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.