Look What We've Accomplished in 14 days!

We've had an outstanding and productive beginning of the 2009-10 school year. Here are a few notable events that we've accomplished in our first three weeks of school:

• First day of school
• Back-to-School Night
• Schedule changes for recess, lunch, and Grab and Go
• High Heat/Smoke From Fires (no recesses as a result!)
• Student Council officers installed

• School Site Council organized
• First ELAC Meeting
• RSP and Speech Classes Began
• Library open and serving students

With the extended effort from our parents as well as all of our 69 staff members (office staff, custodians, cafeteria staff, before school/noon supervisors, teachers, and site administrators) we have had an outstanding beginning of school! We appreciate the fact that you have entrusted your children to us for this school year.

We held a staff meeting last Wednesday and teachers spent time analyzing language arts and math data from the last three years. Looking closely at our trends, we set new goals for this year. We expect all of our subgroups to attain a minimum increase of 15% proficiency over last year's results. All teachers have identified their students by name and by need so that they can differentiate instruction for students who are experiencing achievement gaps as well as those needing to be challenged. At Rivera, every student counts!

We are looking forward to our first HOWL Awards Assembly on Monday, September 14. Our first Book Fair also begins next week. We have an awesome PTA this year and they have great plans for our school. They are launching a Capri Sun recycle campaign next week so please remind your children to put their empty Capri Sun pouches in the recycle container. Our first PTA meeting is next Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in the Rivera Library and I encourage you to attend. The meetings run approximately one hour. You will learn a lot about the exciting plans our PTA has for our school.