Bridge Bulletin

Thank you for yet another AMAZING week with your kiddos! Mother Nature was fairly compliant and other than a mishap with the lunch tent on Sunday evening (quickly repaired by our incredible do-anything custodian Rena Oliver), the kids experienced mostly sunshine and warm weather for lunch and recess.

Speaking of weather, I hope you all are keeping the rising waters at bay at your home and your sump pumps are working well. My weather app keeps warning me of river flooding at my home but fortunately we are still dry though the water is high and running fast.

Our end of year Family Survey will be sent today via email to all parents and guardians through our Aspire system. Please take a moment to complete the survey. This data is super important to help us make improvements to ensure we are providing a safe, positive and academically rich environment for our students. The data is shared with grade level teachers and our board. We review all the data and read all comments and make changes as needed....well, except the parking lot - we can't use the back gate yet, we can't add additional lanes or another driveway, we can't MAKE people be nice, slow down or be patient, we can't purchase the land next store, and staggering release times doesn't work because most families have students in multiple grades, but other ideas not already suggested regarding the parking lot may be helpful.

Just a little acknowledgement regarding my slower than usual email response rate the last month or so - I have been teaching first grade since April and while it is a BLAST and I am loving every minute of it, I am a little less punctual in returning emails than I have been in the past. Please be patient. I finish teaching about 11:00 and then begin checking my email and will eventually get to yours.

STILL HIRING 6TH GRADE PARA EDUCATOR - We are still looking for that just right person for our 6th grade team. This individual will work up to 40 hours weekly, 7:30 - 4:30 M - TH and 7:30 - 3:30 on Friday. They need to be decent at math - at least understand 6th grade math well enough to explain to it students. Pay is $16 - $18 hour depending on education and experience. This individual will also spend some time on Fridays helping with custodial work and if interested, there could be some custodial work during school holidays. Please email a resume to Lani@BridgeCharter.org

Just another reminder - NO OPEN TOED SHOES - yes sandals, slides and flip flops are all the rage, but they are not safe at school. Please make sure your kiddos are wearing closed toe shoes at school. Keens and trail sandals are fine as long as the toes are covered. Also, shorts need to be no shorter than 4" above the knee.

STAFF HIGHLIGHTS

This week's staff highlight features our INCREDIBLE custodial support staff - Lee Vigil, Sharon Feliciano, Pama Wynn, Brianna Williams, Michaela Page and Adam Minjares. Please read below about these outstanding individuals that keep our school and lunchroom in tip top shape!

Mark your calendars for the following days of NO SCHOOL

• May 26 (Teacher work day)
• May 29 (Memorial day)

Upcoming Events

• Level Up K - 5 - May 24
• End of year assessments ONGOING through May 26
• Family End of Year Survey sent via email May 19
• Class Lists Posted on front windows Saturday, June 3
• Roy Aquatic Center FREE Family Fun Night - July 12, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
• Back to School Open House August 10, 3 - 7 pm

Please keep reading for more information about this past week and events for the upcoming weeks.

As always, thank you for CHOOSING Bridge and sharing your kids with us!

Lani Rounds

Principal

The Utah State Board of Education is delighted to partner with Kids Read Now (KRN), a non-profit organization focused on best practices for reading engagement and growth. As part of SB 127 (2022) Early Literacy Outcomes Improvement, funding has been allocated for a five-year program to get books into the homes of K-3 students attending Title 1 schools in our state.

What does this mean to the kids at Bridge? All of our K-3 students will receive FOUR free books delivered to their home this summer. A letter was sent home last week with your student explaining this process. Earlier this week an email with a link to a form was sent for you to OPT OUT of the free book program. If you did complete the form to opt out, the books will be sent using the address and student information in Aspire. If you completed the opt out form your child's name will be removed from the free book program.

Our Level Up activity is super fun for kids! It is designed to help our K-5 kiddos be better prepared for next school year and make the transition less intimidating. At 8:45 am on May 24, students will travel with their current classroom para educators to their next year's grade (even the students who will not be returning). There they will meet their new teachers, see their new classrooms and learn about the fun things they can expect next year. This activity takes about one hour.

Last year our kiddos thought this was a BLAST and we are sure this year your kids will be super excited for this activity as well! During this time our 6th grade students will be in specials. Since they "level up" but to junior high, this activity will not impact them.

Learning loss during summer is real. Sadly, it impacts struggling learners the most and at Bridge, that's nearly 50% of our students. We are super fortunate that Imagine Learning has agreed to help Bridge keep our kids engaged in learning during the summer to help reduce summer slide. By using Imagine for 20 minutes, three times weekly for reading and math (that's just a total of two hours weekly) your kids can help reduce learning loss. It won't be enough to eliminate the "summer slide" but it will certainly put your child in a better place when school begins in August and they will spend less time climbing up the hill to get to where they were when they left at the end of this school year.

Please set up a schedule with your child so Imagine Learning becomes part of their daily routine during the summer. Perhaps it is part of their chore chart or is something they do before they get to play video games or go outside to play with friends. Alos, reading an additional 20 minutes each day will also help ensure your child is ready for the upcoming school year.

Imagine Learning will remain available even to the students who will not be returning to Bridge next school year, including the 6th graders moving on to junior high. Unfortunately, we will not be able to add our new students to the program until school begins in August.

Not all of our end of year data is ready, but our Imagine Math data is complete. We are SO excited with the results! Imagine Math is measured using a Quantile score. An average of 100Q is an expected growth for one year. On average our classes scored well above one year's growth in math! We are SO proud of our students! Your student's individual progress will be shown on their progress report sent home at the end of the school year.

The graphic below shows the grade level, the performance at the beginning of the year and the average Quantile growth for the grade. The colors represent the portion of students below grade level (red), approaching grade level (yellow), at grade level (green) and above grade level (blue).

Some grades have end of year countdown activities. In 2nd grade they do ABC Countdown starting with A (art) and ending with Z (zoom home) and each day is a fun activity. This week one of the favorite days was "P" for PICNIC and the students got to have a picnic on the turf.

In 3rd grade students use a countdown to commemorate their advancement to the next grade. Their countdown is called "FOURTH" and each day is a fun activity. One day this week it was "O" and they had their class read aloud "outside". On "R" day they had "Raising Animals and Reverse Field Trip" with a local farmer bringing animals for kids to view and pet.

Even the office created a countdown with their take off from Ted Lasso. They have a countdown chain under their "Believe" poster and each chain has a Ted quote. One of my favorites, the one they put on my desk, "I feel like we fell out of a lucky tree, hit every branch on the way down, and ended up in a pool of cash and Sour Patch Kids."

Our 5th and 6th grade STEM classes are a favorite for our students. Our 5th grade classes had their rocket challenge today while our 6th grade classes had the annual egg drop challenge. Mr. Johnson, our STEM teacher brings so many fun, engaging activities to our students on Fridays!

Our kindergarten Acadience (previously called DIBELS) reading data results are in and the results are out of this world! At the beginning of the year only 47% of our kindergarten kiddos came to school with grade level equivalent beginning reading skills. After a lot of hard work, on behalf of kids, teachers and parents, 88% of our kindergarten students tested at or above grade level on the Acadience kindergarten reading assessment!

This is just ONE reason Bridge is a strong supporter of full day kindergarten and jumped on that bandwagon the day we opened our doors, long before the state legislature passed a law to make it happen state wide.

Although we are SUPER excited about the kindergarten reading data, PLEASE do not get complacent about your child's reading score. Kindergarteners are just emergent readers and these skills are lost quickly if they do not practice, practice, practice. Please read with your kindergarten student during the summer at a minimum of 20 minutes, 3 times weekly and have them work on Imagine Learning 20 minutes 3 times weekly. This will help ensure they keep that summer slide to a minimum and spend less time regaining lost skills when they return to school in August.

Library books must be returned next week. If your child is missing a library book which they have checked out, they have two options.

1. Pay for the library book.
2. Replace the book with another book in fairly new condition (can be a different book)

Lunch balances MUST be paid by the end of the school year. Lunch balances in arrears at the end of school will be turned over to a collection agency in June.We currently have OVER $7,000 in lunch accounts that are in the "red". We still feed kids - this is not an option for us. We do not badger kids about unpaid lunch accounts - we believe children should not carry this burden. We send home weekly emails and you can always check their balance in Aspire. If your child's lunch account is in arrears and you prefer not to be sent to collections, you can begin paying down your lunch debt by making payments in the office now.

The calendar for next school year is now approved. You can access it on our website using the link below:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/2023-2024-calendar

Weber Human Services SMR is available for 24/7 crisis support and short-term stabilization. To request help or make a referral, dial 988. Weber Human Service's works with families to improve functioning, develop and maintain healthy communication, and enhance ability to cope with future crisis.

Each week students attend a Visible Learning class where they learn about traits of a good learner. For the remainder of the year students will review the traits they have learned this year at school.

• Reflection - reviewing my learning to see what works and ways I cam improve.
• Initiative - recognizing and doing what needs to be done before I am asked to do it.
• Flexibility - adjusting to change with a good attitude.
• Enthusiasm - putting my whole heart into what I do.
• Determination - overcoming obstacles in order to reach my goal.
• Thoroughness - taking care of details and doing my best.

By internalizing visible learning traits students will become lifelong learners who are set up for success. You can find all of our Visible Learning traits on our website at:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/character-first

Field Day is the last day of school, Thursday, June 1, and is the funnest day of the school year. Field Day includes bounce houses, games, prizes, entertainment, food, fun, face painting, yearbook signing and more.

We are looking for a few more donations for our game booths. Students play games and win prizes. These are not elaborate prizes. We are looking for simple things like you get at Zurchers, pick up in packs at the Dollar Store, or buy from Oriental Trading.

Please drop your donations off in the office and remember to enter your donations (converted to hours) into our volunteer tracker so your family can be place into our Frog Pond in the front foyer.

https://www.bridgecharter.org/volunteer-opportunities

Lee Vigil

My name is Lee I enjoy golfing , camping , bike riding and being with family . I enjoy working with all staff at Bridge Elem. The custodial staff I work with are awesome individuals and enjoy working with them !

Pama Wynn

Sharon Feliciano

My name is Sharon Felicano. I love working with my custodial team. They are like a family to me. I have two jobs. I also work at Hill Air Force Base. I love traveling with my family and cruising is our favorite.

Michaela Page

My name is Michaela. I love princesses, to sing and dance and to do word search puzzles. I LOVE working at Bridge! I am married to Derek.

Brianna Williams

Hi, I'm Brianna Williams. Ive worked at Bridge Elementary for 3 years. My hobbies are reading, drawing, building with Legos, and listening to true crime. Recently iI became an aunt and i love snuggles with my nephew

Adam Minjares

I love keeping Bridge clean. I also appreciate everyone's kindness towards me. When I'm not at work, I enjoy reading, walking, hiking, biking and playing my violin.

Lunch payments can be made online or in the front office using cash or check. Payments made in the front office are posted immediately in Aspire. Online payments are not immediately updated in Aspire.

When payments are made online we must complete several steps to get the payments moved to Aspire. We do this every Monday and Wednesday. After we run the online report it takes another day for the money to post to your student's Aspire account. Please allow 3 - 5 days from the day you make the online payment to the day the information posts in Aspire.

The link to make payments online is found on our website by selecting the MEALS icon.

https://www.bridgecharter.org/lunch

We LOVE parent and grand parent volunteers at school! If you would like to volunteer, please check with your child's teachers. If you want to volunteer but aren't excited about coming into the school, we have LOTS of opportunity for outside volunteer work including:

• Cutting Watch Me Learn tickets (stop by the office)
• Pulling weeds in the rock areas and park strips (we have all the area in front of the school and up 4800 S along the school fence).
• Using rakes and shovels to redistribute the gravel from the bottom of the retention area in front of the school to the top area to cover the black landscape screen.
• Parking lot duty before and after school (just check in at the office, put on a yellow vest and talk to Travis in the crosswalk for instructions)

After you have volunteered please enter your hours in our volunteer form on our website:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/volunteer-opportunities

Once your family has logged 30 volunteer hours they will have a frog put into our Volunteer Pond in the foyer.

If you want to volunteer but do not have the time, you can donate $90 to cover the 30 hours. If you choose to donate, complete the volunteer form. You can donate in the office or by using our DONATE icon on the home page of our website.

Absences MUST be excused within 24 hours of the absence. You can do this by leaving a message on the Attendance line at school (801)499-5180 or by using the Excuse Absence online form. You can find this on our website by clicking on the Excuse Absence icon or using the link below:

EXCUSE ABSENCE

Title I was initially passed in 1965 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). It is the largest federal assistance program for public schools. These supplemental funds provide students the opportunity to receive a fair, equitable and high-quality education to help close achievement gaps.

Bridge Elementary receives our Title I funding based on the percentage of students that qualify for free or reduced lunch. For this reason we encourage ALL families to apply for Free/Reduced lunch through Aspire to ensure every single student receives the services needed, including access to free or reduced meals if appropriate.

Title I provides avenues for parent input and participation. We do this through our surveys and the link to the form on our website which allows parents to submit questions and suggestions.

You can find more information about Title I as well as a form to ask questions or provide suggestions regarding Title I, on our website at:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/school-events

Principal - Lani Rounds - Lani@BridgeCharter.org

At-Risk Programs Coordinator - Stacey Archuleta - Stacey@BridgeCharter.org

• Morning Supervision and BASE
• Behavior including Bullying
• 504 Plans

Lead Secretary - Lalani Williams - Lwilliams@BridgeCharter.org

• Aspire
• Lottery
• Registration

School Nurse - Vicki Ross - Vicki@bridgecharter.org

Special Education

Diane Nelson Lead SpED Teacher - Diane@BridgeCharter.org

Julie Christensen SpED Director - Julie@BridgeCharter.org

ELL Coordinator - Nichol Lloyd - Nichol@BridgeCharter.org

Meal Issues - Jodi Jensen - Jodi@BridgeCharter.org

Classroom Teachers - see website - https://www.bridgecharter.org/teachers

• Daily activities for your child
• Student progress
• Questions about student schedule

The mission of Bridge Elementary is to provide students with a personalized learning experience and empower them to take personal ownership and accountability for their own academic performance.

Email: info@bridgecharter.org
Website: bridgecharter.org
Location: 4824 Midland Drive, Roy, UT
Phone: (801)499-5180
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BridgeCharter