are district transportation. This is a district procedure that I am obligated to follow.
2) Could the large parking lot be used for parent parking and then dismiss the pick up students from the 4th and 5th grade hallway? - I need that lot for my staff to park in, but we could designate some of the parking lot to parents picking up students. The buses would still need to park along the curb of the big lot as well. In this process, parents would still need to come up to the door to sign out students. It is something that we are considering.
3) If we had a drive up system with mirror hanging tags, could multiple family members pick up students? - Just like the ID cards, families would be given 2 specialized NH tags- as long as the family member that is picking up students have the tag in their mirror they can pick up students. If you are picking up multiple students (carpool) you would have to have the tags of all those students and just let the staff member with the radio know to call them all in.
4) Could the lot adjacent to the castle be used for parent parking only? We have tried this, (my first year) and we still had vehicles parked only 42. We have a lot of itinerant staff, etc that come and go all day long which also use this lot. We started to need this overflow parking, especially now that every room in the original building is being used. We have some teachers that work very late into the evening, and lighting is a minimum, which is another reason why they do park in that lot.
5) Could a crosswalk be made across to the small parking lot? Yes, we can request it, but it has to go through the county. This would not be a school district decision. We would need to look at staffing to man the cross walk as well, but it could be figured out. I'm not sure that this would solve the PPU concerns, but it would add to the safety.
6) Could there be a block system for pick up; for example assigned times like 3:30-3;40, 3:40- 3:50? First, students are not actually dismissed from school until 3:40. We already made accommodations for our families because we realize the obstacles we face with parking, space, etc. If we were to assign times we would officially have to start at 3:40. Also, (just my concern given experience) we would have students not picked up at their designated times, therefore causing back up issues and excess students as we already do.
7) Could you rearrange the busses so that they don't use the large lot? Actually, no because we have so many busses. Currently, we have 20+ busses, in which we are loading about 800 children. Students riding busses must be able to enter the bus from a curb. This is a safety protocol that we have to follow. We do already have a few buses in the very back and by our preschool that we have staff walk / monitor because they are not curb side. Our busses take priority over parent pick up.
8) If we didn't start PPU until after the busses dismissed how late would they be? Ideally, I would love to have the busses roll out by 3:45 and then allow cars (who would have to be parked in a parking space until busses rolled out) to come through the loop and we would radio and send students out. There may be days that the time fluctuates, which is a risk of this procedure. I know a few parents voiced that this defeats the purpose of picking students up for after school activities, but its an idea that is on the table, and does solve the complaints about parking and waiting outside.
9) Could an awning be built outside of the PPU doors to help shield some of the elements? - I don't see why not, and I'm looking into what we would have to do for this to happen.
10) Why can't we come in the building and wait? - Space is the number one issue, and personnel to supervise is another. We've put a lot of checks and balances in place for the safety of our students and staff, and allowing individuals to just come in and wait would violate the safety protocols we have in place. Safety was one of the number one concerns that our parents wanted addressed when I first came, and we've done a lot of work to ensure the safety of our students.
Repeats to Remember....
Kindergarten Registration
There have been some changes to the law regarding kindergarten enrollment. Starting the 2017-2018 school year, all incoming kindergarteners will need to be 5 years old by August 1, 2017. All elementary schools in Boone County will be holding kindergarten registration on March 27th, from 4:00 to 7:00. We do not have open enrollment, so you must register at the designated school in which you reside.
SBDM Council Elections
Upcoming events @ New Haven
February
6th- NO SCHOOL
FPS / Composition team members compete at Regional Governor's Cup (WV elementary @ 4:30)
7th- Science Matters club begins for those signed up through Community Education. (3:45 - 4:45) - Hosted at NH, but Not run by the school.
11th- Academic Team Governor's cup - Quick Recall / Written assessments
13th- 5th grade GOTR practice begins.
14th- PTA board meeting - Library @ 4:00
17th- POPCORN FRIDAY!!!
21st- SBDM meeting in the library @4:30
March
3rd- Mother / Son DODGEBALL Tournament- Organized by our PTA
POPCORN FRIDAY!
10th- No school
13th- No school
14th- PTA board meeting in the library @ 4:00
17th- POPCORN FRIDAY!
22nd- 24th- COSI: Ecology - organized by our PTA- PLEASE consider volunteering to help with the activities. You will be trained on site!
27th- Kindergarten Registration!!! 4:00 - 7:00 pm @ New Haven. Please bring your child with you.
31st- School CARNIVAL!!! - Games, fun, and community! Get out and enjoy the evening; eat some food, play games, put a teacher or principal in jail, dunk a teacher, bid on an auction item, or put in for the children's raffle! All proceeds go right back to our kids!
April
10th- 14th- SPRING BREAK
18th- PTA board meeting in the library @ 4:00
SBDM meeting in the library @ 4:30
21st- Family Trivia Night - come out and have some educational fun.... Questions from all genres and eras. (Disney / kid questions included!) Play with or against your favorite teachers!
25th- PTA General meeting and SBDM Parent Election! 6:30 PM in the library
May
1st - 5th- TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK
4th & 5th- 4th grade Marengo Caves Trip(must have approved background check PRIOR to trip)
5th- Kindergarten field trip to the Zoo (must have approved background check PRIOR to trip)
Extreme Spirit Day- Cinco De Mayo!!!
13th- Mom's breakfast! Come enjoy a breakfast with your kids! (organized by our Tiger Dads)
16th- Volunteer luncheon
SBDM meeting in the library @ 4:30
Last day of school: Will be determined based on snow days and approved by the Board of Education at the April board meeting- tentatively set as May 24th. (subject to change due to closed days)
Volunteering
We follow a strict policy regarding adults volunteering. We welcome volunteers, but also see the need to protect all of our students as well. In order to volunteer at New Haven you must 1) have an approved background check and 2) complete the volunteer orientation training (on-line) http://www.tildee.com/DiFKOb - You can also find the link on our webpage along the left hand side.
If you think you would like to volunteer or even go on a field trip with your child this year, you must have this in place. Please do not wait until the last minute, as the background checks are state controlled and we have no influence on how long it takes to get them back. If you do not have an approved background check on file a the time of your event / field trip there will be no exceptions made.
New Haven Elementary
Email: mary.goble@boone.kyschools.us
Website: www.newhaven.boone.kyschools.us
Location: 10854 Old US Hwy 42, Union, KY, United States
Phone: 859-384-5325
Facebook: www.facebook.com/newhavenelementary
Twitter: @NewHavenES