Principal's Message
April 2018
Aloha,
As we approach the middle of the 4th quarter, we continue to encourage everyone to make the most of every learning opportunity.
This week our students in grades 3-8 will be taking the Smarter Balanced Assessment and students in grades 4 and 8 will be having their second attempt on their Hawaii State Assessment for Science. These assessments help us to monitor how well we are doing at instructing students on the very rigorous Common Core State Standards, Hawaii Performance Standards in Science and Next Generation Science Standards.
We also have some exciting things going on soon. We will be taking all of our students on an excursion to visit the Hokulea at Kawaihae Harbor. After sailing around the world, Hokulea is now visiting each island as part of their Mahalo Tour. We are excited for the opportunity this will provide our students to learn how the message about caring for our Earth was shared with people all over the world.
Our book fair will begin on April 25 and thanks to the support of our last book fair, we will be providing one book to each student to encourage reading over the summer and to ensure that all homes have at least one new book to enjoy. We will also be making soup, sharing our academic plan, and sharing about Blue Zones at our family night on April 27.
Honokaa High and Intermediate School has invited our families to participate in an event on May 8 to view an International Film Festival award winning movie entitled Resilience, the Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope. It is a free event with dinner and door prizes which will be held at the Honokaa High Cafeteria from 6:00-8:00pm. For more information, please contact Susan Wood at 854-4302.
Currently, 20% of our students have been absent for 15 or more days this school year which is considered chronically absent. This is a significantly high percentage given that we still have 1 ½ months of school to go. This is also 2% higher we were than last year at this same time. Please help us to provide a quality education for your child by ensuring that they are in school on time every day. Congratulations to the 16 students who had perfect attendance for the 3rd quarter!
Thank you for all that you do to support our school!
Michelle Barber
____________________
March 2018
Aloha,
Although February was a short month, it was a very busy one here at Pa‘auilo.
Our 4th and 8th graders completed their first attempt of the Science portion of the Hawaii State Assessment this month. While some students have already shown proficiency on this assessment, we still have another quarter of learning for them to continue to grow in this area. They will have one more opportunity to show what they have learned later on this year.
We celebrated Valentine’s Day together with a goodie gram store incentive and started off March with lots of fun dressing up and celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday!
We will be beginning a kindness challenge for the 4th quarter when we return from break. As we look at the events happening around the country, it is a good reminder that we can all make a difference in helping our school and community be a better place by simply making an effort to recognize the many opportunities that we have to be kind. Please talk to your child about ways that they can show kindness between now and the end of the school year. Together I know that we can do great things!!
Congratulations to the 5th and 8th grade classes for having the highest percentage of students here every day during the month of February and winning our Golden Apple Awards. Please continue to bring your children to school every day on time.
I can’t believe spring break is almost here! Please enjoy the time with your families. Let’s work together make our 4th quarter a great one!!
Thank you for all that you do to support our school!
Michelle Barber
____________________
February 6, 2018
Aloha,
Thank you to all of the parents who returned our blue survey, which will help us to plan for next year! Remember, if you have any children at home who will be 5 years old by July 31, 2018, please come to the office to pick up a kindergarten registration packet as soon as possible. This will allow me to make educated decisions about how many Geographic Exceptions (GEs) to approve/deny for kindergarten. The deadline for submitting GEs is on March 1. As you all realize, kindergarten is the foundation of a child’s education and is very important, therefore, we would like to avoid large classes if at all possible. The only way for us to do that well while maintaining our current levels of enrollment and funding is to have accurate enrollment numbers. If you have moved out of Pa‘auilo School boundaries, you are required to fill out a GE as well. Your assistance with this is greatly appreciated!
Attached to this newsletter is a School Quality Survey. The SQS is an opportunity for your to provide key feedback on how we are doing as a school. The information gathered is used to support school planning and improvement efforts. Unlike previous years, this year the state is requesting that parents do a survey for each child in grades K-12. If you have multiple children, you will get one for each child.
We have an incentive program for completing the survey. Please take the time to fill out the survey right away and return it in the sealed envelope and we will mail it for you or return the confirmation sheet saying that you mailed it directly to our state office. Either way, once we get confirmation that your survey has been submitted, your child will be rewarded with tiger bucks if you return it this week. They will get 3 tiger bucks for returning it on Wednesday, 2 for returning it on Thursday or 1 for returning it on Friday. This week our student council is sponsoring a goodie grams store and students can “buy” gift items for friends or themselves that will be delivered next Wednesday. Completing the survey this week is a great way to help your child earn more.
Thank you for all that you do to support our school!
One School, One Team, Making a Difference!!
Michelle Barber
____________________
January 17, 2018
Aloha,
Belated Happy New Year!! I hope that you all had a restful and rejuvenating break and that your children had a great first week back at school. I am thankful to have had the break to spend with family! The second semester is always a busy one because we continue to make use of every instructional minute of this school year while working on plans for next year as well.
2017 ended at Pa‘auilo with lots of fun during spirit week, a door decoration contest, and an amazing school-wide holiday program where our students did an excellent job singing dancing and performing various skits!
Attached to this newsletter is a survey so that we can begin planning for enrollment changes for next year. Please send in the survey as soon as possible so that we can gather projections that are as accurate as possible. If you have children or know friends or neighbors who have children who will be 5 years old by July 31, 2018, please have them contact our office to pick up a kindergarten enrollment packet. Having an accurate count of the number of kindergarteners who live in this area will help me to make decisions regarding the acceptance or denial of students who apply for geographic exceptions (GEs). If your child (ren) is attending Pa‘auilo on a GE and has a sibling who will be entering kindergarten, please follow the procedures for a GE if you want him/her to attend Pa‘auilo as well. The GE window is from January 1-March 1. Please call the office if you have any questions about this. If your child is possibly leaving Pa‘auilo, please note that on the survey so that we can plan accordingly for any decline in our enrollment.
Lastly, I would like to congratulate the 84 students who were invited to a celebration on Tuesday for being in school on time at least 95% of the time in the second quarter. A fun afternoon of movies and popcorn were enjoyed and I encourage all students to do their best to be here on time, every day so that they will be able to participate in our 3rd quarter attendance celebration!!
Thank you for all that you do to support our school!
Michelle Barber
____________________
December 8, 2017
Aloha,
We are quickly approaching the halfway point of the school year, I would like to express how thankful I am for this Pa‘auilo School ohana!
Thank you to all of the parents who participated in parent teacher conferences this year. If you didn’t have a chance to meet with your child’s teacher during our two scheduled parent conference days, please feel free to contact his/her teacher and set one up. By working together, we can accomplish so much more than we can do alone. We heard positive feedback about conferences but would like to get more feedback as we make decisions about next year. Please go to http://bit.ly/2BPj4Zj
to fill out a quick 2 question survey.
We have also had some changes to Pa‘auilo School staffing recently. We welcome Ms. Lethlean as a new teacher who will be teaching an elementary reading group, helping with 4th grade math and teaching middle school elective/RTI classes. Ms. Lethlean comes to us from Oregon and will be a great addition to our team. Please join me as we offer a warm Pa‘auilo welcome.
Research shows that students who move more learn more. As we work to meet the needs of our students, we are working on implementing various options for some students. Some of the furniture that we will be trying are wobble stools, standing desks, pedal desks, etc. When used appropriately these are intended to allow students to move so that they can concentrate without disrupting their peers. If you have any concerns about your child using any of these, please call me or send me a note indicating your concerns.
Lastly, I would like to ask your assistance in making sure that your children are here every day on time. We currently have 3% of our students who have already been absent for 15 or more days this school year and considered chronically absent. We have 7% with 10 or more absences and are in critical danger of becoming chronically absent. We also have another 25% who are on an alert list with 5- 9 absences this school year. Your cooperation in scheduling vacations and appointments outside the school day would be greatly appreciated. If a student leaves before 11:30am it is counted as an absence. Only by working together can we help all students be on the path to college and career readiness.
Thank you for making 2017 a memorable one here at Pa‘auilo!
I wish you all a wonderful holiday season!
Michelle Barber
____________________
November 6, 2017
Aloha,
October was a wonderful month. The Fall Break was rejuvenating for all. Upon our return, I was thrilled to recognize 99 students who had attended school 95% of the time for the 1st quarter. They participated in an attendance celebration on October 20th. Of those 99 students, 40 of them had perfect attendance. Keep it up!!
I am also pleased to announce that our School Community Council held our first meeting of the year this month and will be meeting on the 2nd Monday of each month. If you are interested in learning attending our meetings, they are always open and we begin at 3:00 in the school conference room. Mahalo to our SCC members, Briana Hunt, Mary Beth Laychack, Shelby Adrian, Trista Walker, and Michael Shumate for their willingness to serve and help better our school and an extra mahalo to Briana for stepping up to be our chairperson this year!
We also held our first spirit week of the year. It was great to see so many students happy and participating in the various dress up days. We look forward to what our Student Council has planned for us next!
We are looking forward to Parent-teacher conferences on November 21-22. Please remember that there will be no school for students during the week of Nov 20-24. Other schools in the state will have school but our teachers have their Professional Development day on Nov 20 and our Honokaa Complex schools have written a waiver for the 2 full conference days rather than dismissing 1 hour early for up to 10 days. Our goal is to have 100% of our families participate in conferences this year. This kind of communication is vital to the team effort that it takes to provide a quality education to our students. Please remember that although this is the one time of year that conferences are formally scheduled, it is important to maintain open communication with your child’s teacher to find out how they are doing and how you can help to reinforce and work with your child at home. You can also subscribe their class webpages to stay informed about the great things happening in each class.
If you need help signing up for our remind.com texting service, please contact us and we can help! It is one way of helping to keep families informed of events happening at school. You can also like us on FaceBook for daily updates of the great things happening here at Pa‘auilo School
One School, One Team, Making a Difference!!
Michelle Barber
____________________
October 2, 2017
Aloha,
I can’t believe that the first quarter is nearly over. I would like to recognize the hard work that has been happening here at Pa‘auilo. Students, teachers and staff have been doing whatever it takes to increase student achievement and building relationships. We have been trying to make a big effort to increase communication regarding the great things that are happening here at Pa‘auilo School. If you haven’t visited our school website, please visit www.paauiloschool.org. We are also on FaceBook and have been posting pictures almost daily to keep families in the loop by sharing some of the activities that take place at Pa‘auilo School.
In our efforts to reward good attendance we will begin a new incentive with the PA‘AUILO lunch reward system when we begin quarter 2. I am a little bit concerned that 20% of our students are currently “off track” for attendance, which means that they already have 4 or more absences in the first quarter. Students who continue on that path will likely be “chronically absent” which is defined by the state DOE as absent for 15 or more days in a school year. We have struggled with this for at least the last 2 years and hope to break the trend. I encourage you to continue to help us in these efforts by ensuring that your children come to school on time everyday and especially in minimizing trips on school days.
We continue to stress safety in school and I would like to ask your help in ensuring the safety of all of our students before and after school. I have noticed that some students are arriving at school before 7:00am. Our parent handbook states that students should not be dropped off before 7:00am because we do not have campus supervision until that time. I am thrilled that they want to be at school early but am also concerned about them being on campus before there is supervision. The best plan would be to make sure that your children arrive at school between 7:00 and 7:55 so that we know that they are on time and supervision is adequate.
Some activities to look forward to next month are the awards assemblies on October 27, Blue and White Fair on October 28, and spirit week from October 24-31. If you know of anyone who would be willing to help out by providing some entertainment at the Blue and White Fair, please contact our PCNC, Donna Ito-Villafuerte. I hope that you all have a safe and restful Fall Break next week. Students return to school on Monday, October 12.
One School, One Team, Making a Difference!!
Michelle Barber
_____________________
September 1, 2017
Aloha Parents/Guardians/Families of Pa‘auilo Elementary & Intermediate School,
Welcome back to a new school year at Pa‘auilo School! It is amazing to realize that we have been back at school for almost one month! We have been off to a great start and I thank you all for that.
I am thrilled to announce some changes to staffing at Pa‘auilo School for those of you who haven’t met our new staff yet. I would like to welcome Felicia Friend Linton, Christopher Curry, Jessica Goldman, Allison King, Kalaekoa Gaspar, Sara Tomita, Sarah Brown, Raylene Crawford and Diane DeLuz to our Pa‘auilo ohana. Ms. Friend returns to her childhood elementary school as our vice principal. Mr. Curry comes to us from Hilo and will be our 5th grade teacher. Ms. Goldman comes to us from Alaska and will be our elementary special education teacher. Mrs. King comes to us from Georgia and will be our new preschool teacher. Mr. Gaspar is from Waimea and is our Data Processing User Support Technician. Ms. Tomita recently moved to Honokaa from Hilo and is a part time teacher and sub EA. Ms. Brown is our FoodCorps service member this year and is very excited to continue our progress with the school garden. Mrs. Crawford joined us as the meal tracker clerk. Ms. DeLuz is our new classroom cleaner. We also welcome Mr. Ayat back to Pa‘auilo as our middle school special education teacher.
We are making big efforts to ensure that families know what is going on at school. Some of the ways that we are doing that are: our monthly newsletters, updating our school website often at paauiloschool.org, updating our Pa‘auilo Elementary and Intermediate School Facebook page, using our School Connects automated phone calling system, using the remind.com messaging service so that parents get notifications of school events via text message, and utilizing the parent student portals for middle school parents and students to monitor their grades online. Please ask if you need help with any of these types of communication.
We continue to encourage you to take an active role in your child’s education. I believe that it is very important that we work together in order to provide your children with the quality education that I am confident they will receive during their years here at Pa‘auilo. We will continue to focus on student attendance as the last two years have had some startling results as far as the high number of students who have been absent for 15 or more days in a school year. The Board of Education is now looking at 10 absences as being chronically absent so we need to be more diligent. We will continue to need your support in making every effort to bring your child to school on time every day. Of course, if they are sick, they should stay home and we ask that you be sure to send a doctor’s note upon their return to school. I also ask that you please make every effort to schedule family trips during non-school days and/or during breaks. School calendars are available on our website and include state approved calendars for 2017-2021.
I am excited about continuing to serve as the principal of such a wonderful school community. I invite you to come and meet me whether you have questions or would just like to talk. My door is open. I look forward to meeting you and working with you as we strive for success at Pa‘auilo Elementary and Intermediate School.
In closing please continue to select Pa‘auilo #43 if you shop at KTA so that we can continue to promote excursions and provide incentives for our students.
One School, One Team, Making a Difference!!
Michelle Barber
Pa‘auilo Elementary and Intermediate School Principal