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What is P.A.W.S?
P.A.W.S. (Positive Action with Solutions) is a program designed for students to help other students find peaceful solutions to their problems. P.A.W.S. is part of our school-wide Positive Action program led by our school counselor. Students in the 3rd, 4th & 5th grade are trained in conflict management skill and are available to help their peers at recess.
P.A.W.S. students are very important and special people on our campus. They have been selected to participate in the P.A.W.S. program because they are recognized as leaders who exhibit responsible behavior and care about helping others.
P.A.W.S. students have many responsibilities. They are scheduled to be “on duty” during recess a couple of days each week, and they greet students as they arrive to school in the mornings. They also help out around campus in other ways; they keep our positive action incentive program running by recognizing students when they have done positive actions out on the playground, they help to make new students feel welcome at school, and they are trained to recognize and report bullying behavior on campus. P.A.W.S. students are also available to help in other ways as leaders on our campus. You will recognize these students when you see them wearing their bright orange P.A.W.S. T-shirts.
If you have any questions about the P.A.W.S. program at William Brooks
School, please feel free to contact our school counselor, Carin Chumbley.
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Early Release Talking Points
Message from the Superintendent:
The Buckeye Union School District is a high performing district. Each school in Buckeye performs well academically. In order to maintain these levels or even improve we are continually examining student achievement and educational research.
It is for this reason – student achievement and what the research is telling us – that we have made a change in our schedule for next year. We will be piloting a reorganization of the minutes in our weekly schedules to provide an early release day once a week. This time will be used by teachers to collaborate and plan based upon their examination of data on student achievement. Giving teachers this regular time to collaborate and plan based upon the work level of their students is highly correlated to increases in student achievement and is a practice used in many high performing school districts.
So what does this mean?
A minimum day schedule means students attend a little over half the day. We have eliminated the random minimum days that occurred throughout the calendar in previous years. Minimum days will occur for parent conference periods only.
Instead, each site will dismiss one hour earlier on Wednesday of each week. So, if your child is normally dismissed at 3pm, the dismissal on Wednesday will be 2pm. We are still providing the required number of minutes for the school year – it is just reorganized.
We are excited about this pilot and will be holding ourselves accountable as we examine data and how our collaboration has affected student performance.
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How Important is Attendance?
Greater learning, a brighter future, and more funding for schools – there are countless benefits to students attending school every day! We know that the amount of time actually spent in class is a good measure of student access to an education. Each tardy or absence means a student has lost an opportunity to learn. The primary responsibility for regular and punctual attendance is that of the parents and students.
We would like to thank those students and parents who put forth the extra effort to arrive at school every day and right on time! Did you know that each day your child attends school $41 of funding is generated. Unfortunately, when I tallied unexcused absences (this includes family vacations), unverified absences (we don’t know the reason), and incomplete independent study contracts, our school lost $21,320 as of the end of December. Please note that the figure above does not include lost ADA (average daily attendance revenue – our income) due to student illness. A common misperception is that the school receives ADA if the parent lets us know that a student is ill – this is no longer the case. Student absences due to illness resulted in an ADA loss of $31,037 through the month of January. We would not recommend sending your child to school when they are truly ill. However, if your child attends school even for a part of the day, we receive the ADA income. That means that if your child woke up with a tummy ache but seems perfectly fine by 10:00, bring them to school. If your child has the sniffles and a pack of Kleenex will take care of them for the day, bring them to school.
Every day that your child attends school, they are provided fantastic learning opportunities. In addition, in these tight budget times, every day counts.
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Library Note:
Dear Buckeye District Families:
The El Dorado County Libraries welcome you to enjoy our array of activities and resources for family fun and learning. Many Buckeye students are already enjoying library programs and services, and library staff is happy to be serving these children. In order to keep your students safe and to assure that library staff may contact families in case of an emergency, the county is introducing a few new policies involving student safety. The new policies are described below:
- While on library grounds, children, ages 9 and younger, must be accompanied and supervised by a parent or a responsible caregiver at least 16 years of age.
- All unattended children ages 10 to 14 must carry an El Dorado County Library card while at the library and on library grounds.
These requirements will be in effect beginning May 1, 2009.
During the month of May, all children who get a new library card or can show their El Dorado County library card will get a free book!
For more information, please go to the County Library website: www.eldoradolibrary.org or call
El Dorado Hills Branch (916) 358-3500
Cameron Park Branch (530) 621-5500
See you at the library!
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