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. 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

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

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

Support and volunteers

I would like to thank the Optimist Club for their generous donations of backpacks. We have been able to provide 20+ backpacks to students who otherwise would go without. THANK YOU!
Additionally, I need to recognize Mrs. Sperry, who once again, is facilitating the Drama Club. The first production is underway. It is called "Safety Kids" and supports Red Ribbon Week and the "Just Say NO to Drugs" campaign.
I would also like to thank all parents and visitors who participated in our Back to School Night on August 27th. I hope everyone who attended found the presentations informative and clear. We have a wonderful staff at Castle View who value your child's education and success.
I would also like to extend an invitation to all parents to support our primary students in a Reading lab. A volunteer form will be coming home on Monday. I encourage you to consider volunteering just one hour a week to support a struggling reader. Once the Reading lab is underway, we will begin a Math lab as well. So, if you are more comfortable with math, we have a place for you too!
Our first English Learners Advisory Committee (9 am) and School Site Council (2 pm)meetings are September 28th. I will be presenting school wide and grade level results from the California Standards Test including estimated Academic Performance Index (API) and Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). I encourage you to attend, ask questions, and get involved.
Have a great weekend!

Good Afternoon Castle View Families,

We have had a wonderful start to school. There were a few issues with bus routes and stops, but we worked through them and I believe everyone is now on the right bus getting on and off at the right stop. We currently have 560 students enrolled at Castle View!
If you were on campus this week, you have seen the new student door. It brings in lots of light to the office and allows us to see who is coming and going on campus. It is a wonderful addition and again, I want to thank the M & O department for getting this done over summer. We are still anticipating an additional parking lot on the lower field for our staff who work in the D portables. Construction will begin sometime in November. I will keep you posted.
I am proud to announce that Castle View met their API goal! All 2nd through 6th grade students take the California Standards Test (CST) in May. The scores from that test determine our Academic Performance Index, or API score. Castle View API was 800 last year which is considered proficient on the state level. Castle View raised the API score to 808! We have looked at the progress and determined what programs and instructional techniques were in place which supported the increase, and what we can continue to do or change to continue the upward achievement of our students. Castle View staff members are very committed to your students and they are planning to improve not only the API scores, but to ensure that every child moves up in proficiency. I will be providing an over view of school wide results at Back to School Night including our performance relative to No Child Left Behind goals. You will see we have work to do in increasing proficiency for all students to meet the NCLB goals. I hope you will be available to attend. Back to School Night begins at 6 pm in the MPR.
If you have been on campus, you can also see how full our classes are. It was determined last year, due to the state budget crises that RUSD could no longer maintain the 20 to 1 ratio in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. In our Kindergarten classrooms, we currently have between 22 and 24 students, our first grade classrooms have up to 27 students, and our second grades are between 20 and 24. We will continue to provide quality instruction to all students. You can help by providing assistance to teachers in preparing materials or volunteering in the classrooms. We are also beginning a parent reading program to support First and Second grade students who need support in decoding and phonics. We will be sending home information and asking for volunteers. The more volunteers we have, the more students we can support. Please think about volunteering, even 20 minutes a week can make a difference.
I held discipline assemblies today (8-26) for K-5 and will meet with 6th graders tomorrow. I talk to students about positive behavior and following school and class rules. I also let them know what kinds of behavior will result in violations or suspensions. But I always compliment our students (and parents) because Castle View has very well behaved students who take learning seriously. I thank you for sending your students to us well prepared to learn.
Lastly, I want to introduce and welcome Mrs. Julie Bow - K teacher; Ms. Jaemy Zavala - Community Assistant; and Mrs. Christina Velasquez - Bilingual Instructional Assistant. We are fortunate to have them join our staff.
Thank you for your continue support. I am looking forward to a great year.
Sincerely, Mrs. Calhoun

My Fish Story

Hello Castle View families and staff,
I returned from Louisiana with a little sun and a lot of sore muscles! We went out 45 - 50 miles each day into the Gulf and fished for Red Snapper and whatever came our way. I caught several 6 to 12 pound Snappers, a Trigger fish, and I helped reel in a 24 pound King fish! That was exciting and a lot of work. Of course, as in any fish story, the 'one that got away' was a huge Browning fish. My mom and I though we had hooked our lines under the boat, but we both came up with large Browning fish! But alas, both of them got off the hooks at the last moment.
Deep sea fishing was a new experience for me. It was beyond my comfort zone, but I visualized catching the fish and enjoying a great fish dinner. I asked for help when needed and was grateful for others expertise. I can't say I love fishing and I probably never will, but I am enriched by the experience and enjoyed time with my family.
Our students face similar challenges everyday in school. We can support them by helping them visualize success; teaching them that it is okay to ask for help; and reward them for their efforts and accomplishments. I hope to hear many summer 'fish stories' from the students when we return in August.
See you soon,
Mrs. Calhoun

I want to thank all parents and students for participating in our fundraisers at Castle View. Because of your efforts, each teacher at Castle View will receive a gift card to either Target or Staples (their choice) to spend on classroom needs AND Castle View is receiving several LCD projectors and Document Cameras! These donations are made through the PTO and are possible because of student and parent participation in fundraising. The gift cards have been sent in the mail so teachers can take advantage of summer sales and stock up for the coming year.
THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Good afternoon Castle View families. I hope everyone enjoyed their fourth of July. I enjoyed a very hot weekend in Arizona. It was 115 degrees most days and 109 most evenings. I was happy to return to our cooler climate.
The roofing and repair to the buildings are complete. They replaced the roof on the Library and the fascia boards on all buildings. They are installing gutters on all buildings and will paint the trim. I look forward to seeing the paint finished to complete the project.
I spoke with Mrs. Sperry and she is planning on beginning recruitment for drama the second week of school. Their first production will be for Red Ribbon Week in October. We are also planning our 2nd annual Variety Show as it was a huge success last year. That will be in the Spring.
If you have any preschool age children, ages 3 or 4, or know families who do, RUSD is now enrolling students in Headstart and State Preschool programs. You can call 352-8290 for more information.
Mrs. Zolfaghari and I are working thru July 10 and then we will be off until August 10. The office will reopen August 18th.

Good afternoon Castle View families and friends, The work continues on the exterior buildings. They have cut away the damaged boards and fascia and are now replacing them with new boards. The new fascia is currently primer but will be re-painted. We continue to gain new students every day. Please let your neighbors know if they have students beginning school that they need to go to the Central Registration Center on Arlington Ave. (352-1200) All student registration is completed there for Elementary and Middle school. I am sorry to report that someone has vandalized our campus. If you see any suspicious behavior on or around our campus, you can reach RUSD security at 788-7496 24 hours a day. I am off to Arizona this weekend to visit the grand babies. :) I hope your July 4th weekend is filled with family fun as well. Sincerely, Mrs. Calhoun

Good evening. I am happy to report that the new student entrance door is installed! Mrs. Zolfaghari and I have enjoyed the natural light and great view of the hill. It will be nice for students and staff to have access directly into the front office and the conference room can once again be used as a conference room without the constant opening and closing of the side door. I'd like to thank the district maintenance department for their work in demolition and installation of the new door and Mr. Fine and Mr. Mueller for seeing the need and providing the door. When you have a chance, drive by and take a look. Sincerely, Mrs. Calhoun

Welcome new Castle View Staff member

Good afternoon Castle View Families. I am writing to provide an update to what's happening at the Castle. First I would like to welcome a new staff member, Mrs. Julie Bow! She has 19 years experience in RUSD. She comes to us from Woodcrest where she was most recently teaching first grade. She is energetic and positively wonderful! She will be teaching with our Kindergarten team next year. We are very excited to have her join us.
The work continues on repairs to the eaves and roof as well as fiber optic wiring of the campus. The new wiring should improve our internet speed. We sure hope so! Additionally, work on the new student entrance begins this week. This project should be completed by the end of next week.
The office is currently closed for summer, but Mrs. Zolfaghari and myself are working till July 10, so feel free to give us a call if you have any questions.
sincerely,
Mrs. Calhoun

Summer is here!

Hello Castle View Families! I hope you will enjoy keeping updated through our new school blogging site! I hope it will facilitate communication, especially when you are unable to make to campus.
We finished the year well with a wonderful celebration on the blacktop for our promoting 6th grade students. It was a beautiful day to celebrate. The weather could not have been better. Mrs. Sperry, her assistant, Mrs. Gina Cocca-Read, and the sixth grade students did an excellent job performing for one last time. I wish them all well as they move into Middle School and beyond. Many, many thanks to Mr. Leivas for donating his time and all the sound equipment for the day!
The office will be closed for summer beginning Monday, June 22nd. We will however, be available by phone through July 10th if you have any questions. As you may have noticed, many trucks have been parked outside Castle View. The campus is undergoing some renovations. The buildings are being re-wired to accomodate VOIP with fiber optic wiring, a new hot water heater is being installed, a new student entrance door is being put in, some repairs to the roofs are being completed, and they may begin to build a new parking lot utilizing some of the lower playground. We anticipate all work will be completed before the students return.
Check back weekly to see what is new on the blog. I will do my best to keep everyone up to date on the work being completed and any other changes at the Castle. :)
Please enjoy your summer break! The new school year will be here before you know it!