Dear Jean Callison Families,
As November comes to an end, it is a wonderful time to reflect on the blessings in our lives and the people, experiences, and moments that make our school community so special.
Each day in our classrooms, hallways, and playgrounds, I witness acts of kindness, perseverance, and collaboration that fill me with pride. Whether it’s students helping a classmate, teachers inspiring a love of learning, or families generously giving their time and support, these moments highlight the strength of our school family.
This month, we embraced the theme of gratitude through:
Classroom Activities: Lessons encouraging students to reflect on and express appreciation for what they value.
Community Service: Our Thanksgiving Food Drive, which allowed students to give back and experience the joy of helping others.
Looking ahead to December, we are grateful for our Parent Teacher Club (PTC) for organizing the BINGO and Holiday Store, as well as Mr. May, a retired teacher, and Mrs. Houston, who volunteer their time for our annual STOMP performance.
As we approach Thanksgiving, I encourage us all to take a moment to embrace gratitude—an enriching practice that strengthens our bonds as a community.
Thank you for being a vital part of Jean Callison. Your partnership ensures our students have a safe, supportive, and enriching environment to grow and thrive.
Wishing you and your families a warm and joyful Thanksgiving filled with love, laughter, and meaningful connections.
With gratitude,
Mrs. Ramos
Principal, Jean Callison Elementary
This month we are going to recognize the first grade team. Our first grade team is comprised of five phenomenal teachers Mrs. A, Mrs. Menges, Ms. Ayala, Miss Draper, and Mrs. Kasta. Each teacher facilitates instruction with heart, soul and lengthy preparation. Like all of our teachers, our first grade teachers put in ALOT of time outside of their contracted hours, weekends, and nights. Our first grade teachers maximize their PLC time and collaborate with each other on almost EVERY lunch. Our first grade team loves each of their cougar cubs. Our first grade teaches from the heart not the book and we are very luck to have a cohesive team that is bonded through giving the best educational experience possible.
If you see one of these first grade teachers in the hallways, please congratulate them on them being teachers of the month!
Stomp practices are every Tuesday and Friday, unless otherwise notified.
Remaining practices for December are as follows:
Tuesday: 12/3, 12/10
Friday: 12/6
Please try to attend all practices!
*Save the Dates*
Paramount House Senior Living Center - Saturday, December 7th at 10:15am; 2061 Peabody Road.
Stomp Night Performance - Tuesday, December 10 at 7:00pm in the MP Room; this performance is for parents and guests of our singers.
Please note: Parents are expected to bring students and take them home.
· Regular school attendance is required and critical to every student’s success.
· Students are allotted 5 absences a semester for appts or illness → at risk for chronic absenteeism.
· Report absences through website or phone call.
· Please contact the office for requests for Independent Study if you plan to be out for a few days or more.
· Poor attendance affects reading and writing skills in addition to self-esteem, knowledge, socialization, and behavior.
1. A parent or guardian may phone the school to report an absence or send a note with the student when they return to school. Within 72 hours of returning to school the absence must be cleared. If there is no phone call or note returned, the student will be marked truant. Our office follows up with monthly attendance letters informing parents of truancy.
2. Notes need to have the following information
Name of student
Date(s) of absence
Reason for absence
Signature of Parent or Guardian
3. The student should ask the teacher for make-up assignments. Assignments not made up may be reflected in the student’s grades.
EXCUSED ABSENCES:
- Student illness
Medical appointment
Dental appointment
Judicial appointment
Funeral
As we prepare for the upcoming holidays, please know that we at Jean Callison Elementary are committed to helping your student(s) with their success inside and outside of the classroom. If you know about an upcoming period where your child(ren) cannot be in the classroom due to holiday travel, we encourage you to plan ahead and apply for Short-Term Independent Study.
In order to avoid penalties for missing class, students must contract to do the work during the period of the absence and return the work no later than a week after they return. Short-Term Independent Study helps students to avoid unexcused absences and letters home for absenteeism.
Applications for Short-Term Independent Study can be found in the office. If you have any questions, please contact our Attendance Secretary, Rebecca.
Don't have time to call in your student's absence?
Just click on the link below and report it online. Your submission goes right to the school's email box. It's easy as that!
We kindly request your cooperation in refraining from bringing toys, including Pokémon cards, and extra playground equipment, including footballs, soccer balls, and basketballs, to school. Our primary concern is the safety and focus of our students. We have concerns that the presence of these items can become a distraction, potentially leading to hazardous situations.
Additionally, the school administration is not responsible for lost or damaged personal items, including phones and other personal equipment. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Covenant Community Church would like to provide Holiday Meal Kits to Callison families who might need them this December. Each kit will contain non-perishables for a holiday meal (canned sweet potatoes and green beans; stuffing and gravy mixes; etc.). They will also include a few breakfast and lunch items since the nutrition department will not be providing meals over the break. Meal kits will go home the last week of school in December.
If your family could benefit from a little extra help this holiday season, please email Mrs. Feil (emilyf@vacavilleusd.org). Include your student’s name and teacher in the email. Participation in the Meal Kit Giveaway will be kept confidential.
We are launching a community garden project and are looking for donations of drought-tolerant plants that can thrive in full sun (6+ hours of direct sunlight). Donations will be placed in planter boxes near the multi-purpose room and main entrance of the school. To participate, please sign up on our online document to indicate your family's donation. Contributions will be greatly appreciated and accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Additional opportunities to donate plants will be available in the future.
PARENTS PLEASE READ:
We would like to inform you that our parking lot is designated for staff and community members with valid disabled parking placards. However, due to limited parking availability, we are facing a challenge in accommodating our staff members.
Currently, we have 85 staff members and only 67 parking spots available. As a result, non-disabled community members and unauthorized staff members are kindly requested to park in the surrounding neighborhood.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter!
Important Before School Changes for 24-25 School Year:
Safety is our number one priority!
PLEASE DO NOT DROP YOUR CHILD OFF PRIOR TO 7:45. THERE IS NO SUPERVISION FOR YOUR CHILD ON CAMPUS.
It is unsafe to drop your child off prior to 7:45. Thank you for understanding and making arrangements!
* K-6th grade students are invited to enter campus beginning at 7:45 am for breakfast. If your student is NOT eating breakfast, doors open to walk the paws at 8:15 am.
*Morning Kindergarten students- school starts at 8:10. Please meet your teachers at their door at 8:10. Kindergarten gates will not be open prior to 8:10.
*Elementary students may enter through either the gate, front of the campus, or through the MPR hallway.
Thank you to all the parents and guardians that have been courteous and kind to our student monitors and adhering to the parking lot guidelines. Your commitment to adhere to the function of our parking lot is vital to the safety of our students. Almost 800 students a day plus staff arrive at Callison.
As we strive to ensure the safety and well-being of all children in our school community, we kindly request that you adhere to the following parking and drop-off procedures.
When parking, please be courteous and patient in our parking lot and surrounding areas, considering that everyone else in line is also serving families with children in our school. For the safety and convenience of all, kindly park only in designated parking spaces, avoiding red zones, handicapped spaces, and areas marked "No Parking" to avoid blocking traffic and creating additional problems.
To be considerate of our neighbors, please refrain from blocking their driveways or parking on private property.
When dropping off or picking up your child, we strongly advise against stopping in the traffic lane on Marshall Road. Instead, please use designated drop-off zones in the parking lots or park your car and escort your child to school.
The Vacaville Police Department has been informed of concerns regarding traffic law enforcement and will be monitoring the situation, issuing citations to those who do not comply with these regulations.
We appreciate your cooperation and understanding as we work together to make this process as smooth and efficient as possible for all our families.
Our lost and found is overflowing again! PLEASE remember to label your child's sweatshirts, jackets, water bottles, lunch boxes and backpacks.
We have found a lot of "lost" items on the playground and it is easier to find the owner if it is labeled.
Please check the lost and found, located right inside the MP Room doors, if your child is missing anything.
December 14th is our next Super Saturday. This is a terrific opportunity for your student(s) to clear up a whole days’ absence in 4 hours!
To sign up digitally, just click here for English or click here for Spanish.
Sign up forms will follow, as we get closer to the date!
Reminder - Volunteers on Campus: If you would like to volunteer in your student's classroom or for other on-campus activities throughout the year, you will need to do the following:
- Fill out a volunteer form and have it signed by administration. You may pick up a form in our office.
- Cleared fingerprints with the district office.
Note: If you already have a volunteer form on file and fingerprints cleared with VUSD, then you don't need to do it again. Please check with our office if your student transferred from another VUSD school which you were cleared to volunteer so we can make sure you are cleared at Jean Callison. Any other questions? Please come by or call the office!
All meals are still free to ALL STUDENTS!
Though meals are not reimbursed for all students federally, the State has permitted all schools in California to continue offering free meals to all students. Since meals are free, we encourage all students to come try our meals. Breakfast is free too! This is a great way to save money at home and have your students try something new. We are aiming to serve more scratch items like pancakes, French toast, breakfast burritos, frittatas, scrambled eggs and more to keep meals fun!
We are required to track each student’s meal for reimbursement. This means that every student will be given their PIN to enter when they receive a meal.
School Student Cell Phone Policy:
Just a reminder that students are not allowed to use their phones once they enter through the gate before school begins. While cell phones are recognized as a safety precaution for parents and children before and after school, cell phones and other personal electronic items may not disrupt the educational program, school activities or violate the rights of others. Once the gate is open at 8:10 AM (Elementary Gate By Kinder) and 8:20 AM (Middle School Gate) students must turn off and store devices in their backpack before going to their designated area. They may not remain in front of school on their phone. During the school day and anywhere on campus, all cell phones must be off and remain out of sight. This includes passing periods, lunch and recess. Phones should remain off and stored away until they exit through the gate at the end of the day.
Please continue to enforce parental controls on your child's phone and monitor their device. Their have been many reports of inappropriate posts and misuse of phones after school hours and over the weekend that are directly impacting the learning environment.
If a school employee discovers a phone out at an inappropriate time, the following will happen:
Cell phone violation consequences:
* 1st violation - warning & confiscation, return to student at the end of the day
* 2nd violation - confiscation & parent pick up
* 3rd violation - confiscation, parent pick up, and administrative detention.
* 4th violation - confiscation, parent pick up, and behavior contract.
*** Each violation will also result in a demerit ***
Navigating Social Media & Cell Phone Use for Our Students:
Student conflict has always been a part of the job, however, the conflict usually centered around miscommunication, rumors, dirty looks or just disagreements. In 2007, the iPhone came out and this new technology would forever change the way student conflict occurred on school campuses nationwide. In 2023-24, the majority of our middle school students owned a Smartphone. There were a good number of our elementary students who also owned Smartphones. Many of these students owned a social media account and participated in group chats. In the past couple of years there has been a significant increase in student conflict due to social media or group chats. Most of the conflicts originated out of school, but almost always ended up at school interrupting the learning environment. Students were posting pictures online on social media pages often without permission from the other students. When these pictures posted are discovered by students, conflict naturally ensued and arguments happened at school. While working to resolve these conflicts, we discovered that parent controls are not being used. We highly recommend parent controls on cell phones. The students with parent controls on their phones generally didn't engage in any conflicts compared to other students without parent controls on their cell phones. One of the most important parent control is setting a bedtime for Smartphones so students can get a good night's sleep. We find that students are on social media and chatting to one another into the late hours of the night. The most important part of this message is student safety. Students with an unmonitored Smartphone have access to everything on the internet and anyone on the internet has access to your student. I will be sending out some articles and information regarding social media and cell phone safety in the upcoming newsletter.
Let's keep our students safe and minimize their distractions while learning at school!
We are excited to announce that we adopted a new form of school-to-home communication at Vacaville Unified School District called ParentSquare. This unified communications platform is designed to keep parents and guardians informed and encourage greater engagement and connection with VUSD. It provides a safe way for district administrators, school principals, teachers, staff, and parents to:
Send and receive school and class information
Share pictures and files
See calendar items
Sign up to volunteer
Schedule parent-teacher conferences
and much more . . . all in one centralized place!
All district and school, grade level and classroom information will now be sent to your computer or phone via email and/or text. For even more convenience, download the ParentSquare app (available for free for iOS and Android devices).
Have questions? Click the question mark in the top right corner of the desktop version or the Help tab on the app (tap the triple bar icon at the top left) to find answers to most of your questions.