Important Update
August 11, 2011
Dear OPE Families,
It seems like I was just sitting down to write you an “end of the school year
letter”, and here we are starting up a new school year already; and what a
great school year it is going to be! Our staff has taken some time off and
charged up their batteries and we are all looking forward to greeting your
wonderful children on August 15th.
Our school has been deep cleaned and we have had many big projects completed
this summer. Our school is now 100% wireless and we have new phone and alarm
systems. Soon parents will be able to leave voicemail messages to their
classroom teachers. These voicemail messages will convert to text and an
e-mail message will be delivered into the teacher’s e-mail. As you can see,
we are constantly looking for ways to improve our communication with our
families.
There will be no guest passwords needed for our new wireless systems. You
will need, however, to provide your email address for security reasons. This
wireless service will come in handy to our parents if they have a wireless
device and need access to the internet. It is also going to be extensively
utilized when six of our classes move to an iPad 1:1 model of instruction
with students in grades six and two fifth grade classes working with their
personal iPads as part of their instructional day. We anticipate starting
this innovative program in early fall. Our district goal is to have all
classes in grades third through sixth participate in this learning
environment by the end of this school year. Teachers who are going to be
involved in the initial pilot roll out had an opportunity to attend a
weeklong training this summer provided by Apple for Education. This new
program, as well as the wiring associated with it, will be paid for with
Proposition P funds.
Currently, our total student number is similar to last year’s student number
which is close to 670. However, we did lose one teacher (Andrea Pletcher, who
was the last teacher we hired last year) because our class sizes went up in
kindergarten through 3rd grade. We are hovering near 23 students for
kindergarten through third grade and we are at 31 students in our fourth
through sixth grade classes. Our district is doing what it can to conserve
the minimal budget given to us by the state for teacher salaries. Our
district understands the importance of keeping our student-to-teacher ratio
lower in our kindergarten through third grade classes. Many of you have
friends with children in other districts who have told you that their schools
have gone to 31 students or higher in classes in all grades. We are fortunate
to be able to keep our numbers lower, so far, in EUSD.
The recent passage of the state budget directly affected schools. For EUSD,
this reduction amounted to $ 2.9 million in “Fair Share” reductions that the
state is requiring of all “basic aid” districts. This reduction is slated to
be ongoing in future budgets until the economy improves.
Thank you for your patience as we have created our classes. Our teacher
letters will go out in Thursday’s mail. You should receive your letter by
Friday or Saturday. Please know we have tried hard to meet the needs of all
of our children. It takes well over five hours to create the 3 or 4 classes
at each grade level with input from the former teachers, our resource team,
and me. As you can see, we spend a lot of time creating our class lists. We
have considered many things as we have created these classes. If, after
receiving your teacher letter, you have a compelling concern about the
classroom your child has been placed in, please pick up a Parent Concern Form
from the office and turn it back in to Janine or Linda in the office. We will
not consider moving children until after the first few weeks of school, if we
can move them at all. We will use the same process to change a child’s class
as was used to create the classes.
Speaking of teachers, as I mentioned above, sadly we were not able to keep
Andrea Pletcher who taught 4th grade because of the increase in class sizes.
Cindy Simpson, who was our math consultant, retired at the end of the school
year and Marcia Heuftle resigned this summer to spend more time with her
family. Each of these wonderful educators will be missed. We have a plan to
fill these consultant positions as soon as possible.
Debbie Overlock, who works part time and shared a contract with Jackie
Connolly, accepted a full time position at La Costa Heights to work at the
school her children attend. Our own Lynda Holeva will fill Debbie’s position
and share a classroom with Jackie Connolly. Lynda brings years of classroom
experience and extensive differentiation experience to our school. We are
thrilled to be able to keep her with us this year. When not in the classroom
with her students, Lynda will be working up in the office to fulfill her full
time status.
Please welcome Marleigh Sonken our new lower grade special day class teacher.
Marleigh is taking Camie Thompson’s position. Camie moved to Hawaii this
summer.
If you get a chance, stop by our office and meet our new School Services
Secretary, Linda Kelly. We are thrilled to have been able to fill Jennifer
Otillio’s position with such a capable, caring and competent secretary.
As a result of having a new office secretary and many new employees, we are
asking that all parents wait outside the swinging door in the lobby area to
conduct their business unless they have an appointment with someone in the
office. We are also facing many more FERPA (Family Educational and Privacy
Rights) confidentiality rules and regulations and the secretaries often have
confidential information on their desks or computers. In order to ensure we
are maintaining the confidentiality of all of our families, we are asking for
your cooperation with this.
During the first few weeks of school, there will be many parents and other
drivers who are new who will need to learn our school’s traffic routine.
Please demonstrate for them the proper etiquette of our dropping off and
picking up your children safely. It is also important that all of us exhibit
patience during this time. Please allow extra time in the morning and
afternoon to pick up and drop off your children. Last year, our traffic
started to back up in the morning on Rancho Santa Fe at 7:50. Please make
plans to get through OPE’s drive-through before that. Our wait in the
afternoon (from the 2:20 dismissal bell) was about 10 – 15 minutes. (However,
some cars start lining up in the drive-through at 2:00.) If you are in a
hurry, please park in the parking lot or across Calle Acervo and walk in to
the school to pick up your child. Please do not park in front of the school
on Calle Acervo; you will block the flow of traffic and could get a ticket.
Also, please never leave your car in our drive through lanes – ever! This
blocks all cars behind you and is very frustrating for the person who has to
direct traffic through the cones around the parked car and for the drivers of
the cars that are blocked. To review our traffic procedures, please visit
the “Traffic
Procedures page of the OPE PTA website at http://www.ptaatope.org>
This year, Halloween falls on a Monday and it happens to be the first Monday
that we come back from our fall break. For this reason, we have decided that
any dress up activities or Halloween parties will be scheduled for the
Friday prior to the children leaving for our fall break. The Monday we come
back to school will be dedicated to getting back into the routine at school
with no dressing up or parties. Thank you for understanding.
We look forward to providing an outstanding educational opportunity to your
children. We have goals that will help us guide our decisions and directions.
A few of our staff goals are:
* Each grade level will continue to embrace discovery-based learning
* Grade levels teachers will work as a grade level team to address all
levels of learners in their classrooms by utilizing different learning
modalities
* We will continue to refine the wonderful program we have
* Teachers and grade levels will infuse our new technology into their
programs
For the past two years Paul Tabet, one of our parent volunteers, directed
traffic in the morning in our parking lot in order for our children to enter
school safely. Paul is moving on and we are hoping to get a few parents to
help us in the morning. This is a volunteer position or could possibly become
a paid position. Please contact Janine Aurora in the office if you are
interested. We are also hiring noon duty helpers to work during both lunches.
We will provide our Playground Partners Program again this year. Parents who
volunteer one day per week from 11:30 until 12:40 will receive a family
membership to the YMCA. All volunteers need to go through a mandatory
training provided by the YMCA. Please contact Stephanie Neill at
mailto:stephneill@gmail.com for more information.
Parents will be receiving their children’s STAR scores in the mail sometime
this week. We have received the overall school scores and your children, and
our teachers, have once again done very well. I will be reviewing these
scores with parents at our first general meeting. In the meantime, if you are
interested in looking at them yourself, they will be posted on the California
Department of Education website soon.
One last important reminder: Friday, August 19th is a non-student, staff
development day which means no school for the kids. Teachers will be provided
with training that is pertinent to what we are doing this year. Many of our
systems are going online. In an effort to provide our students with the most
thoughtful and invigorating learning experience possible, we will provide our
teachers with training that will directly impact their students’ educational
experiences.
I look forward to a wonderful and exciting year at OPE with all of you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Erin English, Principal
Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School
Encinitas Union School District
At Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School, our children will be well-adjusted, self-confident, knowledgeable 21st Century problem solvers. The competent and enthusiastic staff is committed to working collaboratively in order to sustain a school of high performance learning within a nurturing environment. At OPE, we integrate technology, science and the arts throughout our academically rigorous program. As a school community, we foster each child’s potential to become an ethical and compassionate member of society.