Mr. French’s Forum
Dear Parents,
I want to begin this first newsletter by thanking you for the warm reception you have given me early on this school year. I have enjoyed my first couple of weeks here at Orchard Drive Elementary, working with great students and excellent teachers.
I also want to take a few minutes to introduce myself and then touch on a few topics that are of great importance for our building. I will use this space in the school newsletter each month to address concerns and to inform you of changes that are taking place in our building.
So, here is the brief introduction that I promised… I grew up in Crystal City, MO where I had a great interest in music and sports. In elementary school, I really enjoyed mathematics and science, but struggled with reading until the second grade when I discovered The Hardy Boys series. In high school, I played football, basketball, and baseball, played drums in the band, and sang tenor in the choir. When you go to a small school, you do a little bit of everything. In college, I studied Music Education, Secondary Education-History/Psychology, and eventually landed in elementary education. I was also lucky enough to play baseball in St. Louis and in Iowa while in college.
After graduating from college I decided to make my home in Jackson, MO. I began my career in education by teaching first grade at South Elementary and then moved up to teach fifth grade. While teaching, I also coached baseball at Jackson High School for six years. Eventually, I was promoted to the assistant principal position at South and to the principal position at Millersville Elementary.
Outside of school, I enjoy volunteering to coach for the Jackson American Legion Baseball program, raising money and volunteering for Muscular Dystrophy Association, travelling, and spending time with my family. *If you work for a business that would like to make a tax-deductible donation to MDA, please come by and see me!* I would love for you to come in the office so I can meet you if you have not been by already. If you have, come on back by and say hello!
Here are some of the important issues that I would like to discuss this month…
Drop-Off/Pick-Up Routines
I want to thank you all for your part in helping to make our drop-off and pick-up system run efficiently this year. In order to keep it that way, we will continue to have more staff getting students in and out of the building than we have had in the past. We ask that you continue to pull up as far in the driveway as you can in both the morning and the afternoon. In addition, please leave routes to perpendicular streets open by leaving a gap if you are in line on the street. In the morning, please drop your child off in the driveway. Or, if you need to walk your child into the building, please park on the street. It also helps if you have your child exit from the passenger side of the vehicle, for their safety. Please do not use the side of the building for student drop-offs as we do have bus traffic and limited parking for our staff on that side of the building. In the afternoon, please stay near your vehicle and keep an eye out for your child. Our staff will escort your son/daughter to your vehicle. If you need to come inside for any reason in the afternoon, please park on the street. DO NOT ENTER THE BUILDING IF YOU ARE PARKED IN THE DRIVEWAY.
Pets
For student safety and allergy reasons, we do not permit pets on our property unless the animal is needed for a special needs adult or student. I would personally love to bring my three cats to school and show our kiddos how cute they are, but I know we have many students here with cat allergies.
Lunch with Students
Keeping with our “safety theme,” we need to address the practice of parents, grandparents, etc. coming to school to eat with students in the cafeteria. In the past, adults were (in many cases) allowed to come in at random and eat with all of the students in the cafeteria. Here are the reasons we decided to change this practice; 1) We are looking to reduce the number of adults in our building who are not assigned to specific activities. This does not include volunteers that have completed volunteer applications, several with background checks, who regularly assist teachers in and outside of the classroom. 2) Many students do not have a family member that is able to come eat with them on a regular basis (or even occasionally) in the cafeteria. This creates some hard feelings for our younger students.
I want to thank you in advance for your understanding of this change, as I know it does affect a number of you. Instead, we will organize dates, such as Grandparents Day, where we will invite family members in to visit the school and eat with a student(s). These events allow us to be alerted to the increased adult presence in our building and gives students without a family member present to join a friend and their family. I think we will find that this is a safer, fairer, and more enjoyable solution, in the long run.
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent –Teacher Conferences will be held on September 22nd and 27th this fall. At this conference, you will receive your child’s first mid-quarter progress report. There will be instances when the progress report may not reflect the most current assessment of your child’s performance. For example, progress reports will be completed on September 16th, but you may not meet with your child’s teacher until September 27th. During that time, your child may have been reassessed and a new score may have been recorded. Your child’s teacher will explain this to you if this is the case.
I strongly encourage you to fill out a Parent Link application in our office so you can have access to your child’s most current academic standing as well as lunch balances. Your involvement and participation in your child’s education is extremely valuable. If we can help you help your child outside of school in any way, please let us know.
Changes in Transportation
Finally, I have a HUGE favor to ask of you. If your child is going to have a change in transportation for the day, please send a note with your child to give to their teacher in the morning. This note should have a clear date and signature. We have had a high volume of calls in the afternoon between 2:00pm-3:00pm and trying to juggle all the changes at the end of the day is a difficult task. Any calls at the end of the day should be of the emergency variety. Our administrative assistants in the office are AMAZING, but they could really use your help with this situation.
Again, I want to thank you for your support here at Orchard Drive Elementary. I feel very fortunate to be a part of something as special and important as the education of your child.