Newsletter – October 30, 2008

Halloween Festival

What a great day last Sunday was. Everyone that helped to put on the Halloween Carnival must be feeling really good, because it was an excellent carnival. Thank you to all, especially Kurt Bierschenk, who chaired this year’s committee. I am always amazed at how well the Marquez committee works together to get things done!!

Walking Wednesdays

Did you walk? To school that is. Remember that every Wednesday is walking Wednesday—a day that we encourage you to walk to school. Plan ahead, get up early, have a great breakfast, meet your friends and walk to school. The Walking Wednesday is a nationwide initiative that we have endorsed here at Marquez.

Not only is it good physical exercise, it helps reduce our traffic congestion and when put all together, we are helping to preserve the environment. If you can’t walk with your child, find a neighbor or friend that can walk with them. Lately we have had meeting places where children can join the “Walking School Bus.”

For the last two weeks, we have coordinated parents and even myself to meet children at various “bus stops.” So far, the crew from the Sunset and Bienveneda corner have had a great turnout. We want to keep the momentum going and therefore we encourage you to mark it on a calendar, write it down or even tie a string around your finger, but most importantly remember Wednesday is a day to walk!! Thanks always to our Green Team and Jody Norris and Wendy Stretten who help to keep us apprised of such opportunities.

Paul Revere Middle School

Last week we were treated to a visit by Fern Samoza, the principal of Paul Revere Middle School. Many of our 4th and 5th grade parents went on the tour of Paul Revere as well last Thursday. I want to clear up some confusion that may be on the minds of parents regarding the various programs at Paul Revere. There are three different programs: the core program, the SAS, Advanced program, and the HSAS, highly gifted program. The HSAS program is reserved for children identified as highly gifted via a psychologist test by LAUSD. This is the only way into this program. To be placed into the SAS program, the student must be identified as gifted by a LAUSD psychologist or be identified as high achieving by scoring advanced on three years-worth of testing in elementary school. In both of these scenarios, a student would have an “orange” folder.

The core program is the third program which is a standards-based 6th grade curriculum. There are some ways in which a child might be considered for the SAS program instead of the core program. For example, a child might not have an orange folder, but scored advanced in both mathematics and English language arts on the 5th grade California Standards Test. Or perhaps they scored advanced in one area and proficient in another area. Then the school might consider the child by looking at the report card and the scores on the California Standards Test in the 4th grade. However, Paul Revere may ask a student to remain in the core program until they prove that they are capable of achieving in the SAS program.

If you look back at your child’s scores on the CST, you should be able to determine whether or not they have an orange folder based on their scores. LAUSD does not give every child a psychologist test for Giftedness. The student must reach certain benchmarks in order for recommendation. Once tested, the LAUSD does not retest unless the parent can prove there were some extenuating circumstances that justify a retest. If you are not sure whether or not your child has an “orange” folder please email me and I will get back to you. Please refrain from asking unless you are in the 4th or 5th grade.

Many parents at this time of year are looking at different middle schools for their child. Although most of our students attend Paul Revere, some may require recommendations and records to be sent to a different school. If you are in the 5th grade and need this type of documentation, please make sure your request is received in the office prior to December 12, 2008. Also, please note that there are no teacher or administration recommendations written for private school applications for students in Kindergarten through 4th grade.

Know someone who is interested in Marquez?

If you know someone who is interested in Marquez, please know that we will be conducting our first prospective parent orientation on Friday, November 19 at 9:00 a.m. We do ask that interested parties RSVP to the school at (310) 454-4019.

Clothing Still Needed

We are still in need of some gently used children’s clothing for those little “emergencies.” If you have any clean gently used clothes to donate, please send them to the office.

As always, you can reach me at phollis@lausd.net

Phillip Hollis, Principal