Dear Parents,

Is it really November already? Wow, time is truly racing along! It wasn't long ago that I was looking forward to the yellow and orange leaves as trees surrounding my home began to turn color. Now they are nearly bare, and the leaves are scattered all across my lawn waiting for my rake. Things have been moving right along at school as well. In fact, it's only a couple of weeks until conferences and the first report cards of the year.

For those of you that have decided to join our parent book club, I hope you have had a chance to get a copy of the book, The Schools Our Children Deserve by Alfie Kohn. I just finished reading the first chapter and was reminded once again what a great book it is. I can't wait for our discussion of the first three chapters; I know it will be a good one.

The teachers and Barb have been working on disaster preparedness this past month. We have found that there are some things we need to get in place and some policy issues that need to be addressed. At a staff meeting we decided to split the job into several parts. First we wanted to get started right away on some of the "practical" aspects of disaster preparedness (discussion with the students, practicing what to do in the event of an earthquake, practicing evacuating the building, etc.). Second we decided to create a committee to look into updating some policy issues and to address some of the longer term or higher cost preparedness needs. The committee will consist of a board member (Barb volunteered for this), staff member (Lowell), and a parent (open), let us know if you would be interested in helping out with this.

As of this writing, several disaster preparedness procedures have been put in place. These procedures have to do with basic earthquake preparedness and school evacuation. In addition, all of the classrooms have had discussions and practice with evacuating the building, and one of the classrooms has practiced what to do in the event of an earthquake. An all-school evacuation drill was scheduled for Friday, November 4th at noon. Unfortunately it had to be postponed due to very cold and wet weather. It will be rescheduled for the following week.

Student teams in Russ' and Lowell's classroom have been working very hard on creating plans for a fun, safe, visually appealing, easily maintainable, and cost effective playground. They have completed final drafts of their plans after having brainstormed, visited other playgrounds, interviewed younger students, and mapped out their ideas. Throughout the project so far they have learned cooperative group skills, how to brainstorm, interviewing skills, note-taking, mapping, and presentation skills. Tentatively this Thursday, November 10th, they will be making their presentations to the board and the grounds committee.

If you haven't already heard, the school recently had an assembly about a program where students are given the opportunity to read to some trained dogs. The program is very popular with nearly all children and we have scheduled each class a time to read with the dogs.

Well, the leaves are still waiting for me so I'd better get going. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to send me an email or talk with me at school.

Russ