Alta Mesa Elementary School Weekly Principal Communication
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Sunday Evening Message
Good Afternoon Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday update. I hope everyone was able to enjoy Thanksgiving in a safe and festive way. Having this week always gives me an opportunity to take inventory on the blessings in my life. To start the announcements this week I want to remind everyone that the Enterprise Elementary School District, which includes Alta Mesa has pivoted to distance learning for the next several weeks. Distance learning officially starts tomorrow Nov. 30th and goes until January 8th. We will return to in-person instruction on Jan. 11th of 2021. Prior to the break, all students were sent home with the necessary materials and devices for distance learning. If you or your student were unable to pick-up the necessary devices please call our office on Monday. One classroom element that will be missed due to distance learning is all of the creative activities that are done around the Holidays. Some of the crafts projects worked on during this time are very memorable for students. Because of this, the Alta Mesa staff has stepped up will be hosting an "Alta Mesa Holiday Craft Show" that will air on our school Facebook page. Each week Weds-Friday teachers will bring their favorite Holiday Crafts projects to life through a Facebook live broadcast. If you would like to participate with your child at home a list will be posted on our parent newsletter sent out on Mondays of necessary items. Then at 1 o'clock on Weds, Thursday, and Friday our teachers will broadcast. Please see our newsletter "Mondays From The Mesa" for more details. Thank you again to all of our parents for being patient through the ups and downs of our current times, and I hope you all have a wonderful end to Thanksgiving Break.
Good Evening Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday Update. This coming up week will be conference week. All teachers have been working to schedule virtual conferences with their parents. Parents please be on the lookout for your student to have a manilla envelope with their report card and educational compact in their backpacks this week. It is very important that you sign the educational compact and have your child bring it back to school. If you have yet to schedule a parent-teacher conference with your child's teacher please do so as soon as possible. This conference time has been made even more important by the recent announcement by our district office that as a district we are moving to distance learning beginning November 30th through January 8th. This change has been predicated by the rising numbers of COVID0-19 cases in our area and the impact that those increasing numbers have had on our schools. This week our teachers will work to prepare students for the upcoming period of distance learning. At week's end all students will get a bag with their Chromebook, a charger, and a cleaning cloth. These items must be returned at the end of distance learning. I know thave moving to distance learning will be a challenge for us all, but this decision was made with safety in mind. Our safety precautions have minimized the spread of COVID in our schools, but with transmission rates continuing to rise and the upcoming Holiday season, the safest course of action is to move to distance learning. Please review our parent newsletter for more information on distance learning, our e-book fair, and meal distribution during the month of December. Thank you and have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
Sunday, Nov. 8th, 2020
Good Evening Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday update. As I stated last week we have another 4-day week ahead of us this week. Wednesday, Nov. 11th is veterans day and there will be no school. Next week is parent-teacher conference week, if you have not scheduled a conference with your child's teacher please reach out to their teacher and do so. Conferences will be done virtually this year through google meets or by phone. We will be having an ebook fair for students that will be run by our library. More information will be released on that soon. Booster club is having a meeting this Tuesday evening at 6pm in the library. If you plan on attending please wear a mask. Finally, I wanted to give you an update on classes that are currently on temporary distance learning. As you were notified earlier this week, we did have a presumptive positive for COVID-19 on campus. Individuals deemed to have been in close contact were notified to stay home and placed on temporary distance learning. We did have another class move to distance learning to start this week, however, this was due to staffing shortages and not due to quarantine. I have had several parents ask if another class was out due to quarantine and that is not the case. If you have any questions about our protocols please do not hesitate to contact me. It looks to be a great week here at Alta Mesa, thank you and have a wonderful rest of your evening.
Sunday, Nov. 1st, 2020
Good Afternoon Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday Update. I hope you were able to make it out to the Trunk or Treat Event on Friday. It was such a wonderful event and I want to thank our fantastic booster club for hosting. Cars came through for the full two hours, and plenty of candy was distributed. Here are our announcements for this week. First, I want to remind everyone that tomorrow is a "Staff Development Day" and there will be no school for students. Students return to school on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd. Speaking of Nov. 3rd, our gymnasium is a polling place for the elections. This will increase the traffic for both drop-off and pick-up. Please be aware and exercise patience. Our teachers are beginning to set up their parent-teacher conferences for the first trimester. Conference week is the week of Nov. 16-20 and all conferences will be virtual this year. Parents can either do a google meet conference or conference by phone. Please make sure to schedule a conference with your child's teacher. One-piece we need signed and returned is the educational compact which your child's teacher will explain. Next week is another 4-day week, but this one is a little more unique. Next Wednesday, Nov. 11th is Veterans Day and there will be no school. I hope everyone had a safe Halloween and please enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Oct. 25th, 2020
Good Afternoon Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday Update. It was a bit windy this weekend. I hope that none of you were affected by the PG & E power shut-offs. This week is our annual "Red Ribbon Week/Spirit Week." This year a little different than Spirit Week's in the past as we have to limit our activities. We will still be doing our dress-up days and door decorating contest. The dress-up day themes are as follows. On Monday is crazy sock/hat day, Tuesday is dress for success day as that is picture day as well, Wednesday is Pajama day, Thursday is dress with your Alta Mesa Eagle gear day, and Friday is wear your Fall costume/Halloween Costume. Our booster club will be hosting a Trunk or Treat on Friday from 6pm-8pm. Grade k-2 are encouraged to drive through between 6pm and 7pm, and grades 3-5 to drive through between 7-8. There is also a mask decorating competition and teachers will be handing out masks to students if they already haven't. There is a drawing for a $20 giftcard for students who wear their masks to the trunk or treat. All cars are to enter on Solar way and drive through our parking lot. Please stay in your car and event helpers will drop off candy through the windows of the cars. Helpers will be taking safety precautions for this event. This is looking to be another fantastic week of school. Thank you and have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
Oct. 18th, 2020
Good Afternoon Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday Evening Update. The weather got a little warm this weekend. We are still waiting for Fall to fully commit to that nice cool weather. Here are a few announcements for you this week. Picture day is next week on Tuesday the 27th. Please order online at mylifetouch.com the picture ID is EVTCSPQMP. There is a special promotional package if you order online please see our newsletter for more information. This week is digital citizenship week. Teachers will be covering lessons on how to be safe online. This is a great time to discuss the topic of online safety with your children at home as well. We are still looking for volunteers for our Oct. 30th Trunk or Treat event. In the Alta Mesa parking lot. Please go to the Alta Mesa Booster club Facebook page for more information. That's all for this week Alta Mesa families. Please continue to take safety measures for yourself and your children as our county transmission rate is continuing to rise. Keeping yourself healthy helps keep others healthy. Thank you and have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020
Hello Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday evening update. I hope everyone got outside this weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather we had. Here are a few announcements for this week. First, we were able to reschedule our fall pictures for Tuesday, Oct. 27th. Our in-person students will be on a schedule that goes through our school day while our distance learners will be after school. We have taken increased safety protocols for our picture day so that classes are not in the gym at the same time. Please stay tuned for flyers for picture day as we draw closer to the 27th. We are still planning on having our drive-thru "Trunk or Treat" event on Oct. 30th in the Alta Mesa parking lot. Boosters is still looking for support with this event, if you are interested in helping please go to their Facebook page. I want to thank our parents for your vigilance on calling the school and keeping your children home if they show any of the symptoms on the COVID-19 list. Our county transmission rates have been steadily increasing and your adherence to our protocols helps us COVID-19 out of our school and our students safe. If you do have a child on either temporary or long term distance learning I want to remind you to have them check in every day as attendance is taken for their classes. I also want to remind parents to be prepared for the reality that we may need to shift to distance learning if we have a shortage of staff or if students at our school become ill with COVID-19. We have been very fortunate on this front thus far this year, but I want you to be prepared should that event arise. As I stated earlier, we will work to give classes as much advance notice as possible and will reach out to parents by 11 am the day prior to moving to distance learning. Thank you for your continued support and have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
Sunday, Oct. 4th, 2020
Dear Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday Update. We have had a very positive first two weeks of physical instruction here at Alta Mesa. I want to thank parents for their continued support and reinforcement of our safety procedures and procedures in regards to drop-off and pick-up. This week saw our first indoor recesses due to smokey conditions. I want to relay to parents that even with our new COVID-19 procedures we are still also considering safety factors regarding smoke. We look at air quality daily and prior to any outdoor recess or activity. This week we had indoor recess for two days due to poor air quality. I want to assure parents that we will not send students outside when air quality is poor. This week will see our first English Language Advisory Committee or ELAC meeting. This is for parents of students who are considered "English Learners." This committee meeting will be held on Thursday morning at 8:30 in the Library. All parents of students who are English Learners are invited to attend. It will be "in-person" and participants will need to wear a mask as well as social distancing. Booster Club will be hosting a "Trunk or Treat" on October 30th. This will be a drive-through "Trunk or Treat" where students will stay in vehicles and the folks helping with the event will pass out candy to the vehicles. There will also be a photo booth at the end. A Booster Club flyer will be coming out this week. Lastly, I want to make parents aware of the potential impacts of the increasing COVID-19 positivity rate in our county as well as students and staff that have symptoms on the COVID-19 self-check list. At Alta Mesa, we will do everything in our power to keep students and classes on campus, but there are certain scenarios that are going to impact that goal. If a staff member becomes symptomatic we will always seek to find a substitute for that class, we also have staff members on campus that may be able to cover the class for a time, but if a sub or staff member cannot be found there may be a time where a class might be placed on short-term distance learning due to staff shortages. Again, we will do everything in our power to avoid this, but it may unavoidable. If this situation arises at Alta Mesa, I want parents to know that we will notify parents by 11 am the day prior More information will be provided on this and other important pieces in our weekly newsletter. Parents I want to again thank you for your continued support and wish you a very pleasant rest of your weekend.
Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020
Good Afternoon Alta Mesa,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday Evening Update. It was an amazing first week back to physical instruction. I want to thank all of the parents for their flexibility and willingness to try something new. We were able to work our some of the bumps this week and both drop-off and pick-up ran very smoothly by the week's end. Students were very excited to be back on campus, and as a staff, we were elated to have them back. A few reminders for this week. We have a booster meeting this week on Tuesday at 6pm in the library. If you are coming, please make sure to wear a mask. I would like to remind parents that every day each week is a minimum day. We are on minimum day schedules for the foreseeable future. Also, all students must wear masks upon entry and exit of school, regardless of grade level. Once K-2 students enter their classrooms they can remove their masks. Please make sure to do the district health self-screening prior to entry to schoool. That can be found on our parent newsletter that has been going out on Mondays. If a student is found to have any of the symptoms please keep them home and call our office. If a student has any COVID symptoms it is a mandatory 10 isolation from school at which point the office will arrange for the student to be on distance learning with their teacher. If a student begins to show signs or symptoms at school we will call parents to pick-up the student and later arrange for their distance learning. It is of critical importance that you screen your child before coming to school, this is a key measure in containing the spread of COVID-19. This is going to be another great week with our students, thank you and I hope everyone has a pleasant rest of their weekend.
Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020
Good Evening Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your Sunday update. The last week and a half has seen a lot of information come out to our school community. The situation has been evolving quickly in our district and Friday saw yet another big announcement. In case you didn't get the email from our Asst. Superintendent, all EESD schools, including Alta Mesa, will return to physical instruction 5-days a week for all students. For us at Alta Mesa that means that all of our students will be on campus 5-days a week starting Sept. 21st. Our campus will be on a minimum day schedule every day. Since this is a recent decision there are still some pieces our district is still putting together such as bussing schedules. I have prepared a detailed Parent newsletter with all pertinent schedules, procedures and entry/exit points for students and parents. I will push out this newsletter a little later than normal as I am waiting on the bussing schedule to cement our start and end times. The main thing you need to be prepared for going into this week is to make sure your email information is on file as this week's newsletter will be very important to access. If you are a parent who wishes for your child to continue in distance learning and you have not submitted the Distance Learning "Sign-up" survey or contacted our office please do so by 4:00pm on Monday. At that point I will submit the names of those who are continuing in distance learning to our district office, all other will be automatically be in the physical instruction cohort. Please note that if you are continuing distance learning you will be placed with a new distance learning teacher. If as a parent you begin in distance learning and wish to return to physical instruction we will look at that on an individual basis beginning at the end of the trimester. Because class sizes will be changing due to students opting for distance learning I may have to move students from one class to another to maintain balance. If that is the case I will contact each family individually to discuss the switch. Again, there will be a lot of information coming out this week with protocols and procedures for resuming physical instruction. All pertinent information for parents will be included in our newsletter that will go out as soon as our bus schedule is solidified. We are very much looking forward to welcoming our students back onto campus. Our focus will be student safety first and foremost. Thank you and have a wonderful rest of your evening.
Sunday, Sept. 6th, 2020
Good Evening Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with our Sunday update. First I want to wish everyone a happy Labor Day, and remind you that it is a three-day weekend so our virtual classes will not be meeting tomorrow. Our district continues to move toward the goal of bringing more and more students back on campus. More information will be released later this week by our district office, but I did want to inform our parents with students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade that all EESD school will be bringing K-3 students back on campus 5-days a week starting September 21st. 4th Grades-8th grades will still be on an alternating 2-day per week schedule. We are able to accomplish this in our lower grades due to the lower number of students in each class, which allows us to keep social distancing guidelines of 3-feet in all our classrooms . More information will be released as we draw closer to Sept. 21st as to what our safety guidelines and protocols will be, but I wanted to let our parents know so that the could plan accordingly. This week is the last week of our assessments so if you have not connected with your child's teacher please do so and schedule that assessment. Some teachers may be pulling some small groups over the next weeks, but our main focus is now preparing for our students coming back. I will be pushing out via email our newsletter on Tuesday, which will begin to outline what protocols will look like as we welcome back our students on campus. One piece of information that we need to know as soon as possible, is if you would like your child to continue in distance learning we need you to call our office and let our student services clerk Kaylene Elliot know as soon as possible. This week we reached out to the families that indicated they would prefer distance learning at the beginning of the year. I know that some may wish to continue but didn't indicate that on the original survey. Alta Mesa families I am very excited that in the near future we will have students back on campus, in our hallways, and in classrooms. We will make this a safe, healthy, and fun experieince for all our Alta Mesa students. Thank you and having a wonderful rest of our Labor Day weekend.
Sunday, August 30th, 2020
Alta Mesa Families,
Our situation is always fluid and evolving on a weekly basis. Earlier this week our district office sent out a video message to all parents. This message announced our district's intention to begin to incorporate students back on campus over the next month. I wanted to address Alta Mesa families specifically on how we are planning to do that at our site. Currently, all of our grade levels are in the midst of the beginning of the year assessments. Since these assessments are being done in person, for the next two weeks the focus of our in-person element will be to finish these assessments. Once assessments are completed we will start the process of bringing small groups of students back during the week. This may look different for each grade level as the number of students per class is different and we still have to abide by social distancing guidelines. We will be implementing 6' of separation between individuals in class during this time. Safety is our number one priority.
We will be working with our district and county health department to continue to evaluate the overall situation in Shasta County to make sure that all guidelines are being met. The eventual goal is to have students back on campus consistently throughout the week so that in-person instruction is taking place. If, as a parent, you are uncomfortable with in-person instruction we will work with you in that situation to provide accommodations so that you do not need to bring your child on campus. Again, over the next two weeks, our focus will be on finishing assessments. Any small group instruction will take place after that time.
The staff and I are very excited to welcome students back on campus. It is going to be a process as we develop the best model to reincorporate our students to in-person instruction. The district will continue to update parents as changes happen. I will also continue to update you weekly through our newsletter and the weekend message.
I look forward to another great week of distance learning. You are all doing wonderfully! Keep up the great work Alta Mesa!
Ryan Miller
Principal-Alta MesaSunday, August 2nd, 2020
Good Evening Alta Mesa Families,
This is Mr. Miller with your first Sunday update for the 20-21 school year. I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting more information from me as to the parameters around the opening for the 20-21 school year. I want to take a minute an explain why I haven't been able to give you more information. Similar to in the spring, when each day presented new information, as we draw closer to the start of school things have been extremely dynamic and ever-changing. District office officials, as well as principals, have been working extremely diligently to nail down all the pertinent details for the start of school. Many of you participated in the Facebook townhall meeting that happened last week. The information provided there was district-wide. With that information site principals have been drafting plans for each specific site. Currently, I have a draft of plans for Alta Mesa that is waiting for a few key pieces to be finalized at the district level. Some of the things I am still waiting on are our start and end times, as well as the number of students that will be taking our remote learning option. Once I account for the number of students participating in remote learning I will be able to more accurately determine our class lists. All of this to say, I wish I had more information for you this evening. I will be releasing a more detailed plan in the form of our parent newsletter by mid-week. That plan will include start and end times, drop off and pick-up protocols, student and parent PPE requirements etc. This will be sent out via messenger email as well as posted on our Facebook page and school website. A few announcements I can share this evening are that we will be having our Kinder assessments on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. If you have a kindergartener and have not signed up please email kaylene elliott at kelliott@eesd.net. Our office will be opening Tuesday. We are limiting to one parent in the office at a time and will have social distancing placards outside on the ground. Again Alta Mesa families be looking for the parent newsletter I will be releasing this week for the important reopening information. I hope that this message finds everyone safe and healthy and I cannot wait to see everyone back on our first day of school August 12th. Have a wonderful rest of your evening.