“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.  Charlotte was both.”

-Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White, 1952

 Hello North Beach Families,

The school year is moving right along.  It always amazes me how time marches on with or without us!

This month we celebrate respect and responsibility as our virtues.  Please take a moment to talk with your children about what this looks like at home and at school.  We had a wonderful celebration of Peace last Thursday although I heard I forgot a great song.  So, I continue learning along with all of you!.

Thank you to everyone who attended our General PTA meeting.  It was an evening full of lots of information and good conversations.  We are an active community and this always means that processing information and ideas will always take some time.  I presented a very short dialogue about volunteering in the classrooms.  The most important part of the presentation was CONFIDENTIALITY.    Please remember that these are our North Beach students.  We are their advocates and what goes on in the classroom or hallways or playground should be kept confidential.  If you have concerns, please bring them to the staff member you think can be most helpful.  Another part of the presentation centered on playground issues.  The first and foremost thing to remember is that if you do not feel comfortable solving the issue with the students, again bring it to the staff member on duty.  Good words to use if you do feel comfortable are:  Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?  Did you make a good choice?  Was it peaceful, respectful, responsible?  How should you have solved this problem?  The four steps of solving problems are:  Ignore, walk away, tell the person to stop and if none of that works, get an adult to help you solve the problem.  We also talked about that it takes more than one person to have a problem so be sure to involve all the players in the solution.

I am encouraged by the community involvement here at school and know that each of you working with us will help build a strong curriculum and school for our students.  I know that you support your child’s teacher as they work daily to plan developmentally appropriate and interesting curriculum.  I have been in many schools and have seen many teachers. You are fortunate to have dedicated and hard working teachers here at North Beach.   They do a great job of putting students first and working within the constraints of what they can and can’t do.  There are lots of initiatives on teachers plates this year; Singapore math trainings, writers workshop trainings, read a million words, equity training and that’s on top of what is normally in the classroom.  Please take a moment this month to show our virtue to the teachers of respect for their profession and what they do daily.  We appreciate the trust you put in us to educate your child and we take it seriously.  Our goal like yours is to prepare these young folks for their next adventure.  All of these experiences and opportunities will create a strong member of our community and world in the future.

Respectfully yours,

Joanne Bowers

Principal