ALL SCHOOL NO SCHOOL, THIS FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11th

Happy Tuesday,

With Mrs. Haughan out getting married this last week, I thought I would sneak in an email before she returns tomorrow. It has been great seeing everyone out at the crosswalk in the mornings and afternoons. I have especially enjoyed my time in the classrooms, lunch room, and playgrounds getting reconnected with our amazing kiddos.

As we begin to move into the holiday season, I wanted to send out a few reminders of how you can assist and support San Tan in being the best educational environment for your child to continue to thrive!

Fry’s Script

You can purchase a $5 reloadable gift card for $5 from San Tan. You then load the card with money at the customer service desk at any Fry’s before you start shopping (any amount up to $500). Once you load it up with the amount you want (with cash, check, debit card or credit card) at the customer service desk, your gift card is ready to use. So, load it as soon as you walk in the store!

The reason you will be buying this $5 gift card originally from San Tan is because it is linked to our school as long as you use it. You can always reload it and every time you do the school will receive 6% of the amount you spend. It is wonderful and exciting that the school will be earning money from your everyday spending!

Rita and I use it for gas as well as groceries; to date we have collected hundreds of dollars for San Tan and have not had to pay anything extra out of our pockets.

Stop by the front office and request your $5.00 card today, just in time for your Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners.

Tax Credit

We are very proud of our choice to offer P.E. daily and music multiple times per week here at San Tan. This has been made possible by family and community support of the Arizona State Tax Credit program.

Here is how you can redirect your tax dollars to benefit your child’s education:

• Make a contribution to San Tan Learning Center by December 31, 2011.
• You may donate up to $200.00 as an individual or a maximum of $400.00 if married and filing jointly.  Any amount up to these maximums is eligible for the tax credit.
• A receipt will be mailed to you once your gift has been received and processed.
• When filling out your Arizona tax return, complete the very simple Form 321 and deduct the amount of your gift. Remember to include your charitable contribution on your federal tax return as well.
• As a reminder any amount will help with these programs. If all of our kiddos gave just $5.00 per week we could raise over $20,000 for our special’s program. If you can only afford to give $10, $20, or $30 per month please consider doing that as any amount helps.

Less than 20% of eligible San Tan Learning Center taxpayers take advantage of this great opportunity. Please tell your friends!

If you have not decided to participate in this program yet, please consider filling out the attached form and return it to the office with your donation. If you have pledged but have not paid or if you have committed to an upcoming payment, please be on the lookout for an invoice from my office.

Growing Brilliance

One of the greatest compliments that we get from parents about San Tan is how it feels like a private school without the tuition. This is where the growing brilliance campaign comes into play.

The Growing Brilliance Campaign is an opportunity for us as a dynamic school community to show our commitment to making the next generation even better and our appreciation for one of our greatest treasures at San Tan besides our children-our dedicated teachers. This campaign addresses the funding gap between the school’s per student cost for the exceptional learning environment we offer to our students and the state aid funding given per student. As an Arizona public charter school, STLC receives an average of $1,600 less in per student funding than a traditional public school. Our goal is to provide our highly qualified staff with fair and rewarding compensation. Attached is the pledge form, if you have not considered participating in this program, please take some time to consider giving back to your child’s teacher today.

The December 2011 lunch order form is available to print now. The orders are due to school on Monday, Nov. 21 by 4 pm. Please turn in your order to your child’s teacher or the front desk. No late orders will be accepted. To print the form, go here: http://www.santanlearningcenter.com/families/school-lunch/

Hello San Tan Families,

Hello San Tan Families,

I have exciting announcements to share with you concerning our upcoming community events and updates from Family Engagement Committees.  Remember, you are always welcome to join an FEC committee throughout the year as your schedule allows by contacting the committee chair listed on the website:  http://www.santanlearningcenter.com/fec/.  By following this link parents also have access to information from each committee by selecting the links on the left side of the page.

The Nutrition Committee has recently updated their page, so please be sure to take a peek at all the great information they are providing San Tan Families.  Later in the week, be on the lookout for a survey sponsored by the Nutrition Committee because they would like to learn more about what areas of nutrition parents would like more information about.

http://www.santanlearningcenter.com/fec/nutrition-fitness/

Coming up on November 23^rd, mark your calendars for our annual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving school-wide community event.  The committee is hard at work creating an event that everyone will enjoy.  The committee’s link on the webpage has an overview of the event and information on what to bring for the Thanksgiving feast.  See you all at Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!!!

http://www.santanlearningcenter.com/fec/charlie-brown-thanksgiving/

The gifted teaching team and I would like to thank everyone that attended our gifted night last Wednesday.  We will soon be posting the PowerPoint on our website for those of you that could not attend.  Thank you for the great questions as well! We will be answering one question per week with a research-based article, so please visit our gifted information page on the San Tan website.

http://www.santanlearningcenter.com/gifted/

As we approach Halloween, I would like to share some information for our new families.  We do not celebrate Halloween at school to respect the choice of each individual family in determining what is appropriate to expose their children to in regards to Halloween festivities.   Please do not send children dressed up in costume to school and remember that candy is subject to confiscation if packed in lunches per the nutrition policy.  We are seeing some candy coming in, especially in the Lunchables.  Please take this out of the Lunchable before sending it to school with your child per our policy, especially since as many of these candy bars contain nuts and/or peanut butter.

If your children do collect a large amount of candy on Halloween and you would like to donate it, we are continuing our partnership with Seville Family Dentistry. Parents are asked to bring any candy donations to the front office during drop-off or pick-up (please do not send the candy with students). The Brauer family then sends the candy to troops overseas through a program at their dentistry office.

As we begin our second quarter, we would like to review some of our school policies and procedures.

·         Absences should be called in at the front office by 9:00 a.m.

·         Children must be picked up within 30 minutes of being contacted by the front office in times of illness and home recovery.

·         Check lost and found regularly as we will make another donation to charity of the articles in lost & found after Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

·         The school day begins at 8:40 a.m., so having children here by 8:35 a.m. ensures they are set up for success because they are able to begin the day with their class and have a consistent routine. Tardy slips can add up quickly so to avoid a negative impact your child’s achievement, we ask for your cooperation with having your children at school on time in the morning.

·         Thank you to all parents that set the safe example and use the crosswalk; we greatly appreciate your support of keeping dismissal safe for children.

·         Half-days are scheduled for staff professional development, so we do not have personnel available to watch children after dismissal.  Parents that do not pick up their children at their dismissal time will be charged at the rate of $1 per minute for each minute after their assigned dismissal time.

This Wednesday, October 26^th is a half-day of school. I have included a reminder of the assigned half-day dismissal times for each grade.

All Kindergarten and First Grade Classrooms – 11:30 a.m.
Second and Third Grade – 11:45 a.m.
Fourth through Seventh Grade – 11:55 a.m.

Have a wonderful week Roadrunner Families!

Hello San Tan Families,

Welcome back from Fall Break! It is wonderful to have your children back on campus today, it was getting too quiet around here! I have just a few highlights to share with you this week.

First, I received exciting news from the Arizona Charter School Association. San Tan’s very own third grade teacher, Christina Winters, has been recognized as being in the top 10 of teachers nominated for the Teacher of The Year Award. The association recognizes teacher, leader, and school awards to highlight the best of what the charter movement in Arizona has to offer and we are delighted that the efforts of Ms. Winters are being honored. Ms. Winters will be going to Tucson in November to celebrate this outstanding accomplishment at the 2011 Annual Conference: Charter Success. Congratulations, Ms. Winters!

October 19th
Picture Retakes
Parent Night: Gifted Education 6:00 p.m.

Also, mark your calendars for November 23rd to come to San Tan and Celebrate during our annual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Event. This is a half-day of school and all families are invited to attend immediately following dismissal. There will be more information to come on the Charlie Brown festivities. Don’t forget to use your Fry’s cards issued at San Tan while shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.