The 09-10 Year is Here!
Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year. There are many exciting things that have happened over the summer with the Strawberry Hill building and grounds as well as with teachers this summer.
Strawberry Hill has added Rainbow Daycare as a part of its programming. This will allow families easier access to resources that the Strawberry Hill has available as well as provide a safe and secure environment for children ages 0-5. We hope to have all renovations to the daycare classrooms complete by October 2 of this year. We plan to notify parents in advance of the official move date from the hospital to Strawberry Hill.
The four year old preschool program has a new addition in the form of a brand new playground appropriate for this age group. The purpose of this playground is to provide meaningful physical, social, and emotional experiences for students on safe and secure play area. We will have a preschool playground open house on September 3 from 5:00-6:00 for preschool families in the four year old program.
The entrance of the school has received a face lift with brand new doors which open up the entry way, making entering and exiting the building much more accessible. An office window was also installed to provide easier access to the office and secretaries. Eventually a buzzer system will be installed on the inner doors to increase building security.
This summer almost the entire Strawberry Hill Elementary staff attended a week long math workshop that challenged their brains and forced them to think differently about how we teach and learn fractions. Believe me, I was in attendance and it was a very grueling week. However, staff gained a great deal of confidence as well as excitement for teaching fractions and math.
Our building will be focusing on improving math achievement, reading achievement, and improve the climate within the building through improvements in discipline procedures. These three goal areas were decided upon by the building leadership team and will drive our focus for the year. We are ready to jump in and get the job done!
Finally, we are participating in the SAM (School Administration Manager) project this year. Mrs. Val Daily (formerly a second grade teacher) has signed on as the SAM for our school. She will be handling all managerial tasks and issues for the building including but not limited to student discipline, attendance, scheduling, duties, state reports, evaluating classified staff, etc. This is a research based project focused on improving the principal's impact on instructional leadership as it pertains to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This project will push myself as the principal to put most of my energy to being in the classrooms and getting to know students better, teachers better, and how each classroom functions and the instruction that is taking place. My hope is that by placing a greater emphasis on instructional leadership, we will surely achieve each of our goals this year!
Again, welcome to a brand new year! I look forward to seeing all of you at our open house on Tuesday, August 18 from 5:00-6:30!
