Parent Welcome Letter
Dear Ray School Families: It’s hard to believe that the first six weeks of school have so quickly passed. We have had Open House, our first fundraiser, Book Fair, PTA meeting and the five week progress reports have been issued. It has been a very busy time.
I would like to take this opportunity however to personally welcome you to the 2007-2008 school year at Ray School. For some of you, along with myself, this will be your very first year at this wonderful institution. For many others, you have experienced many years being part of the Ray School Family. I am deeply honored to have been chosen as instructional leader of a school so steeped in the tradition of excellence. It is my goal to continue this tradition as did former leaders, Salvatore Valente, Sara Spurlark and of course Cydney Fields. Every new leader brings his/her own personality and focus to the job, thereby enriching the culture with a different perspective. This year most of our time-honored traditions will remain the same, however there are a few innovations.
As the instructional leader of the school, my focus will be on increasing student achievement in writing. Last year’s scores indicated that we address this concern across all grade levels. To this end, the administration wrote and received a grant to work with two other schools to receive high caliber staff development in this area. The grant allows teachers to visit the other two schools at the same grade level to look at and talk about student writing. The other two high achieving schools are Sayre Language Academy and Edgebrook (named by Chicago Magazine as one of the 20 highest achieving schools in the state). Another area of focus this year is on the achievement of our special education students. We did not meet annual yearly progress in this area last year and we must study and ameliorate the cause. Thirdly, though our overall reading scores are certainly decent, I believe that we can certainly raise these scores over time.
One change in tradition is that we will use Halloween as a Reading Day. All students and staff are encouraged to dress as a book character on that day. Just as an aside to those parents who are concerned with how to do that, almost any costume can be related to a book. Of course, pre-k and kindergarten students have much more latitude with their costumes. Let’s be creative and have fun. Classroom activities will be centered on reading. We are inviting authors of student books to read to classes. Parents are invited to come and read stories or poems to groups, help prepare recipes based upon a story, lead songs or skits. It should be a fun-filled day but with a specific purpose in mind. The student parade will of course be the highlight of the day.
This year, in the implementation of a school-wide discipline policy I will use the CPS Student Code of Conduct. This system will allow for fair and equal treatment of all students but also allows for each case to be looked at on its own merits. The basis of this policy will be utilization of individual classroom management strategies to ensure that the classroom teacher is the authority figure and who will teach students to be responsible for their behavior. A system of consequences and incentives should be built into every classroom curriculum. Each classroom will develop and post a list of specific behaviors that will promote a respectful climate for sharing and learning.
Another part of the plan is to build community relationships by increasing positive communication between families when an issue arises. Detention, suspension and expulsion are still a part of the code and will be used as outlined in the Student Code of Conduct.
Conduct in the student lunchroom is a high priority. In every school, the lunchroom is a somewhat noisy place but students should not think that it is okay to throw, spill and drop food without having some responsibility for cleanup. Beginning with first grade, students are expected to pickup and toss their own garbage when they are finished eating. We are utilizing classroom helpers to wipe tables to facilitate building responsibility. We will build in incentives for classrooms for positive behavior and for leaving their areas in good condition.
This year, for the first time, we are without a technology teacher. To ensure that our students do not regress I met with Dr. York from the University of Chicago and other members of CUIP to begin addressing concerns surrounding this new situation. In addition, our technology committee is meeting regularly to come up with ways to facilitate the use of the lab and to talk about how and what needs to be taught at different grade levels.
Finally, I believe that school climate is affected by the cleanliness, attractiveness and orderliness of the school building. Teachers, staff and students feel better when they can be proud of their environment. I intend to work with the custodial staff and the facilities committee to ensure that our building is kept in the best shape possible.
I will continue the tradition of having Coffees to meet with parents and will communicate with all of you through the various resources at my disposal, Ray News, E-News, a newsletter, on the Ray website and at the PTA meetings. I do look forward to getting to know all of you during this next year and working towards continuing to make our beloved Ray School an attractive, very high performing and unique place of study for all of our students.
Sincerely,
Bernadette Butler