Open House is tonight from 6pm - 7pm!  This special night is treasured by our community, students, and staff.  It is a celebration of the learning that has taken place in the 2015-16 school year.  Students proudly share artifacts of their brilliance with their families.  Some students visit their former classrooms and reminisce about what it was like when they were young ;-).  The blacktop gets filled with families catching up with each other while conversations linger into the twilight hours.  It is a magical night.

At 7:05pm, we will celebrate all of our parent volunteers with a pyrotechnics show.  We will then distribute tokens of gratitude to each parent.  Our thanks this year must go into the hands of an adult.  Students WILL NOT be permitted to take the token.  Intrigued?!?!  Be here to find out what the mystery is all about.

As we close out this year with 9 remaining days, I would like to address some topics for the upcoming school year.

Student HOMEROOM Placement

In 2016-17 students will be heterogeneously placed into grade level HOMEROOMS.  The staff has received clear guidance regarding the many factors to consider in developing balanced homerooms.  As principal, I monitor each and every homeroom list and will make all final decisions regarding placement.  Next year students in all grade levels will be regrouped for language arts and math every 4-6 weeks based on their learning needs.  We will share homeroom placement information via email with parents the Friday before school starts in August.

Additional Information Regarding Early Release Thursdays for 2016-17

Over the past several weeks I have heard from many of you.  I appreciate your thoughts and feel blessed to work in a community in which parents are heavily invested.  Here are some additional reflections that I would like to convey.

• We had to make a minor adjustment to the end of Thursdays for grades 1-6.  Please see this updated bell schedule.
• The late notification of a change to our schedule was certainly not optimal.  Many of you had already begun planning child care for the upcoming year and you’ve had to revisit arrangements.  I am very sorry for the inconvenience this caused you.  I wish there had been a way for me to notify you earlier in the year.
• Some interpreted the questionnaire as a way of gauging buy-in from the parent community.  While it is necessary that we partner in many regards on the education of OUR children, programmatic decisions will continue to be driven by the education staff within the Los Altos School District.  The intent of the questionnaire was to take an initial reading on the impact that a shift in school hours would have on our families so that we could adequately explore and offer options.  We have already spoken to the YMCA and they are ready to handle an extra load on Thursdays.  We have promised them space on our campus to allow them to serve more families.  In addition, our PTA is being proactive in looking at multiple shifts of programs for Thursdays.
• The early release on Thursdays will provide our staff with collaboration time to advance our work on personalizing learning for students.  This time will be highly structured with weekly goals/deliverables.  It is not simply a time for us to get together.  Staff meetings will still be held twice a month on Wednesdays and will have a balance of task vs. maintenance items.  As a staff, we are obligated to handle many matters that are non-instructional.  These will be reserved for staff meetings (emergency prep, health protocols, SBAC scheduling, etc..).  On Thursdays, teachers will be working together in cross grade level teams to specifically design learning that answers these 4 questions in the areas of language arts and math:  1) What is it that we want our students to learn?  2) How will we know when they’ve learned it?  3) What will we do for students who already know it?  4) How will we respond to students who haven’t learned it yet?  During this highly structured time on Thursdays, there will be NO other focus other than designing learning based on evidence of what students already know and need to master.
• There is a saying, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  I hear this saying in my head each and every time I think of the shift we’re making in regards to our schedule.  I personally acknowledge that we’ve asked a great deal from our community through this schedule change.  Our staff would not have proposed this if it did not think it was necessary and if we hadn’t exhausted every other avenue to accomplish our goal.  We intend to deliver on our work to personalize learning for students.  We WILL design learning to the edges of our students’ jagged learning profiles.  We WILL ensure each and every student is engaged and challenged in their learning.
• As we utilize this weekly collaboration time, we will be increasingly mindful of addressing the amount of times our teachers spent this year out of the classroom.  The research is clear.  The single greatest influencer of learning in a classroom is a high quality teacher.  That means our excellent teachers need to be in classrooms guiding engaging learning experiences for our students.
• Finally, there has been concern that some families who most need our support will be most adversely affected by this schedule change.  We will be seeking to identify families for whom this creates a financial hardship and we will have an option to support these families on Thursdays.  We will not allow any student to remain stranded or roam the streets of Los Altos.  We care deeply about each and every student and family.

Updates Regarding Staffing for the 2016-17 School Year

We thank each member that is transitioning to a new opportunity for their time and dedication here at Almond and we wish them our very best.

• Chrissy Boyles will be returning to the East Coast near her family.
• Jill Williams will begin a new adventure teaching 3rd grade at Springer Elementary.
• Nancy Liu and Carol Raymond will be retiring.

Teaching Roster for 2016-17

• Transitional Kindergarten:  Lisa Schubert
• Kindergarten:  Rachel Doblick*, Jenny Eldridge, Laurie Lamb
• First Grade:  Sarah Hall, Samantha Nguyen
• Second Grade:  Leanne Kridl*, Raquel Matteroli, Melissa Powell
• Third Grade:  Cassidy Dadigian, Joann Martinez, Tammy Reilly, Caitlin Florek*
• Fourth Grade:  Annie Daggett, Kelsey Greene, Jenny Wishnack
• Fifth Grade:  Joe Chan, Sarah Koh, Laura Ohlund
• Sixth Grade:  Allison Aubrey, Jessica Saretsky, Jasen Stuart
• STEM Teacher: Elizabeth Leach
• PE Teachers:  Mary Alber, Doug Core
• ELD Teacher:  Jessica Mountz
• RSP Teacher:  Diana Psyras
• Speech Teacher:  To Be Determined

*New hires to the Los Altos School District.  Their bios will be shared in August.

We are excited to see you tonight!