SOMOS SABE Noticias familiares

Dear SABE Familias,

Welcome to the March edition of our SOMOS SABE Noticias familiares! We hope this newsletter finds you well and that you're enjoying the transition into the spring season. As always, we have a lot of exciting updates and important information to share with you.

• SABE Open House - March 12 from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Please invite friends and family to learn about our school.
• Student Led Conferences: Parent-teacher conferences will take place on March 21st and 22nd. Please look out for more information from your child's teacher regarding scheduling.
• SOMOS SABE Noche de familia will be on March 14th. We will be hosting different community agencies that provide different services including fire safety. More information is provided below.
• Spring Break: Spring break this year will be from March 25-29.
• Health and Safety: With flu season still underway, please remember to encourage hand-washing and proper hygiene practices to prevent the spread of illness.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our school community. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact the school office.

Warm regards,

Felicitas Reyes Principal

• March 1: Kindness Bingo Prize Drawing
• March 5: Equity Council Meeting @ 3:30 p.m.
• March 5: SABE Bring a Friend Open House 5:30-6:30 p.m.
• March 10: Daylight Saving Time starts
• March 11: Enrollment Lottery Opens
• March 12: SABE Bring a Friend Open House 5:30-6:30 p.m./ PTA Meeting @ 5:30 p.m.
• March 14: ¡SOMOS SABE!
• March 20: Kindergarten Field Trip
• March 21 & 22: Student Led Conferences
• March 25-29: Spring Break
• March 22: SABE Returning Enrollment & Sibling forms due by 5:30 p.m.
• April 1-3: Staff Professional Development (No school for grades K-6th, Middle School Instructional Days)
• May 8: Lottery closes
• May 9: Lottery takes place virtually. (More information as the day approaches)

Congratulations to our SABE Spanish Spelling Bee winners, Laila M.(7th grade) and Adelina N.(6th grade). Laila will represent SABE at the New Mexico State Spanish Spelling Bee on April 27th.

Our Student Amabassador Film Crew just completed their Film Prize Jr. project. The students did an amazing job creating a film. The film will be shared soon.

Thank you to all who contributed and especially Mrs. Snodgrass and Mr. Cole for their extra support in getting it all done!

Congratulations to the following students for their perfect attendance. These students were not absent, late and/or picked up early.

1st Trimester

Dahlia D., Kindergarten

Frankel O., 1st Grade

Nichelle O., 3rd Grade

Giselle D., 5th Grade

2nd Trimester

Jordyn A., 1st Grade

Halanamalie D., 2nd Grade

Hali'aaloha D., 5th Grade

Izabella F., 4th Grade

Congratulations to the following classes for having the highest attendance percentage.

For grades Kindergarten through 3rd Grade, the grade with the highest attendance rate was 2nd grade with 88.5%. Second grade is also the most improved for the entire school.. Their attendance rate improved by 2.4%. ¡Felicidades!

Congratulations to 4th grade. This grade has the highest attendance rate in grades 4th-8th. Their attendance rate for the trimester was 92.5%.

Both of these grades also had the highest attendance rate for the month of February.

2nd Grade - 87.3%

4th Grade - 91.2 %

Thank you to everyone for working hard toward improving our school attendance rate.

The staff will be having professional development days on April 1st through the 3rd. Student in grades Kindergarten through 6th grade will not have classes on these three days.

Due to New Mexico Public Education Department requirements for middle school students, 7th and 8th grade students will have class on these three days.

If you remember, in September our school suffered some severe water damage and school was cancelled for four days. Unfortunately, those days have to be made up. Below are the make up days that will be added on to the end of the school year. If you have questions, please contact Mrs. Reyes. The original last day of school for grades K-6th grade was May 22nd. The original last day for middle school students (grades 7-8) was May 24th.

Elementary Make-Up Days - Grades K - 6th

May 23, 24, 28 and 29

Middle School Make-Up Days - Grades 7th and 8th

May 28, 29, 30 and 31

It's that time of year when families interested in SABE may schedule tours, visit our Open House events and enter the enrollment lottery for the 2024-2025 school year. Share your experience with friends, family, and neighbors and invite them to any of our school events. Below are some frequently asked questions. Please also see below how you can help with our student recruitment efforts for the 2024-2025 school year!

Who participates in the lottery?

Students new to SABE in all grades for the 2024-2025 school year.

If my child(ren) already attends SABE do they need to be in the lottery?

No. If your child already attends SABE, they do not need to enter into the lottery. They will have a secure spot for the 2024-2025 school year.

What students need to be in the lottery to attend SABE?

• New kindergarten students that do not have siblings at the school during the current school year.
• New students in 1st through 8th grade.

Does my child need to know Spanish to attend SABE?

Students new to SABE do not need to know Spanish to attend our school.

Important Dates to Remember

• March 5: SABE Bring a Friend Open House 5:30-6:30 p.m.
• March 11: Enrollment Lottery Opens
• March 12, April 16th, May 7th: SABE Open House 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Bring a friend and be entered into a drawing.)
  
• March 22: SABE Returning Enrollment & Sibling forms due by 5:30 p.m.
• May 8: Lottery enrollment closes
• May 9: Lottery is held. More information to come as the date gets closer.

SABE has several parent advisory groups that parents can volunteer for. Below is s short description and a form to complete if you are interested in participating. The first meeting will be held at the beginning of April.

Parent Advisory Council (PAC) and Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC)

We will be holding our Parent Advisory Council (PAC) and Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC) committees this month. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please inform Mrs. Rodriguez. These meetings will be held monthly until the end of school and will work on editing and communicating our School Safety Plan and policy and also be providing input on the 2024-2025 calendar and budget.

Equity Council

Equity Councils are responsible for informing and advising schools to ensure that the Martinez and Yazzie Consolidated Lawsuit decision is implemented with a focus on the students most in need of specific support. The council will be meeting monthly and the first focus of the group is to help with attendance and how to best support our students.

Congratulations to the students that won the drawing for the Kindess Bingo!!

Thank you to all of our students. Everyone did a wonderful job demonstrating kindness during the month of February. Let's keep it up!

Attention Attention!

Our SABE Student Ambassadors are once again collecting items for the Watermelon Mountain Ranch!

Watermelon Mountain Ranch is a local, no-kill animal shelter that cares for, and helps find "furever" homes for dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens. They are a non-profit organization that relies on donations and volunteers to keep their facilities maintained and animals cared for.

Items our SA will be collecting include, but are not necessarily limited to:

Blankets and towels (old / gently used)

Dog / cat food (dry or wet) or treats

Dog or cat toys

Kitty litter

To further support WMR, we will also be hosting a mini dog adoption during our March SOMOS Family Night on March 14. If your family is considering adding a dog/puppy to your family, you might find your new pet this night!

The item drive will run most of March, with the SA students bringing all the collected items to the Ranch on Saturday, March 23rd.

If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Wilburn, at twilburn@nmsabe.org

Below is the schedule for our upcoming SOMOS SABE Noche de familia on March 14th. We are excited to be hosting community organizations on this day. Below is the schedule for the evening.

Our Governing Board members are looking to sustain and build the number of board members that are currently on our board. If you know of anyone that has interested, please refer them to our website at https://nmsabe.org/governing-council/ to notify the GB of their interest. Employees of SABE cannot be on the Governing Board.

SABE is in it's ninth year as the first Kindergarten - 8th grade dual language free, state authorized public charter school. We will be completing our renewal for the NM Public Education Department and the Public Education Commission next year. Along our journey, we have had hurdles we have overcome and have seen immense success! We continue to strive to continue celebrating and succeeding! We have started the process of moving forward with a potential Lease Purchase Agreement to move into a newly renovated school during the 2025 school year. This does require many steps to get done and comes with a large expense. Unfortunately, unlike the traditional schools, we do not have access to the same funds to build a new school. Because we have fewer options, we have to be creative in our pursuit for a new building. Much like households have to plan for a new house purchase, we have saved funds and will be working on a very tight budget to operate the school for the remainder of this year and the next years as we move into our new facility. We will be seeking our school community support in supporting SABE during this time and appreciate any support that can be offered. Please see the ares below where we do need our parent cheerleaders to offer support our continued growth.

As I write this message, we are awaiting the approval from the NMPED department to move forward with the Lease Purchase Agreement. Once that approval has been provided by the NMPED, we will disclose more details about our new facility and planning.

All charter schools, like all traditional school districts, are funded based on student enrollment. Because we did not meet our projection for this school year, our budget was decreased. Since we will be planning very soon for our 2024-2025 school year, we need your help! In our new digital era, we know how important social media and online outlets are for getting the word out about our school. We have worked very hard on these efforts but we are coming short in getting the word out about SABE to our local community based on our enrollment. This is the first year that we have seen a very small increase to our student numbers. We usually have 20+ students each year. This year we only have 8.

We are seeking your help to pass out flyers and attending to informational tables. We will asking our PTA to assist us in organizing some of this work and ask that if you are interested in helping, please complete the following form. Also, if you have ideas for recruitment, please add that to the form! THANK YOU!

Our state budget is developed by our state government. If you have the ear of your senator and/or legislator, please tell them about our school and importance that it is in our community. Any support of charter schools and SABE in particular helps with the perception of charter schools and brings an awareness to our challenges, needs and success. If you have any particular questions or would like to discuss this further, please contact Mrs. Rodriguez by calling the school.

If you or your business is interested in supporting SABE by sponsoring any recruitment events and mailings, please contact Mrs. Rodriguez at the school. As a state agency, any monetary donations can be used for tax purposes. Any amount, or any stamps you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated!

Our student and staff wellness and safety are important! We have staff, families, and students who have underlying conditions that make them more susceptible to major illness. For that reason, we ask that we all keep each other safe and healthy.

If your child is ill, please keep them home. Have your child return after their symptoms subside and they do not have a fever for 24+ hours.

Should they have COVID symptoms, while we do not require a COVID negative test, we highly recommend that you have your child tested. At-home tests are acceptable. If you are in need of COVID tests, please order your free tests at https://www.covid.gov/tests. We do have free tests at SABE. Please contact Mrs. Almanza if you are in need of one.

If your child tests COVID positive, please inform Mrs. Almanza. SABE has a COVID Positive 5+5 protocol. They are to remain in quarantine at home for 5 days and wear a mask at school for 5 additional days. Day 1 is the day after symptoms begin. For example, if I had a fever on Monday and then developed a cough on Tuesday and I tested on Tuesday, Tuesday would be considered day 1. I would remain home all week and return on Monday and wear a mask for Monday-Friday.

If you have questions, please contact our health assistant, Mrs. Almanza at the school.

Interested families must submit an application to the school or send it to Mr. Cole at careprogram@nmsabe.org.

Program Hours:

• Before School 6:45 - 7:30 a.m.
• After School Program is from 3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Starting this year there will be a fee for the program. If your family is experiencing financial difficulty and you would like to be considered for a scholarship, please contact Mrs. Rodriguez at jrodriguez@nmsabe.org.

If you need information or have any questions please email our Operations Coordinator, Mr. Esteban Cole at careprogram@nmsabe.org.

● March 8: Krispy Kreme Digital Dozens Fundraiser ends

Purchase here:

https://www.groupraise.com/oc/38456-krispy-kreme

● March 12: SABE PTA Meeting @ 5:30 Cafeteria

● March 14: SOMOS SABE- Wellness fair (5:30‐6:30 pm) & Fire Safety Presentation (6:30‐7:30 pm)

● March 16 @ 9 am: SABE Family movie morning- Kung Fu Panda 4

-Cost for tickets to attend will be announced on class dojo

TITLE IX NON-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT

Sandoval Academy of Bilingual Education is committed to maintaining a safe school environment free from harassment and discrimination. SABE prohibits discrimination based on sex and sexual harassment of students by other students, employees or other persons, at school or school sponsored or school related activities. No student will be excluded from participation in or denied the benefit of any educational program or activity operated by SABE as a consequence of sexual discrimination or sexual harassment or retaliation for making complaints of sexual discrimination or sexual harassment as defined by Title IX.

Title IX Coordinator: Jackie Rodriguez, jrodriguez@nmsabe.org, 505-771-0555