March Parent-Teacher Conferences at Orchard

Parent-Teacher conferences will be held the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, March 16, 12:30 pm – 3:45 pm
• Thursday, March 17, 8:15 am – 7:00 pm
• Friday, March 18, 8:15 am – 12:00 pm

Students will have school on Wednesday, March 16 with Early Release at 12:30 pm. 

Soon, you will receive information about scheduling a conference with your child’s teacher. 

Once again, I hope you will take advantage of this important time to conference with your child’s teacher. We want to learn as much as we can about our students and we take our partnership with you, our students’ first teachers, very seriously. We know that the more you are involved in school, the more your child will succeed.

During your conference, your child’s teacher will be sharing information about schoolwork, your child’s achievement, work habits, behavior and peer relationships. Please feel free to write down any questions that you may have for the conference.

I would like to extend a special invitation to you. I will have a “Principal’s Chat” several times during the conferences. There will be no set agenda. This will simply be a time for me to speak casually with parents about general school information and concerns. This isn’t a time to talk about the individual need of your child, however. That is very important, too! If you would like to do so, please do not hesitate to schedule a meeting via our school secretary, Mrs. Keenan. The purpose of the Principal’s Chat is to talk about general school climate, curriculum…really anything that you bring up.

Principal’s Chats  

(If these times do not coincide with your conference, please come back!)

• Wednesday, March 16, 2:00 pm
• Thursday, March 17, 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm
• Friday, March 18, 10:30 am 

 
We look forward to seeing you during conferences and every day. Your support of your child’s education makes all the difference!

Help our Library Win $6000!

Hello Orchard Community:

The Orchard library has a chance to win $6000!  Please watch/vote for the video from the link below. Forward this to everyone you know!  

FollettChallenge

Remember to Vote in the School Levy Election!

Remember to Vote in the School Levy Election! 

By February 9.

More information here.

Why do we have levy elections?

• School funding comes from local, state, and federal revenues.
• Local levies pay for items not funded by state or federal sources.
• Local levies provide more local discretion than state or federal rules.
• Richland’s school levy provides about 17% of the district’s revenue.
• Local levies are passed for a limited time period and they expire unless renewed.

What is the levy used for?

• Almost every component of school operations benefits from levy funds.
• Athletics and Activities are entirely funded from local levies because there is no state or federal money for these.
• Hiring, training, and retaining quality staff is a major use of levy funds.
• Maintenance, transportation, and utilities are strongly supported by the local levy.
• The local levy allows Richland to offer excellent programs above and beyond the basic education provided by the state.

How Much is the local levy?

• The levy proposed levy in 2017 and 2018 will maintain the same levy rate as in 2016, of $3.28 per thousand dollars of Assessed Valuation. (That is, $328 per year for a $100,000 home, or $656 per year for a $200,000 home.)
• Due to increased property value in the school district from new construction and higher property values, the same tax rate continued in the 2017 levy will collect an additional $1,200,000 (for a total of $24,200,000) and the 2018 levy will collect another additional $1,200,000 (for a total of $25,400,000). This will allow the district to account for enrollment increases of at least 350 students per year and for the costs of opening and operating a new middle school.

Are you a refugee in the Orchard Community?

If so, we would like you to contact us. Part of our mission is to help students understand each other. The more students compassionately walk in each other’s shoes, the better they can learn. Specifically, we here at Orchard are concerned about how world events impact our students. I would like to invite Orchard community members with experience as refugees to speak to our students about that experience.

We assure you that any communication to students would be totally nonpolitical and developmentally appropriate. We simply want our students to hear what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land...to put a human face on headlines.

Homeside Activities begin in October!

Homeside Activities begin in October! Your child will bring these home to do with you once or twice a month—to add a “homeside” to the “schoolside” learning we are doing in class. These 15- to 20-minute activities:

• are built around conversations between you and your child,
• deal with topics and ideas related to your child's schoolwork;
• may involve your child in a short writing or drawing activity, and
  
• help create a partnership between school and home.

You will find that in Homeside Activities there are no “right” or “wrong” answers, no right or wrong ways to do the activities. You can take the conversation in any direction you want, and you can have as many family members participate as you’d like. Just having these conversations is what counts, because they help your child develop thinking and language skills for life.

These assignments contribute to your child’s academic and social learning because

• they help you stay in touch with your child’s learning;
• working with you increases your child’s interest in the work;
• your child gets to practice communication skills and think about important ideas; and
• your child learns from you and sees how school learning relates to “real life.”

These don’t take long to do, and your child’s teacher will try to give you plenty of time to fit them into your schedule. Also, we’ve planned when to use these activities. That way, if you have several children at school, they won’t all bring these home at the same time. Here’s the schedule:

• Kinder and 3rd Grade: First School Monday of the month
• 1st & 4th Grades: Second School Monday of the month
• 2nd & 5th Grades: Third School Monday of the month

Thanks for taking the time to share these wonderful learning experiences with us. I hope you and your child enjoy Homeside Activities.

Recess May look a Little Different at Orchard

Recess can be a ton of fun. It's the time of day many kids look forward to the most.

Unfortunately, recess can also be the most troubling time of day for a lot of our students. It's often when kids can be the most hurtful to each other, when kids can feel the most lonely and left out, and when students can play in a way that is harmful to themselves or others.

At Orchard we want to make recess fun and inclusive for everyone. So, we've contracted with Playworks (playworks.org) to provide professional development for all of our Recess Staff and teachers. Playworks vision is to "create a place for every kid on the playground, a place where every kid belongs, has fun and is part of the game."

Our Recess Coaches (that's what we'll call the adults working with students during recess) will actively play with and lead activities during recess. Our emphasis will be on safe, inclusive games. There will also be a place for developmentally appropriate competition.


Inclusiveness means: sharing school equipment, not bringing equipment from home. We ask that students please not bring balls and other equipment from home to use during recess. We will have plenty of equipment. We find that when students bring their own balls, it is more difficult to be inclusive of everyone who wants to play.

During the first few weeks of school, your children may come home telling you that they didn't get to play much during recess. We will have to do some explanation of how things are going to work. Please reassure them that soon, we'll have many fun activities going on.

We hope that soon, recess will be one of the best part of the day for EVERYONE! 

Orchard Teachers and Coaches playing foursquare during Playworks training.

Updated Safe Walking Routes, Arrival and Dismissal Plan

Take a look at our updated information: Arrival & Dismissal Plan, Safe Walking Routes and our Suggested Driving Route: "Operation 'No Left Turns'!"