Arleta K-5

Dear Arleta Families and Guardians,

As we head into Fall Break within this very different November, I want to express gratitude for our community and excitement for us to all be back together again soon. Once students return our staff will prioritize re-envisioning what it means to be an Arleta school community member so we can launch right back into learning. To this end we’ll have our first all-school assembly of the year on our first day back (hopes are now focused on Monday, November 27th). We’ll use our new school motto “I am because we are” to talk about what community means and our goal of focusing on relationships, and learning with and from each other. (For those of you who couldn’t hear me at Back to School Night 🤣our overall goal with having a motto is to help us stretch ourselves from where we are now, to ensuring a sense of belonging, love and joy for every single one of our students.)

It would be wonderful to hear from some students and/or from any of you: What does it mean to be an Arleta School Community Member? How do we show love and care for each other at Arleta? What does our Arleta motto mean to you? If your child or you would be willing to share any thoughts, please send a quote or quick video to me - lhawking@pps.net - it would be sweet to include some student or family voices in our assembly slides!

Teachers will also re-launch their positive classroom cultures through showing pictures of what it looks like when students are learning and following expectations, reminding students what the classroom agreements sound and look like in action, and what happens when there are unexpected behaviors using our school-wide “Response to Unexpected Behaviors” poster (it describes a progression teachers use to guide students to make successful decisions: Reminder, Make a change, Think Time, Communicate Home). We’ll have our school-wide “Common Area Expectation Rotations,” where each class rotates around to a staff-guided reminder of expectations in our bathrooms, cafeteria, hallway, playground, and classrooms. Classes earn “dolphins” from any staff for being witnessed following these expectations, and once every class has earned at least 20 dolphins (which equals the big dolphin you see on the poster outside the office) we do something special as a whole school community, such as watching a movie or having a special treat together.

Have a wonderful Fall Break and so hoping to see you all very soon!

Lisa