Dear Palisades Elementary Parents,
On behalf of all our staff, I welcome you to the 2013-2014 school year! We are looking forward to a partnership with you to ensure your child has access to all the necessary support from both home and school. Your child's teacher and the rest of our staff are eager to be your collaborator in your child's education, and we invite you to call or visit with us when you have a question regarding your child's progress in school. We plan to keep you informed about school events and activities by sending regular correspondences, by placing announcements on our website at palielementary.org, in the weekly principal eblast and by sending home samples of your child's work, conferences and academic progress reports.
Regardless of limited resources in the past, we still expect much of ourselves, of you, and of your children. We remain committed to excellence and ask you to enter into an active partnership with us by ensuring that your child does the following:
- Attends school daily and arrives on time, ready for the day's learning experiences.
- Completes all homework assignments given by teachers.
- Reads daily for enjoyment and to develop literacy skills to the highest level.
- Shares daily experiences with you so that you are aware of their school life.
- Inform you if he/she needs additional support in any area or subject.
I encourage you to join our volunteer program (PEP) so that our students can also benefit from your many talents and skills. We seek volunteers to help with the following:
- Kiss and Drop valet service when children are dropped off in the morning.
- Carpool support at dismissal.
- Ensuring school routines are smooth at all times.
- Supporting teachers in a variety of tasks.
- Reading with children who need extra help.
During the first week, we will send home a copy of our school playground agreement for you to read, sign and return to school. Our TRIBES community is one that we would want everyone fully educated about and will be offering training for parents this year.
The year ahead is planned with many wonderful events for our students and their families. The next nine months we will be guiding your kids through rigorous instruction, deepening of the Tribes community ways and learning many new things in our arts and technology programs. Please take a moment to marvel at the growth and change that one school year brings to each child, classroom and to each one of us. It is truly astounding.
To welcome all of our parents and answer specific questions which you may have about the classroom, we have planned a Back to School Night for August 29. I invite you to come out, meet the Palisades Elementary School faculty and staff and tour our school and classrooms.
I consider it an honor and privilege to be your principal for another year and look forward to welcoming you back.
First Week Packets: During the first week of school you will be receiving a packet of important letters, forms and information, etc. Please make sure you return all requested items back to your child's teacher by Monday, August 26. Remember various forms are due every year. Please do not discard the forms because you already filled them out last year. LAUSD requires us to have new forms completed each and every year. Please take your time to go over all the items in the packet.
Breakfast and Lunch Program: Breakfast is served from 7:40 am - 8:05 am and is 60 cents. Students eating breakfast may take their belongings with them to the cafeteria but must remember to bring them to the line-up area for the beginning of school. The breakfast and lunch menu for the month will be available in the office when we receive it. Snacks for purchase are now $1.00 and lunch is available for $1.50 each day for those preferring not to bring lunch from home. Free and reduced-fee breakfast and lunch applications will be in the cafeteria on the first day of school. If your child purchases food on campus it is important for parents to ensure that their child has enough money in their cafeteria account to do so.
Traffic and Arrival: We depend on parent cooperation to help us with our "Kiss and Drop" school arrival process as cars drop off kids in front of the school. Grades 1-5 students are to report to the playground where supervision is provided from 7:40 am until the bell rings. Students may not go to their classrooms prior to the start of school nor after school dismissal. Supervision is only provided on the playground before or after school. Kindergarten students are to be on time and "hand delivered" to the teacher in his or her classroom and also picked up there.
Remember that during the First Week we have Early Dismissals for Kindergarten Students only: All kindergarten classes will be in session after the first day from 7:59 am - 11:30 am through August 22, except for the first day, which will be 9:00 am - 10:30 am. First grade through fifth grade will be following their regular daily schedules: 7:59 am - 2:45 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 7:59 am - 1:45 pm on Tuesday and Thursday.
Yours truly,
Joan Ingle, Principal
