March 2020

We enter week two of remote online learning and the never-ending tentacles of COVID-19. Can you believe how quickly our lives have changed in the past 10 days? This pandemic is impacting almost every facet of our everyday lives, including the way we do school. These are truly unprecedented times. Add an earthquake to the equation, and our world has literally been rocked, in more ways than one! Adversity and life challenges can bring out the best and the worst in people. And I have seen only the best from the Alpine Elementary faculty as they quickly mobilized to provide online instruction for your students. I am so proud and appreciative of the diligent efforts of our staff as they have quickly and without complaint figured out how to do school in a new way.

You know your children better than anyone. Though we do encourage you to schedule “school time” each day, there is certainly no expectation to have students doing school work for six hours a day. We apologize for all the emails coming your way, but teachers need to communicate with your students. If you have questions or concerns about the online learning expectations, please communicate with your child’s teacher. This online learning model is a work in progress.

I have attached flyers for a State of Utah Spirit Week that you and your children can participate in that will perhaps bring some joy and laughter to your homeschooling experience.

The big question is how long will the schools be closed. Over the weekend, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Sidnee Dickson, shared the following with Utah school leaders:

So parents only have to make one trip to the school, starting on Monday March 23, students can pick up a breakfast and lunch meal at the same time, 8:30 – 11:00 am, at the table set up by Nutrition Services by our front door. This meal service is provided to all students in the Alpine School District, including middle and high school students, free of charge. You can send your child or children to the school to pick up meals without a parent accompanying the student.

Please only send one student into the school to pick up meals so that we can follow social distancing protocols of no more than 10 people in a group, while maintaining a six foot distance between all individuals.

Also starting on Monday, our office will only be open 8:00 am – 12:00 pm.

This state was founded by a people, ancestors to some of you, who faced difficult challenges both in their migration west and in settling communities along the Wasatch Front. Faith and hard work enabled them to overcome the many trials they encountered. Those same attributes will enable us to successfully overcome all that this pandemic requires us to navigate. We will make it through these challenging times!

Outside the Principal’s Office.

Faith, family and exercise are my anchors during difficult times. All five of our children, their spouses and our grandchildren, like all Americans and people across the globe, have been impacted by COVID-19. Laura and I choose to be optimistic about future outcomes, even when there are questions about the health, job security and financial obligations of our family. Three times last week, I biked up to Pine Hollow Trail Head in American Fork Canyon, which is where the gate is locked and snowpack begins. As I pedaled up the mountain, I repeatedly said to myself, “Lead your family and school in love, faith and calm assurance that these trying times will make us all stronger, and that these difficult days will pass.” I truly believe that mantra!

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

I usually send out the Eagle News on Monday morning, but with the announcement on Friday by Governor Herbert that we will have a two-week “soft closure” of schools in the state, I wanted to communicate with parents what that means for our students at Alpine Elementary.

Teachers will be receiving training on Monday and Tuesday, March 16 and 17, on how to best provide online instruction to students. Teachers will communicate to parents before 4:00 pm on Tuesday what the online learning expectations are for students in their classes.

Parents will need to determine if they have sufficient devices at home to accommodate the teacher’s online learning expectations. Chromebooks grades 3 – 6, or iPads grades K – 2, can be checked out from the school. Your child’s teacher will tell you how that process is going to work.

The Alpine Elementary office will be open 8:30 am – 3:30 pm each school day during the two-week closure.

The school will be providing daily “Grab and Go” breakfast, 8:00 – 9:00 am, and lunch, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm for all students who want to come to the school grab a meal and leave. As “Grab and Go” plainly states, the meals will not be eaten at the school.

This is definitely a new way of doing school, but when the World Health Organization announces that COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic that has swept into 114 countries, we all need to take the necessary precautions.

Whether or not the school closures extend beyond two weeks will be determined by Governor Herbert and those leaders on his team as they receive updated health information from medical experts.

If there are families in need of food or basic household necessities, please let me know. There are community resources available to those in need. If you or your children need something, we can help!

Battle of the Books competitions have been postponed but will rescheduled, meaning students will have more time to read their books, an excellent learning opportunity during the school closure!

Briggs Ballif–4th Grade, Mrs. Vipperman

Outside the Principal’s Office.

Yesterday, Laura and I went to see “Seussical” at the Hale Theater in Orem where one of our former students had one of the lead roles as he portrayed Horton the Elephant. A delightful performance! I continue to ride my bike and eat at my favorite restaurants. First time since my volunteer service in Guatemala 40 years ago, that I have not been watching any sporting events on TV on a March weekend. Amazing how much time I now have to do other things! And this morning, Laura and I had our own church services, which was truly a spiritual experience! Don’t know if I would be able to say the same thing when we had all five of our children at home. In short, I make daily life choices that bring me and my family joy and fulfillment, and encourage all of our parents to do the same. And I have not been to “ground zero”, the paper products aisle at Costco or Walmart, so life is good!

We all learn new things during challenging times. Though I have never heard the phrase before, I now know what “social distancing” is, and will do my best to not get into anyone else’s personal bubble. I continue to be optimistic that we will all successfully navigate this time frame of school closures.

 Have a great week, and remember even during a pandemic and in a world that has changed for all of us, it is a great day to be an Eagle!

This will be short week for your students. Monday, March 9 is a Professional Development Day for teachers, meaning that students have the day off from school. And Friday will be a Minimal Day with students being dismissed from school at 12:35 pm.

Monday night will be our Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night, 5:00 – 8:00 pm at the Lehi location. 20% of proceeds will go to Alpine Elementary.

We have reached 778,850 minutes in our Million Minute Reading Marathon!  Our goal is to hit the million-minute mark by the end of March. We can do it! Click Here to Log your reading minutes!  If you would prefer a paper copy to enter minutes, your child can get one in the library from Mrs. Ruesch. Keep reading!

We are all reading daily updates on the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) across the world. This is the letter sent out to parents last week by the Alpine School District.

The Alpine Elementary School Community Council will be meeting 9:30 – 10:30 am on Thursday, March 12. The agenda is attached and any parent is welcome to attend.

The following students were nominated by their teachers and recognized last week for consistently demonstrating what we call the 6 C’s: collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, citizenship and character.

Piper Ainge–2nd Grade, Mrs. Blodgett

Charlotte Ashton–2nd Grade, Mrs. Wallace

Ruby Barrett–2nd Grade, Mrs. Andersen

Brynnlee Cann–1st Grade, Mrs. Liston

Hank Challis–2nd Grade, Mrs. Andersen

Sutton Fronce–1st Grade, Mrs. Faux

London Johnson–3rd Grade, Ms. Elder

Timmy Lyon–3rd Grade, Ms. Elder

Candace Mellor–4th Grade, Ms. Moore

Levi Moore–3rd Grade, Mrs. Chen

Ezra Nuttall–1st Grade, Ms. Tau Tau

Anna Packer–3rd Grade, Mrs. Chen

Brinley Raven–4th Grade, Mrs. Orgill

Stella Eve Riding–1st Grade, Mrs. Faux

Joshua Zhou Fu–2nd Grade, Mrs. Blodgett

The winner of February Box Tops by a huge margin, almost 200 more than second place, is Mr. Horan’s class with 233 box tops! They will receive the yummy mint brownie dessert pizza sponsored from Pizza Pie Café, Alpine Location. That brings our box tops total to $602.50.

Outside the Principal’s Office.

43 years ago, while attending Ricks College, I went to an on-campus concert featuring the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The opening act that night was a young comedian named Steve Martin (prior to his Father of the Bride fame) who I remember being quite funny with his one-liners as he incorporated banjo play and creating balloon figures into his act. Saturday night, Laura and I watched Bright Star at the Hale Center Theater. The play, definitely not a comedy, was excellent with outstanding musical talent and a touching and engaging storyline. The playwright and musical composer? Steve Martin. Some would call that sequence of events serendipity.

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

Friday, March 6 will be the final day of the second trimester of school. Can you believe that is already March and we are 2/3’s of the way through the school year?

Our 4^th graders will be performing their State of Utah program for parents at 9:30 am on Thursday, March 5 in the gymnasium. Later in the day, they will be performing in a school-wide assembly that begins at 2:30 pm.

We have reached 564,294 minutes in our Million Minute Reading Marathon!  Our goal is to hit the million-minute mark by the end of March. We can do it! Click Here to Log your reading minutes!  If you would prefer a paper copy to enter minutes, your child can get one in the library from Mrs. Ruesch. Keep reading!

Kindergarten registration week has arrived! If you will have a kindergartner for the 2020 – 2021 school year, we encourage you to register your student March 2 – 6. Kindergarten Registration materials will be available in our Main Office beginning today, March 2.

Many of our students have been participating in the Storytelling Contest over the past few weeks. Last week, two students were selected by adult judges to move forward to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. The lower grade winner was second grader, Gage Sterzer, and the upper grade winner was fifth grader, Maggie Myers. The runner-up participants were third grader, Hattie Jones, and fourth grader Jane Rasmussen. Congratulations to all of our students who shared a story in the competition!

The Alpine School District has designated April 6 as the snow make-up day for the February 3 Snow Day.

The following students were nominated by their teachers and recognized last week for consistently demonstrating what we call the 6 C’s: collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, citizenship and character.

Taytem Adams–6th Grade, Mrs. Kaczmarek

Drake Anson–6th Grade, Mrs. Maczmarek

Kaci Beagley–1st Grade, Mrs. Faux

Charlotte Gerber–1st Grade, Mrs. Liston

James Gheciu–Kindergarten, Mrs. Aitchison

Lily Hancock–6th Grade, Mrs. Kuo

Connor Hertig–4th Grade, Mrs. Orgill

Jacob Mercado–1st Grade, Mrs. Faux

Kennady Pack–5th Grade, Mrs. Weakley

Jane Rasmussen–4th Grade, Mrs. Keller

Jacey Robbins–5th Grade, Mrs. Padgett

Madison Sardoni–2nd Grade, Mrs. Wallace

Ella Smith–4th Grade, Mrs. Vipperman

Joshua Struchen–1st Grade, Mrs. Liston

Louella Zurcher–5th Grade, Mr. Horan

March roars in like a lion,

So fierce,

The wind so cold,

It seems to pierce.

The month rolls on

And Spring draws near,

And March goes out

Like a lamb so dear.

                          ~Lorie Hill

50-degree temperatures on February 29 and snow and cold wind on March 1 reminded me of this oft-repeated poem, and our Utah Valley weather. I was able to bike from our home in Cedar Hills to Vivian Park on Saturday afternoon. Just an FYI to you hikers and bikers, still quite a bit of snow and ice on the Provo River Canyon Trail from Bridal Veil Falls up to Vivian Park. I needed to get on Highway 89 for that portion of the ride.

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