Lincoln Elementary School
March 15, 2024 - Family Newsletter
Principal's Message
Hello Lincoln Community,
Our week was filled with music, community meetings, classroom learning, emergency drill review and practice, and preparations for student-led conferences. And now, it's SO nice to end the week with this warmer, sunny weather!
Conferences are Next Week: On Wednesday and Thursday next week we'll be meeting with parents for our spring student-led conferences. These are great opportunities to celebrate individual student learning progress, learn about strengths and growth areas, and partner together in-person with parents, students, and teachers. Having our students lead the conference empowers them to share their learning, their goals, and talk about how they're being successful, as well as what they're working to accomplish. Our teachers, of course, are also eager to connect with families and share how the school-year is going, while providing insights into how your student is doing this year.
This week our families should have received a note with the specific time for your student-led conference. Your child's conference will be sometime on Wednesday (3/20) between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. or on Thursday (3/21) between noon and 8:00 p.m. If you didn't receive information on the time and day of your conference, please contact your child's teacher and/or give our office staff a call at 503-981-2825.
School Safety: Our school and district has been reviewing our safety procedures and plans together over these past couple of weeks. We always launch the year with a careful review, and this mid-year point provides another good opportunity for this. Please see more details in this Newsletter.
Much More is included here in this Newsletter edition. See Student Art (above), for example, from our 5th graders in honor of Black Artists during Black History Month. Also, thank you all for taking the time to read our Lincoln Newsletter, look at the pictures, watch the short videos, and ask questions when you have them.
Thank You! As always, please feel free to send your questions or feedback to us at teresa.alfaro@woodburnsd.org or pmcdougal@woodburnsd.org. Go Dolphins!
Sincerely,
Teresa Alfaro - Principal
Peter McDougal - Assistant Principal
Community Engagement - Your Voice Matters
Hello Lincoln Community,
The YouthTruth survey is now open! Families, we are writing to ask you to take about 15 minutes to complete an online survey that will help us improve your child’s school. We have asked YouthTruth – a nonprofit organization that supports hundreds of schools and districts across the country – to conduct an anonymous survey on our behalf.
Please take the survey before it closes at midnight on March 22nd by clicking the link below! The survey is available in English, Spanish, and Russian.
Please note:
The survey takes about 15 minutes and needs to be completed in one sitting.
We ask that one member of each household fill out the survey.
If you have more than one child who attends the same school, you may respond to the survey multiple times - one time per child at Lincoln.
If you write any comments, please do not include your name in your answers or anything else that might identify you. Your responses are anonymous, and they will be combined with the responses of other parents and guardians before being shared back with school and district leadership.
We sincerely thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. Your response is incredibly valuable to us.
Click here to take the YouthTruth Family Survey
School Safety
School Safety
Every day, our highest priority is school safety, from the time your children leave your home until the time that they return. Whether it is supervising students as they get off the bus, as you drop them off, during recess, lunch, class time, or as they move from place to place at school, we know that safety is indeed the most important thing we do. With this in mind, we have some important safety notes and reminders to share.
Safety Drills and the Standard Response Protocol
As you probably know, we regularly conduct safety drills so that students and staff are prepared to respond safely in the event of an emergency. We follow the Standard Response Protocol. Sometimes we do fire drills (EVACUATE). Sometimes we practice what to do in case of an earthquake (SHELTER). Sometimes we practice how to stay safe when there is potential danger away from the building or off campus (SECURE) and/or (HOLD). And sometimes we practice how to stay safe when there is potential danger within the building (LOCKDOWN). Over the past few weeks each grade level has also taken time to practice our reunification procedures, which is where our staff and students would go in the event that we are unable to return to the building.
If you would like to know more about our safety protocols, please go to the I Love You Guys Foundation, which has more detailed descriptions of the various Standard Response Protocols we follow as a school and as a district. After looking through this, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us at 503-981-2825 or at teresa.alfaro@woodburnsd.org or pmcdougal@woodburnsd.org.
Parking lot safety
We thank you for remembering student safety when you're moving through the parking lot in the morning and in the afternoon. Please drive slowly--5 m.p.h.--and be alert for children, as well as adults. Please help us keep students safe by only picking them up and dropping them off at the designated location, and follow the directions of our drop off supervisors. Among other important reminders: Please pull forward as directed by staff so we can keep the drop-off and pick-up as safe and efficient as possible for everyone.
Telephone Policy for Students - Turned Off and Put Away
Some students bring cell phones with them to school. Parents may wish for a child to use a cell phone to call or text when they have left school for the day and are on their way home, but during the school day our policy for student cell phones is that they are turned off and put away. Cell phones can be distractions in the learning environment. More important, young children don't necessarily have a mature understanding of the power of the internet, or of other children's right to privacy and expectation that no one should be able to have photos or videos from school posted online without their knowledge or consent. Please remind your children that we do not allow student cell phones to be on or in use during the school day. If students take cell phones to school, please remind them to leave cell phones turned off and put away until after school is over and they are on their way home.
Important Dates
Mark your calendars!
Tuesday, 3/12 - Thursday, 3/12 - Book Fair in the Lincoln library
Tuesday, 3/19 - Spirit Day - Crazy Outfit!
Wednesday, 3/20 - Spring Student-Led Conferences - 4:00-8:00 - No School
Thursday, 3/21 - Spring Student-Led Conferences - 12:00-8:00 - No School
Friday, 3/22 - Teacher Comp Day for Conferences - No School
Monday, 3/25 - Friday, 3/29 - Spring Break - No School
Monday, 4/1 - School Resumes
Monday, 4/1 - Site Council at 5:30
Thursday, 4/4 - 3rd-5th Grade AM Community Meeting (every Thursday)
Friday, 4/5 - Kinder-2nd Grade AM Community Meeting (every Friday)
Thursday, 4/11 - 3rd-5th Grade AM Community Meeting (every Thursday)
Friday, 4/12 - Kinder-2nd Grade AM Community Meeting (every Friday)
The Lincoln Elementary Book Fair Continues This Week!
We were exited to host the Scholastic Book Fair here at Lincoln last week. It'll be on display in the library through Conferences week. Please feel free to stop by with your student and look for any books you may wish to buy.
Music Performances and More
Gifting Violins to WHS
STEM Festival Typing Contest
We are happy to share that our Lincoln students got the highest scores in the STEM Festival Typing contest. This means that our school has the honor of receiving the golden keyboard trophy to keep until next year when students compete once again.
One of our Lincoln students, Naomi in fifth grade, scored the highest score for the elementary schools in the district and we had other students too who did quite well. See the included picture of some of our highest scoring students (from left to right: Kiana, Carter, Naomi, Emmanuel, Lincoln).
Kindergarten Registration
College, Career, & Community Resource Fair
Arrival and Dismissal - Every Day
Please do your part to help us have a safe Arrival and Dismissal process each day. If you are dropping off or picking up your student(s), please prioritize Safety First, follow our designated traffic patterns, and avoid blocking traffic. For parent drop-off in the morning, please follow our staff traffic guides and pull forward to the farthest sandwich board so we can make the drop-off as efficient as possible for all. For the parent pick-up, likewise: Please follow our traffic pattern so we can maintain a safe and efficient pick-up procedure.
If you ever have a suggestion to share regarding safety or efficiency, we encourage you to contact our office and/or a Lincoln administrator. Thank you for helping our students, staff, and community stay safe as we begin and end each day!
WSD's Family University - Right Here at Lincoln
What's for Breakfast and Lunch?
Parent/Family Volunteers
Would you like to join the Lincoln Elementary community for field trips and other special occasions? We LOVE our parent and family volunteers! Whether you'd like to help out for special events like accompanying your child on field trips or volunteering on picture day, or whether you'd like to volunteer on a more regular, ongoing basis, we'd love to have you! Here's what you need to know.
There are three steps you'll need to take to become a volunteer:
- Read this Volunteer Handbook
- Watch this safety presentation
- Complete this Volunteer Packet, your application, the online volunteer training, and an online criminal history verification information form
You will need either a driver's license or other state-issued ID for safety reasons.
You can complete your training online, and turn in your completed volunteer packet to the Lincoln office at any time during regular office hours (school days, 7:20-3:30). NOTE: it can take a few weeks for your background check to be completed, so if you'd like to accompany your child on upcoming field trips you'll want to get this turned in RIGHT AWAY. If you have questions about volunteering, please contact Amaris Chavez at amaris.chavez@woodburnsd.org, or call the main office at (503) 981-2825.
Every Day Matters
Link to Previous Newsletters
Your Lincoln Admin Team - Feel free to contact us at 503-981-2825 or by email.
Teresa Alfaro - Principal: teresa.alfaro@woodburnsd.org
Peter McDougal - Assistant Principal: pmcdougal@woodburnsd.org