Trajan Times

Our first four days were a success! Thank you to all of our Trajan families for your support to help our children get off to a strong start for the school year. We appreciate all the supplies you've brought us, forms you've filled out for us, and your overall positivity. We could not have such a smooth start to our year without you!

• August 23rd Welcome Back Picnic from 5-7 p.m.
• August 29th Picture Day
• August 29th Back to School Night 1st & 2nd Grades 5:30 p.m.-6:10 p.m. 3rd-5th Grades 6:15 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• August 30th Minimum Day (TK & K dismissed at 11:45 a.m., 1st-5th Grades dismissed at 11:55 a.m.)
• September 2nd NO SCHOOL Labor Day Holiday

Here is a link to our San Juan Unified 2024-2025 School Year Calendar

Students are welcome to begin their day in our cafeteria for breakfast each day at 7:25 a.m. We do not have supervision for students on campus prior to 7:25 a.m. When students arrive, they can choose to eat breakfast or go to the field for walk and talk. School begins at 7:45 a.m. If your child arrives past 7:45 a.m. they will need to stop in the office and check in. This is important in case their teacher has already taken attendance. We do not want to mark students absent unnecessarily.

We love seeing families accompanying students to class each day. It is a heartwarming way to being the day. However, when classes begin, we kindly ask you to be respectful of the learning happening in our classrooms. We've taught our students to operate quietly in our walkways as they move around our campus and we know you can do it too.

We are revising our arrival & dismissal procedures to increase safety. We want to be proactive rather than reactive. Until we get our final plan in place, please follow these basic guidelines:

• If you are parking and walking your child(ren) into Trajan, please park legally...avoid crosswalks, fire lanes, and our neighbors' driveways.
• When you are walking with your children, please use sidewalks and crosswalks at all times.
• Avoid walking between cars and into the street.
• When driving around our campus, please obey all traffic signs and proceed with extra caution.
• Please refrain from making u-turns in order to avoid accidents. It might take 1-2 more minutes to drive around the block but that is worth avoiding an accident.
• Our parking lots may not be used for picking up and dropping off students. These areas need to remain clear for staff parking, Special Education busses, and daycare vans.
• Practice patience. We have around 400 students arriving and dismissing each day. The process will become more efficient as time goes on.

All children at Trajan are OUR children and we want everyone to be as safe as possible.

Thank you for your cooperation in following our morning routine at Trajan!

We will begin our Dragon Spirit Days on Friday, August 23rd. Show your Dragon Spirit by wearing your Trajan spirit wear (see link below to purchase). If you do not have spirit wear yet, please wear our school color, red. It can be a red shirt, red ribbon, red shoes, red shorts, etc. Each class will count how many students wear red. The class with the highest percentage will receive special recognition. Join us and show your Dragon Spirit every FRIDAY!

Link to purchase Trajan spirit wear.

If you prefer to pay by cash or check, please email trajanptavolunteers@gmail.com .

Hello dragon families! I am Dayne Sakazaki, and I am our new music teacher here at Trajan Elementary. I earned my Bachelor's of Music in Music Education at San Diego State (go Aztecs!) and my credential in teaching music at Sac State. My main instrument is the viola, which I currently get to play with Symphony d'Oro in Rancho Cordova. I am currently learning pickleball, Japanese shigin singing, and how our brains create meaning from sound (through Nina Kraus's fantastic book, Of Sound Mind). I am excited to sing, play, and move with the students here at Trajan!

A few fun facts about Ms. Anna:

• She enjoys doing DIY projects.
• She is a dog momma who is obsessed with her fur baby, Stella.
• Her favorite food is sushi.

• If you need to communicate a change in after school plans for your child, please let the office and/or your child's teacher know as soon as possible. We prefer for you to inform us before 1:00 p.m. This allows us time to communicate the change to those who need to know. It also avoids confusion and anxiety for your child (and their teacher too).
• Do you have a concern or need to talk to your child's teacher? The beginning of the day is a very busy time, and our staff want to be present to welcome children and get their day started off on the right foot. We value communication with our families and want to give these conversations the attention they deserve. Please inform teachers ahead of time and request an appointment.

Our Trajan PTA strives to build a strong connection between school and families. This partnership is vital. The more voices we have, the stronger we will be. It is a great way to connect, contribute, and be curious with other Trajan families. Please see the fliers from our PTA.

We are off to a strong start to our school year. This is largely in part to the collective and concerted effort of our amazing Trajan staff teaching, expecting, reteaching, and expecting our students how to be at Trajan. We've practiced walking in the walkways, how to eat in the lunch room, how to play on the playground, and so much more. These lessons are paramount to our students' success at school. Mastery of "how to be" at school allows more time for learning! It has been an absolute pleasure to watch it all unfold over our first few days. I am getting to know our students, staff, and families and they bring me joy each day. I can't wait to see where the year takes us as we connect, contribute, and be curious at Trajan.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Mickelson