BLUES’ NEWS
Richmond Street School and PTA Newsletter
November 2005			Volume 6, Issue 3
Richmond Street School 615 Richmond St., El Segundo, CA 90245 (310) 606-6831		Dickie Van Breene, Principal Marisa Janicek, Assistant Principal http://elsegundousd.com/richmond_school Shari Gulian, Newsletter Editor		Windri Barriga, PTA President PTA El Segundo Council 33^rd District, CCPTS

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Richmond Street Families,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents, teachers, local businesses, and students who helped to make the Fall Festival a spectacular success. We all had a lot of fun thanks to the hard work done by our volunteers.

Last month the school district held a district wide Shelter in Place Drill. It went very well and we gained a lot of valuable information that will help us in a real emergency. Richmond Street teachers also reviewed our emergency plans and inventoried our emergency bags. PTA purchased wind up flashlights that do not require batteries for each classroom. We hold fire or earthquake drills monthly. If you are interested in participating in one of these drills, please call me.

I would like to thank Officer Calvin Smith and the El Segundo Police Department for helping us with Red Ribbon Week. Congratulations to Philip Solaja and Sean Szetho for placing 1^st and 2^nd respectively in the Fire Poster Contest. I would like to encourage all students to participate in PTA’s Reflection Contest. For more information please go to the PTA page on our website.

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving week with your family.

Sincerely,

Dickie Van Breene

Principal

dvanbreene@esusd.k12.ca.us

MINIMUM DAY EVERY MONDAY

Grades 1 and 2

Early Birds 8:20 – 12:50

Later Gators 9:00 – 1:30

Grades 3 – 5

8:20 – 1:30

Kindergarten remains on regular schedule

PTA Guest Speaker: South Bay Youth Project has given our school a $1,500 grant to create a school wide bully prevention plan. Consultant Joyce Brown has been working with our teachers to create a comprehensive plan. She will be speaking at the PTA meeting on November 14th to describe the plan and discuss what you can do to make sure your child is not a victim of bullying and does not participate in bullying behavior.

School Directory Information: Board policy BP5125.1 requires parent notification for the release of directory information to the El Segundo Educational Foundation and Parent Teachers Association. The directory information may consist of the following: parent and student's name, grade level, address. To withhold the release of directory information please contact your child's school office.

Animals on Grounds: Board policy BP5142.5 states that domestic animals or pets of any kind are not allowed upon school grounds, except as described herein. This restriction also applies to animals or pets confined in any vehicle parked within a school boundary.

A school principal or appointed designee may grant approval to a student to bring an animal or pet on school grounds in connection with special class assignments. When such approval is granted, the student (or parent or guardian, if accompanying the student) shall control and supervise the animal or pet at all times while on school grounds.

This policy does not apply to the use of a guide dog, signal dog, or service dog, specially trained for assisting a totally or partially blind person, deaf person, person whose hearing is impaired or physically handicapped person.

Breakfast: Please remember to send your child to school having eaten a healthy breakfast. If you are crunched for time the cafeteria serves breakfast beginning at 8:05 for $1.25.

Household Hazardous and E-Waste Round Up: Dispose of household waste the right way on Saturday, November 12th from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Raytheon Corporation, Parking Lot G, Hughes Way, off Sepulveda. For more info call Public Works at 534-2709.

Mrs. Baldino and music class:  Mrs. Baldino will be returning from maternity leave on January 9th.  Mrs. Gardner has been substituting during her absence and has done a fabulous job.  California State requires substitute teachers to have a music credential if they are teaching music for more than 30 days. Although Mrs. Gardner has a great background in music her credential is not in that particular area.  We have been searching for a credentialed music teacher since the summer.  Unfortunately every time we find a suitable candidate they are snapped up by another district who can offer them full-time employment. We have exhausted our search for a music teacher and have instead decided to offer P.E. during the months of November and December.  It is with pleasure that I introduce you to Taylor Barton.  Mr. Barton taught P.E. to grades K – 5 at Bay Park Elementary in San Diego for three years. He has also taught 2^nd and 7^th grades.  He is married and lives in Playa del Rey.

Innisbrook Wraps PTA Fundraiser:

Our School Rocks! Our annual fundraising of Innisbrook Wraps has been a great success. Thanks to all our wonderful Richmond Street parents and kids. Our internet sales doubled from last year by $1000 and our donations reached over $600. This puts us at over $19,000 for our Richmond Street kids. Great job everyone! We should all give a big round of applause for the Whitener family who sold the most for the school. They sold over $1400 which means over $700 comes back to our school. Thank you very much Whitener family for all your hard work and to everyone making this a great year.

Shannon and I want to give a big, big thanks for the volunteers who helped us count and process all the orders and to Anne and Mary, and our school’s front desk for their help on keeping us informed on orders coming in.

We also want to applaud our principal, Ms. Van Breene who graciously gave Ms. Pickett’s classroom a Pizza Party for being the top selling class. They had a Rock and Roll good time. The top seller from each classroom also received their goodie bags last Thursday. We really appreciate your hard work.

Thank you Richmond families. Keep on Rockin Richmond!

Polly Houston & Shannon Magid

National PTA Reflections Program 2005-2006

Reminder: Student Entries are due in the school office by Wednesday, November 16th

This year’s theme is ““I Wonder Why”. Entry forms, rules and complete program information is available in the school office or on the school website.

The annual program provides kindergarten through twelfth graders the opportunity for artistic expression and positive recognition for creating original works of art.  The program also increases community awareness of the importance of the arts in education. Participation and appreciation for the arts is the Reflections Program's goal.

The Reflections Program follows a contest format, however the emphasis is on participation. All participants will receive a certificate of participation and 1^st-3^rd place will win a cash prize! Additionally, all entries will be displayed at a Community Art Exhibit showcasing the talent of all ESUSD schoolchildren.

All students are eligible to submit entries in any of the four arts areas, which are: Literature, Musical Composition, Photography or Visual Arts.

Parents: Please encourage your children to participate in this fun and rewarding extra-curricular art activity. If you have any questions about the program, how to prepare the entry form, or wrap the artwork, please contact Meighan Langlois at 322-1231 or email megtad@pacbell.net.

Parent and community volunteers are needed for judging in late November/early December. Please contact Meighan if you are interested.

NOVEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS
11/ 11 Friday	VETERAN’S DAY SCHOOL HOLIDAY No School
11/14 Monday	PTA Meeting 7:15 p.m. Auditorium
11/21 - 25 Monday - Friday	Thanksgving Break No School

YOUNG AMERICANS

Save the Date! Attention 4^th & 5^th Graders, Young Americans are coming back to El Segundo! 

Workshop and performance schedule:

Thursday, Jan. 12 -  4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 13,  - 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (no school this day)

Saturday, Jan. 14 – Noon to 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. Show

Sunday, Jan. 15 – 7 p.m. Show.

Registration packets will be available on Monday, November 28^th in the front office. 

BOX TOPS AND LABELS FOR EDUCATION SEPTEMBER WINNERS

Box Tops/Labels Winners for September 2005

Class	Teacher	Box Tops	Labels	Total
Kindergaten/Tedde	Bryant	136	116	252
First Grade	Pickett	342	65	407
Second Grade	Foster	449	44	493
Third Grade	Igi	260	53	313
Fourth Grade	MacKenzie	218	606	824
Fifth Grade	Berkes	300	50	350

Congratulations to our September winners! We are off to a great start with all the classrooms collecting a total of 3,594 Box Tops and 1,570 Labels for Education. Let's keep up the great work! If you get a chance, log on to boxtops4education.com and enter the Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sweepstakes for the chance to win 100,000 Box Tops for Richmond!

Please remember to take off the entire soup label so that we can get the proper credit. And when possible, please trim the official Box Tops coupons. Thank you for your support!

There are also 3 Bonus Campbell labels that parents can save (Dora the Explorer, Jimmy Neutron and Batman-Meatball soup) for more information please visit their website at labelsforeducation.com

The next collection date for Box Tops and Campbell's Labels will be Friday, November 4th.