Dear Garfield Families,
It’s hard to believe that we are just one week away from coming back together! We are so looking forward to seeing everyone!
Here is some additional information and some reminders for this week:
General School Details
- First day of school: Wednesday, September 4, 2024, at 8:00am.
- School Hours: Monday-Thursday 8:00-2:30, Friday 8:00-1:30
- Before school care is available beginning at 7:45 am (supervision is not available before
7:45 am)
Attendance
The first part of each school day is a special time of day, teachers use this time to start teaching from our Caring School Communities curriculum creating connections and checking in with the class to help students feel connected, confident and welcome at school. Please help us get each day started off right by having students here on time each morning. We start school at 8:00am – they can be dropped off at 7:45am.
Bikes, skateboards, and scooters
We are excited to see so many of our students walking and biking to school each day!
Walkers, please make sure to use the crosswalk when crossing the street to the school.
Bikers, please walk your bike (scooter or skateboard) from the street to the school for everyone’s safety.
Skateboards and scooters must be left in classrooms where they will be stored until dismissal. For safety reasons, shoes that transform to skates are not to be worn at school.
Bikes can be locked up at the bike stand or in the bike cage each morning.
The bike cage will be locked promptly at 8:00am and reopened at 2:30pm each day.
You will need to use the bike stand in front of the school if you arrive after 8:00am.
At the end of the day, please walk your bike, scooter or skateboard to the street before starting to ride.
Drivers, please adhere to the school zone speed limit (20 mph). Your speed in the drop off lane should be much slower. Also, please wait for our students and staff to be on the sidewalk before proceeding through a crosswalk. We appreciate your help with this.
Drop off lane: 2nd and 3rd Grade Parents
We ask that all drivers stay in their cars when coming through the drop off lane – we will have staff there to greet students as they come into the front entrance. Please help us keep things moving by driving slowly, staying in the car, dropping off and moving along.
Arrival Details: Grade level drop off locations
- Kinder and 1st grade students: Drop off at the Dixon Street gate
- 2nd and 3rd students: Drop off at the front entrance
- 4th and 5th students: Drop off at the 11th street gate
Kindergarten Families
Please remember that your child is scheduled to attend one day the first week of school from 8:00-12:30 pm. *The invite said 8:30 which was a mistake. They should be here 8:00-12:30.
Kindergarten teachers will be sending out a message through Parentsquare so that you can pick a time in the afternoon of the day your child is scheduled. This meeting will allow the kindergarten teachers to learn more about your child. That message will be sent out this week.
Transportation
If your plan is to have your student ride the bus, please make sure you register at this link.Â
Class Placements
Class placements for 1st through 5th grade students will be shared by email the afternoon of Friday, August 30.
Final class placements for kindergarten students will be shared by email Friday, September 6.
Meals at School
Students will not be charged for full meals in the Corvallis School District.
However, this does not cover individual items. If you’d like your student to have milk only, you will need to set up your child’s account to pay for that.
If you’d like to send your child to school with water in a water bottle, please feel free to do so.
Please do not send other liquids to school unless it’s a healthy drink in their lunchbox for lunch.
Birthdays
Our staff has agreed that we would like to be more mindful of how often we provide treats at school. What we eat has an impact on brain function, and we also need to be mindful of instructional time. For these reasons, all classes will recognize birthdays once a month and your child’s teacher will let you know when that day will be in case you’d like to coordinate on bringing in treats. We ask that you work with your child’s teacher on this and not bring treats in for the class outside of the scheduled date. Thank you.
Volunteers:Â
We appreciate our volunteers! We have field trips, school events, special project prep and other great opportunities to be involved! Please consider that K-2 classrooms are mostly taught in Spanish, and we need to support those efforts with volunteers that can support in the language of instruction. There are many ways to volunteer, so, feel free to check in with your child’s teacher about ways to help.
Volunteer link: –Volunteer Application – Corvallis School District
Garfield Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
We appreciate the Garfield PTA! Our parent group has been active in providing support to staff and collaborating on school community events. I hope you will consider connecting with our wonderful PTA.
Back to School Events:
- Tuesday, 9/3/24 Meet the Teacher 11am-12pm
- Wednesday, 9/4/24 First day of school
- Monday, 9/9/24 PTA sponsored coffee for Kinder and new Garfield families 8:00am
- Thursday, 9/19/24 Family Picnic and Open House 5:30 – 7:20 pm
- Elementary Calendar: https://www.csd509j.net/calendar/
Please contact our front office at 541-757-5941 with any questions. See you next week!
Warm Regards,
Nancy Davila-Williams, Principal
