DISTRICT NEWSLETTER

We are thrilled to welcome EACH ONE of our students and families to the Lemoore Union Elementary School District for the 2024/2025 school year! It has been wonderful to see our students back in school over the past few weeks. Opening a new school year involves significant preparation, planning, and support, and we are extremely grateful for our staff’s dedicated efforts in ensuring our first weeks have run smoothly.

We are also very proud of our students for transitioning back to school so seamlessly and getting right back into their learning routines. Clear expectations have been set to ensure a successful year ahead. We are committed to providing an instructional environment that meets each student’s academic goals, fosters social and emotional growth, and maintains a safe learning atmosphere for all.

It was fantastic to have so many of our families attending our Back to School Night and preview events. These gatherings are crucial for building strong partnerships between our staff and families, which supports high levels of learning. Throughout the year, our site staff will organize additional parent engagement activities to keep everyone connected to our schools. To stay informed, we highly encourage you to read our district and site newsletters, visit our websites and social media pages, and sign up for ParentSquare. This platform offers a simple and secure way for parents and guardians to stay involved in their children’s education and receive important updates about school and district activities.

We also encourage you to consider volunteering or chaperoning school events. Information on how to get involved can be found in this newsletter and on our websites. Your participation is vital to our collective success, and we appreciate your partnership and engagement.

In this fall newsletter, you’ll find information on attendance, literacy, social-emotional learning resources, Fresno State Parent University, introductions of our new staff, and highlights of recent events. We are here to support EACH ONE of you and are committed to providing an outstanding year of learning, growth, and thriving together. Our district’s vision, mission, culture, and expectations are essential to our shared success, and I am confident that, together, we will inspire greatness in our students' lives.

Here’s to a fantastic 2024/2025 school year!

Warm regards,

Cheryl Hunt
Superintendent
Lemoore Union Elementary School District

Welcome to the 2024/2025 School Year!

As we start this new school year, the Board of Trustees, administration, teachers, staff, and support personnel are thrilled to welcome our students back. This year, our focus is on "Inspiring Greatness," and we are dedicated to our vision of EACH ONE—Every student, All staff, Committed to, High expectations, Oriented to results, No excuses, and Excellence every day.

We want you to know that we are committed to collaborating with our families and students to provide the best educational experience possible. Our staff has worked diligently to prepare for this year, driven by a relentless pursuit of excellence where every minute counts. We encourage strong parent engagement and involvement, as together we can ensure that every student reaches their fullest potential.

On behalf of the Lemoore Union Elementary School Board of Trustees, I want to thank you for electing us to serve the children and families of our school community. It is our privilege to work alongside our dedicated staff and students that make our schools an outstanding place to learn, grow and thrive.

Thank you for being a part of our journey. Here’s to an inspiring and successful 2024/2025 school year!

Sincerely,
Mark Pescatore- Board President

Dear Families,

We would like to thank you for your partnership in working with us to ensure that all students continue to learn at high levels. Attending school regularly helps students both academically and socially. Students feel better about school and themselves when they are engaged in their learning and remain connected to others. Attendance is the key to all of this.

Here are some tips to ensuring students are engaged in their learning every day.

· Establish routines – Create regular routines for bedtime, getting ready for school in the morning and engaging in any homework after school.

· Set up a learning space - Dedicate a space for studying and completing homework. Keep the space clear from distractions.

· Stay in touch - Review all notes and work that are sent home with your child. Contact the teacher if you have questions or concerns.

· Check in with your children – What are they learning about that day? What work do they need to complete? What was their favorite part of the school day? What successes or challenges did they have?

We want to express our gratitude for every family working diligently to make sure their children are able to attend school every day. We also want to ensure that if our students are sick, that they remain home and follow normal sick protocols.

Thank you for your efforts and partnership to support EACH ONE of our students and maximize their learning each and every day!

The Importance of Literacy
Literacy is vital to developing a strong sense of well-being. Children who develop strong reading skills tend to perform better in school across all content areas and have a healthier and more positive self-image. They develop the skills necessary to become life-long learners with the ability to research and solve complex problems. LUESD emphasizes reading throughout the day and every day. As partners in your child’s education, we appreciate your help in continuing to support this important work when children are at home in order to foster a lifelong love of reading.
Some Tips to Promote Literacy at Home:
• Limit television and computer time in favor of reading time.
• Read with your children. This teaches them that reading is important and it can open the lines of communication on many topics.
• Emphasize reading with all family members. A child will value reading when they see their role models reading.
• Join your local library. Find library books about topics that interest your child and then read them together.
• Have your child check out books from the school library and utilize their online SORA accounts to check out eBooks from the district.
Learning to read takes EACH ONE of us working together. Reading aloud to children at an early age is the most effective way to help them expand their vocabulary and recognize written words. Reading also stimulates a child’s imagination and expands his or her understanding of the world. Our goal is to continue working together to provide encouragement and support throughout the day to promote a love of reading and have all of our students reading at grade level or beyond by the end of the school year. We celebrate the positive growth we have made as a district regarding our literacy attainment efforts and deeply appreciate our partnership with our families.

Department of Special Services

Social media can help children with healthy development but it can also create risks. Psychological research shows it is critically important to focus on how children use social media and the type of content they see.

As a parent or caregiver, you are the expert on your child. You know what experiences will fit with their strengths and areas of vulnerability. These recommendations are based on research and will help you and your child be smart users of social media, avoiding the harms, and gaining maximum benefits.

1. Recognize developing brains may be especially vulnerable to specific social media features.

Communicating with friends on social media can be helpful for child development, including a chance to learn new social skills and complex relationships. But the like button and use of artificial intelligence to promote excessive scrolling may be dangerous for developing brains.

Adolescent brain development generally starts before puberty, around age 10, and lasts through early adulthood. This is an important phase of growth during which the brain undergoes dramatic developmental changes. In early adolescence, brain regions associated with a desire for attention from peers become increasingly sensitive. Social media may exploit that desire.

Meanwhile, brain areas important for self-control don’t fully develop until early adulthood. When thinking about the use of social media in your family, it’s important to recognize the unique vulnerabilities of adolescent brains. Your guidelines around social media use should evolve as children mature.

What to do: Limit social media use on platforms that include counts of likes or encourage excessive use. Use screen time settings available on most devices or on platforms to help children set limits and learn self-control. Prohibit screen time that interferes with at least 8 hours of sleep a night to ensure healthy brain development among children.

2. Monitor and discuss your child’s social media use.

Parents should take a multipronged approach to social media management, including time limits, parental monitoring and supervision, and ongoing discussions about social media.

As noted above, time limits can help children with self-control and encourage moderate social media use. Limiting chat functions, especially among strangers, and limiting exposure to adult content is also recommended. Particularly for younger children, parents may consider allowing social media use only when children are at home so that parents can keep a closer eye on their online activities.

In addition, adult monitoring of social media postings and content viewed is advised, especially in early adolescence. Unsupervised social media use is more likely to expose children to potentially harmful content and features of social media. Scientific studies demonstrate it is also critical for parents to engage in ongoing discussions with adolescents about how to use social media in safe and helpful ways. This is hard for many parents and caregivers since some of these platforms and their functions are unfamiliar to many adults today.

What to do: Talk to your child weekly about how social media platforms work so they feel safe telling you about their experiences without judgment. Ask them what they saw on social media, how they understood what was posted, and pose hypothetical questions to them to learn how they would respond to various situations they might encounter online.

3. Model healthy social media use.

Research studies show children learn some social media behaviors and attitudes from their parents. It is important for adults to model healthy social media use in their own lives. To model good digital behavior, avoid using social media when at the dinner table or engaging in family time, and make sure your conversations about social media reflect the ways you want them to feel about social media use.

What to do: Discuss how and why you use social media with your children. Set limits for social media use for yourselves and encourage your children to follow your example. Take social media holidays as a family and discuss the challenges and temptations you all experience when away from social media for a long time.

4. Watch for problematic social media use.

Keep an eye out for signs your child may be using social media in unhealthy ways. Your child’s social media use might be causing problems if:

● It interferes with their daily routines and commitments, such as school, work, friendships, and extracurricular activities.

● They often choose social media over in-person social interactions.

● It prevents them from getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep each night.

● It prevents them from engaging in regular physical activity.

● They keep using social media even when they express a desire to stop.

● They experience strong cravings to check social media.

● They lie or use deceptive behavior to spend time online.

What to do: Ask your child if any of these statements above are true for them. If you are concerned your child is dependent on social media or using it in unhealthy ways, consider enforcing new limits around accessing this technology. If you suspect your child is experiencing psychological harm or you are having difficulty managing your child’s social media use, a mental health professional may be able to help you find healthier ways to engage with the digital world.

Our Board of Trustees welcomed our 2024/2025 new certificated staff at our board meeting and congratulated EACH ONE of them on their commitment to serve our LUESD students. Wishing our new staff an extraordinary year! #EACHONE #MakeAnImpact #LUESDSTRONG

We would like to congratulate and welcome Robert Guzman as our new Meadow Lane Elementary School Principal. We know with his knowledge and expertise he will successfully lead Meadow Lane and the Mustangs with enthusiasm, pride and continue our collective work and focus on culture, collaboration and coaching with high levels of learning and support for ALL students and staff. Congratulations Mr. Guzman! Here's to a successful 24/25 school year!

We are pleased to announce Mrs. Kim Oliveira will serve as the Meadow Lane Assistant Principal. Mrs. Oliveira has nine years of teaching experience and has been a teacher leader for our district. Her educational expertise and experience will be invaluable as she makes a difference for our Mustang students and families. Congratulations, Mrs. Oliveira. We are excited to see the great things that will happen under your leadership!

We are thrilled to have Katy Bishpham serving at Liberty Middle School as the new Assistant Principal. Ms. Bishphan brings ten years of teaching experience serving as a special education teacher, academic coach, and mentor teacher. She brings exceptional expertise in the area of PLC's, RTI and PBIS structures along with significant knowledge in special education support and services. She has also served as an LUESD Learning coordinator for three years. We know Katy will be a wonderful addition to the Liberty Middle School team and will make a lasting impact on the students and staff she serves. Congratulations Ms. Katy Bispham.

Our Lemoore Elementary team welcomes DawnTaylor as the new Assistant Principals. Mrs. Taylor is no stranger to our district. She has served 7 years as an elementary school teacher at Meadow Lane along with her expertise as a PLC leader, a School Leadership team member, a New Teacher Induction (NTI) Mentor. In addition, she served as a Learning Coordinator for three years. Mrs. Taylor will provide support, guidance and leadership as she inspires greatness in her staff and our precious Mustang students! Congratulations Mrs. Dawn Taylor!