Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you all are enjoying this crazy fall weather—snow followed by 80 degree temperatures!  I just love Colorado! 

Thank you all for your involvement in Parent-Teacher Conferences last month!  The next PSD parent-teacher conferences are slated for April.   Please feel free to call your teacher to schedule an appointment to discuss any celebrations and/or share concerns regarding your child’s academic progress throughout the school year—there’s no reason to wait until April.    

Thank you for keeping sick kids home. Thank you for honoring PSD’s policy of keeping your student home until they have been fever free for 24 hours without fever reducing medications before sending them back to school.  I feel very fortunate that I have not been sick this season, but my own two children ran fevers a few weeks ago and each stayed home from school 2 – 3 days.  They sure wanted to return to school to see their friends, but I needed to keep them home for the 24 hours after they were fever free—not an easy task.  So, thank you for your help as well.  We are seeing a decline in absences however we still have students with flu symptoms so keep washing your hands and teaching those good habits of staying healthy! 

Have your children come home talking about having double Encore classes?  Every three weeks on Wednesday we have a special day for students to have two Encore classes in a row.  During this time, your child’s teacher is involved in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) time with other Laurel teachers.  We call these days PLC/Double Encore days.  Our teachers have been able to use that 90 minutes of planning time to meet as a team, look at student data (i.e. test results, student class work, unit assessments, etc.) and make decisions about how to best meet student needs.  Based on the data, teachers identify the skills students need and plan for them to have additional opportunities to learn the essential skills. When the data indicates a student has learned the essential skills, then opportunities for enrichment are planned.  Teachers have been thankful for the time to plan and students enjoy Double Encore Day!

Make plans to attend a Family Night on Tuesday, Nov. 10th from 5-7pm The topic for the evening was selected with your input from surveys returned last month.  The evening activities will feature 3 choices for parents to learn tips on how to help your child with reading and writing skills. Another exciting tradition happens at Laurel on November 19th.  Everyone is welcome to join students at the Thanksgiving Feast on November 19th during their normal lunch schedule.  The Laurel kitchen staff requests reservations by calling 488-5944. Reservations are not required but would certainly assist them in making enough yummy food. I look forward to seeing you at both of these outstanding events

Sincerely,
Tommi Sue Cox