Dear Encinal Families,

I hope this message finds everyone well after a wonderful Thanksgiving break.  As we prepare to bring this first trimester to a close, teachers are finishing up student assessments this week and writing report cards.  All report cards will be sent home on Friday, November 30th.  Teachers are looking forward to meeting with families during parent-teacher conferences in December.  To prepare for these conferences, please review the report card at home and have a conversation with your child(ren) about some of the highlights of this past trimester, work they are proud of, and what they feel are their next steps or areas of growth for trimester two.    

As a staff, we're also taking time to reflect on some operational issues at school and as always, work to continuously improve our systems.  Here are a few operational nuts and bolts that we've recently updated or improved:

1. Pick Up Waiting Area for 4th & 5th Grade Families: We are asking parents and students to relocate to the picnic tables as they wait for the 4th and 5th grade students to be released at 3 p.m.  This will allow the 4th and 5th grade students to focus on their learning by minimizing noise distractions from outside and having access to this space at the end of the day for their lessons.

2. Head Lice Policy: In partnership with our district nurses, we've updated our procedures when students re-enter school after receiving home or professional care for head lice.  This nuisance affects schools across the country, and we at Encinal want to continue to do our part in reducing their spread.  Please continue to check your child's hair for this nuisance on a regular basis. If your child(ren) happen to contract lice, please inform the office so that we can send exposure notices home for other families to check their child(ren).  We're all in this together and we need everyone's help to reduce the spread.  I know it's not a pleasant subject, but it is a reality for our children and our families.  Please see the district web site for additional information about this and thank you for your continued efforts in this area.

3. Emergency Lock Down Drill: We've held fire evacuation and earthquake preparedness drills this past trimester and and now we're gearing up for our emergency lock down drill on Dec. 7th (see Nov. 25th newsletter for more details.) Practicing all of these drills creates muscle memory in the event of a real emergency.  

4. Front Office Gate: We've added a gate to our front office counter to help enhance our office staff's working space conditions as they work on a myriad of tasks on a daily basis.