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A Strandwood PTA Publication
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JANUARY 10, 2011
Good Morning
Every Monday, Email Club members receive important information regarding upcoming events and communications from The PTA and Strandwood staff via the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner also provides links to important flyers and new items on the PTA and school websites. Do you have any comments about this Roadrunner or suggestions for future Roadrunner articles or features? Drop us a line at strandwood_emailclub@hotmail.com.
If you no longer wish to receive these electronic communications please use the "Safe Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter.
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With the on-going budget crisis and harsh effects on our school district, the Roadrunner will continue to bring you updates regarding the budget and related news, such as the proposed school closures. This information will be at the end of the newsletter and highlighted with a green background. If you prefer not to read about the financial problems please skip these green sections.
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A Message From Our Principal
Happy New Year |  A new year brings opportunity for reflection, new ideas and new information! We are gearing up to gather information about how our students are doing in reaching proficiency in grade level standards. We completed our second Benchmark Assessments in November for grades 1 through 5. At the end of January we will complete our third Benchmark Assessments for grades1 though 5.
During our welcome to the new school year Back to School nights, the kinds of assessment we do at Strandwood were shared. The Benchmark Assessments are formative assessments used to measure student achievement in reaching proficiency in grade level standards. Across the district elementary schools will be administering the Curriculum and Associates benchmark assessment as we move as a district toward common assessments to align with our new district goals in Math and Language Arts (available on line at our district website www.mdusd.org).
A Benchmark Assessment is designed to test students' mastery of end of year standards. Following the assessments our teachers meet in grade levels to analyze the data as a grade level, as an individual teacher and looking at individual student performance. This data informs the teachers about students' areas of strength, which standards students have mastered and where to focus their instruction in the coming weeks. Individual student performance helps teachers target with specific instruction, additional small group or one to one instruction as well.
In Reading/Language Arts and Math each grade level performed well, overall, reaching the goals they had set for themselves after the first benchmark assessments in the fall.
As we move toward National Standards in Reading/Language Arts and Math, Strandwood students are well on their way toward grade level proficiency in both content areas. Thanks to our generous parent community and PTA with their support for our Reading Intervention Supports, Science, Technology and Art we perform as well as we do. Regardless of our successes, every staff member at Strandwood is committed to ensuring that all students leave us proficient at their grade level.
Happy, happy New Year! |
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Photo courtesy of the Bargmann family.
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Calendar
Click the image below to go directly to the monthly Strandwood PTA web calendar.
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On This Day in History,
January 10,
(click year for more information)
On January 10, 1982, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark makes a leaping catch in the end zone on a pass from quarterback Joe Montana with 51 seconds left in the National Football Conference (NFC) championship game against the Dallas Cowboys. "The Catch" set up a successful extra point kick by Ray Wersching that lifted the 49ers to a 28-27 victory and a trip to Super Bowl XVI.
Three weeks later, Montana was named MVP of Super Bowl XVI after San Francisco defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. |
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Another Box Tops Contest Winner
Strandwood Receives almost $700
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The December Box Tops Winner was Alexandra Coeshott in Mrs. Tarapore's class. Alexandra turned in a whopping 252 box tops! We received a huge amount of Box Tops this month from several students - thank you so much for clipping and saving those labels.
Strandwood gets 2 payments per year. In December, we received $685. Remember, each and every Box Top you clip adds up to real money for our school.
Thank you for your ongoing support. |
Site Council to Review New Homework Policy
| The School Site Council will be reviewing the new MDUSD Homework Policy at their next meeting, Tuesday, January 11th. Parents are invited to attend the meeting and listen to the homework policy review. The next SSC meeting will be held in the Library this Tuesday, January 11th, from 3:15 to 4:30.
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Strandwood Student Council Creates Spirit Days
| Watch for news this week or next on the spirit days created by the wonderful Strandwood Student Council like the Friday spirit wear contests and special Wednesday spirit days.
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| Read and Dream Program Rolling Along | Congratulations to the following classes on reaching 100% participation in the Read and Dream program, Mrs. Schuster, Mrs. Tarapore and Mrs. Culbertson. Only needing one more student are the classes of Mrs. Hoffman, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Hong and Mrs. Rowe. Only needing 2 more students are the classes of Mrs. McCaffrey, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Guncheon.
Great job to Noga Kessler and Suzie Silva another successful start to read and Dream.
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DDA Re-Gifting Days
|  Got some holiday gifts you want to Re-Gift? Donate your new/unused gifts to the Strandwood Dinner/Dance Auction and earn money for our school! Drop items off at the PTA room after school - Monday (1/10) to Friday (1/14). Gift baskets and gift cards are very much appreciated. GUILT-FREE RE-GIFTING!
We are also on the look out for other great auction items or donations. If you have any ideas/suggestions/questions, please contact Lea Harrington (harringtonlea@yahoo.com) or Cindy Turner (pcturner@sbcglobal.net).
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Thursday is a No Cooking Day
Eat Out for Outdoor Ed at Chevy's
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On Thursday, January 13, between 11AM - 10PM, take advantage of the opportunity to be free of dinner duty and instead, be served at Chevy's! Dine in, take out, and invite your friends to join you at this family-friendly restaurant close to home. Enjoy the perks of a nice dinner out, free of the guilt of indulging since a WHOPPING 25% of your food bill will help our current Fourth Grade classes get to their week-long Outdoor Education School next year in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Simply bring this flyer to let them know that we sent you!
If you have any questions, please contact Belinda at brcsullivan@yahoo.com |
Easy Fundraising on a Daily Basis
| Want to help the PTA fundraising process? Check out the home page of the PTA website at www.strandwood.org. The bottom of the page has links to three easy ways to help, eScript, Target and Box Tops for Education. If you have any questions regarding the fundraising efforts please email us at strandwood_emailclub@hotmail.com.
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Parent Volunteers Needed for After School Programs
| With the passage of Assembly Bills AB 1025 and AB 346 all adult volunteers required for after school programs need to undergo an additional fingerprinting process. This is in addition to the normal fingerprinting and TB testing that all volunteers that work with the children are required to go through. Strandwood has only 2 parents that have completed the additional requirements and future after school programs are in jeopardy of being canceled. The after school basketball program has been the first causality. If you have students that might be in an after school program and/or you are interested in becoming certified please contact us at Strandwood_emailclub@hotmail.com.
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MDUSD Intradistrict Transfer Deadline is January 15th
| This is the last week to turn in your intradistrict transfers. For more information please click here.
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Kindergarten Pre-Registration Opens Feb 1st
| Pre-registration of children eligible for kindergarten in August 2011 will be conducted in all Mt. Diablo Unified School District elementary schools on a first-come basis starting Tuesday, February 1, 2011. The hours of registration will be 9:00 - 11:00 am and 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Children who will reach the age of five (5) years on or before December 2, 2011, are eligible for kindergarten in August.
For more information and the necessary forms please click here. |
| Nominating Committee Forming | It's already time to start thinking about next year's PTA officers. We will be forming a nominating committee that will be responsible for finding parents that would like to serve on the PTA Executive Board next year. If you would like to be on the nominating committee please contact PTA President Martha Alexander or email us at strandwood_emailclub@hotmail.com.
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Parenting Tip of the Week
From www.parents.com
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8 Answers to Kids' Toughest Body Questions
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Brain Teasers
| In many stores stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
Name the sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
Name a vegetable that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked or in any other form except fresh.
Click here for the answers.
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MDUSD Board Meeting
| The MDUSD Board of Education will hold their next regular meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, January 11th at the school district board room. Among the topics they will discuss are increasing our computer lab Instructional Assistant's hours from 6 per week to 19-1/2 and requesting almost $1 million to cover the cost of mental health that the state is withdrawing (see the article below). To view the entire agenda for the meeting click here.
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| Board Meets to Review School Closure Recommendations | The Board of Education and the School Closure Advisory Committee will conduct a joint meeting to discuss school closures. The meeting will take place on January 19, 2011 at 5:30 PM at Northgate High School in the Little Theater. Board member Gary Eberhart will also attempt to stream the meeting live to his blog, http://mdusd.blogspot.com, so that those who are unable to attend will have an opportunity to watch.
From Gary's Blog - "At the meeting we will have an opportunity to understand the reasons why certain sites and options were chosen and why others were not. We will see a presentation of Committee vote counts and how schools were ranked relative to the criteria. Thirty minutes has been set aside at the end of the meeting for public comment. There will be no decision made at the meeting on January 19, 201."
For more from Mr. Eberhart about the meeting please click here.
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Mental Health Funding Cut
| In October 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut AB 3632 Mental Health funding which pays for children to receive entitled and necessary mental health services by county mental health agencies. This loss of funding/service means Mt. Diablo School District is now responsible for providing the mental health services without additional revenue to cover the cost. One residential treatment program for a student can cost over $300,000 a year.
Mt. Diablo School District currently has 15 students in residential programs, which means an additional cost to our district of $4,856,379. Our district budget cannot handle a hit of almost $5 million dollars. Jerry Brown, will be presenting his budget plan TODAY. Parents need to contact their legislators now.
Below is a list of The Big Five and links to find your Senators/Assembly Members. Please contact your legislators ASAP and ask that they restore the AB 3632 Mental Health Funding.
California Legislator contact info:
California State Senate
California State Assembly
Find your California legislative representatives using this ZIP code search engine.
State Leaders:
The Honorable Jerry Brown
Governor of California
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Assembly Speaker
John Perez (Democrat- Los Angeles)
State Capitol, Room 219
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 319-2046 Phone
Assembly Minority Leader
Martin Garrick (Republican-Solana Beach)
State Capitol, Room 3104
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 319-2074 Phone
Senate President pro tempore
Darrell Steinberg (Democrat-Sacramento)
State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 651-4006 Phone
Senate Minority Leader
Bob Dutton (Republican-Rancho Cucamonga)
State Capitol, Room 5094
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 651-4031 Phone
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 Answers | The pear is grown inside the bottle. Click here for how it is done.
In boxing the scores are not presented until the match has concluded.
Lettuce is only sold fresh.
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Dates, Times and Place
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January 10 - 14 - 5th Grade Outdoor Ed - Students are at camp all week!
January 11 - School Site Council Meeting - 3:15 - 4:30 in the Library.
January 13 - Outdoor Ed Fundraiser - Chevys
January 17 - School Holiday - MLK Jr. Day
January 18 - PTA Executive Board meeting
January 20 - PTA parent Education, Speaking Series - "Bullying" with Karen Lingenfelter
January 21 - Field Trip - 5th Grade - P-3, P-4, E-1 - Delta Discovery Voyage
January 20 - Field Trip - 5th Grade - P2 - Delta Discovery Voyage
January 24 - Hearing Screening - K-2nd Grade
January 24 - Hearing and Vision Screening - 5th Grade
February 3 - PTA General Membership Meeting
View the calendar on the Strandwood PTA website by clicking here.
Visit the Strandwood Elementary School website by clicking here.
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In the Office or On-Line
Flyers regarding the following items are available in the office this month. You can also click on the link, if there is one, to go directly to that site.
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