Hello Castle View Families,
It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform everyone that Mrs. AhSue's husband passed away June 12th. The obituary is in today's paper. The Castle View family is saddened by his passing and are actively supporting Mrs. AhSue and her family. Mrs. AhSue and her husband Herman had been married 24 years and have 4 boys; two in college, one at Poly and one at Gage.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Coming Up: CST, Open House, & Variety Show!
Good Morning Castle View Families,
We are busily working through March to prepare for California Standards Tests for 2nd - 6th grade students which begin the last week of April. Teachers are using CST released questions to review with students. Each question has four possible answers. We are working through a strategy of Prove and Disprove where the student must address each answer with a statement, "It is correct because..." or "It is NOT correct because..." This forces the students to read carefully and analyze each possible right answer. As you are aware, RUSD is a Program Improvement District which means as a district, we have failed to meet all the achievement goals set forth in No Child Left Behind. Achievement goals are based on the percentage of students who score proficient on the CST. Castle View has made great growth over the past few years in meeting NCLB achievement goals. We hold high expectations for ALL students and work to meet their individual needs as determined through Reading Lions and Math Benchmark assessments. It is the responsibility of our entire Castle View Community to work together to support every student's achievement.
As a staff, we look across grade levels to support students and have begun vertical team planning to support student transitions from one grade to the next. This is especially important as we begin planning for next year. Castle View will look very different next year with larger classes and fewer staff. We are projected to have 17 teachers with a projected enrollment of 530. This may change as enrollment increases or decreases due to transfers and movement of students.
The district has embraced Open Enrollment which essentially eliminates borders. I have taken multiple families on tours of Castle View and related the MANY wonderful things about our school, community, and staff. We do have a great staff and program for our students and I encourage everyone to BRAG! We would love to grow and welcome more families and students into our Castle View Community.
Coming up: Open House is on March 31st. Included this year will be an Art Show displaying art from our 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students. These art projects are a compilation of the ART DOCENTS program facilitated by Mrs. Dew and taught by parent volunteers. We will have a silent auction for a 11 x 14 family portrait donated by Cottage Kids. We are fortunate to have great community support for our school and I thank Cottage Kids Portrait Studio for their donation.
Also on the calendar is our (now) Annual Variety Show!! This year it will be held May 12th. The In-n-Out truck will be here serving food from 5:30 to 7 and the Variety Show will follow. 600 Pre-Sale meal tickets will be available. More information will be forth coming. Tryouts for the Variety Show will be the last week of April.
We are busily working through March to prepare for California Standards Tests for 2nd - 6th grade students which begin the last week of April. Teachers are using CST released questions to review with students. Each question has four possible answers. We are working through a strategy of Prove and Disprove where the student must address each answer with a statement, "It is correct because..." or "It is NOT correct because..." This forces the students to read carefully and analyze each possible right answer. As you are aware, RUSD is a Program Improvement District which means as a district, we have failed to meet all the achievement goals set forth in No Child Left Behind. Achievement goals are based on the percentage of students who score proficient on the CST. Castle View has made great growth over the past few years in meeting NCLB achievement goals. We hold high expectations for ALL students and work to meet their individual needs as determined through Reading Lions and Math Benchmark assessments. It is the responsibility of our entire Castle View Community to work together to support every student's achievement.
As a staff, we look across grade levels to support students and have begun vertical team planning to support student transitions from one grade to the next. This is especially important as we begin planning for next year. Castle View will look very different next year with larger classes and fewer staff. We are projected to have 17 teachers with a projected enrollment of 530. This may change as enrollment increases or decreases due to transfers and movement of students.
The district has embraced Open Enrollment which essentially eliminates borders. I have taken multiple families on tours of Castle View and related the MANY wonderful things about our school, community, and staff. We do have a great staff and program for our students and I encourage everyone to BRAG! We would love to grow and welcome more families and students into our Castle View Community.
Coming up: Open House is on March 31st. Included this year will be an Art Show displaying art from our 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students. These art projects are a compilation of the ART DOCENTS program facilitated by Mrs. Dew and taught by parent volunteers. We will have a silent auction for a 11 x 14 family portrait donated by Cottage Kids. We are fortunate to have great community support for our school and I thank Cottage Kids Portrait Studio for their donation.
Also on the calendar is our (now) Annual Variety Show!! This year it will be held May 12th. The In-n-Out truck will be here serving food from 5:30 to 7 and the Variety Show will follow. 600 Pre-Sale meal tickets will be available. More information will be forth coming. Tryouts for the Variety Show will be the last week of April.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
March 4th Stand Up for Schools Event
Good Morning Castle View families,
I wanted to share information on the Stand up for Schools events scheduled for March 4th. Castle View parents have joined together to bring attention to the state budget crisis and how educational funding is effecting our schools. If you have read the Press Enterprise or follow Dr. Miller's blog at www.rusd.k12.ca.us, you are well aware of the many 'pink' slips which have been issued to RUSD personnel. A 'pink' slip or Reduction in Force (RIF) notice is notification that the teachers position may be eliminated. Final notice must be given by May 15th if the positon is indeed going to be eliminated. Eight full time Castle View teachers have received notices as well as Mrs. Manley who is a part-time teacher. Our effected teachers are Mrs. Ahsue, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Aballi, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Bauder, Mrs. DeGuzman, Mrs Torres, and Mrs. Wilder. It is our continued hope that the state budget will improve and educational funding will be increased.
Tomorrow, Castle View parents will be out front asking parents to sign a petition to send to state legislators urging them to support educational funding. You will also see teachers, parents, and students wearing Pink and/or Black. Pink to support our teachers who have received RIF notices and Black in protest of the state budget. Participation is optional. If your students wish to participate by wearing Black or Pink, they may do so.
The best offense we can launch is for community members to write to your local legislator and the governor to support educational funding. You can also call. The numbers of our local delegation are below. Thank you for your support!
Senators John Benoit - 916-651-4037 and Robert Dutton 916-651-4031 / Assemblymen William Emmerson 916-319-2063 , Kevin Jeffries 916-319-2066, and Brian Nestande 916-319-2064.
I wanted to share information on the Stand up for Schools events scheduled for March 4th. Castle View parents have joined together to bring attention to the state budget crisis and how educational funding is effecting our schools. If you have read the Press Enterprise or follow Dr. Miller's blog at www.rusd.k12.ca.us, you are well aware of the many 'pink' slips which have been issued to RUSD personnel. A 'pink' slip or Reduction in Force (RIF) notice is notification that the teachers position may be eliminated. Final notice must be given by May 15th if the positon is indeed going to be eliminated. Eight full time Castle View teachers have received notices as well as Mrs. Manley who is a part-time teacher. Our effected teachers are Mrs. Ahsue, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Aballi, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Bauder, Mrs. DeGuzman, Mrs Torres, and Mrs. Wilder. It is our continued hope that the state budget will improve and educational funding will be increased.
Tomorrow, Castle View parents will be out front asking parents to sign a petition to send to state legislators urging them to support educational funding. You will also see teachers, parents, and students wearing Pink and/or Black. Pink to support our teachers who have received RIF notices and Black in protest of the state budget. Participation is optional. If your students wish to participate by wearing Black or Pink, they may do so.
The best offense we can launch is for community members to write to your local legislator and the governor to support educational funding. You can also call. The numbers of our local delegation are below. Thank you for your support!
Senators John Benoit - 916-651-4037 and Robert Dutton 916-651-4031 / Assemblymen William Emmerson 916-319-2063 , Kevin Jeffries 916-319-2066, and Brian Nestande 916-319-2064.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Pictures of 1st Place Door Decorations
From top left--
Mrs. DeGuzman - 1st Place Use of Lights (taken down due to wind) but they were wonderful :)
Mrs. DeGuzman - 1st Place Use of Lights (taken down due to wind) but they were wonderful :)
Mrs. Backstrom - 1st Place Best use of Color
Mrs. Packwood - 1st Place Best use of Holiday Theme
Mrs. Fisher - 1st Place Best use of Student Photos
and our Unity Tree
Holiday Door Decorating contest
Today we announced the winners of our Holiday door decorating contest. We have four categories, Best use of Student Pictures; Best use of Holiday Theme; Best use of Color, and my favorite, Best use of Lights. Congratulations to our First place winners: Mrs. Fisher, Mrs. Packwood, Mrs. Backstrom, and Mrs. DeGuzman. Each class receives cupcakes for everyone! Our Second place winners are: Mrs. Torres, Mrs. Albrecht, Mrs. Vaughan, and Mrs. Harris. Our second place winners all receive candy canes. I appreciate the efforts of students, teachers, and parents in decorating the doors. It fills the campus with holiday spirit and reminds us all how wonderful our students, staff and parent community are. I also want to recognize Mrs. Cocca for organizing the 'Unity" tree for the office. Each student and teacher is represented on our tree by interlocking rings which make a chain and surround our tree. Stop by the office and see how we all are joined together in the Castle View community of learners. I wish everyone a happy holiday and joyous new year! See you in 2010!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Calhoun
Sincerely,
Mrs. Calhoun
Monday, October 26, 2009
Good Morning Castle View Families,
Today begins Red Ribbon Week. We have activities each day to encourage our students to live a Drug Free life. Teachers are supporting the message through Drug Intervention Lessons in the classrooms.
Monday is "Turn your Back on Drugs Day", students are encouraged to wear their shirts backwards. Tuesday is our wear RED day. We will be lining up all of our students on the field to spell out the words, "Drug Free is Key" and a police helicopter will fly overhead to take our picture! We are very excited about this school wide activity. Wednesday is wear BLUE day as "Drugs give you the blues." Thursday is, "Drugs turn you inside out" and students are encouraged to wear their clothes inside out. Friday's message is, "Use your head, don't do drugs" and students are encourage to wear CRAZY HAIR. This is always a favorite spirit wear day. Students are allowed to wear hair color and crazy hairdos.
It should be a fun and informative week for all.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Calhoun
Today begins Red Ribbon Week. We have activities each day to encourage our students to live a Drug Free life. Teachers are supporting the message through Drug Intervention Lessons in the classrooms.
Monday is "Turn your Back on Drugs Day", students are encouraged to wear their shirts backwards. Tuesday is our wear RED day. We will be lining up all of our students on the field to spell out the words, "Drug Free is Key" and a police helicopter will fly overhead to take our picture! We are very excited about this school wide activity. Wednesday is wear BLUE day as "Drugs give you the blues." Thursday is, "Drugs turn you inside out" and students are encouraged to wear their clothes inside out. Friday's message is, "Use your head, don't do drugs" and students are encourage to wear CRAZY HAIR. This is always a favorite spirit wear day. Students are allowed to wear hair color and crazy hairdos.
It should be a fun and informative week for all.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Calhoun
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Help Needed
Hello Castle View families,
We are rolling along this year, our first Reading Lions assessments are being completed. We are focused on increasing reading Fluency and Comprehension skills. You can help your child with these important skills by reading to and with your child and then asking questions about what was read including who was the main character, what was the problem in the story, how was it resolved, where and when did the story take place. These questions will help students recall details and sequence of the story. Fluency is the rate a student is able to read or decode. Fluency tests are a cold (not practiced) read of 1 minute. The Fluency rate is the number of words read correctly in 1 minute. The key is fluent reading, not racing to the end of a passage. Students who are able to read with inflection, pausing or stopping at punctuation, and correct decoding of words have a higher level of comprehension or understanding what they have read.
I am also happy to report that our Reading Lab is full of volunteers and our own K teachers. We are able to serve about 30 primary students in the area of reading. Thank you to all who are involved with this critical intervention. Mrs. Backstrom reports that she is already seeing improvement in Fluency with her students who are participating in the Reading Lab. We will begin a second session after Thanksgiving, so if you are interested in signing up, be on the look out for flyers for Reading Lab training.
Another area of interest for Castle View is building a permanent stage downstairs. Many of you know Mrs. Sperry, either through your child's participation in a school play, variety show, or promotion ceremony or coming to one of our productions. We are so very fortunate to have her as a volunteer! As we have continued to grow, we are not able to host large audiences in the multipurpose room any longer. Hence, last years promotion ceremony was held downstairs on the blacktop. It was a great venue for that event and Mrs. Sperry and I both wished we could have a permanent stage downstairs. So, we contacted the district and received quotes for building a permanent stage. It would be poured concrete with safety railings and a ramp up the back and would sit next to D9. The same place we put the rented stage for promotion last year. With a permanent stage, we could host much larger audiences and have a wonderful outdoor stage for events. The bids to build the stage came in at $13,500. Mrs. Sperry is already planning fundraisers to build the stage. The first one is candy gram sales for Halloween. Sales start Thursday and continue through October 29th. Candy grams are only 50 cents. The next stage fundraiser will be a school wide Avon sale. We hope everyone will be able to find at least one item for themselves or to give as a gift. Mrs. Martinez, an Instructional Aide in one of our Special Education classrooms, will be facilitating the sale. We hope everyone can support this effort for our Stage Fund.
Have a great month, Mrs. Calhoun
We are rolling along this year, our first Reading Lions assessments are being completed. We are focused on increasing reading Fluency and Comprehension skills. You can help your child with these important skills by reading to and with your child and then asking questions about what was read including who was the main character, what was the problem in the story, how was it resolved, where and when did the story take place. These questions will help students recall details and sequence of the story. Fluency is the rate a student is able to read or decode. Fluency tests are a cold (not practiced) read of 1 minute. The Fluency rate is the number of words read correctly in 1 minute. The key is fluent reading, not racing to the end of a passage. Students who are able to read with inflection, pausing or stopping at punctuation, and correct decoding of words have a higher level of comprehension or understanding what they have read.
I am also happy to report that our Reading Lab is full of volunteers and our own K teachers. We are able to serve about 30 primary students in the area of reading. Thank you to all who are involved with this critical intervention. Mrs. Backstrom reports that she is already seeing improvement in Fluency with her students who are participating in the Reading Lab. We will begin a second session after Thanksgiving, so if you are interested in signing up, be on the look out for flyers for Reading Lab training.
Another area of interest for Castle View is building a permanent stage downstairs. Many of you know Mrs. Sperry, either through your child's participation in a school play, variety show, or promotion ceremony or coming to one of our productions. We are so very fortunate to have her as a volunteer! As we have continued to grow, we are not able to host large audiences in the multipurpose room any longer. Hence, last years promotion ceremony was held downstairs on the blacktop. It was a great venue for that event and Mrs. Sperry and I both wished we could have a permanent stage downstairs. So, we contacted the district and received quotes for building a permanent stage. It would be poured concrete with safety railings and a ramp up the back and would sit next to D9. The same place we put the rented stage for promotion last year. With a permanent stage, we could host much larger audiences and have a wonderful outdoor stage for events. The bids to build the stage came in at $13,500. Mrs. Sperry is already planning fundraisers to build the stage. The first one is candy gram sales for Halloween. Sales start Thursday and continue through October 29th. Candy grams are only 50 cents. The next stage fundraiser will be a school wide Avon sale. We hope everyone will be able to find at least one item for themselves or to give as a gift. Mrs. Martinez, an Instructional Aide in one of our Special Education classrooms, will be facilitating the sale. We hope everyone can support this effort for our Stage Fund.
Have a great month, Mrs. Calhoun
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