Daylight Savings ends Sunday, November 1!
Dear SMASHing Families,
As promised, here is Part II from last week’s meeting with Superintendent Tim Cuneo.
Helpful Budget-related Contextual Facts
SMMUSD has a $152 million annual budget with complex state and federal requirements
The city of Santa Monica gives $7.4million to support instruction
SMMUSD School Board was fiscally prudent and set aside more than the required 3% reserve. We used $4.5 million of that to get through state mid-year reductions to school funding and made up for it with this year’s class size increases, but there were further state reductions to school funding in July so our expenses exceed revenues by $12 million per year. Therefore, our reserves would be gone by 2012 if we don’t either increase revenues or decrease expenses.
A committee is looking into the viability of an emergency parcel tax that would cost residents from $225 to $425 per household including exempted senior citizens and could raise between $6M and $12M.
SMMUSD attendance rates are 95% which is excellent , but if we increased to 96% we’d have a couple million dollars more in revenues.
School funding issues are not likely to be solved in Sacramento; we need local solutions.
Questions asked by SMASH Parents and Superintendent Answers
Q: What is the viability of a small high school proposal right now?
A: There would not be any traction for the idea because the Board is focused on maintaining what we have now.
Q: What can SMASH parents do to help solve some financial struggles for the District?
A: If any SMASH adult has connections with local companies, contact the Superintendent’s office about reaching out together to form a school district-company partnership. “We just need 1-2 large companies to do this and then others will want to join the club too.” This is for funding but also for other in-kind contributions, areas of expertise shared, especially communications experts.
Q: How can we help people broaden their views of student success and the ways we measure success?
A: Multiple measures needs to be woven into the strategic plan. Share ideas at the strategic planning public meetings.
The meeting closed with Superintendent Cuneo’s thoughts about creating a culture of productive risk-taking: “Any time you go out in front of the crowd and try something new there are risks. I want to create a culture where it is ok to try and fail as long as we don’t keep trying the same things.”
I will continue to give updates throughout the year and encourage you to attend public meetings with me.
Truly Yours,
Jessica
HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard in making today’s Carnival so spooktacular!
Have a safe and fun Halloween tomorrow!
DATES TO REMEMBER
Mon, Nov. 2 - SMASH School Tour, 9:00-10:00 am. SMMUSD Open House Month.
Wed, Nov. 4, 8:15am - PTSA Mtg.
Wed, Nov. 4 - 5:00-6:00pm - Site Council Mtg
Fri, Nov. 6 - 6:30-9:00pm - SMASH Movie Night
Tues, Nov 10, Photo Make-up Day. Return the entire package of the photos you want redone, or fill out a new order form (available in the SMASH office)
Tues, Nov 10 - SMASH night at California Pizza Kitchen, 210 Wilshire Bl. (between 2nd & 3rd Streets) 20% of funds to go to SMASH. This offer is good for the entire day. Look for flyer in today’s Friday Letter
WEDNESDAY BAKE SALES - Healthy Treats & Fun Items
Sales start at 2:30 pm (Muir dismissal)
CORE 1
December 2
January 13
February 10
CORE 2
January 6
February 3
March 3
CORE 3
December 16
January 27
February 24
CORE 4
December 9
January 20
February 17
PICTURE RETAKE - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Look for your child’s photos in next Friday’s attachments.
If you need the photo redone - make sure to bring the entire packet back
If purchasing new photos, order forms are available in the front office
SMASHing Holiday Singers!
This great SMASH tradition is back, led by Dian Andrews
Tuesdays at 3:00 to 3:30 in Candis’ Core 1 room , through December 1
Performance at the Main Street Farmer’s Market on December 6 at 9:00 am
ALL STUDENTS ARE WELCOME TO JOIN!
THINGS TO DO
4th Annual Halloween Beach Bash Children’s Concert Saturday, October 31, 9:00am-11:00am
Wake Up with the Waves at the Santa Monica Pier. Special quest: Captain Jack and the Princess Under the Sea
Music - Bubbles - Dancing - Sing-A-Longs. Princess and Pirate games with 100 prizes ages 1-5 in costume
PAL-LOWEEN Carnival (Police Activities League of Santa Monica)- Saturday, Oct 31, 5:00– 9:00pm,
Barker Hanger, 3021 Airport Ave. FREE - For youth and their families. Games 25 cents, Fun House and Picture Booth $1.00 ea. Costume contest begins at 6:00pm. No tickets sold after 8:15pm. For information: 310-458-8988
EDLive! benefit for Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation November 16 - 7:00 pm
Barnum Hall at Santa Monica High School; 601 Pico Blvd
When Cirque Comes To Town; An exclusive look inside Cirque du Soleil (with artistic and technical staff as well as Cirque pioneers) Tickets: $20 Adults; $10 Students; $50 VIP (VIP ticket includes preferred parking, reserved seating section, Meet & Greet with guest speakers) brownpapertickets.com/event/87243
A Winter’s Tale, A Musical Dickens of a Christmas Carol; Saturdays & Sundays, Nov. 7—Dec. 12
The Morgan Wixson Theatre. Reserved Seats $15, Reservations 310-828-7519, www.morgan-wixson.org Sadie & Zelda Saltzman are in this production!
Kid’s Community Concert featuring L.I.L.A. - Sunday, Nov 1, 11:00am, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop,
3101 Pico Blvd. Admission $8.00. Come see Lydia Night perform!
IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING PARKING ON SCHOOL CAMPUS
You may have noticed - SMASH and John Muir staff are now using parking passes.
Only cars displaying the pass may park in the 5th Street lot during the school day.
Visitor parking is available only in the 6th Street lot.
Both lots will be available to everyone for after school activities and meetings.
We are sorry for the inconvenience - but parking needs to be available to staff.
Cars in the lot without a pass are subject to a tow.
ARE YOUR CHILDREN UNINSURED?
Would you like to find out if they qualify for a program like Medi-Cal or Healthy Families?
The Venice Family Clinic now offers walk-in hours to help you.
Simms/Mann Health & Wellness Center: 2509 Pico Bl, SM
Tuesdays: 3:30-6:30pm and Thursdays: 8:30-11:30 am
Venice Family Clinic; 604 Rose Ave, Venice
Mondays: 1:30-3:30 pm and Fridays: 1:30-3:30pm
WESTSIDE FAMILY HEALTH CENTER
FREE IMMUNIZATIONS FOR KIDS UP TO AGE 18
NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY.
Mondays ,Tuesdays & Fridays 9:30am - 2:00 pm
Wednesdays 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Thursdays 9:30 am - 12:00pm
1st Saturday of each month 12:00pm - 2:00pm
You don’t need insurance to access services.
If your child has Medi-Cal, you can make WFHC your medical home. Contact Iris at x 224.
Westside Family Health Center 1711 Ocean Park Blvd Santa Monica 310-450-2191
FLU NEWS
Local H1N1 Clinics
Sat, 10/31 Hollywood Park; 1050 S. Prairie Ave, Inglewood; 9:00am - 5:30pm
Wed, 11/04 Santa Monica College; Santa Monica; 9:00am-5:00pm
Thurs, 11/05 & Fri, 11/06 YMCA; 9900 X. Vermont Ave; Los Angeles 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sat, 11/07 & Sun, 11/08 Jesse Owens Park; 9651 S. Western Ave; Los Angeles 9:00am - 5:00pm
Priority is given people who: are pregnant, between 6 months and 24 years old, have chronic health problems or compromised immune systems and are between 25-64 years old, are health care workers, live with or care for children younger than 6 months old.
National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles Section
Annual FREE Clothing Giveaway
Sunday, December 6 9:00am –12:00pm (rain or shine)
NCJW/LA Parking Lot 543 N. Fairfax Avenue (1 block South of Melrose at Clinton)
Select from 1,000s of pieces of clothing and books.
Do not bring backpacks or bags - bags will be provided
For information: 323-852-8515 or elizabeth@ncjwla.org
Free Movie for All
Friday, November 6, 6:30 - 9:00pm
Come as a Family - or for Parents who would like a night out,
Core 4 will provide childcare to school age kids
for $10/child or $20/family.
Sign up in the SMASH office (310) 396-2640
Snacks will be available to purchase or bring your own food.
Movie Details to Come Next Week
*Adults, please plan to step outside of the cafeteria if you need to call, text, or otherwise use your cell phone
SMASH Site Council Agenda
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
5:00 PM Core 2
Adopt Agenda
Approve minutes of last meeting
Community participation
Reports and Announcements (regular agenda items)
Principal’s Report
Student Reports
Community Organization Reports (to include but not limited to the following):
PTSA
Student Council
Other
Old Business
New Business
Review one proposed new goal for 09-10 site plan
Community participation (if applicable)
Adjourn
CORE 1 NEWS
Happy Halloween from Core 1
Happy Safe and Fun-filled Haunting to families who participate in Halloween traditions. If trick-or-treating, remember to take along your UNICEF boxes (in your Friday Folder) to raise $ for a great cause. Be sure to return your box ASAP since we will be sorting and counting the money during Tuesday morning projects.
Thank you to all of the parents who helped to make our Halloween parade and festivities so much fun!
New Projects are underway in Core 1, with the help of some consistent and creative volunteers.
Ricky’s mom, Elizabeth, led our Super Fab Lab groups in a exploration about acidity.
Erin’s mom, Allison, continued her movement group on Tuesdays with creative dancing and stories.
Sydney’s mom, Heather, has begun a jewelry-making project, which will be donating some art to our upcoming SMASHing Holiday Boutique to support our Arts Program.
We also have new silkworm eggs that should hatch baby silkworms soon.
Jackie has begun small groups on the wood-working patio, as the children are exploring the different tools and materials.
Jackie could use an extra adult Wednesday mornings 9:00-10:00 to help supervise this project.
Please email Candis if you are available.
Reminders & Announcements:
- Please remember that all of the children visit the library on Mondays. The children need to return their library books on this day. Or they can bring their books back early and keep them in our “library baskets” in the classroom.
-BIGS JR Reading Books Homework will now go home on Mondays (still due back Friday, if possible, but you can keep the books over the weekend if you like). Other BIGS homework will go home in the Friday Folder, as usual.
HAVE A WONDERFUL HALLOWEEN WEEKEND!!
ENJOY AN EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP!!
Candis, Chrysta and Jackie
Candis: cberens@smmusd.org
Chrysta: cmailto:cwyse@smmusd.org
CORE 2 NEWS
We are very excited to be going to the Ocean Discovery Center at the Santa Monica Pier. We will learn about marine plants. This will prepare us for our Art-Science integrated unit when we will compare marine plants and terrestrial plants. We urgently request help from parent volunteers for this walking field trip. Please sign up on the sign-up sheet outside Core 2. Kurt Holland, our amazing Core 4 science teacher, has coordinated this experience and will be taking Laura’s place. We will leave at 8:45 and return at 12:30. We ask that each student take his/her own snack. We will return in time to have lunch at school.
Calling all well loved, interesting books! Look around your house because Core 2 would like donations of children’s books that are appropriate for our level of readers – ranging from K – 5th grade. Send them in and we will level them! Our readers have requested that we expand our Core 2 library. For Reading Workshop, each child may check out one book from the Core 2 Library/Media Center to take home. All other books stay at school unless checked out with their advisor.
We are wrapping up our small moment personal narratives unit in Writing Workshop. This week’s focus was on elaboration strategies like adding speaking, small details, thoughts and feelings. Even though we are all great writers, we can always find ways to say more when we re-read (revise) our writing. Next week, students will fancy up their writing and read these personal narratives in small writing communities. Our next writing unit will be… Realistic Fiction. They can’t wait to create their own characters for stories.
The 2nd grade mathematicians have shared efficient counting, drawing, and recording strategies when solving fair-share problems. They learned the number combo cheer, “If I say 2 you say 8!” It’s a fun way to recall them. The 3rd graders learned how to play Cover 50, an activity that stretched their brains and their knowledge of factors and multiples. Next week they will begin their investigation into Arrays.
Our Gardening Project Group needs floral fabric scraps for an upcoming project. Our Construction Science Project Group is looking for a Project Manager. If you have time and talent, please contact us. The group will meet on Mondays, Wednesday s and Thursdays from 1:30-2:35.
Our next Stars of the Week are on Wednesday, November 4. They will be: Abigail Green and Caleb Downing.
Dates to remember:
Tuesday, November 3 – walking field trip to Aquarium at the Santa Monica Pier, 8:45 – 12:30.
Wednesday, November 4 Abigail Green and Caleb Downing’s Star of the Week, 9:00
Have a wonderful weekend!
Remember to set your clocks back 1 hour
Laura Graciela
lsherman@smmusd.org
CORE 3 NEWS
Projects! With the first two months under our belts, routines established, expectations laid out, and logical consequences understood by most--we're ready to start Projects! During this time, we will introduce different subjects, share our passions, study ideas, invite parent-experts, and capitalize on student interests! As with everything else we have done so far this year, we're starting Projects with a lot of structure, so the students will develop an understanding of different ways this time will be organized and used. For now, we will be doing Projects in Advisory Groups. Eventually we will be opening the doors so students can choose mixed-advisory project groups.
On Project days, students will have a choice from a menu of activities that they have expressed interest in. We’ll be using the first few sessions of Projects to reinforce the guidelines and expectations for different types of groups (independent work/small group cooperative groups/teacher-led groups) and different types of activities (exploration/practicing a skill/learning new information/thinking/creating). We will study the process of learning: the cycle is Research/Exploring Theories — Practice — Questions — Research/Exploring. Students can start anywhere in the cycle and move in any direction--there is no discrete beginning or end product, as questions lead to research/exploration and that research typically leads to more questions and so on…
A Project could be anything from a one-day thing to a 6 weeks long ongoing study. Most Projects will end with a Reflection Meeting, which allows students to share their process/ideas and learn from each other (and hopefully excite new ideas and interests). Students may not always get their first choice for a Project Group, but they will be choosing and rotating through different Projects over time
We are looking forward to inviting parents to lead a small group for 1 session or a short series of sessions. Many of you have approached us with ideas ranging from photography to book clubs to documentary filmmaking to songwriting. PLEASE email Tamara and Genie if you have a project idea you would like to facilitate or if you would simply like to lend a helping hand during this time, so we can start a list of our resources.
Ask your child what some of the Project Groups are and what they have observed/wondered/learned so far.
Tamara, Genie, and Malaika
tmugalian@smmusd.org
ghwang@smmusd.org
CORE 4 NEWS
Hello Core 4 Families,
We have had a very productive week. The 8th graders took risks, built community, and exercised leadership on their trip to Hess Kramer with Jessica and Kurt. At school the 6th and 7th graders also stepped into leadership roles. We created and performed skits on effective assertion. Students focused on the words and actions will we use to demonstrate positive assertion. From this work, our students should now have ways to be upstanding members of their classes, of SMASH, and of the larger community around them.
Students are still working hard to learn the routines, practice CARES, and develop leadership skills. In the next few weeks we will have students generate a social contract to govern our actions. This will stem from the declarations each one created. They will begin to think of what they need in the community and how others in the community can help them reach these declarations. Continued work on these social skills is taking place in each academic. In Humanities, they are hard at work creating cultures in groups of 3-5 students practicing all the CARES (cooperation, assertion, respect responsibility, empathy and self-control.) Without these, the groups can not succeed in accomplishing all their tasks. In the next few weeks students will "discover" the ruins and artifacts of another group's culture and as archaeologists interpret the finds, making inferences about the unknown. Please discuss what "culture" is to you and your family with your students.
All students have been in book clubs reading realistic fiction with social issues themes in them. All students must write a review of their book, due Monday 11/2. Look to hear about Math in next week's Friday letter, and Science information in November 13th's Friday letter.
Have a safe and joyful weekend. Bailey, Kelly and Kurt
NOTICE about Middle School After School Program on Wednesdays: 3:15-7:30
Homework assistance, Service project opportunities, safe hang-out and socializing time, yoga, cooking and eating a healthy dinner with your peers.
Mount Olive Lutheran Church has a grant to offer their facility to the community as a small, safe after school club (non religious) I offered to direct the program. It will start Nov 11 if I have at enough students registered. Please contact me if interested. The program may be cancelled.
Best, Bailey
Dear SMASHing families,
We wanted to inform you about our recent trip to Hess Kramer. We had an AMAZING time, and would like to share some things we did there with you.
While we were at Hess Kramer we played SOOO MANY new leadership training games that taught us to trust each other and to never give up. Some of our favorite games were 1 Monkey 2 Monkey, Jedi, Minefield, and Bomb. Other “games” we played were the rope courses and the rock wall. For all of these courses we had to rely on our friends to keep us safe and up there. If just one of us dropped the rope then there could have been serious injuries. But thanks to our wonderful friends there were none. On the trip we did have an (already) injured family member. He was in a tragic accident. How was he going to compete in all of these exercises? =( Well as a team all of us worked together and supported our friend through the easy and hard times, and he had a lot of fun.
What was that one phrase we heard from almost everyone a bazillion times? “I CAN’T DO IT!” But did we have them give up?. No. They succeeded through it all. With the help of our two counselors, Leonardo and Walter (Leo and Wolly ), they pushed us forward, had us overcome our weaknesses, and gave us the opportunity to get closer together. We would lastly like to thank Kurt, Leslie, Jessica, Leo and Walter, and the rest of our 8th grade class.
Love, Shawnee, Kate, and Alice
Kurt: kholland@smmusd.org
Kelly: kkulsrud@smmusd.org
Bailey: baileyfield@mac.com
