This Week:

Coming Soon:

Dec. 21 - Jan. 4    NO SCHOOL- Winter Break

Jan. 7                  School Resumes  

                           Read-A-Thon begins 

Jan. 8                  Registration begins for Las Lomitas League 

    7:00 p.m.    

Jan 9                  PTA Board Mtg. - 9:00 a.m. - room 20B

                          School Bd. Mtg. - 7:00 p.m. - MUR  at LE 

Jan 21                 NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

Jan. 30                Class Pictures - Cano Hall                

Dear Las Lomitas Families,

I'm sure you all heard about the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last Friday. Our hearts are aching for those families suffering such a terrible loss.

As Alain Camou's article in today's Roar states, school safety is a number one priority for us at Las Lomitas. All visitors on campus must sign in at the office and wear a large, visible name badge. Anyone not wearing a badge will be stopped and questioned by staff and will be redirected to the office. Any suspicious behavior in the parking lots or around the campus perimeter is also reported to the office. I encourage all of you to do the same when you are on campus.

In addition to fire and earthquake/disaster drills, we regularly schedule shelter-in-place and reverse evacuation drills so we can get students inside a locked room safely and quickly. We have worked closely with the Atherton Police Department over the years to refine our procedures for optimum safety. Although we cannot fully protect the children and ourselves from all threats, we do our very best to ensure that we are trained and prepared to respond immediately in an emergency.

Our teachers planned to answer questions briefly today, without dwelling on the details. Keeping our routines and a sense of normalcy is very reassuring for young children. I encourage you to listen to your children and answer their questions the best you can. Let them know how much you love them and that you will do all you can to keep them safe.

Our children are our greatest treasure. As we head into the winter break, I hope you all enjoy the holiday, hold your children tight and count your blessings.

Until next time,

Sue Sartor

Dear Las Lomitas Families,

A couple of weeks ago, Las Lomitas conducted a full evacuation drill to assess our overall readiness in the event of a serious emergency. The purpose of this drill is to periodically check our status and ability to respond to a situation that would warrant a complete evacuation. Among the items that were looked into were our emergency food and water rations, various job descriptions of all faculty members, set up of important areas including First Aid, Student Release, and Incident Command Center, as well as our general capacity to safely move nearly 700 students from their classrooms to the blacktop/field. The children were magnificent and patient as the 45 minute drill unfolded to allow all staff members to report to their respective positions and perform aspects of their job description.

The Safety Committee put in several hours of work to ensure we were prepared for this drill and is currently in the process of addressing issues that arose during the drill. While smaller scale drills such as fire and earthquake are systematically done on a monthly basis, the full evacuation drill differs greatly in its scope and purpose. Our plan is to conduct the drill again in the Spring to make sure the issues that were raised this Fall have been addressed and to continue to identify areas of need. The safety of your children is something the entire staff of Las Lomitas takes very seriously so this is a practice we will continue to refine and improve. At this time, we felt it was important to remind parents of their roles in the event of an emergency and bring your attention to page 135 of the 2012-2013 Student Directory. There you will find important information to help ensure the safety of your children in the event of an emergency. The most important things to remember is to keep calm, have your picture ID with you, and inform all people on the emergency release form of their responsibility in the event you are not able to pick up your children.

Rest assured, a great deal of work and research have gone into preparing the school for an emergency and know that your children are always in the caring and capable hands of an extremely dedicated staff.

Sincerely,

Alain Camou

Kindergarten registration packets for children who will turn age five on or before October 1, 2013 will be available at the Las Lomitas School office beginning Monday, January 7, 2013. Registration packets for 1^st through 3^rd grades for the 2013-2014 school year will also be available starting this day in the office, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m, Monday through Friday. Completed registration packets will ONLY be accepted for enrollment starting January 28, 2013 at 8:00 a.m. Your registration packet will be date and time stamped upon receipt when all required paperwork is complete.

If you are registering a child for Kindergarten, please bring the ORIGINAL birth certificate or passport, your child's immunization records to date, and proof of residence in the form of two ORIGINAL utility bills (i.e. power, water) or one ORIGINAL utility bill and lease agreement or mortgage paperwork. If you are registering a child for 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd grade, you will need to bring proof of residence (as specified above). If you do your bill-paying online, please print out the bill showing the utility service and your address. If you would like to make copies of these documents for us, it will speed the registration process but we will need to SEE the originals.

There are two sessions for Kindergarten. The first session is from 9:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and the second session is from 10:35 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. with a recess between 10:15 and 10:35 a.m. Kindergarteners living in the Ladera area are placed in the 1^st session due to the bus schedule; kindergarteners living in the Woodside area are placed in the 2^nd session also due to the bus schedule. All other registrations and session request forms will be date and time stamped for placement.

If your child is a returning first or second grader and you wish to request a change of session, email requests will be accepted beginning January 1, 2013. Please email the Principal, ssartor@llesd.org. If you are registering a new first or second grader, session request forms are included in the registration packet.  

Tours of the school for parents of incoming new Kindergarten students and new first through third grade students will be offered on the following dates. These tours are for adults only and spaces available are limited to 10 per tour and 1 tour per family, so there are minimal distractions to the academic program. Please call the school office at 650-854-5900 to reserve a tour.

Kindergarten tours are from 9:45 - 11:00 a.m.

            Thursday, December 6, 2012              Friday, February 8, 2013

            Thursday, December 13, 2012            Monday, February 25, 2013

            Wednesday, December 19, 2012        Thursday, March 7, 2013

            Friday January 18, 2013                     Wednesday, March 20, 2013

            Thursday, January 24, 2013               

1^st - 3^rd Grade Tour

Thursday, March 21, 2013

9:40 - 10:35 a.m.

Do not wait until kindergarten registration in late January to make this request!  New family session requests are not accepted until January 28^th, allowing our returning families to have priority on the wait list.   If you are on this year's wait list, you must make a new request for next year. We do not "roll over" the list from year to year. Please call Mrs. Sartor if you have any questions about the session request process.