November 2009

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Parents have completed the conferences with their child’s teacher and

have received a review of their progress. Please take some time to evaluate

the assessments because they represent a considerable effort to identify

your child’s strengths and needs. This data coupled with a teacher’s

professional observation and recommendations can provide an invaluable

“roadmap” in developing an educational plan for your child. I’m excited

to report almost 100% of parents attended their child’s conference, and

the remaining have been rescheduled. This reflects high parent involvement

and support consistent with High Performing Schools!

If you haven’t had a chance to see the CSAP performance graph, please

take a look the next time you are in the building. It is posted on the brick

wall across the hall from the office. The school goals, or school improvement

plan (SIP), are also loaded on the web site with our composite results.

CSAP scores will soon be posted in all the classrooms. The public

display of data is intended to provide a visual representation of our performance,

and it also serves as a means to keep our focus on our performance

goals. CSAP scores, MAP and DIBEL are a few of the many assessments

that we use to measure student progress.

In the body of the newsletter are several communiqués that address our

RtI or Response to Intervention efforts and the importance on coming to

school on time. In the coming weeks and months, we will communicate

through our newsletters, PTA meetings, and during our BAAC Building Advisory

Accountability Committee meetings, on our efforts to enlist parent

support. Please take some time to review these articles, and don’t hesitate

to call us if you have questions or concerns.

A special thanks to PTA and volunteers for all their efforts with our annual

Scholastic Book Fair. We particularly want to thank Becky Dixon for her

coordination and the many hours of not only manning the book fair, but

reconciling the books and keeping the accounting straight.

As we transition from fall to winter, remember Colorado Springs is known

to have weather that can change drastically. Students should come to

school with the appropriate winter apparel. The District inclement

weather policy is included in the body of the newsletter. Please keep it

handy for future reference. Thank you for your continued support as we

commit to making Freedom the best school possible for your child.

Sincerely,