The Colt Express

Greetings Colt Families,

I hope you are enjoying the weekend and spending quality time with your loved ones! Reminder that this week we are back to full days of school with Red Ribbon week activities you don't want to miss out on! Our annual Hat Parade takes place on Halloween, so mark your calendars to come and witness the fun. Most importantly, come to school on Nov 1st, the day after Halloween, if you want to see our $500 plus earners throw a pie at your principal. You must be in school that day as there are no make ups!

A special shout out to all of our local businesses, corporate sponsors, volunteers, donors, families near and far, for making our Jog-a-thon a huge success! None of this is possible without the great leadership of our PTA President and active board members! You are truly the best PTA in the world! We appreciate all of you!

Attention parents/guardians, we have several items in our lost and found. Please have your child stop by the lunch court and look for missing items. All items will be donated during Winter Break. Scroll down to see the pictures of the items piled up.

We now have our candidates for School Site Council and are asking you to get your votes in by Friday, November 1st. It is not too late to put your name out there by writing it in on the ballot.

Click HERE to cast your vote for up to 5 names. We need 5 parent or community members to serve on the School Site Council.

Lastly, our amazing students dropped a Special Red Ribbon Week Edition of The BW Colt News. They will continue to conduct interviews, write their own stories! Also, they will continue to work on public speaking, film, editing, and most importantly, giving the student body a voice! Please CLICK HERE for the latest edition! We hope you enjoy our BW Colt News!

I am thankful to lead such an amazing school and I look forward to greeting you personally before each day of school.

As always, scroll down to our Colt's in Action section of the newsletter for pictures!

Sincerely,

Mr. Dominic Camacho

Principal, Bonsall West Elementary School

DREAM BIG BONSALL WEST AND RIDE WITH PRIDE

For additional information on any of our announcements, please contact JoAnn Carruego.

• October 25th - 31st: Red Ribbon Week! Flier coming soon.
  

• October 31st: Hat Parade

• November 1st: 1st Day of Native American Heritage Month

• November 11th: Veteran's Day - No School

• November 21st: General PTA Association Meeting - Zoom

• November 22nd: "Put First Things First!" Awards 8:30 AM - MPR

• November 25th - 29th: Fall Break

Ms. Ande is leading a lunchtime writing club! We have some future authors at BWE!

7 - PTA Board - Gina Towle

8 – Adina Hendrickson

14 – Krystin Martinelli (RN)

21 – Fabiola (SPED Preschool)

24 - PTA Board - Mason Szuberla

Bonsall Farm Information on upcoming field trips.

School Spirit is very important to us at Bonsall West and we celebrate the following each week:

Thursdays - College shirt day!

Fridays - Bonsall West spirit shirt day!

Mr. Camacho ran into Lillian and her familia at the Oceanside Dia De Los Muertos! She helped rebuild this sweet ride after an accident! We are looking into having a car show at BWE to raise money for our school! Stay tuned!

Working independently!

Our first graders had the opportunity to meet and discuss with some of our local heroes! They answered questions and even had the opportunity to peek inside the cars!

Mrs. Engels had her class working on words that start with the letter p.

Her TK Scholars were learning a little science this week and how the pumpkins get their color! Then, they had time for exploration.

Ms. Carcamo does fantastic job preparing our amazing students for every show! We appreciate her dedication to keeping her culture alive!

In addition to the monthly awards, we have some amazing scholars who are being recognized by staff for being safe, respectful, responsible and doing their personal best each day. If they are caught exhibiting these traits they are given a raffle ticket for a chance to win a prize! Wow, just for doing the right thing all the time! Those tickets remain in the spinner for the entire month and each Friday the winners are acknowledged at our Patriot Ceremony.

Please visit our CNS website which contains forms and information for parents to request special diets. Free meals again in 2024-25!

https://www.bonsallusd.com/apps/pages/nutrition

* Menu subject to change *

What to expect each regular full day:

• TK school day FIRST Semester - 8:15 AM - 12:30 PM

• K school day - 8:15 AM-2:35 PM

• Grades 1st - 6th school day - 8:15 AM-2:45 PM

• Front gate opens at 7:45 AM

• Back Gate Opens at 7:55 AM

• Running Club & Reading Room begins at 7:55 AM

• Drop Off & Pick Up Remains the Same

Bonsall Unified School District is excited about placing a district wide focus on student attendance. Consistent daily attendance allows our teachers greater opportunity to maximize student learning in reading, writing, and math skills. These academic skills are critical for student growth and development.

Our aim is to eliminate unexcused absences in our schools and also to minimize excused absences, as much as possible. Therefore parents will be notified and alerted through the U.S. Mail when their child has unexcused absences at Day 3, Day 6, and Day 9. There are various interventions the school and district will employ in order to support the student and family with unexcused absences. Also, we are hopeful that families will value the alerts that will be sent at Day 5, Day 10, and Day 15 for excused absences. We understand that many of these excused absences are unavoidable due to sickness and other emergency student and family situations, yet it is important that you are reminded of the volume of days that are missed.

Thank you for your understanding and we are grateful that your family has selected Bonsall Unified School District as its educational home!

BUSD, Student Services

Click on the link below to learn about this year's Student Attendance Review Team and how BWE and all of BUSD will be working with families on improving attendance. I will explain how all absences, excused or unexcused impact your child's academics.

SART/SARB Process

If you would like to see what was covered at our first ELAC Meeting, CLICK HERE.

Please click on the link below for additional resources for students of all ages.

Resources

If you have any questions, please reach out to Caroline Carcamo at caroline.carcamo@bonsallusd.com

Please email our PTA President at bonsallwestpta1@gmail.com with any questions.

We cannot do the work we do without you, the parents and guardians. You are an important piece in your child’s academic success and your child’s first teacher. Now, more than ever, we need to work as community partners to support each and every child. One way to continue with support is by joining the PTA on Totem: https://jointotem.com/ca/oceanside/bonsall-west We have been very fortunate to have a strong relationship with our PTA and receive significant financial support for our students.

2024-25 PTA Board

President: Liz Dale

Executive VP: Stacy Serafine

1st VP: Athena Dhawan

2nd VP: Stefanie Holmes

Treasurer: Suzanne Coyne

Secretary: Andrea Cowsert

Historian: Mason Szuberla

Membership: Gina Towle

Parliamentarian: Jennifer Elliott

Communications: Melanie Dudik

Ways and Means Committee: Robyn Graham

Ways and Means Committee: Jenn Hogarth

Many thanks,

Bonsall West PTA

PTA Website

**Check out the Parent Resource Guide for any questions you may have about school, bell schedules, pick up/drop off and more!

We encourage parents, guardians, and other members of the community to share their time, knowledge, and abilities with students. Volunteer assistance in schools strengthens the schools' relationships with the community.

If you wish to volunteer please read through the Volunteer Handbook as it defines the procedures to protect the safety of students and adults as well as conform with laws related to tuberculosis testing and criminal record checks as required by law. The forms needed in order to be a volunteer are in the handbook. Please complete the forms and turn them in to your student’s school site office manager for processing. You will also need to obtain a LiveScan request for fingerprinting, please contact the Human Resources Administrative Assistant by

e-mail at meghann.cate@bonsallusd.com or by phone: 760-631-5200 x1013

Drop off/Pick up Procedures:

To ensure a smooth and safe drop off in the mornings, please do not leave your car unattended or wait too long after your children get out of the car to exit. We want everyone to have enough time to get to class on time each day.

Drive thru or park and pick up for all grades will take place at the front side gate near the TK/K playground. You may park or line up while remaining in your car to wait for your child(ren) to be dismissed from school. No student pick up at the main gate. Only students with a walker ID Tag will be allowed to exit the main gate. If you are wanting to pick up at the back gate they must follow the walker requirements.

Walker Requirements:

· Must be in 1st - 6th grade, TK/K can if they are accompanied with older sibling/s.

· A “Walker” permission slip is sent home with children the first week of school each year and must be filled out yearly.

· All registered walkers are required to have a bracelet keychain, distributed by BWE.

· Registered walkers with their bracelet keychain can exit the main gate in front of the school or the back gate.

E-bikes continue to be a concern on campus - All visitors and students are expected to walk your bike or e-bike on campus. Helmets are required so please be sure that those on the bikes are correctly wearing helmets. Parents/Guardians, it is still being witnessed that older students are riding their e-bikes with younger students on them who are not wearing helmets. Safety is extremely important to the entire Bonsall West community. A big thank you to those of you who are walking your bikes and e-bikes on our school campus.

Dogs - Dogs are not permitted on campus at any time, including outside the campus gates.

Thank you for your attention to these important safety reminders!

Bonsall Unified School District takes an active role in protecting students online. At the end of last year, our Board of Trustees adopted a cloud managed filter and reporter system which has further bolstered cyber-safety controls for students. The vast majority of students in Bonsall Unified are conscientious about internet searches and respect the terms included within the Appropriate Use of Technology. If your student should attempt to access content that is inappropriate, site level administration will be immediately notified electronically about the specific search in a Red Flag Warning. This allows the administration to work with the student and discuss the search and deliver consequences as appropriate, yet also, and most importantly, to notify the parents so that you have the information in order to follow up as a family. Please note, if students are utilizing school issued Chromebooks from home, inappropriate searches will also come to the attention of administration. As administrators do deserve weekend reprieves, oftentimes the Red Flag Warning cannot be monitored in real time on Saturdays and Sundays, yet we have confidence that parents are taking on the responsibility of monitoring computer use at home.

We all know that the use of the internet is an incredibly powerful and now an essential aspect in our world. We look forward to continuing to partner with parents to guide students toward searching topics that are useful, productive, and good.

Thank you

Districts receiving Title I, Part A funds are required to jointly develop with, agree upon with, and distribute to parents and family members of children participating in Title I, Part A funded programs, a written parent and family engagement policy.

Bonsall Unified School District has jointly developed with, agreed on with, and distributed to, parents and family members of children participating in Title I, Part A funded programs, a written parent and family engagement policy. The policy describes the district’s plan, how families are involved in the joint development of district and school plans, how parents are involved in the annual evaluation of the policy, strategies for supporting effective family engagement, and how families at school not receiving Title I funds are also engaged.

BUSD Bilingual Community Liaison, Leonor Rodriguez

Check out her monthly newsletter below:

The October Newsletter

Contact information: leonor.rodriguez@bonsallusd.com or (760)631-5200 Ext: 1000

Go to our PTA Corner for the Parent Resource Guide for additional resources.

Home Depot - Our Community Garden looks amazing!

The Bonsall Education Foundation wants to remind you that through their Support Our Students program, we raise money for BWE classrooms. All donations go directly to BWE. If you are interested in donating, parents/guardians can use the QR code or go to www.bonsallschools.org. 100% of donations will go back to your school for teachers to use.

At Bonsall West Elementary School we are focusing on the Leader in Me to build lifelong leadership skills.

We want our students to focus on the 7 habits:

1. Feel empowered to be proactive and be in charge of themselves.

2. Set goals and begin with the end in mind,

3. Focus on work first then play with put first things first.

4. Have an abundance mindset and think win-win.

5. Listen to our peers and seek first to understand, then be understood.

6. Work collaboratively and synergize.

7. Have school work/life balance and sharpen the saw.

We have a couple of resources that explains the paradigm shifts and habits that we focus on and will get them to you soon.

All students will attend a BWE expectations assembly this week. We will review schoolwide expectations/rules and answer any questions.

At Bonsall West, everyone is inspired to do their best, be respectful, work hard, think of others and dream big!

At Bonsall West, we will focus on the future by setting goals and collaborating to create a culture of leaders that respectfully serve the community.

Email: info@bonsallusd.com
Website: bw.bonsallusd.com
Location: 5050 El Mirlo Drive, Oceanside, CA, USA
Phone: 760-721-8001