Bridge Bulletin

In just 10 days the lottery will open for the 2023-2024 school year. Please let your friends and family know. We keep our advertising pretty minimal as we have very few spots available and our parents do a great job of spreading the word about our school. This is also where you will enroll any siblings who you want to attend Bridge next school year. The link to enroll in the lottery is:

https://www.bridgecharter.org/enroll-today

School of Choice

As a charter school and a school of choice, we recognize Bridge is not the right fit for every child. That is the beauty of charter schools. Back in the day parents didn't have a choice. You opened the door and your kids went to the neighborhood school whether that worked best for your child or not. Now, parents can choose the neighborhood school or many other schools that cater to different needs of kids - art, expeditionary learning, personalized learning, computer-based learning, at-home online learning, and others.

We feel honored to be the school of choice for those who have chosen Bridge for their child's education and work very hard to provide a safe, positive and nurturing learning environment to meet the needs of all learners. However, we also understand that our unique model with the larger learning pod, flexible seating and many transitions throughout the day is not always the best for every student. Last week a little boy withdrew to go back to his neighborhood school. He said, "I just want my own desk and my own teacher." While the same day a parent hugged me and thanked me for creating an environment where her child has finally thrived. So, thank our lucky stars that Utah lawmakers, including Howard Stephenson, one of Bridge's board members, created legislation many years ago that allowed Utah to create a system of charter schools to bring families a choice in education.

Additionally, the Carson Smith Scholarship provides tuition assistance for students with disabilities to attend a private school if the neighborhood school or charter school options are not meeting the child's needs. You can find more information about this scholarship using this link:

https://www.schools.utah.gov/specialeducation/programs/specialneedsscholarshipgrants

2023-2024 Calendar

Thank you SO much for all of your feedback for the 2023-2024 calendar. We had over 150 people respond. The data from the survey supports following the Weber School District schedule for breaks and it also supports a longer winter break rather than a shorter winter break. The board will vote on the calendar at the board meeting later this month. Once the calendar is approved we will post it on the website and send it to parents.

If approved as drafted (please do not solidly any plans based on a draft schedule):

• School will start on August 16 and end May 31
• Fall break October 9 - 13
• Thanksgiving break November 20 - 24
• Christmas break December 18 - January 1
• Spring break April 1 - 5

STAFF HIGHLIGHTS

This week's staff highlight features our AMAZING front office staff. Keep reading below to learn more about our fabulous office staff as these are the ladies that really run our school.

Mark you calendars for the following days of NO SCHOOL

• January 16 (Martin Luther holiday)
• February 20 (President's Day)
• March 9 & 10 (Parent Teacher Conferences)
• April 3 - 7 (Spring Break)
• May 26 (Teacher work day)
• May 29 (Memorial day)

Upcoming Events

• Lottery opens for siblings and other students - January 23
• FREE Community Give Away - January 28, 10 - 1 (Bridge Gym)
• Middle of Year Progress Reports - February 3
• Classic Skate Night - May 3

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

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

Lani Rounds

Principal

Ms. Madison (art specialist) and Samantha Jolley (5th grade para educator) work together each month to have students help create art work for our everyday tree in the front foyer. Each month the tree follows a literacy theme. Pictures of the tree are posted on social media with lots of oohs and aahs and comments as these ladies and the students do a fabulous job on the tree.

This month the tree is dedicated to the staff. Madison and Sam did an EXCEPTIONAL job creating such a special tribute to each and every staff member at Bridge by recognizing all of the hard work, dedication, flexibility and commitment it takes to show up everyday and do what we do for kids.

The next time you are in the front foyer, check out the tree! You can see the story, Celebrate You by watching this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7IeMlOsPc0

Our fresh fruit and vegetable program (FFVP) is always a big hit. Students get to try new things they may not have had before and sometimes get their old favorites like apples and carrots. This week our students got blood oranges and avocados. The older kids wanted to know where the chips were so they could make some guacamole.

Our $2 Dress Down Donation Day at the end of the month helps fund our Watch Me Learn prizes. Students are rewarded for showing traits of a good learner and when they have 10 tickets they turn those in for tokens, a free book or a dress down day. Students can also turn the tickets in for the twice monthly prize drawing. When a student's name is pulled as a winner they are called to the office and spin the prize wheel. The wheel includes any number of prizes - lego sets, beanies, rings, squishy toys, and on and on. Each month our office staff use the $2 donation funds to order prizes for our prize cart. THANK YOU for your generous monthly donations!

This week we had our first family activity for the school year - skate night at Classic Fun Center. It was an absolute riot with 769 Bridge family/friends in attendance!!! Our next skate night will be on May 3 - more information coming soon.

In April we will have Family Math Night with lots of fun family games, prizes and FREE dinner! Then, we are SUPER excited to announce we were able to secure a night at the Roy Aquatic Center in July! Last year we had to go to North Shore, which was still super fun, but it wasn't our home turf. Our night at Roy Aquatic Center is July 12, 6:30 - 8:30. This is for registered Bridge students and their families. Admission is FREE and the center is reserved just for us!

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. Next week's Visible Learning Trait is Determination. Determination means "Overcoming obstacles in order to reach my goal."

I will:

• Set the right goals.
• Get moving.
• Face challenges.
• Not be discouraged by failure.
• Keep trying.

Please review this visible learning trait with your student and praise them at home when they are being determined. 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

We are starting the planning for our Field Day blowout! This is the funnest day of the school year and includes bounce houses, games, prizes, entertainment, food, fun, face painting, yearbook signing and more.

We are looking for 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. We also need tons and tons and tons of cans of soda for the ring toss. 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

Bridge has teamed up with Utah Foster Care again to host a FREE community give away on Saturday, January 28, 10-1. We hosted one in the fall and it was a HUGE success. Bridge is NOT accepting donations for this event. Utah Foster care and their community of volunteers will bring truckloads of donated items for this give away.

The event will be held in the Bridge gym. The gym doors will open at 10 am. You do NOT need to be a Bridge family member to come to the event - bring your friends, neighbors and family. You will enter the gym on the south side of the school. The gym will be the only part of the school accessible to the public. The restrooms will NOT be available. Bring lots of bags to carry home your goodies!

Amazon makes it SUPER easy to donate to Bridge through their Amazon Smile program. When you purchase from Amazon using the Amazon Smile link and select Bridge Elementary as your designated school, Amazon sends us a check every quarter. So far, Amazon has sent us $800 since the school opened its doors. The link is on our website for Amazon Smile. Bridge Elementary may show with a Kaysville address as that is our accounting address. Start shopping today.

School Website: https://www.bridgecharter.org/donate

Amazon Smile

Lalani Williams

I am Lalani Williams. I work in the office at Bridge Elementary. I am so lucky to work alongside the two greatest secretaries of all time. I love listening to true crime podcasts, reading, gardening and spending time at home. Soon I will be celebrating the birth of my first grand baby!

Jessica Gardner

Hello, I am Jessica Gardner. I am one of the Secretaries in the office. When I am no at work, I love spending time with family, camping, playing sports, and watching movies!

Lindsay Jones

Hi! I'm Lindsay Jones and I work in the front office Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I like to spend my time traveling with my husband and 2 awesome kids. I love to hike, play soccer and pickleball. Making memories is what it's all about!

What Is Bullying?

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious lasting problems.

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

• An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
• Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

Bullying has several prongs - the bully, the victim, the bystander and the upstander. Each individual plays a specific role.

Bully - a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate a person they perceive as vulnerable

Victim - the individual the bully harms

Bystander - someone who witnesses bullying, doesn't participate and doesn't attempt to stop it or tell anyone about it

Upstander - someone who witnesses bullying and either steps in and tells the bully to stop or tells an adult what they witnessed happening

After we return from Christmas break, Bridge will work with Stacey Archuleta, our At-Risk Programs Coordinator, and a social worker to help put together an UPSTANDER program using a FROG Squad comprised of Bridge 4th - 6th grade students. The Frog Squad will help teach kids about the importance of "See Something Say Something". This is in the early planning stages and we are super excited to get this rolling as, according to StopBulllying.gov, Upstander programs have had great success in schools across the nation.

Our Upstander program will teach kids to do one of four things when they see bullying happening:

1. Be a buddy
2. Interrupt
3. Speak out
4. Tell someone

The yearbook can now be ordered, online. Orders are not taken at the school. Yearbooks will not be available at the school for sale. The cost is $15. You can also find the order information on our website at: https://www.bridgecharter.org/school-events

Code = BridgeES

Pre Pay code = BridgeYB23

Link to Order: YEARBOOK ORDER

Power Chess will once again rent space from Bridge for Spring 2023 for the Friday, 1:30 - 2:30 program. Registration is now open.

Power Chess Registration

Mad Science will once again rent space from Bridge for six weeks starting January 20 for the Friday after school program. Registration is now open.

Mad Science Registration

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