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 11th 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.
Outside the Principal’s Office
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!
Dave Perdue, Principal
Alpine Elementary
Alpine School District