Dear Parents/Guardians,
I would like to personally welcome all new and returning students to Ely Elementary. We currently have approximately 330 students in grades Pre-K-6. On regularly scheduled Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, our school day will begin at 8:40 and students will be dismissed at 3:20. We will continue practicing a late start on Wednesday mornings. On Wednesdays, school will be in session from 9:00-3:20. All students arriving prior to 8:40 on Wednesday mornings will participate in academic related study sessions.
Welcome aboard all newly employed Ely staff members: Dana Thoreson (Special Education); Heidi Backstrom (PE); Kara Kuntz (Kindergarten); Shauna Hamilton (Grade 1); and Corinne Risovi (Grade 5).
I would also like to mention that we encourage and appreciate parent involvement. Please contact your child’s teacher in times when you need to ask a question, voice a concern or offer assistance.
In closing, I am excited to begin the upcoming school year and are looking forward to working with each of you. Please take a moment to read the following information in its entirety and contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Jason Gullickson, Principal
Communication
I encourage all parents to take a moment to introduce yourself to your child’s teacher and inform him/her of your child’s strengths, interests and needs. You may also be interested in logging into our Powerschool site on a regular basis and checking your child’s grades, his/her attendance records and lunch account balance. For up-to-date classroom happenings, please visit your son’s/daughter’s teacher’s Homeworknow site. The Powerschool and Homeworknow websites are located on our school’s homepage (http://www.elem.rugby.k12.nd.us/index.htm) and once you are there, you can expect to see a variety of informative links and pertinent information. In the event of an emergency or weather related incident, we will send out an InstantAlert message (please see registration packet for more information) and relay information to our local radio station (KZZJ 1450AM). Please take a moment to tune into our school’s weekly radio report. The report is broadcasted on Friday mornings and evenings on KZZJ and it will contain details of our school’s recent, current and upcoming events.
Academics
Our school’s mission is to foster personal and academic excellence in all students. We will work to meet the needs of all students through differentiated instruction and research-based instructional practices.
Be Safe-Be Respectful-Be Responsible
We believe that teaching, modeling, practicing and recognizing good behavior choices will foster positive behavior choices in all students. Our response to inappropriate behaviors involves the following three steps: 1) 30 Second Intervention-When students display minor behavior infractions, Ely staff will discuss the situation with students and use the opportunity as a teachable moment; 2) Fix-It Plan-When a student makes a poor choice regarding his/her behavior and / or does not respond to a 30-second intervention, the involved staff member(s) will work with the student to create a fix-it plan; and 3) Office Referrals-Office referrals are for the most severe behaviors. A bottom line violation will be an immediate referral to the principal and the parent will be notified.
Attendance
Good attendance involves coming to school every day and the child being in his/her assigned seat at the start of the school day.
We ask parents to notify the school office if your son/daughter is going to be absent from school (Ely office hours are 7:30a.m.-4:00p.m.). Mrs. Zwingel, our school secretary, reviews daily attendance lists and contacts families with children that are tardy or absent. We do this to ensure the safety of each child that is enrolled in our school. Please be sure to inform the office of updated phone numbers, addresses and emergency contact information.
Students that leave school before dismissal time need to be checked out in the office by a parent or guardian. Please come into the office and sign the child out indicating the child’s name, reason for leaving, time or departure, and signature. We have this procedure in place for security purposes.
Locked Door Policy
For security purposes, the only door that will be unlocked during the school day will be the main entrance (west side) of our building. All parents & visitors are required to use the main office entrance and are to check in upon arrival. Anyone who is picking up a child at arranged dismissal times is expected to wait in the lobby until the students have been dismissed.
Standards
Based Grading
Standards-based grading will be used in grades K-2
during the 2015-2016 school year.
Standards-based report cards will be used to identify academic and
behavioral performance indicators that are observable and objective. The standards are grade-level, end-of-year
benchmarks that specify what students should know and be able to do at each
grade level. The standards serve as a
basis for our curriculum, instruction, and assessments. Student achievement will be reported with the
following scale:
A=Advanced
P=Proficient
PP=Partially
Proficient
N=Novice
Trimesters
Beginning in the 2015-16
school year, Ely Elementary will transition to trimesters, which segments the
year into three 12-week parts, and move away from traditional quarters and
semesters. One noticeable change for parents
will be receiving your child’s report card three times instead of four times
per year. This change will not affect parent teacher conferences
that are scheduled to be held twice a year.
Report Cards
Report cards for all
students in grades K-6 will be distributed at the end of each trimester.
