Principal's Letter 11/22/11

November 22, 2011

Dear Roosevelt Families,

We are in the midst of a very important time of year…parent teacher conferences.

Thank you for taking the time to meet with your child's teacher. We place tremendous value on these meaningful conversations about the very special people that we care deeply about, your children. Our teachers dedicate much of their time preparing for these conferences, so that the information you receive regarding your child's overall progress is clearly communicated to you. This ends up being a wonderful time for parents and teachers to connect and establish goals that everyone can work together to support. Thank you for making these parent/teacher conferences a priority. This is a key example of how essential the relationship between school and parent is.

Speaking of the valuable school-home partnership that we continually value at Roosevelt, the Thanksgiving holiday is a great time to strengthen this conection with great books! Our Character Development Book of the Month for November is; Miloand the Magical Stones. We enourage you to make monthly trips to the library to check out our book of the month and enjoy reading them at home. The joy and power of literature is infinite. With a big Thanksgiving meal coming up, it's a great time to focus on cooperation and read all about it in Milo and the Magical Stones. It is especially fun for the whole family with two different endings to choose from!

As I mentioned at Back-to-School Night, we appreciate you working with your child to foster their independence and responsibility as Roosevelt students. Having a plan to ensure that they come to school best prepared and ready to learn every day with their lunch (if packed), homework, and musical instrument is essential to your child's success. Thank you for your partnership in sharing the same expectation for your child. In order to maintain our safe and secure campus, eliminate classroom interruptions, and respect the instructional time that the teachers have in the classroom, we will not be making phone calls to individual classrooms for forgotten items.

We are asking your cooperation in the following areas:

1) In the rare event that your child forgets his/her lunch, you may bring your child's lunch to the office and leave it there to be picked up by your child. If your child finds him/herself without a lunch at lunchtime, the teacher will send the child to the office to get their lunch.

2) In the rare event that your child forgets his/her instrument at home, you may bring your child's instrument to the office and leave it there to be picked up by your child. If your child finds him/herself without an instument at music time, the teacher will send the child to the office at music time to see if it has been dropped off at our office.

Thank you for helping your child create an organized morning routine, where they come to school prepared to excel every day. We appreciate your cooperation and value our partnership in nurturing responsible citizens, who will soon be off to middle school!

There are many things that keep us busy as the holidays approach us ever so quickly. Our annual November Turkey Trot was rained out this year, but stay-tuned for the rescheduled date in the spring. We all have some more time to train, so I know I will be hard at work, looking to improve my 1 mile and 5 K race times now! It is hard to believe that the grand Roosevelt Holiday Boutique is around the corner, so let's get a jump on our holiday shopping. It will be held next weekend, December 3^rd from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm on our Kindergarten yard. We have many parents who are already working around the clock to put this event together. Thank you in advance for all of your hard work. Most importantly, 20% of all of the sales made on that day from each vendor go directly to Roosevelt to support our instructional and enrichment programs that the Roosevelt PTA has put in place for all of your children! I look forward to seeing everyone here next Saturday, December 3^rd for our fun-filled community event!

Leading up to the Holiday Boutique is a busy week with an event you do not want to miss. Our new SMMUSD Superintendent Sandy Lyon is coming to meet the Roosevelt community on Wednesday, November 30^th in our Library at 6:30 pm. She will be giving a brief presentation and then entertaining questions that anyone from Roosevelt might have. We are extremely lucky to have this wonderful leader come to SMMUSD. We are all enjoying getting to know her and greatly appreciate her vision and leadership style. She has made it a priority to reach out to all of the school communities and get to know Santa Monica familes. So, please come join us on November 30^th!

On December 2^nd I will be hosting my regular ‘Coffee with the Principal' at 8:30 am in the auditorium. Come and meet new Roosevelt parents, have some coffee, conversation, and ask any questions that may be on your mind about Roosevelt. Our goal is to contiunally enhance our home/school connection with you. We strive to find many ways to communicate all that we do in working together to create the best educational experience for your child.

Thanksgiving is a special time to remember what we have to be thankful for. I enjoy this time to reflect on all that we have to be grateful for as families, who make up this very special Roosevelt community. Everyday I am fortunate to see how caring this community of parents, teachers and staff members are, and how the children that we serve thrive because of it. Wherever I am on our campus, I see people helping people in exceptional ways. I see every staff member taking pride in their work and going above and beyond to create an environment in which children are kind, caring, and thoughtful. In the classrooms, I see enthusiastic teachers setting high expectations for themselves and their students, so that your children grow, achieve and succeed in a multitude of ways. As the principal, I am lucky that I have the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations on a daily basis with smart, energetic, and committed individuals who value our youth and help guide a generation of thinkers and learners.

We all have so much to be thankful for. I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with gratitude and lots of fun family time!

Sincerely,

Natalie R. Burton

Principal