I write the Eagle News from the heart of Manhattan, New York. Our son, Brady, will be graduating tomorrow from the NYU School of Dentistry and the commencement exercises will be held in Madison Square Garden. As a young boy, I dreamed of playing an NBA basketball game in MSG, but my basketball glory days ended in high school. 6th grade teacher Mr. Roberts is the only person I know personally who has played in the The Garden, so a graduation ceremony will be my one and only trip to MSG. We have crammed a lot of NYC activities into our short stay here: a leisurely walk through Central Park, a Broadway play, the Carol King musical biopic Beautiful, which was incredible, Prince Street Pizza, chocolate chip cookies from Levain Bakery, church services in Manhattan, and all manner of head turning things in a city of 9 million people. We have food trucks in Utah Valley, and though there are plenty of those in NYC, I saw my first marijuana truck. I wonder what the reaction to the Weed World Candies truck would be if it pulled into the Alpine Days celebration? Though our trip has been fun, I look forward to returning to our little protected bubble in the Utah Valley!
I understand that we were able to get the Dance Festival in just before the skies opened up. Thank you rain gods and thank you Angee Tanner, our Movement Teacher, for all of the time and effort that went into preparing our students for their dance performances!
Our longest tenured instructor, kindergarten teacher Natalie Schurter, has accepted a job offer that has come to her to be the Reading Specialist at Westmore Elementary in Orem. We of course will miss Mrs. Schurter and are grateful for all she has done for Alpine Elementary and the many students she has taught for the past 18 years, but are excited that she now will get to share her knowledge of how to effectively teach reading to the kindergarten and first grade teachers at Westmore Elementary. That means we have a teaching change at every grade level next year. Wow!
Lizzy Snyder, a recent graduate of Utah State, will join Colleen Aitchison on our kindergarten team. We were originally going to have Ms. Snyder be the second grade Chinse Immersion English Partner Teacher, but she is very excited to move to kindergarten. A plan is in place to find a new second grade teacher. I am also waiting on the State of Utah to process some paperwork so we can hire Rui Chen to be our third grade Chinese Immersion teacher. Rui, a native of China, recently completed her Master’s Degree in Education at the University of Southern California. She did her student teaching in a high school Chinese Immersion Program.
The Box Tops contest for May is almost over. Let’s “Scoop Up Those Box tops”! The final day to turn in box tops is May 24. Thank you for helping our school raise over $1300.00 this year! The ice cream prize has been generously donated by Stanley Adams Attorney at Law located in Salt Lake City. And a special thank you to parent volunteer and Box Tops Coordinator, Jesse Majors, for organizing all of our box top fundraising efforts this year.
The final day for kindergartners will be May 22 and the final day for preschoolers will be May 24.
Lots of end-of-the-year activities in the last eight days of school. Communicate with your student’s teacher if you have any questions. School will dismiss at 10:35 am on May 30, the final day of the school year.
Have a great week, and as always, remember that it is a great day to be an Eagle!
Dave Perdue, Principal