February 3, 2013
Dear Parents and Guardians:
Happy
February! It is hard to believe that I have been on the job for a month
already. I am loving my interactions with your children and thoroughly
enjoying my time as the days spin by!
Included here are a few updates and reminders that I would like to share with you:
Berkshire
Alarm Company will be here on Feb 15, 18 and 19 to upgrade our security
system and install a camera, intercom and buzzer at the front door.
When that work is completed you will be able to buzz the office, at
which point the door will be (remotely) unlocked, allowing enough time
for you to enter. At that time, please make sure you still come to the office to sign in before travelling to any other place in the building. Thank you!
It’s
still flu season! While we have not had any confirmed cases of the flu
at Kellogg, we have had many children out with flu-like symptoms. Please
continue to help your children follow safe practices to reduce the
spread of germs, and please keep your children home if they are sick.
Remember this rule: fever free without the aid of fever reducing drugs. Thank you!
If
your children are going to be in school, barring any morning
appointments or the “wait and see how you feel” morning question if you
have concerns about sickness, it is important that they arrive on time.
They should arrive at 8:40, allowing them time to unpack and get settled
before homeroom begins at 8:45. Homeroom time is short but important as
that is a time to hear important announcements, ask questions, and
prepare for the day. Punctuality is an important habit and if your
children are walking or if you are driving them to school, please make
an effort to help them arrive on time, at 8:40. Thank you!
Students that are tardy to school (arriving after the homeroom bell at 8:45) must
come to the office to sign in. Otherwise, we do not have a record that
they are in school because they have already been marked absent. Some
young ones are being dropped off on their own to do this. Beginning
February 20 there will not be a ‘doorman’. Please escort your children
to the door to make sure they can open it on their own. Thank you!
Lastly,
I am including here (on the next page) our ‘Ground Rules’ concerning
the use of personal electronic/media devices. These ground rules have
been reviewed with the students. Please review these rules at home and
remind your children about the importance of following directions and
making good choices. Thank you!
It
seems, from the above, as if we are only about rules and procedures
here at Kellogg. I suppose that may be partly due to my newness on the
job and my own need to learn about the routines here at school. It is
through learning about these routines that I discover the need for
reviews and reminders. We all need these from time to time. Please know
that there are many exciting things happening at Kellogg: Audubon puppet
shows! Civil Rights marches! Student authors! Field trips to the
symphony! Rubber egg experiments! Community readers! Tissue paper
lanterns! Students as meteorologists! Student mathematicians! It is our
rules and procedures that allow our school to run smoothly so we can get
down to the important business of learning. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Please
feel free to contact me at school anytime with questions or concerns or
if you want to discuss an idea or share a suggestion. I look forward to
hearing from you!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Law
Ground rules concerning the use of personal electronic/media devices:
Students
are encouraged to leave their personal electronic/media devices at
home. If MP3 players, cameras, phones and other electronic/media devices
are brought to school they must be turned off and stored in backpacks
in lockers during the school day, and may only be brought out with
individual permission from a specific teacher for use in a specific
class for a specific purpose. This includes the taking of pictures.
Pictures may not be taken without specific permission and may only be
taken for specific purposes.
If
bus drivers give permission to students to listen to music, headphones
must be worn at all times. Cameras, phones and other devices may not be
used for purposes other than listening to music while on the bus. In the
morning upon arriving at school all devices must be turned off and
stored in the students’ backpacks before exiting the bus. At dismissal
time students may not retrieve devices until they are seated on the bus.
Students
observed using or carrying an electronic/media device during the school
day without specific permission will be directed to turn it into the
office. The device will need to be picked up from the office by a
parent/guardian.
Changes in these procedures while on field trips will be at the discretion of the specific field trip coordinator.