April 2019

Can you believe we flip our calendars to the month of May this week?

This is the week that we are accepting Teacher Requests. I have attached once again the staff changes that are occurring for next year and the Teacher Request Form. And we have one more teacher who will be leaving us. On Friday, fifth grade teacher Condita Washburn was informed that she has been hired as the Partnership Facilitator at Vineyard Elementary where she will have supervision duties over the teaching interns from UVU. Ms. Washburn is currently enrolled in the BYU Educational Leadership Program with the goal of becoming a school administrator. Her new job is a natural stepping stone to securing an administrative position. Having taught at Alpine Elementary for 18 years, we lose one of our most skilled and tenured teachers. Sad news for our school, but good news that Ms. Washburn is able to start the next chapter of her professional journey.

Mrs. Ruesch, our all-star librarian, is having her final Book Fair this week. Buy one book and get one free! Come to the school to check out all of the great books that are available at the Book Fair.

Thank you to all the second grade parents who came last week to support our students in the annual Glow performances. The four classes did an excellent job in their performances, and a special thanks to our music teacher, Melinda Hunt, for all she did to prepare the students.

Wednesday will be our final Walk to School Wednesday of the school year. Please encourage your students to walk to school or drop them off at Creek Side Park and they can follow the painted footsteps to school.

Only two days left to turn in your box tops for the April contest!  Easter treats and a surprise, generously donated by QTI, LLC, a construction inspection agency located in Lindon, Utah will be awarded to the class with the most box tops turned in!

Below is a link to register for our school’s Summer Chinese Club.  There are still spots in the 8:45-10:30am session, although the 10:15am-12:00pm session is nearly full.  If you have registered but haven’t submitted payment to the school office, please do so this week. Here is the link to the Google Doc to sign up.

The two primary metrics of academic success in the Alpine School District are the state of Utah RISE assessments for 3^rd – 6^thgraders and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) for our K – 3^rd graders.  We continue to make improvements in our end-of-year DIBELS scores. I have included an attachment that shows you a four-year overview of the Alpine Elementary DIBELS scores compared to the 2018 – 19 Alpine School District average.  Congratulations to all of our K-3 teachers, the aides who work with those classes, and Instructional Coach Penny Gardner, for the excellent job we are doing in the primary grades of teaching the foundational reading skills!

Have a great week, and as always, remember that it is a great day to be an Eagle!

I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter! Because of the rainy forecast on Easter Sunday, we had our four local grandchildren and their parents over to our home for a Saturday Easter Egg Hunt. Laura and I hid 40 plastic Easter eggs, 20 each, some containing candy, others candy and money, around our yard. The grandchildren had fun hunting for and finding the eggs, but only 37 were found, and I don’t remember where I hid the missing eggs, so Papa will have fun discovering Easter eggs as he does his spring yard work in future days and weeks.

I biked Mill Creek and Emigration Canyons on Saturday with 20 other members of the bike team I ride with. Both canyons were full of people biking, hiking or driving, taking advantage of a wonderful Spring day. What a beautiful part of the world we live in!

Our PTA and parent volunteers did an amazing job of recognizing our staff last week! The Alpine Elementary faculty realizes how fortunate we are to have such tremendous parent support. The meals, treats, gifts, flowers and kind notes are appreciated so much by our hard-working staff. A huge shout out to Meredith Rosenvall who headed up the Staff Appreciation Week activities, and thanks to the many other parents who came into the school to recognize staff members.

Speaking of parent volunteers, I am pleased to announce that one of our longtime PTA members, Tawnya Bearss, has been recognized by the Utah PTA as the winner of the Spirit of PTA Award. The fact that Tawnya is being honored as a statewide winner is very fitting as her youngest child is a 6^th grader, and after many years of service on our PTA, including serving as PTA president, Tawnya will be recognized at an awards dinner on Tuesday night for her many years of devoted service to the children at Alpine Elementary. Congratulations Tawnya!

Our second graders will be performing Glow on April 24 in the gymnasium at the following times:

Mrs. Wallace 5:00 pm

Mrs. Bailey 5:45 pm

Mrs. Blodgett 6:30 pm

Ms. Bennett 7:15 pm

Parents can turn in Teacher Request Forms to the main office April 29 – May 3. I will be sending out another email this week detailing the staff changes that are occurring next year and attaching the Teacher Request Form.

Please read the attachment for our monthly Box Top update.

Have a great week, and as always, remember that it is a great day to be an Eagle!