9/10/24

Dear Clover Creek Families,

We’ve had an incredible start to the school year! Students arrived eager to learn and full of positivity. We truly appreciate the support from home. We understand that the beginning of a new school year brings many changes for families as well. Thank you for being there for your child(ren)!

Our BIG fundraiser kickoff is on Monday, September 16th! PTA and I are excited to partner with Apex. They are an organization that focuses on leadership and character with students, while also raising funds for our school. The Apex Fun Run will be held on Wednesday, September 25th. We will need volunteers to check off laps for students. If you would like to volunteer, please fill out the volunteer background check (linked below). Only volunteers with a cleared background check will be able to participate.

We are relying on this fundraiser to raise enough funds for special events like Trunk or Treat, End of the Year BBQ, Pi Night, field trips, and more. The money raised goes directly to supporting the students and families of Clover Creek!

We appreciate all the support for our PTA. They are vital in making a school run! If you haven’t already, please sign up! We had over 20 families represented at our last PTA meeting! They are always the first Monday of every month at 4:30 pm.

We are doing really well in our quest to have every family at CCE fill out the Child Nutrition Eligibility & Education Benefit Application (CNEEB) (linked). Thank you families who have filled the application out already! We want to keep free breakfast and lunch and improve our school to meet the needs of all children. I will be doing another raffle at the end of October. Every family who has filled out the questionnaire will be entered into the drawing. Four families won gift cards to Ferreli’s in our last drawing! We have hard-copy forms in the office.

I would like to remind everyone about the importance of safety in the school parking lot. Please follow the designated traffic flow, and allow students to enter and exit vehicles safely on the passenger side of the vehicle.

If you missed our Back to School Bash, I have attached the video by Mrs. Gauthier, our Assistant Principal, and myself.

Back to School Bash Video

Please continue to read on, we have lots of news you can use within this newsletter.

As always, Mindset is EVERYTHING!

Our Mission: To ensure all of our students achieve academics & social-emotional skills at grade level or higher.

Our Vision: Preparing students to become productive citizens and lifelong learners.

September: 16th Late Arrival

September: 16 - September 26 - Apex Fundraiser

September: 23rd Late Arrival

September: 25th Apex Fun Run

September: 27th (State PL Day - No Students)

September: 30th Late Arrival; Root Beer Float Celebration - 4:30pm - 5:30pm

October: 1st Individual Fall Pictures

October: 7th Late Arrival

ALL students in ALL schools in the Bethel School District will have free breakfast and lunch this year! To maintain our qualifications, there are some requirements we have to meet:

• ALL Bethel School District families must complete the Child Nutrition Eligibility and Education Benefit Application at https://emealapps.bethelsd.org/

• Students must choose at minimum 3 of the 4 components of a meal for a free breakfast

• Students must choose at minimum 3 of the 5 components of a meal for free lunch

• If students only pick one or two items they will be charged

• 
  

Learn more at bethelsd.org/meals.

Parents and guardians are invited to review the HIV/AIDS curriculum that will be introduced to students as part of the HIV/AIDS Prevention education later this year. To opt your student(s) out of this curriculum, attending a parent preview session is required. You should attend a preview session if you wish to view the curriculum yourself or if you are considering opting your student(s) out. This process must be completed each school year. There will be 12 preview sessions conducted via Zoom. To sign up for a session and to learn more, please visit

https://www.bethelsd.org/resources/hivaids-parent-preview

Mark your calendars! This year's All Bethel Community Day will be held on October 5th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Bethel High!

We will be talking about the Zones of Regulation over the next few weeks in our social emotional learning. The Zones of Regulation focuses on learning to recognize different feelings you are having and identifying what zone those feelings are in. As students start to recognize what they are feeling, they will identify tools that can help them find success. For example, a student that is feeling really tired may use a tool of stretching or taking a drink of water to help them focus on learning. Students will have opportunities to practice various calm down strategies. Ask your student what strategies or tools they practiced and which ones were helpful for them.

Thank you to all of the families that contributed to our Care Closet backpack and shoe drive. We are grateful for your support in helping families in need.

Does your family need additional support? Please scan this qr code or click the link to complete the survey. https://forms.gle/2g9a2SUH3w7AJURQ7

See the linked article for Back to School social emotional tips for families: https://casel.org/blog/3-back-to-school-sel-tips-for-families/

Parents can check their student’s library accounts or just to see what they are reading.

Just go to: Destiny Discover

1. Log on to your student’s account using Student Id and Password: first 2 letters of legal first name, (-), first 2 letters of legal last name, -, year of birth, !

(example: jaco-2014!) or (ja-co-2014!).

2. My Stuff

3. Fines

To Pay fines

Reading to students is a great way for them to learn language and speaking skills. Please read with your students at least 20 minutes/day. Audio books are a great way to read with your student in the car, just to relax, or when playing in a quiet activity (drawing, lego building, etc…).

Welcome back!

Mrs. Cochran

September 9th PTA meeting - Synopsis

Our goal is to keep you informed even if you cannot make it to the meeting. We admit this week's synopsis is a little on the long side, but we talked about a lot of things coming up this year from the Clover Creek PTA.

1. It was so great to see so many people attend our first meeting of the year! We even received a few new members at the meeting bringing our total to over 110 members!

2. Our first meeting previewed a lot of the events coming from the Clover Creek PTA in the 2024-25 school year.

3. The PTA is beginning the year with $5,316.43 after a very active year of supporting our school last year.

4. As the needs of our community and students continue, we will be hosting a few different fundraisers in the coming school year. Our fundraisers allow us to fully support student enrichment field trips for all of grade levels as well as other community-building activities.

a. The first fundraiser is set to kick off next week and will be managed by Apex. The fundraiser will culminate in a jog-a-thon on September 25 and volunteers will be needed to help track laps for our students. As always, any volunteer will need to pass through the Bethel School District volunteer application process (found at https://bethelvolunteers.myschooldata.net/).

b. The PTA will also be working with Adrenaline later in the school year. That fundraiser will be a ship-to-home product sale, featuring things like cookie dough, jerky and popcorn (the exact items are yet to be decided, so if you have some input, be sure to join and come to the PTA meetings!)

c. We will also have two nights out at local restaurants where a portion of all purchases using our code (CloverCreek) will go to support our students’ enrichment (like field trips).

Those will be:

i. November 7 at Red Robin (16904 Meridian East)

ii. February 3 at Mod Pizza (17513 Canyon Parkway E,, Suite A)

d. Finally, we will be working Nothing Bundt Cakes in the spring to sell bundtlets. This will help us to fund the end-of-the-year barbecue as it did last school year.

5. The PTA is seeking members to serve on some committees this year. Even if you cannot make it to a meeting, you could help out with one of our committees. Let me (Secretary Bill Heming) know if you would like to serve in any of these areas. Those would include:

a. Popcorn: prepping and distributing popcorn on Friday and for birthdays at Clover Creek.

b. Events: Planning upcoming events hosted by the PTA and in which the PTA will participate.

c. Membership: Encouraging parents, grandparents, guardians and other community members to become an active and involved member of the Clover Creek PTA.

d. Nominating: All of our current officers are in the final year of the service. We need people to be mindful about helping find our future PTA leaders.

6. The PTA is excited about events in the coming months that will include:

a. September 30 at 4:30 p.m. A Root Beer Float celebration for our students and families following our Fall fundraiser.

b. Monthly Popcorn Fridays beginning September 13.

c. Our candy drive is coming in early October to supply Trunk-or-Treat later in the month.

d. A Holiday Craft Night on December 17th for our families at Clover Creek.

e. More events are coming in the Winter and Spring!

7. We look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting on October 7 at 4:30 p.m. in the Clover Creek Elementary School gym.

Our Clover Creek PTA was able to create a website! We would like to share with you- upcoming events which include, meeting schedules, volunteer opportunities, & spirit wear all in one place!

https://clovercreekpta.givebacks.com/w/

Respectfully,

Clover Creek PTA Board

Amanda Laughon - President

Dana Zenn - Vice President

Justine Wheelock - Treasurer

Bill Heming - Secretary

Clovercreekpta.com

School Board meetings begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at Bethel School District's Educational Service Center (ESC), 516 176th St. E., Spanaway 98387 unless otherwise noted. The public is welcome!

• September 10: Regular School Board Meeting

• September 24: Regular School Board Meeting

You probably already know...but we've got some of the best staff in the business here at CCE! Do you ever have an interaction with one of our staff members or hear about an above-and-beyond moment from your child(ren) that made you stop and think "Whoa- I need to remember to let them know how much I appreciate them"? If so- this is a quick way to write a shout-out to a specific staff member. We will make sure it makes it to them! Thank you for your support!!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-wPVr-y6lOe7nHiTlEcw16yv4an4f1Vu2yyByhfjNTikZCQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

We are excited you are interested in volunteering at Clover Creek Elementary.

All volunteers must complete a volunteer application online prior to volunteering. The approval process can take up to two weeks. Parents who are interested in chaperoning any field trip during the year will require this process be complete prior to the field trip. If you are volunteering in your child’s classroom, we ask that you sign in at the front office in the volunteer book and wear a badge.

● All volunteers must be pre-arranged with the teacher and/or staff member for whom you are volunteering.

• Arrival & Dismissal Procedures:

1. Please remember to pull all the way up when in our parent drop-off & pick-up line. Our goal is to fill the entire parent loop before exiting and/or entering children into vehicles.

2. Students should only be entering/exiting the right side of the vehicle onto the sidewalk.

3. Please be patient while families buckle our littlest hawks.

4. All adults and/or non-attending students should stay in their vehicles at all times. This helps us to focus our efforts on our students entering/exiting as quickly and safely as possible.

With all our efforts combined, we will ensure our arrival and dismissal procedures are as effective, efficient and safe as possible. Thank you for your support!

Clover Creek Elementary School

Asst. Principal: Mrs. Lori Gauthier

Social Worker: Mrs. Amalea Maxfield

Main Office: cc_office@bethelsd.org

Website: https://cce.bethelsd.org/
Location: 16715 36th Ave. E. Tacoma, WA 98446
Phone: (253) 800-7800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clovercreekelementary