Safety Harbor Elementary May 2015

NEWSLETTER

Principal: Cecilia Palmer Assistant Principal: Amy Stewart Phone: 727-724-1462 Website: www.planetshes.com

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! SEPTEMBER 3

RD Family Night

*details on back

YEAR-END UPDATES

Dear Safety Harbor Families: It is hard to believe that this year is coming to an end and that we have only one full month of school left! Even though summer is approaching fast, there is still so much to do and so much to celebrate! Please check our website calendar and monitor agenda books for upcoming events and activities, we wouldn’t want you to miss out on anything! Next week we are honoring our wonderful teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week – May 4-8. Please help me in thanking all of our Safety Harbor Elementary teachers and staff for the countless hours and dedicated service they provide to our students and families each and every day! We are saying good-bye this month to one of SHES dedicated teachers, Robin Little, with 37 years of service to this profession. Mrs. Little will leave us as of May 1st to begin the next exciting chapter of her life – retirement! We hope she enjoys every well-earned moment and we all wish her the best!! During this time of year, much planning takes place for the new school year. We gather and utilize a variety of data and information as we begin the process of creating next year’s class lists. If you would like to provide input into your child’s classroom setting/learning style, please write a letter, to my attention, no later than Wednesday, May 13th. While we do not take specific teacher requests, we understand that your prior experiences, successful (or not), would provide additional information in determining the best setting for student success. Tentative teacher names will not be placed in the end of year report. Class lists will be posted on the front office window prior to open house. As many of you are aware, and were impacted this past year, a multitude of changes, which are out of our control, can occur over the course of the summer and into the 10th day of school. These changes can impact previously developed class lists and classroom teachers, therefore class lists remain tentative until after the 10 day count. Additionally, if your child will not be attending SHES next year, please inform the front office with the school they will be attending. As always if you would like to speak to me directly, feel free to contact me via e-mail or phone. Finally parents, Summer Bridge, our district’s summer school program, is currently open for registration. Letters

were sent out to families based on data and school judgment for students who we feel would benefit from the

additional instruction. If you feel your child would benefit from this program and did not receive a letter please

contact your classroom teacher for more information. If you received a letter, we encourage you to register your

student to ensure that learning continues throughout the summer and the best opportunity possible is provided

for student success in the coming school year. Feel free to contact or stop into the front office for assistance with

registration. We will be happy to help! See you tonight at Spring Fling for our Country Fair!

Sincerely, Ms. Palmer Principal

Created by the

SHES PTA

MAY CHARACTER TRAIT OF THE MONTH

CARING

Being kind, friendly, considerate, and willing to listen, give, and share.

PTA NEWS Thank you parents and volunteers for an amazing

year. The PTA held numerous activities at the school

from the fall festival, two book fairs, walk to school

day, the Veteran’s day breakfast, bingo for books

night, teacher luncheons, the jog-a-thon, Yankee

Candle fundraiser, a Mad Science assembly, family

nights, spring fling and our annual school auction.

This year we also kicked off some exciting new

programs including the “million minute reading

challenge,” donated hundreds of books to our

classrooms and students as well as gave our teachers

thousand of spirit sticks. We helped our teachers get

their classrooms prepared with start up funds and

provided a generous donation to support the HOPS

program. The PTA also supported our art, music,

commitment to character and physical education

programs and school beautification projects. The

SHES PTA also has funding set aside to help our

school with technology improvement and

acquisitions. Along with all of this, our team also

worked hard creating our school yearbook and

monthly newsletters. A huge “thank you” to our

volunteers who have spent countless hours working

to make our school the best around!

On May 14th we will hold our final general PTA

membership meeting where we will elect the new

PTA board for the next school year, vote on our

updated by-laws and review our annual budget. We

hope to see all of you there. Thank you for a great

year!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

MAY 1st: SPRING FLING MAY 4th-14th: All 4 BOOKS FUND DRIVE MAY 8th: COLD STONE CREAMERY DAY MAY 9th: RAYS GAME – PCSB SPIRIT NIGHT MAY 11th-15th: BOOK FAIR MAY 13th: BOOKS AND BAGELS MAY 14th: PTA GENERAL MEETING AND 3rd and 4th GR. CHORUS - SPRING CONCERT MAY 15th: FIELD DAY FOR ALL GRADES MAY 15th: SPRING SPIRIT STICK SALE MAY 20th: TEACHER APPRECIATION LUNCH MAY 21st: CRISPERS NIGHT MAY 22nd: C2C CELEBRATION MAY 25th: SCHOOL CLOSED – MEMORIAL DAY MAY 27th: VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION BRUNCH SKATING PARTY / CRAZY HAIR DAY JUNE 1st: 5th GRADE CELEBRATION JUNE 2nd: 5th GRADE MOVE UP CEREMONY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL/REPORT CARDS EARLY DISMISSAL – 12:35pm

IT’S BOOK FAIR TIME!

Come one, come all to the SHES Spring Book Fair

May 11th – 15th in the Media Center. Student

shopping hours are 8:05 a.m. till noon and 2:35 -

3:15 (after school students must be accompanied

by an adult.) Early birds can visit our May 13th

Bagels and Books event from 7:30 a.m. - 8:05 a.m.

The Book Fair will also be open Thursday, May 14th

from 2:35 till 8:30 pm during Gifted parent

conferences and the Spring Concert. Finally, our

All 4 Books loose chance drive will run May 4th-14th

Collection containers will be in each classroom.

Funds benefit book purchases for children who

might not otherwise be able to visit the Book Fair.

SEPTEMBER CHARACTER TRAIT OF THE MONTH:

RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility is doing the right this whether or not someone tells you to.

Responsibility involves being a dependable

and reliable person who is committed to following through on his or her obligations.

PTA NEWS

It’s only September and the PTA has been busy supporting

Safety Harbor Elementary! In August, we purchased the agenda

books for all of our students and 47 copies of the SHES book of

the year “Scaredy Squirrel.” We welcomed the teachers back to

school with a breakfast and also hosted the “Boo Hoo” breakfast

(thanks Kate and Daisy) for our new SHES families.

With all of the exciting educational, student recognition, teacher

appreciation and classroom enhancement programs we will be

sponsoring this year, we need your support!

We will kick off our annual Yankee Candle Fundraiser on

September 12th. Be on the lookout for those catalogs and don’t

forget that out of town families and friends can order online and

have the product shipped to them.

We will hold monthly Box Tops collections this year on the

second week of every month. The classroom that collects the

most Box Tops each month will receive a special prize and

hold the monthly trophy. The winning teacher will receive a

$50 gift card to purchase books for the classroom! Be sure to

keep turning in those Box Tops!

Finally, we encourage all of our SHES parents to become a

member of the PTA and volunteer. Show your support for all

of the great things the PTA does at SHES!

Erica VanRossum, PTA President

Mark Your Calendars

SEPTEMBER 3RD: BINGO FOR BOOKS

SEPTEMBER 10TH: VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION

SEPTEMBER 12th: YANKEE CANDLE FUNDRAISER KICKOFF

SEPTEMBER 16TH: STUDENT PICTURES

SEPTEMBER 26th: C2C celebration

COMING SOON: SPIRIT STICKS – Are you ready to go bananas?

ALL MONTH:

PTA MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

A NOTE FROM THE KIWANIS CLUB

Kiwanis is gearing up for the start of K-

Kids, which will hold its first meeting

Friday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 a.m. in the art

room. K-Kids is a leadership and service

club open to all students from

kindergarten to fifth grade. The club, run

by student officers and board members,

undertakes numerous service projects

during the year, from planning and

sponsoring a holiday party for the

children at the Haven House, the county’s

spouse abuse shelter, to planting and

maintaining gardens on the school

campus to raising money so students who

cannot afford to buy books at the school

book fair can do so. These are just a few

of the many service projects K-Kids are

involve in. They raise money to support

their endeavors by operating the school

store. Students interested in improving

their school and their community while

developing leadership skills should check

out K-Kids, where kids have fun while

making the world a better place.

*****

We will hold monthly Box Tops collections this year

on the second week of every month. The classroom

that collects the most Box Tops each month will

receive a special prize and hold the monthly trophy.

The winning teacher will receive a $50 gift card to

purchase books for the classroom! Be sure to keep

turning in those Box Tops!

Finally, we encourage all of our SHES parents to

become a member of the PTA and volunteer. Show

your support for all of the great things the PTA does

at SHES!

Erica VanRossum, PTA President

FROM THE PE STAFF:

FIELD DAY IS May 15th

The times are as follows:

K/1st Grade is from 9:00 am - 10:20 am

2nd Gr./3rd Gr. is from 10:45 am - 12:05 pm

4th Gr./5th Gr. is from 1:00 pm - 2:20 pm Any parents wishing to attend are welcome and

encouraged to do so. Please be sure you arrive early

enough to sign in at the front office. Parents wishing

to volunteer to assist the classroom or the Physical

Education Department with Field Day must have an

approved Volunteer Form already on file. Please

come to watch and support your child!

SHES COMMITMENT TO

CHARACTER AWARD WINNERS FOR

SELF-CONTROL APRIL 2015

Cordelia Jenks Bryan McGinnis Makayla Adams Iona Matichuk Dulce Ramirez-Jaguey Elsa Cubaj Amerie Velazquez Adam Green Sinorra Adams Sophia Karikas Beckett Tibbetts Keyonna Hamilton Jayden Allen Jesus Cervantes Brayden Temperton David Kent Carlos Martinez Melanie Trout Lillian Spaethe

Evan O’Connor Nicholas McNealy Gabby Gutierrez Marley Smith Amanda Vehorn David Cervantes Malia Connelly Ryan Stewart Valentin Krajelg Stuart Sonheim Dayna Rodgers Jazmyn McCree William Roberts Charlise Alverio Elizabeth Shea Sylwia Kwasny Joey Paul Lael Isidoro

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE

FOLLOWING KIWANIS STUDENT OF

THE MONTH

Aldo Perez-Cruz

SHES salutes our Carwise Minority

Achievement Award winners Lael

Isidoro Huizache and Keita Wolfe Guy,

both 5th graders. Hip, hip, hooray!

Congratulations to Jessica

Contreras and Lindsay Neufarth,

cover design winners for this year’s

SHES yearbook. Beautiful job!

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

In response to parent concerns regarding the new

Florida Standard Assessment (FSA) test and the

amount of testing our students currently face, state

legislators have recently passed legislation that takes

a first step toward easing those concerns. First, the

new law requires outside experts to review this

year’s FSA before the results can be used to

determine school grades or teacher evaluations. It

also limits testing to no more than 5% of the school

year and reduces the portion of teacher evaluations

based on student performance from 50% to 33%.

The Florida PTA recently issued a statement

commending the state’s efforts, though it feels

elected officials did not go far enough in holding

students harmless from the new test results, nor did

it change online testing requirements. For more

information about new and pending education

legislation, as well as how you can be an advocate

for your child, please visit the Florida PTA’s

Legislation page at

http://www.floridapta.org/advocacy/legislation.

There you can also sign up to receive email alerts

and information on how to contact your state

representatives and senators regarding your

concerns. Your voice matters!