The Terrapin Times #20

Dear Families,

On behalf of the entire staff at Turtleback, we want to thank you for a fantastic first half of the 2024-2025 school year. Reflecting on the past five months, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for everything we have accomplished together.

Our K-2 teachers and students have done an amazing job learning phonics and foundational skills using the scientifically-based IMSE program. This program lays a strong foundation for lifelong reading success! Meanwhile, our K-5 teachers and students have impressed everyone by demonstrating multiple ways of thinking and problem-solving with Illustrative Math. This curriculum is equipping our students to excel in math throughout their educational journeys.

Our school community is embracing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, fostering visible student leadership across campus. This includes community service tutors for primary students, Friday Flag leaders, No Place for Hate leaders, Hope Squad leaders, and daily announcement leaders, to name just a few. We are also thrilled to report a significant increase in daily attendance and a decrease in behavior infractions.

A special thank-you goes to our Hope Squad for organizing donations for PUSD families. They delivered these donations to the Youth In Transition Program at PUSD, where staff were deeply moved by your kindness and generosity. Thank you so much for your support!

It was great to see so many of our students and families enjoying the .25 Cent Book Sale this week. Reading is so important, and I love to see parents modeling that for their students by choosing "just right" books. We couldn't have done it without our fabulous volunteers who got here early to set everything out and stayed until the final customer. Great job Turtleback community!

Important Upcoming Dates:

• December 23rd-January 3rd - No School: Winter Break
• January 6th - Back to School
• January 10th - Kona Ice After School
• January 20th - MLK Jr Day - No School for Students
• January 27th - Professional Growth Day - No School for Students

Have a wonderful winter break and we will see everyone back in 2025!

Lisa Maguire

lmaguire@powayusd.com

Yearbook Cover Art Contest : The theme for the 2024-2025 TBK yearbook is Together at Turtleback.

• Similar to last year, the yearbook cover art contest is open to all fifth graders.
• The attached flyer has the guidelines and important details that should be included in the cover art submission.
• The winning design will be featured as the yearbook cover art and the student artist will receive a free 2024 - 2025 yearbook at the end of the school year!
• DEADLINE: January 17th, 2025
• Questions? Email: tbkyearbook@gmail.com

FAMILY NIGHT: FRIDAY, January 10th

Our first family night of 2025 will be Mr. Ken's Wacky World of Science! Join us Friday, January 10th from 6-7 pm for this FREE event.

• This event is only for TBK students (please no middle school or younger siblings. Non-TBK students will not be able to participate even if there are open spots on the day of the event).
• Students should also be accompanied by an adult family member for assistance during the event
• Sign up is limited to the first 60 students

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0D4BACA82FA5FE3-53997796-crazy

Spell-a-thon:

We met and exceeded our goal of $8,000. We raised $9,370 for enrichment programs at Turtleback! A huge thanks to all the Turtleback families for supporting this fundraiser!! We could not raise these funds without your hard work and participation! Our top 2 fundraising classes were Mrs. Stamp's KG class and Ms. Taggart's 4th grade class!

Thank you to Principal Maguire, the front office staff (Anrina Sayasane., Leah Pennacchio, Sandra Fivaz, and Sharon Delozier), and all our terrific teachers for their support!

A shout out to all our volunteers!

- Thank you to all the room moms who sent Spell-a-thon reminder emails to their classes.

- Our parent volunteers that graded spelling tests – Laura Hernandez, Chelsea Corvalan, Glenna Leshen Ascano, Judi Park, Andrea Schwartz, Charlene English, Fernando Brizuela, Luciana Pereyra, Melizza Welton, Leah Pennacchio, Truc Emerzian, and Jennifer Anderberg.

- Melizza Welton for creating event flyers, Jennifer Anderberg for collating/distributing event flyers, Sabrina Kastrup for sending remind messages, Judi Park for treasurer support, and Karthika Balasubramanian for help with sorting incentives!

A huge terrapin thanks to our main event sponsor – North Hills Pediatric Dentistry. Their donation helped cover the costs associated purchasing the FundHub software.

We are also grateful to the following local businesses who supported the Spell-a-thon with donations.

The success of our TEF events thrive on volunteer involvement and family participation. It takes a village or a terrapin tribe! And WE DID IT!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

The Poway Unified School District (PUSD) is an equal opportunity employer/program and is committed to an active Nondiscrimination Program. PUSD prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, national origin, nationality, immigration status, ethnicity, ethnic group identification, age, religion, marital or parental status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression or association with a person or a group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. For more information, please contact: Title IX/Equity Compliance Officer, James Jimenez, Associate Superintendent of Personnel support Services, Poway Unified School District, 15250 Avenue of Science, San Diego, CA 92128, 1-858-521-2800, extension 2121, jjimenez@powayusd.com. For students, you may contact Title IX Coordinator/504 Coordinator Jamie Dayhoff, Director of Attendance and Discipline, Poway Unified School District, 1-858-521-2840, jdayhoff@powayusd.com.

Turtleback Mission: We empower each other to create, communicate, collaborate, and think critically in a community where character counts.

Email: lmaguire@powayusd.com
Website: https://turtleback.powayusd.com/
Location: 15855 Turtleback Road, San Diego, CA 92127
Phone: 858-673-5514