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Dear Handy Families,

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed the 3 week Winter Break with your wonderful children. I've missed them!

December was a short, yet productive month here at Handy. As a school, we focused on the core value of Generosity. All classes participated in a Talking Circle about the core value. A student from each class earned Student of the Month for exemplifying Generosity.

The students worked hard at completing their 2nd Trimester Benchmark Assessments. These assessments require lots of effort and stamina. See the article below for more details on the iReady portion of the assessments.

As a staff, we continued to refine our AVID goals. The teachers met in grade levels to reflect upon our implementation of Focused Notetaking (see article below.) In January, the Handy Instructional Leadership Team will be analyzing the data that was collected to see how we can strengthen our AVID goals.

We also had some joyful and enthusiastic performances from Cheer, Baille Folklorico, TK, Kindergarten, and K/1 combo classes. The Handy AYA soccer team played Sycamore. It was so fun to see families, students, and our spirited cheerleaders supporting the team. Our GRIP mentors and mentees had a fun time together at a Gingerbread House Holiday party.

Follow Handy Elementary school on Facebook and Instagram for weekly happenings at Handy! Please scroll down to see a complete list of January events.

I encourage every Handy scholar to give their best effort each and every day because: Learning today makes a brighter tomorrow!

With gratitude,

Erika A. Krohn, Principal

Handy students worked hard and did their best to complete the iReady Benchmark #2 Assessments. The graphs below show Handy's schoolwide progress from Benchmark #1 to #2.

Green=At Grade Level

Yellow= Nearly at Grade Level

Red=Far Below Grade Level

Handy students made some great progress, but there is still much room to grow. If you would like to know your child's individual results, please ask your child's teacher.

There is still time to fill out the Orange Unified Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) Survey. Your feedback helps to determine how resources are used. If you have not taken already, please fill out prior to January 17: https://ocde.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8uAYs1GD9EER3YW?Survey=FamilyCommunity

All schools in California are given a rating on the Dashboard to help parents and educators identify strengths and areas for improvement. The CA Dashboard results were released in mid-December based on the results from last school year. California reports how districts, schools, and student groups are performing across state and local measures.

For state measures, performance is based on two factors: 1)Current year results, and 2) Whether results improved from the prior year.

Handy results can be viewed here:

https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/30666216029805/2024

• Handy currently has a 95.92% attendance rate! This is .57 percent higher than how we ended last year. Let's keep up the great work and get to 96% by the end of the year!
• Currently, 8.48% of our students are considered Chronically Absent. Per the state, the definition of chronically absent is a student missing 10% or more of the school year. Our goal is to reduce this number to 0! Last year, Handy had 8.5% of students who were considered chronically absent-reduced from 17% of students in 2023. This resulted in the color Green on the CA Dashboard (see above article.)
• Currently, Handy has 1180 student absences, which is a loss of 338,120 instructional minutes. Students cannot learn if they are not here, so let's work hard on improving attendance.
• Additionally, due to the 1180 student absences, Handy school has lost $96,244 of revenue. That impacts student programs and class sizes.
  
  

• January 13-Return to School
• January 14-Principal Prize Patrol
• January 16-ELAC Meeting at 8:30 A.M. in the Parent Center
• January 17-Schoolwide Talking Circles-Courage
• January 20-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, No School
• January 22-Parent Workshop Series: Nutrition and Health, 1:00-2:00 in the Parent Center
• January 22-AYA Home Soccer Game at 2:30 on field
• January 22-Orange High Showcase 5:00-8:00
• January 23- Family STEAM Night 5:00-6:30
• January 29- Parent Workshop Series: Nutrition and Health, 1:00-2:00 in the Parent Center
• January 30-Disciplina Positiva Parent Workshop, 8:30-10:00 in the Parent Center
• January 30-5th and 6th Grade VAPA Showcases, 1:15-2:15
• January 30-School Site Council Meeting at 2:45 in the Parent Center
• January 31-Spirit Assembly at 8:15 A.M., 4th grade performs

2016 Title I Academic Achievement Award, 2016 Gold Ribbon School

Website: https://www.orangeusd.org/handy-elementary-school
Location: 860 N. Handy St. Orange, California 92867
Phone: (714) 997-6183