Soquel Union Elementary School District Santa Cruz Gardens ...

Cheri Trebbien, Vice-president
Amanda Jackson Miller, Co-
Secretaries Stacey Martell and
Vicky Grisham, and Co–
Treasurers Suzanne and Paul
Buse. They are working hard to
continue the successful traditional
events of the Home and School
Club, including fundraising and
providing extra activities for our
students, with your help and
participation. Every year, we lose a
few active fifth grade parents to the
middle school, and fortunately new
parents come aboard and take
their place. This club is very
involved in “making it happen” at
our school.
As you probably know, all
schools in California have had to
cut important programs, due to the
budget crisis. For our school, this
has included cuts to our music and
library programs. The Home and
School Club has voted to fundraise
and pay for a librarian and a music
teacher for two years running.
This has made it possible to
continue our librarians, Michelle
Jesberg and Carol Bryant and to
hire our new K-5 music teacher,
Leah Mendez. The Home and
School Club is also funding dance
programs this year, such as folk
dance with Jerry Falek for grades
4-5 and African dance with Ibou,
for grades K-3. We also have an
arts advisory committee that helps
to keep us in touch with grant
opportunities and channel the
community support for ongoing
arts activities in our school.
Volunteerism: There is no
shortage of opportunity for
volunteers at our school. We have
both “in-class” and “out-ofclass”
opportunities, one-time
and long-time, etc. Teachers
typically ask for volunteers at
Back-to-School Night for all types
of jobs, but if you missed your
opportunity to sign up, please
contact your teacher(s), the office,
or a Home and School Club officer.
In addition to classroom jobs, we
often have office-based tasks as
well as school-wide committees.
Perhaps you are bilingual (in any
languages) and would like to offer
to help translate either verbally or
in writing. We can also use
volunteers on the playground at
recess or with parking lot
supervision during drop-off and
pick-up. If you are interested in
being on a Technology Advisory
Committee to help build a longterm
technology plan for our
school, as well as help secure
funding to update our technology,
please contact the school office
and let us know
A big thank you and welcome
to Summer Carney, a parent
volunteer, who is in her second
year of overseeing our garden
activities. This is almost a fulltime
job, keeping the garden
nourished and growing so it can be
used by our students as a living
science lab. There are many other
types of lessons that can be
learned in a garden, including
responsibility, caring, sharing,
healthy lifestyles, etc. There are
also plenty of opportunities for your
help in the garden, both during and
after school! Summer has
organized Garden Work Days,
which will be one Friday per
month, right after school is out.
Many thanks to those of you who
participated in our first Garden
Work Day on Friday, September
16. Contact Summer if you’d like
to get involved.
The Home and School Club
still has several other committees
that need leaders or participants to
help make our family “funraisers”
and “fundraisers”
successful.
HSC just ended the
Innisbrook fundraiser and they
are now planning for the Fall
Festival, Drive for Schools
fundraiser and Walk-a-thon. To
learn more about how you can
support the Home and School Club
activities, see the last page of
every school newsletter or visit the
website at
www.scghomeandschoolclub.com.
Attendance: The Board of
Trustees, our District
administration, principals, teachers
and support staff urges you to
send your children to school
EVERY DAY unless they are sick.
Many returning parents already
know that the state does not pay
schools for “excused” (illness) or
“unexcused” (vacations, lack of
transportation) absences, but if
you are a kindergarten parent you
might not be aware of this. If at any
time you have a family emergency
or you must go somewhere with
your family, we offer Independent
Study for five days or more. We
do request that you notify us at
least a week in advance, as
teachers need to carve time out of
their busy day to put packets
together. For more information,
contact the school office.
Tardies: We know that an
occasional tardy can’t be helped.
Of course, the habit of being on
time is a life skill and helps us start
instruction on time with minimal
interruptions. When a student
arrives late, it is sometimes
embarrassing to them, as well as
difficult for the class to get started.
Please do everything you can to
help your children arrive on time
on a regular basis. If your child
arrives on campus after the
“second bell” at 8:30 a.m., s/he
needs to go to the office to get a
pink slip. We are required by law
to log tardies, as well as absences.
Free and Reduced Lunch: The
District is encouraging every family
to consider applying for the free
and reduced lunch program, just to
be sure you know whether you
qualify or not. If you have not
already done so, please review the
packet. Not only can this save you
money, but also, a portion of our
school funding is based on the
number of eligible students for this
program.
Parking Lot Safety:
I want to thank you for
following the parking lot safety
rules and for doing everything you
can to support our parking lot
attendants to help keep all children
and adults safe. We have limited
parking lot staff posted in strategic
locations. Their eyes and ears are
always scanning the situation while
dealing with individual student
needs. You can help them by
being aware of the supervisors’