October 26, 2010

Dear Disney Parents/Guardians:

I wanted to send out a quick reminder that this Friday, not only do we have our Halloween parade at 1:35 pm on campus, but also our very first WDPTA Walkathon at 2:30 pm and then WDPTA's free Boo-fest. These are wonderful events to let the kids dress up in their costumes and have a fun night with the WD community. There have been a load of dedicated volunteers led by Matt Macedo organizing our walkathon and Boo-fest. If the rains come on Friday, we will move the walkathon to an alternate "rain route" and shorten the walkathon, but it will happen rain or shine. Our PTA is depending on the walkathon as its main fundraiser (replacing product sales that were done in the past) to fund programs such as Art-a-Palooza day, character education programs, assemblies, and community building events throughout the school year. 

Make a Few Clicks on the Computer and Raise $$$ for Walt Disney

Bing will announce the 15 finalists  on the What Schools Need contest and ask America to vote to determine the 4 winners – 1 grand prize winner will get $100,000 for their school, and the 3 first prize winners in each grade category will get $50,000 for their schools. 

While we did NOT submit an application to the "What Schools Need" contest, there is a guaranteed way to raise $3,000 for Walt Disney Elementary. During the 10-day voting period  starting Oct 27th (tomorrow)  through Nov. 5th, the first 30,000 people who vote each day will receive a $3 gift code that to apply to any classroom project of their choice on DonorsChoose.org not just the finalists.   That’s $30 per email over the 10 days.

The voting website is  

http://ourschoolneeds.discoverbing.com

Currently we have 4 current Donors Choose grant applications from Walt Disney teachers (2 teachers). Click here to see these grants. The balance of these grants are approximately $3,800.  That means we are targeting 130 people (or emails) to commit to voting once a day for 10 days. 

$30 x 130 emails= $3900  of materials/equipment for Walt Disney teachers and students....all for a few clicks.  

Restoration of two “Budget Cut Days” means that school WILL be in session on February 18, 2011

The San Ramon Valley Unified School District has restored two of the four “budget-cut” (furlough) days for the 2010-2011 school year, one instructional day and one staff development day.

The school day that has been reinstated is: Friday, February 18, 2011

Monday, March 21st will now be a staff development day instead of a “budget cut” day which means that students will not attend school on this day but teachers will participate in professional development at their schools.      

This change is due to the district’s promise to its employee groups to return to the negotiation table to discuss any significant changes in its financial picture.  Enrollment growth, as well as some new federal stimulus funds, did improve the financial status of the district. The district in consultation with the employee groups agreed to restore two budget cut days to all employees. 

October 19, 2010

With the first rain of the season hitting this past weekend, fall has announced its arrival. Thank you to all of the Walt Disney families who participated in Primo's Run. We had an incredible showing, coming in second out of all district elementary schools with over 40% of families participating. With fall comes a flurry of activities that are just around the corner. Our PTA has worked extremely hard to build its membership this year and has added a few very positive events for the 2010-2011 school year.

While most of PTA's events are designed to build community and create a positive environment for our students and families, we do also have to raise funds in order to conduct the myriad of other programs. PTA is organizing our first annual walk-a-thon, scheduled for Friday, October 29. The walk-a-thon event will cap off Red Ribbon Week, a week about making healthy choices. It is our hope that the entire Walt Disney Elementary community will support our walk-a-thon so PTA can raise enough funds to support other programs that inject art, character education, and community building into our school environment.

Please download and read a letter from our PTA President, Trish Baer, and the walk-a-thon chairperson, Matt Macedo. To download, click here. Thank you for supporting Walt Disney and the staff and I look forward to seeing you and your children on October 29 at the walk-a-thon.

In our ongoing Walk, Bike, Bus Challenge sponsored by our PTA and Street Smarts, it isn't too late to sign your children up and log trips to school either by walking, biking, or taking the school bus. The winning class wins an extra recess complete with activities facilitated by the Street Smarts staff plus the teacher receives a $50 gift card to Target for school supplies. The update for the challenge are as follows:

Top 5 Classroom Leaders
1.  Tayeb - 94 trips
2. Blair - 77 trips
3.  Hansen - 66 trips
4.  Thelen - 65 trips
5.  Hughes - 63 trips

The challenge goes through November 12.

Sincerely,

Joe Nguyen
Principal

October 6, 2010

As we enter our 7th week of the school year, I believe teachers and children are hitting their "groove." Our teachers have completed their start of the year assessments for each student, are getting to really know their students as children and students, and are preparing for next week's Parent/Teacher Fall conferences.

Recently, the state released the results of last spring's California Standards Test (CST's). Many of you may know these tests as the STAR (State Testing and Reporting) test. Each year, the state goes through a complicated calculation that yields each school and district's Academic Performance Index (API) and I am happy to report that Walt Disney Elementary's API grew 10 points from 917 to 927!! While this is only one measure of a high performing school, we should all feel good about this validation. As a school district, SRVUSD continues to perform on the STAR as one of the higher performing school districts in the state. It is sure nice to hear good news from our state.

One of the things that I am most proud to say about our start of the year is that each individual teacher and staff member is doing their best to shelter our students from the recent cutbacks due to budget constraints. As adults, it is frustrating to see schools have less and less resources from the state. While the state's lack of a budget is still problematic to our schools, and while the adults in our community and state carry on discussions and problem solve how to rectify the budget problems, our teachers and staff recognize that we need to do all we can to create an environment that is a "great place to learn and grow" for our students.

The resolve and willingness to help of our WD community continues to impress me. In addition to the continuing programs through WDPTA, DESEF, and the school we have started a new Helping Hands program. Helping Hands is a centralized program of parent volunteers who come in on a regular basis to make copies and/or prep materials for teachers, freeing up our teachers to spend their time and energy collaborating with grade level teams and planning curriculum. We have started small, but Joni Schaeffer (3rd grade teacher and Teacher on Special Assignment) has our small team almost ready to go. Helping Hands is a perfect opportunity if you are interested in a low commitment level volunteer opportunity. If you have an hour here or an hour there available and are interested in our Helping Hands program, contact Joni Schaeffer.

One of our staff goals this school year (as well as a district goal) is to investigate new strategies to maximize 21st Century teaching and learning strategies. Last year, the WD community did a great deal of work to acquire technology tools that now make our classrooms relevent technologically again. Thank you! We recognize that our students are "digital natives" (they were born into our digital world) while many of us on staff, including me, are "digital immigrants" (recognized the need to move into the digital world) or even "digital refuges" (were forced to move into the digital world).  The use of technology is an important part of 21st Century teaching and learning, and can create learning opportunities for students that are not available using more traditional methods. To our teachers' credit, they are open to learning new tools and teaching strategies that will enhance 21st century student learning. In some ways, we are learning together with our students and that is exciting. Some strategies will involve technology, but some will be just strategies that promote the 5 C's of 21st century learning -- creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and curiosity. We will also explore methods to provide parents with technology learning opportunities through our PTA or Site Council. As always, thank you for your support of Walt Disney Elementary and its students.

Joe Nguyen
Principal