Welcome to a new school year!
Whether you are returning to Shadow or having a child here for the first time, I want to welcome you to Shadow Hills. I hope that most of you are able to make it to our first Hawks Day. This will greatly facilitate a smooth opening of school.
We are trying a new breakfast program at Shadow Hills. From 8:30 – 8:45, your child can purchase breakfast at our cafeteria. We will have a student supervisor on duty at the lunch tables for those eating breakfast or arriving early at school. (Please keep in mind that students are not allowed on campus before 8:30) If your Child has been approved for free or reduced lunches he or she is automatically approved for free or reduced breakfast. Remember that new applications must be filled out at the beginning of each school year, to receive the Lunch program. You can take care of this at Hawks Day. Otherwise, the breakfast prices are still very reasonable:
Breakfast Prices:
Student: $1.00
Reduced $ .40
Adult $1.50
Milk $ .40
Through generous donations from several people we are halfway to a new keyboarding lab. If you would like to contribute, each keyboard costs $130.00. Donations of any size will be gratefully accepted, however, if you can donate $130.00, we will put a name plate on a keyboard acknowledging you or a person of your choice. Some of our teachers will be teaching keyboarding themselves, others may need the help of volunteers, so if you are musically inclined, willing and able, please contact your child’s teacher. The keyboarding and Jiji math program together give Shadow Hills students a fantastic start on the road toward math literacy that will be even more important in the world our students will grow into. Through the generosity of Viejas, Jiji is now in all our elementary schools through third grade and we are hoping to expand into fourth and fifth grade. This will ensure that our children have the very best in computerized math to support the excellent math instruction students get in the classroom.
As have probably heard, we have had extensive budget cuts in the last two years. This year we will have reduced librarian hours, however, our students will continue to have access to the library and will be checking out books.
We are fortunate to have been able to retain the services of our counselor, Sharonfaith Horton. She serves all four elementary sites and will be at Shadow Hills one day a week.
If you have not taken the survey that our new superintendent, Tom Pellegrino, has put on the website, please take a few minutes to fill it out. He is taking input seriously and the survey will remain open until September 15th.
We have several new staff members. Rebecca (Reese) Lummus replaces Jessica Ackerman in a special day class. Jessica moved out of state to be closer to family. Elizabeth McGinn replaces Kim Ibarra in a special day class. Kim is now the special education pre-school teacher at Creekside. Tina Dooley, an instructional aide in Mrs. Casey’s class, has moved to Creekside to work in the pre-school, and Diane Cartwright has come over to Shadow from Creekside. I know you will want to make our new staff feel welcome.
We also have some good news about Jen Pekar Sachs. Her position was eliminated due to low first grade enrollment. However, she will be on maternity leave this fall and will be teaching one of the Early Admission Kindergarten classes in the spring. So we are all glad that a member of our Shadow Hills family will be working and will still be nearby.
I look forward to seeing you at Hawks Day or after Labor Day!