Dear Parents and Community Members,
Hello and welcome to our new school year. We have given the school a face lift and look forward to having students on campus as soon as we can. This is a difficult time and we are all struggling with decisions that may affect everyone’s well being. The LES Board listened to our staff, the surveys we performed and decided to go with safety first. Last Friday night however, they furthered their decision by limiting access to campus. We can not have child care at this time, but we can have meetings with families on a limited basis on campus. Loleta is practicing strict Health regulations to guarantee the safety of all staff, and families. ASES will begin again once we reevaluate the threat of covid to our community in 6 weeks (around the first week in October,) In the meantime, please sign up for the online version of ASES and prepare to come back! The Board meeting scheduled for September 24 will make the decision to return. We look forward to having the students continue their learning in a distance format until it is safe to reopen the campus for instruction. Please visit our website which came on line about a week ago for updates and information as the year progresses.
Loleta Elementary School says goodbye to staff members!
We have been very fortunate to have local residents commit their time and efforts to the students at Loleta Union Elementary School. Ms. Lindsay Crawford from the BLC resigned at the end of the school after several years of wonderful student support and service at our school. She has since moved back to her family home in Southern California. Ms. Julie Sounart (7th-8th), likewise, is not returning to our school due to personal decisions, Ms. Ana Garcia resigned at the end of the school year after one year at Loleta Union Elementary as an aide to begin her journey to become a teacher herself! Ms Donna Macias has taken on her own classroom in Eureka with special needs children. Mr. Jonathan our psychologist intern has a new position in McKinleyville as a psychologist and finally Jeff Bertotti has become a 4th grade teacher in South Bay! We are lucky that we will still see so many of these lovely people in the community! Finally our beloved Gina Neilsen, our LEAP Director and Athletic Director has moved to North Carolina. We will miss everyone as we begin the year and wish them health and prosperity in their new positions! The staff and board members of Loleta Union Elementary School greatly appreciate and value the efforts of these staff members. We wish them well as they start the next stage in their careers.
Loleta Union Elementary Elementary School staffing changes:
- Ms.Daphne Osell is delighted to join the Loleta Union Elementary team this upcoming school year as the Middle School Teacher (7-8). She comes to us from the Lake Tahoe area. Daphne has been teaching for close to 20 years and has always wanted to return to Humboldt county after attending HSU as an undergrad. Her husband took on a new position as Battalion Chief locally and she has gotten the opportunity! Daphne spent time teaching in South America and knows a bit of Spanish! She loves integrating art with her curriculum and is extremely enthusiastic about teaching here! Her goal here at Loleta Union Elementary is to inspire, motivate, and elevate students by helping them acquire a creative passion to explore the world around them in order to reconstruct it in a personal way!
- Ms.Brenda Hubner is excited to join the Loleta Union Elementary community this year as the new Special Day Classroom teacher! We decided our students needed more academic support and she is eager to support Loleta Union Elementary’s learners and their families navigating their way through school. The SDC will serve K – 8 but currently has students through 5th grade. Brenda grew up in Ferndale, left for 22 years and returned several years ago. Her work in Ferndale Elementary was outstanding and we are looking forward to her putting her expertise in place with our beautiful children.She is very much looking forward to this exciting next chapter teaching at Loleta Union Elementary and to meeting you all soon!
- Ms Tiara Zahler was hired when Gina left to take over our After School Program. She has come in with a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm! Tiara teaches dance and we are looking forward to tapping into her talent with some Zumba classes! Tiara has developed projects already for coding, robotics and art. She is working with teachers to support their curriculums and support us during this trying time.
Additional growth at Loleta Union Elementary Elementary School
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- Student Support Coordinator and Specialist positions!. With Donna Morais moving on, it was important to get support in place to keep our Zen Den and Sensory Rooms in place and active. We have hired two wonderful people to do this. Welcome to our school in new positions, Ana Diaz (formerly Americorps from the Loleta Community Resource Center) and Sara McLennon, former one on one aide. Their jobs are to reach out to families and the community to help build communication, develop cultural connections on campus and help with identified family needs. Right now they are delivering technology and making sure everyone can log in tomorrow for the start of school! You will see them on our tutoring bus as it makes its rounds and they are your direct personal connection with the school!
- The gardens and pumpkin patch! Dan Ruggles, our beloved bus driver has taken on a more formal role in the school. Working with the LCRC we have a partnership which will allow him to dedicate time to creating a deeper connection for the community with the garden. We are working to create a community garden with outreach to families to teach how to grow their own at home and at the school. Dan will be taking care of the corn and pumpkin patch, the vegetable garden and teaching the students how to farm. Plans are being made to integrate the science of gardening with the classroom learning to help educate our students about Environmental Stewardship and best practices in farming.
- STEAM Education (Science, Technology Engineering, Art and Mathematics) Loleta Union Elementary is pleased to announce the continuing development of STEAM enrichment programs across all grades. Students will be learning a multitude of programs and lessons in a hands-on environment including Robotics, coding, Keyboarding, Engineering design, Rockets, and more! Sal Steinberg continues to work with us. We received another grant to purchase equipment for Salmon Science and to have more field trips. As part of our Environmental Stewardship themes we are working to teach cultural understanding and respect while giving students the chance to experience how to look at the world and use data! Once students are back on campus, we look forward to the additional learning and enrichment opportunities this will provide for our students.
- Tutoring program. The tutoring program will be through our bus and aides traveling to various parts of Loleta on the attached schedule.
- Loleta Union Elementary’s Website: The Loleta Union Elementary School website loletaschool.org has finally come on line in early August. We hope to use it in order to communicate more regularly with everyone. It is in development so please be patient! The website will become an excellent source of information. This will be the primary way in which updates regarding the school and it’s platforms will be found as well as provide a place for parents to see updates directly from their teacher. Links to all teacher google classrooms will be put up soon! Stay tuned and check it out!
- Loleta Union Elementary Facebook Page: Our schools’ facebook page was created several years ago in order to provide immediate updates regarding the work we are doing with your children.
- All call Phone System: Loleta Union Elementary reaches out in real time by this system. It helps us in times of emergency when we need to get information out right away. Please make sure you have updated your phone number with us so we can contact you ! It is part of our emergency system and with things changing with Covid developments, we encourage you to check in with Lisa in the office to update any information!As always if you ever have any questions, please feel free to call us!
Bi-weekly updates:
I will send out a report every other week, posting it on line on our webpage, during this crisis in order to keep families updated on the recent developments within the county as well as at the state level. Please take the time to review these updates so that you are fully aware of how to best support your child as well as be informed of what to expect.
2020-2021 Important Focus at Loleta Union Elementary Elementary School
Academic achievement is a strong focus at Loleta Union Elementary Elementary School. To ensure the best environment for student success in academics, school facility, finance, and sense of community and school climate are equally important and are reflected in the District Goals. As a school community, we have identified focus areas as especially important for this school year and we will be working to improve and strengthen our practices. We hope you will support our efforts through attending parent information meetings, and by taking the time to discuss with your children as to what they are learning and applying in these topics.
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- Student Support and attendance daily: Unlike the Spring when we were in crisis mode, this school year will begin with regular attendance and participation from all students. Direct support will be provided daily by classroom teachers and aides. Attendance and participation is mandatory for the children, so please ensure that they understand how much we care for and support their growth.
- Continued Individual Student Achievement: Each student will be known and their learning needs understood and addressed. Teachers keep and update individual Achievement Profiles to monitor and plan for targeted learning goals for each student. As a school, we support beyond core programs and work to provide enrichment, after school support, small group interventions and individual plans. We are adding to our STEAM Program each year, and hope to include more students in all opportunities. We are also bringing more foreign/local language to the school.
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- 21st Century Skills for All Students: “Loleta Union Elementary Students will be prepared for the unlimited possibilities in the 21st Century.” Our vision for our students leads us to seek new ways to structure learning. We are exploring and piloting strategies and practices we are learning. Teachers have taken professional development on how best to provide distance learning.We will explore the National Common Core standards, technology applications, and pilot ideas and strategies through innovative practices.
- Academic Recovery from the Spring: The initial portion of the school year, classes will be focused on assessing and making up for lost academics at the end of last year. Teachers will be focused intensely on Math and ELA, with enrichment opportunities in other subject areas as additional student support. Additionally, the staff will check in regularly via phone for students that have not logged in or are not able to participate in the online platform. Plus we have our tutorial bus! Please take the time to read in detail the Reopening Plan and distance learning platform so that your child can be the most successful Cougar possible!
- One-to-one devices and connectivity: Loleta Union Elementary has obtained additional Chromebooks to bring our student chromebook ratio to 1:1. We have the order in and are patiently waiting for the last 50. We are also ordering a few more hotspots to help with connectivity. Every student in grades TK-8th will have a Chromebook supplied to them for academic learning at home as well as regular zoom/google meets meetings with their teacher. Please ensure the safety of these devices by monitoring your child’s regular usage.
I look forward to working with the students, parents, staff and community at Loleta Union Elementary School. Our Vision and Mission Our vision at Loleta Union Elementary Elementary School is to prepare students to successfully transition to high school and beyond by providing a strong academic program that meets the needs of all students in a safe, nurturing environment. This will be achieved through the use of a highly qualified and trained staff, full implementation of effective curriculum and working together as a team to meet the needs of all our students!
Please contact me at achapman@loleta.org or via text at 760-419-0329if you have any questions in the future. We are in a brave new world, but we are even further determined to support the students wherever and however we can!
Sincerely,
Autumn Chapman
Superintendent/Principal
Loleta Union Elementary