September 2020

Because of the pandemic, all of our teachers will be doing online Parent/Teacher Conferences October 7 -11. A few teachers are giving some parents the opportunity to come to the school to meet face-to-face with the teacher. If you are asked by the teacher to come to the school for a meeting, please do not bring any of your other children with you to the conference. As in previous years, we want all parents to sign up for conferences on Skyward. Contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions about conferences.

We will be having our Fun Run, 9:20 – 12:05 at Creekside Park.The class from each grade that brings in the most money will earn a Chick-fil-A lunch. The following message comes from our PTA.

There are many things that are different about this year, but we hope that we can run the same programs and do the same fun activities at Alpine Elementary that we have in the past. We might have to make a few adjustments, but we are excited to continue them. To make this possible, we need your support this year. Please consider donating. Thank you!

Two ways to donate:

We would love for you to sponsor your student in the Fun Run by donating to the PTA at Alpine Elementary. All the students will be participating in the Fun Run on Friday morning. If you’re available to cheer on your students, please come to Creekside Park.

9:20-9:35 – 1st Grade

9:50-10:05 – 2nd Grade

10:20-10:35 – 3rd and Kindergarten

10:50-11:05 – 4th Grade

11:20-11:35 – 5th Grade

11:50-12:05 – 6th Grade

The class from each grade with the most donations will be rewarded with lunch donated by Chick-fil-A. We would also like to thank those at Max Connect for donating the money for our Alpine Elementary T Shirts this year. Thank you!

Last week a scooter was taken from the bike rack next to our back baseball diamond. Can you please check in with your children to ensure that they didn’t mistakenly take the scooter. It’s a black ‘Fuzion’ scooter with gold wheels. If you see the scooter, please return it to the bike rack or the school office. See the attached photo.

The following students were recognized as Students of the Week on Friday, September 18. Teachers nominate students who are consistently demonstrating the character traits of the Alpine Big 3: Being Respectful, Responsible and Ready to learn. Congratulations Students of the Week!

Cymry Beck–1st Grade, Ms. Johnson

Natalie Buchanan–6th Grade, Mrs. Kaczmarek

Tyler Clawson–1st Grade, Mrs. Chou

Benson Elder–2nd Grade, Mrs. Wallace

David Kono–6th Grade, Mrs. Kaczmarek

Bekah Owen–5th Grade, Mrs. Padgett

Kennady Pack–6th Grade, Ms. Kuo

Kennedy Rodman–5th Grade, Mrs. Hill

Ava Scoville–5th Grade, Mrs. Chang

Lucy Tom–5th Grade, Mr. Horan

Maren Tomkinson–3rd Grade, Mrs. Duke

Benji Tonga–3rd Grade, Ms. Elder

Akselander Wilcox–Kindergarten, Mrs. Aitchison

Anna Willis–3rd Grade, Mrs. Duke

London Wing–6th Grade, Mrs. Kaczmarek

A beautiful bike ride over the Alpine Loop on Saturday and another BYU football win! That is a great fall day from my perspective!

We can all definitely see and feel the changing of the seasons as fall becomes more of a reality with each passing day. Judging from the number of people I saw on my bike ride in American Fork and Provo Canyons on Saturday, many of you have taken the time to drive up into a nearby canyon to see the fall colors, take some family photos, or just enjoy the splendors of the changing seasons. Bumper to bumper traffic!

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

The following message comes from our librarian, Paula Ruesch:

Hello Parents,

Battle of the Books is a fun reading competition for students in 3rd-6th grades. Registration is open now and closes on Sunday, September 27th. This is the last week to register.

Click here for more information and to register your student.
https://sites.google.com/alpinedistrict.org/alpineelementarylibrary/home

T-shirts are $5. They are not required but are fun to wear as a team. If you order a t-shirt you can pay for it on the school website: https://alpine.alpineschools.org/
Just click on the tab on the slider that says CLICK HERE TO PAY SCHOOL FEES ONLINE.

We will start forming teams in October, students will receive their t-shirts in December, practice battles are scheduled for January, and the official competition will be in February and March.

Hurry and register your student — and let the reading begin!

Let me know if you have questions,

We are missing quite a few Take Home Reading books. If you have any Take Home Reading books at home, please send them back to the school with your student.

The Alpine School District updates school district COVID-19 data every Monday on the Return to School tab on the district website.

Please do not drive the wrong way on the one-way street west of the school. We have some parents who are driving the wrong way at the beginning of the school day when other parents are dropping off their students off for preschool and kindergarten. We are concerned about student safety and would encourage all parents to follow all traffic laws.

The following students were recognized as Students of the Week on Friday, September 18. Teachers nominate students who are consistently demonstrating the character traits of the Alpine Big 3: Being Respectful, Responsible and Ready to learn. Congratulations Students of the Week!

Jordan Anderson–2nd Grade, Mrs. Blodgett

Johnny Atalifo–1st Grade, Ms. Johnson

Jacob Buchanan–4th Grade, Mrs. Keller

Tommy Clarke–1st Grade, Mrs. Faux

Kolton Devereaux–6th Grade, Mrs. Reyes

Ashley Hauck–1st Grade, Mrs. Bailey

Millie Johnson–4th Grade, Ms. A. Moore

Ivy McEwan–1st Grade, Mrs. Faux

Alexa Muskat–2nd Grade, Mrs. Wallace

McKenzie Perez–Kindergarten, Mrs. Malone

Elijah Phillips–5th Grade, Mrs. Padgett

Grace Reid–Kindergarten, Mrs. Malone

Benjamin Saas–2nd Grade, Ms. M. Moore

Daphne Turner–1st Grade, Mrs. Chou

June Villarreal–2nd Grade, Mrs. Andersen

Calvin Wood–5th Grade, Mrs. Hill

The days are getting shorter, the air is a bit brisker and the leaves on the trees are starting to drop. All indicators of autumn coming our way.

Last week, I biked to the American Fork Canyon summit and to Granite Flats and there are multiple signs in AF Canyon of fall as the trees are starting to change colors. I even saw some mountain goats on one of my rides! For me, this time of the year has always been my favorite!

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

Today, Monday September 14, is ACADIENCE testing for our K-3 graders. ACADIENCE is the assessment we give our students three times a year to measure their proficiency in the five foundational reading skills: Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension.

Teachers have commented to me how compliant our students have been in wearing masks at school. What we anticipated before school started would be a possible problem, has not materialized as a result of the overall student compliance. The only reason that students should not be wearing a mask is if they have an exemption for health reasons signed by a physician.

We are missing quite a few Take Home Reading books. If you have any Take Home Reading books at home, please send them back to the school with your student.

With the current state of affairs with the pandemic, I want to give parents some forewarning about upcoming events. It is likely that many of the Parent/Teacher Conferences in October will be conducted online. Stay tuned for more details. And we will not be able to have parents come into the school on October 30, as there will be no student Halloween parade this year. Students can still dress up, but there will be no parade.

The Alpine School District updates school district COVID-19 data every Monday on the Return to School tab on the district website.

Please do not drive the wrong way on the one-way street west of the school. We have some parents who are driving the wrong way at the beginning of the school day when other parents are dropping off their students off for preschool and kindergarten. We are concerned about student safety and would encourage all parents to follow all traffic laws.

For the second consecutive year, we are recognizing Students of the Week who teachers nominate because students are consistently demonstrating behaviors that align with the Alpine Big 3 of being: Responsible, Respectful, and Ready. Congratulations to each of last week’s Students of the Week!

Banks Anderson–1st Grade, Ms. Johnson

Eliana Batchelor–4th Grade, Mrs. Keller

Bronson Beck–2nd Grade, Ms. M. Moore

Eli Casey–1st Grade, Mrs. Bailey

Henry Fong–4th Grade, Mrs. Vipperman

Hank Gillespie–2nd Grade, Mrs. Wallace

Lily Goodwin–5th Grade, Mrs. Chang

Sophie Goss–5th Grade, Mr. Horan

Ellie Greenwood–5th Grade, Mrs. Hill

Tristin Hansen–3rd Grade, Ms. Elder

Maggie Hauck–5th Grade, Mrs. Padgett

Landon Johnson–4th Grade, Mrs. Orgill

Layla Lambert–1st Grade, Mrs. Chou

Claire Owens–1st Grade, Mrs. Bailey

Jacey Robbins–6th Grade, Mrs. Reyes

It is wildfire season in the western United States! Did any of you see the fire on the east bench above Pleasant Grove on Saturday night? As an Oregon native, it is heartbreaking to see the devastation that is resulting from the wildfires in my home state. My wife is in Oregon visiting our daughter and is dealing with very smoky conditions. Wildfires have burned more than a million acres in the state. Many of the beautiful areas in the Cascade Mountains where our family vacationed and or camped have been consumed by fire. I fully understand the devastation and loss to life that wildfires can cause. On July 6,1994, a young lady, Bonnie Holtby, that I had taught and coached in basketball at Redmond High School, was working as a hotshot firefighter on Storm King Mountain in Colorado, where she perished along with 13 other brave firefighters. To see the loss of homes, personal property, natural resources, wildlife and human life in these wildfires is a very sobering reality.

Have a great week, and even with a worldwide pandemic and wildfires raging in the western United States, it is still a great day to be an Eagle!

I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Labor Day weekend. The nearby fires certainly impacted our air quality over the three-day weekend!

Thursday, September 10 will be our Picture Day. Your students should have brought home a flyer detailing the different photo packages available for purchase. Call the office if you have any questions.

As of August 30, 2020, Alpine School District reported a total of 67 active COVID-19 positive cases throughout 91 schools and 6 general district office facilities. Alpine serves communities in 14 cities. Of the 67 active positive cases, 41 of them are students and 26 are employees. Of our total 81,493 students, 76,000 are attending our schools face-to-face daily along with more than 8,400 employees.

With the teachers’ permission, I share the following. Two of our teachers, Ms. Johnson in first grade and Mrs. Monson in sixth grade were exposed to family members who tested positive for COVID-19. Ms. Johnson tested negative and quarantined at home for 10 days and has returned to work. Mrs. Monson has tested positive, although she is asymptomatic, and has been quarantining at home since August 24 and will remain in quarantine until September 14.  Both teachers followed social distancing and sanitation protocols while at school and teaching their classes.

We have had one student, who was in neither of the classes mentioned above, who has tested positive, but that student only attended the first three days of school and has been quarantining at home since August 21. We are grateful that we haven’t seen an increase in COVID-19 cases at Alpine Elementary similar to what the Pleasant Grove Schools are experiencing.

All of our 1^st – 6^th grade students will be taking beginning-of-the-year Language Arts and Math assessments so that teachers can have some baseline data to determine the current proficiency levels of students after missing two and half months of school March – May. All students will be tested sometime in the September 1 -18 testing window.

Our first School Community Council (SCC) meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 10, 9:30 – 10:30 am in our Conference Room. Any parents are welcome to attend. I have attached an agenda for the meeting. We welcome three new parents to serve on our SCC to join returning members Tracy Nuttall and Brittany Nelson. Our new SCC members: Cortney Finlayson, JoLynn Greenwood and Monica Howard. We express our gratitude to the outgoing SCC members: Brooke Bennett, Chelsea Hertig and Vanessa Hogan. Thank you for your dedicated service on the SCC!

.Outside the Principal’s Office

It was the best of weekends for me! After a three-month hiatus because of two serious crashes in April and May, I rode my road bike on Saturday, a ride from my house in Cedar Hills to the Trefoil Ranch Gate above Southfork Park in the Provo Canyon. It felt so good to be back on my bike! And my goal is to stay upright on all upcoming rides and to not have to share with you anymore bike accident details.

And after a shorter bike ride on the Murdock Trail on Monday morning, my beloved BYU Cougar football team dominated the Navy Midshipmen on Monday night, a 55-3 victory! To those of you who are Ute, Aggie or fans of any football team in the west, I’m sorry that your team is not playing this fall. And to my friends who are Ute fans, please ignore the cockiness of any BYU fan after a single victory. Utah has beaten BYU nine consecutive times, so I believe it is best for Cougar fans to keep our mouths shut until we can prove victorious in a head-to-head matchup.

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

COVID-19 has changed all of our lives! As we enter our third week of school, we are making every effort to keep all students and staff safe and healthy. Because of Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) laws, I cannot share with parents information about who in our school community has tested positive for the virus, but I know there can sometimes be rumors about the impact of the virus in our school. I am able to say that to date, we have not had any students test positive for the virus. We have had two teachers, one in first grade and one in sixth grade, who have needed to quarantine at home because of family members who have tested positive.

Please keep your students home if they are demonstrating any of the following symptoms: fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste of smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea.

Thank you for sending your students to school with a mask! Any parent entering the school needs to be wearing a mask.

Last week, Alpine School District employees received a message from Superintendent Sam Jarman announcing that he will be retiring at the end of this school year. The ASD school board is starting a national search and wants to have a new superintendent chosen in November, even though Superintendent Jarman will continue with his job duties until July 1. I have very much enjoyed working with Superintendent Jarman who is the 11^th superintendent I have worked with in my 37-year career as an educator. Sam leads with integrity and a compassionate heart for the welfare of all students in our school district. He will be very much missed, and we are hopeful that the next superintendent will continue to lead our school district with vision and a laser-like focus on how to best meet the educational needs of over 80,000 students in the Alpine School District.

We still have room in our Preschool. Students can be enrolled throughout the school year if space is available. We would love to register some more students! Direct any of your questions to our preschool teacher, Kathy Thompson, [email protected].

Summer reading journals are due! Please contact Rachel Lyon at (801) 380-7000 or [email protected]. Please include your student’s name, current grade and teacher, and number of journal entries.

I have attached a photo of the Alpine Eagle welcoming kindergartners to school on their first day of school, August 25. Don’t tell your kindergartners, but I was inside that very warm costume. I greeted students both in the morning and afternoon, had several parents take pictures, and gave a lot of high fives, and not one person said anything about an Eagle wardrobe malfunction. It wasn’t until I came back into the school in the afternoon and was waving at some fifth graders going to lunch that I heard a fifth-grade boy say, “Hey Eagle, those feathers are supposed to be on your tail!” Leave it to a man to mistakenly zip up a costume in front, not in back as designed. Lesson learned by the Alpine Eagle!

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