BLUES’ NEWS
Richmond Street School and PTA Newsletter
January 2008				Volume 8, Issue 5
Richmond Street School 615 Richmond St. El Segundo, CA 90245 310- 606-6831		Dickie Van Breene, Principal Jack Plotkin, Assistant Principal elsegundousd.com/richmond_school Shari Gulian, Newsletter Editor	Tammy Long, PTA President PTA El Segundo Council Thirty-Third District California State PTA, everychild.onevoice

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Richmond Street Families,

I hope everyone had a happy and restful winter break. I would like to thank Mrs. Baldino for another series of outstanding Winter Concerts. Our students do a fabulous job under her leadership. The Young Americans return this month with performances scheduled for Saturday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 13 at 2:00 p.m. The performances will be held in the El Segundo High School Auditorium. This is a great show for the entire family.

We are continuing the Educational Foundation’s Boost Our School fund raiser. Your donation of $30 funds many important programs and resources at our school, including our music and PE programs, UCLA Writing Project, technology training, computers, and network upgrades. All donations are tax deductible and if 50% of our families donate we will receive a $2,500 grant. This grant has already been earmarked for art workshops, which will begin this month. We have contracted with the Music Center who will send us local artist Ellen Schultze. Ms. Schultze will work with teachers for two hours in April and then work with each 2^nd and 3^rd grade classroom on puppet design. These lessons are a good match for the 2^nd and 3^rd grade curriculum. We plan to continue similar art workshops with the remaining grade levels in the future. This will help our teachers to build their repertoire of art lessons. I have received many positive comments from parents on the beautiful art projects that come home in all grade levels.

On behalf of the Richmond Street staff, I wish you and your families a Happy and Healthy 2008!

Sincerely,

Dickie Van Breene

Principal

dvanbreene@esusd.k12.ca.us

MESSAGE FROM THE PTA

WELCOME BACK! Sorry for the short notice but we have a PTA Meeting TONIGHT, Monday, January 7, 2008! Nothing like jumping right back in after a two week break. Come tonight at 7:15 and hear our Student Council talk about what they are doing at Richmond Street. Find out what opportunities are available in 2008 for you to volunteer your talents. We look forward to a great New Year!

Tammy Long

PTA President

JANUARY 2008 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
1/7 Monday	PTA Meeting 7:15 p.m.
1/8 Tuesday	4^TH GRADE MATH NIGHT 5 p.m. (Parents Only)
1/14 Monday	Pennies for Patients Drive
1/18 Friday	English Language Advisory Committee 8:30 a.m.
1/21 Monday	School Holiday - Martin Luther King Day
1/30 Wednesday	School Site Council Meeting 8:30 a.m.
1/31 Thursday	4^TH GRADE MATH NIGHT 6 p.m. (Parents Only)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

4^th Grade Math Night for Parents: Ms. MacKenzie will host two Math Nights for 4^th grade parents during the month of January. They are scheduled for Tuesday, January 8 at 5 p.m. and Thursday, January 31 at 6 p.m. Both workshops will last one hour and parents will learn extended multiplication facts, multiplication wrestling, partial products, and the lattice multiplication method.

Pennies for Patients: Student Council is collecting money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Your child can bring in loose change from January 14 – February 1. All money will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If this is a special charity for you and you would like to donate a larger amount, please write a check to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and send it to your child’s classroom.

Instructional Aides Needed: The school district is looking for qualified people to be instructional assistants. These are paid, part-time positions. Please contact the district office at (310) 615-2650, ext. 0 for more information or visit the district website at http://elsegundousd.com/ and click on Human Resources.

Volunteers Wanted: The District is seeking potential candidates to serve on the 7-11 Surplus Property Advisory Committee.  The purpose of the committee is to advise the Board in the development of district-wide policies and procedures governing the use or disposition of school property or space that is no longer needed for school purposes.  The duties and responsibilities of that committee are: review of projected school enrollment and other data to determine the amount of surplus space and real property; development of a priority list of use of the surplus space and real property that will be acceptable to the community; circulate throughout the District the priority list and provide for hearings for community input to the committee on acceptable uses of space/real property, including the sale or lease of the surplus property for child care purposes; make a determination of limits of tolerance of use of space and real property.  The Advisory Committee members can expect to meet quarterly and must conform to California Open Meeting laws.  Applications for positions on the Advisory Committee are available from the District Office or online at http://elsegundousd.com/property. Deadline for submitting application is Friday, January 11, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.