Hello Allen Families and Staff,
We had a great start to the 2022-2023 school year this first week. Although not 100% smooth, students and staff had a safe and fun first week of school.
We appreciate your continued support of our school. If you have questions for our staff or need assistance, please call at at (619) 479-3662. Office hours are 8 am to 3:30 pm, M-F.
Please take a minute to download and review the important dates from the school calendar here:
https://allenelementary.org/calendar/
Mr. Greenwell’s Message of the Week
We look forward to welcoming parents and legal guardians to our Curriculum Night, this Thursday, July 28 from 5:30 to 6:45 pm. Please note that rooms 501 (Ms. Sinong) and 502 (Ms. Monis) will reschedule their Curriculum Night for August 4th at 5:30 pm.
Parents and legal guardians are needed to help make shared decisions at our school via our PTC (Parent-Teacher Club), SSC (School Site Council), and ELAC (English Learners Advisory Council). More information will be provided on this school blog and at Curriculum Night this Thursday.
Please complete the nomination form for SSC here: https://forms.office.com/r/r9ziYn2CXZ
Anyone interested in serving on the SSC should attend the virtual meeting on Monday, August 8th at 3:30 pm. The link will be on this school blog next week.
Annual Notification is required by California state law. Please see this page for more information:
Please see our 2022-2023 Family Handbook here: Link to Family Handbook
Opt-in for text messages from Allen Elementary. Text YES to 67587.
We are excited to welcome a handful of new staff members. Please see our staff page for more details: https://allenelementary.org/staff/
A reminder of our school’s Core Values and Common Courtesies:
The Core Value for the first week of school is Honesty. The Common Courtesy for that week is “Thank you...“
Students may earn an Allen Eagle Ticket for demonstrating the Core Values and Common Courtesies each day. Students can redeem these tickets at the Eagle’s Nest Store at the end of each quarter of the school year. Our staff is always looking for ways to celebrate our students!
Kindness counts! Wondering how to support children if they experience a problem with another student? We suggest using “I feel…” statements, moving away from others, and seeking help from an adult nearby. Our staff prides itself in actively monitoring students at all times. What our staff has noticed is that students are learning how to interact with one another and having some problems or conflict. This is not bullying. It may be due to trauma and other sudden social-emotional issues with a child. What is bullying? Check out this document:
See the helpful graphic below:
If you have a concern about another child’s behaviors impacting your child, we suggest you first contact your child’s teacher. Afterwards, please see this page here.
If you need to conduct business with the school office, please contact the school office between the hours of 8 am and 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday, at (619) 479-3662 and we will arrange an appointment with you.
A Look Ahead:
Monday, July 25, 2022 – Minimum Day for Kindergarten only (2 pm dismissal)
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 – Minimum Day for Kindergarten only (2 pm dismissal)
Wednesday, July 27, 2022 – Dismissal at 3:10 pm for all students in grades K-6
Thursday, July 28, 2022
- Dismissal at 3:10 pm for all students in grades K-6
- Curriculum Night for parents and legal guardians from 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm
Friday, July 29, 2022 – Dismissal on Fridays and minimum days is at 2 pm for all students in grades K-6
Monday, August 1, 2022 – Smarty Ants Assessment for all K-2 students
Friday, August 5, 2022 – Family First Friday 8 am to 9 am (free coffee for adults)
Curriculum Night
Allen Elementary will be hosting its Curriculum Night this Thursday from 5:30 to 6:45 pm. There will be two sessions, 5:30 to 6 pm and 6:15 to 6:45 pm with one 15 minute transition. Your child’s teacher will be sharing more details. We kindly ask that you leave your children at home.
Some families have asked how they can help support our school: Teachers will have a wish list of possible donations for an easy way to help our school. We also encourage active family participation! Join the Allen PTC, attend SSC and ELAC meetings, or stop by our Family First Friday for a free cup of coffee. Your support of our school makes our school community stronger!
Green LCFF Applications
Your child should have come home from school on Friday with a green LCFF Collection Data Application. If not, you can download and print the form here:
We are asking for your participation in the Local Control Funding Formula Collection Data form or the lunch application for 2022-2023. This form or application will have a critical impact on your child’s support and services. We are requesting all of our families to submit the LCFF form or application which determines the State and Federal funding that schools receive. This funding provides your child with support and resources for their academic success.
Benefits for your child include:
· Instructional materials
· Classroom technology
· Additional staffing to provide supports for students
· Extended learning opportunities for students
· Before and after school programs
We appreciate your time and support in ensuring your child gets what they need and deserve in CVESD. Please return the survey by September 1, 2022. We urge all families to complete this form. While it is true that all students are eligible this year for free meals via our school cafeteria, these forms help provide critical funds to pay for this program and other programs in our school. This helps our school and district a great deal. Please complete these forms and return them ASAP to the school office. Kindly contact the school office at (619) 479-3662 with any questions.
SSC Parents Needed
Please learn more about our opportunities to get involved in the school for parents and legal guardians, including our School Site Council, or SSC, at Curriculum Night.
Parents and legal guardians are needed to help make shared decisions at our school via our PTC (Parent-Teacher Club), SSC (School Site Council), and ELAC (English Learners Advisory Council). More information will be provided on this school blog and at Curriculum Night this Thursday.
Please complete the nomination form for SSC here: https://forms.office.com/r/r9ziYn2CXZ
Anyone interested in serving on the SSC should attend the virtual meeting on Monday, August 8th at 3:30 pm. The link will be on this school blog next week.
Free COVID Testing
Families may come to the school office, Monday- Friday, between 8 am and 3:30 pm to receive a free antigen test. The testing is not required, but because of how quickly this most recent strand of COVID is spreading, testing is strongly encouraged if you or your child have any symptoms. Please report any positive cases to our school office at (619) 479-3662.
Families may also request free antigen tests through the US Postal Service here: https://special.usps.com/testkits.
Weekly, voluntary COVID-19 testing will continue on our school campus via COVID Clinic and Campus Clinic each week. Parents and legal guardians must opt-in to the program and no child will be tested without proper consent.
Last school year, we were able to partner with COVID Clinic to bring COVID-19 testing to our school. Many parents have asked if we will continue to offer our weekly cart testing and we are excited to tell you that this will continue starting July 25, 2022. This year, we are excited to further this offering of COVID-19 testing to our schools, along with providing on-campus access to healthcare and more in the 2022-2023 school year.
You should have received an email from Campus Clinic on Friday, July 22nd, inviting you to register for COVID-19 testing and any of our other services. This email will include step-by-step registration instructions, contact information if you have any questions, and an introduction by Thomas Shaffer, President of Campus Clinic.
Class Placement for 2022-2023
Per the Allen Family Handbook, “requests for specific teachers are not permitted. However, parents may provide educational information (in written form) about their child before May 1st, in order to assist teachers and school administration with classroom placement. Once classroom rosters are created, students are not moved to another classroom unless student enrollment numbers dictate the necessity to do so.”
Allen Elementary is a small school that feels like a family for many of our students. Most grade levels consist of two classrooms per grade level and may involve a combination classroom (also called a combo class). It is not possible to honor specific classroom requests for these reasons. All of our staff are dedicated and caring professionals and paraprofessionals with the interest of all children in their hearts. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. We will not make any changes to class rosters in the first two weeks and will only be able to accommodate requests if enrollment allows us to do so.
Innovation Live Events for 2022-2023
We hope that you had a wonderful first week of school! We are excited to share with you that our Innovation LIVE! events are back for the 2022-23 school year. Our district’s team is excited to bring these events to our classrooms again this year. Last year alone, we had over 29,000 attendees!
This year, we will continue hosting our events on Fridays at 9 am, roughly every two weeks. These events are designed to virtually bring hands-on STEAM learning opportunities to classrooms. Led by our Innovation Team, each event introduces students to a science and/or engineering concept, includes a hands-on engineering challenge, a career connection, live Q &A, and a live Kahoot! game. They are generally 30-45 minutes long. Students can participate as a class by projecting the event from one device or individually by logging in separately with their own devices.
We hope that these continue to provide for a wonderful in-class experience and leads to rich collaborative conversations about what students have learned, designed, and/or built. Students and their families and classrooms can view our recordings of these live events on the district’s Innovation Team YouTube channel.
Below, you will find the dates of each of our live events for the school year, as well as what station will be hosting the event. Our first live event will take place next Friday, July 29 at 9AM on Microsoft Teams. Please keep an eye out for another email with specific details about this event.
If you are not familiar with our Innovation LIVE! events and would like to learn more, you can visit our YouTube channel to see recordings of past events.
Bell Schedule for 2022-2023 School Year
Students in Kindergarten through sixth grade will dismiss at 3:10 pm, Mondays through Thursdays and at 2 pm on all Fridays and minimum days.
***Please note that Kindergarten students will be on a minimum day schedule on the following days: Wednesday, July 20 to Tuesday, July 26. Dismissal for Kindergarten students ONLY will be at 2 pm each day.
Beginning Wednesday, July 27, all students in grades K-6 will be on a full day schedule with dismissal at 3:10 pm, Monday through Thursday. All Fridays and minimum days have a 2 pm dismissal.
Parent Volunteers
The State Public Health Officer Order of August 11, 2021 requires that all K-12 workers, including volunteers and contractors, provide proof of full vaccination (completion of the initial vaccination series) or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. This order is still in effect and the CDPH says there are no plans to change it anytime soon. The requirements to sign in and complete fingerprinting will remain the same. All parent volunteers are allowed to volunteer inside the classroom and buildings after having completed the required training with the school principal and meeting the District’s volunteer requirements. See below for these requirements:
REQUIRED ITEMS:
- Proof of TB
- COVID-19 Evidence: Either a full course of COVID-19 Vaccine OR if not fully vaccinated, a negative test is required within 2 days of the day of volunteering.
- RAPTOR I.D. Scan
- Fingerprint Clearance – DOJ & FBI
Please contact the school office at (619) 479-3662 to be put on the volunteer list.
Free, MTS Youth Opportunity Pass
A new program provides free public transit for San Diego’s youth: The SANDAG Youth Opportunity Pass pilot program is designed to make transportation easier for San Diego County children (those 18 years of age and under), as well as encourage ridership.
Free MTS and NCTD rides under the Youth Opportunity Pass program will continue to be available until June 30, 2023. To take part in the program, children 18 and under will have to sign up for a Youth PRONTO app account or a Youth PRONTO card. Information on PRONTO can be found at https://bit.ly/3rv3ONd.
ZTs, VOR, & New Student Registration
Please remember that a Zone Transfer or Intradistrict Transfer may be denied if a child’s behavior or attendance require improvement.
NEW STUDENT registration is ongoing for those who may be:
- Kindergartners who will be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2022.
- NEW students in grades 1st through 6th
- All registrations will take place online. There will be no paper packets. To register please visit our district website: www.cvesd.org
Allen Elementary has space in our 1st grade classrooms and our PM preschool for this year, but has limited openings in our other grades. Please contact our office for questions about space availability at (619) 479-3662.
Verification of Residency is required by CA state law for all students to attend Allen Elementary in the upcoming school year. Please contact our friendly office staff for assistance with this.
Free COVID-19 Testing
Testing hours and locations may change based on recommendations from County of San Diego Health officials.
*** We recommend that you check www.cvesd.org for the most updated times and locations.
Please contact the school office at (619) 479-3662 with questions. Please note that if a child presents with any COVID-19 symptoms, we are required to send that student home until symptoms improve and families provide a negative test result.
Equity and Access for All Students
Learn more about the school and district’s commitment to equity and access for all children! View this page here: https://allenelementary.org/equity-and-access/
COVID-19 Corner: Health and Safety
Vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 are now available. Please understand that the state of California may in the future be requiring children to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to attend a public school, just as they already do for other diseases (polio, mumps, rubella, etc..). This decision is not a school-based or district-based decision, but rather a state government decision.
The CVESD Board of Education encourages the use of masks indoors at all schools within the Chula Vista Elementary School District, regardless of vaccination status. Masks, although not required, are strongly encouraged for all staff, students, parents, and visitors while indoors on campus. There is an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 in any public place where people are present. The school and district strive to reduce this impact to staff, students, and families.
If your child has a chronic health condition, such as allergies or asthma, please contact the school office and download the form below to have your child’s doctor complete and send it back to the school’s nurse. We recommend doing this in advance of a child showing symptoms.
If your child experiences any symptoms of COVID-19, please keep your child home and contact the school office at (619) 479-3662. If any person (regardless of vaccination status) presents with symptoms of COVID-19 while at school, that person will be immediately sent home and may only return with a negative test and no more symptoms. All schools in CVESD must follow the latest County of San Diego COVID-19 Decision Tree (see below) for persons with symptoms associated with COVID-19.
People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19 and should stay home:
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
*** Please see the latest COVID-19 Decision Tree here: LINK to Newest Decision Tree
Parent-Teacher Club (PTC) Corner
Visit the PTC website at AllenPTC.org to become a member of the PTC and make a donation to support the latest initiative at the school. Allen’s PTC is a 501(c)(3) organization that supports the school’s educational mission through funding programs and initiatives.
Please help support Allen’s PTC by shopping at smile.amazon.com! AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of all eligible purchases to the Allen Elementary PTC when you shop on smile.amazon.com and choose Allen Elementary School Parents Teachers Club Inc as your charity.
Simply follow these instructions to turn on AmazonSmile and start generating donations.
- Open the Amazon Shopping app on your device
- Go into the main menu of the Amazon Shopping app and tap into ‘Settings’
- Tap ‘AmazonSmile’ and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process
Please choose Allen Elementary School Parents Teachers Club Inc by clicking this link for your Amazon purchases: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/95-4403426
Meetings for Families & Staff
Allen School needs parents and legal guardians to support our school through important parent groups, such as the PTC (Parent Teacher Club), the School Site Council (often referred to as SSC), and the English Language Advisory Committee (often referred to as ELAC). The site-based groups work with the Principal, staff, and other community members to ensure that community voice is part of the shared decision making process of a public school.
Family First Friday Meeting
The first Friday of every month is reserved for our Family First Friday, Allen’s version of Coffee with the Principal. Our next Family First Friday will be on Friday, August 5th, 2022 at 8 am. This meeting will be in person at school with a coffee cart available in front of the school.
We encourage parents and legal guardians to join this meeting with a cup of hot coffee or a cold cup of cold brew on nitro and listen to Mr. Greenwell give an update on the school year and meet other amazing Allen families.
English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC)
Ella B. Allen’s next ELAC Meeting will be on August 8, 2022 at 3 pm.
The school encourages all legal parent/guardian of students designated as an English Learner to attend these meetings.
School Site Council (SSC)
Ella B. Allen’s next SSC Meeting will be on August 8, 2022 at 3:30 pm.
All SSC members are welcome to attend ELAC meetings for additional information.
SCHOOL SITE COUNCIL (SSC) is composed of five elected parent/community representatives and five elected staff/teacher representatives. The role of the SSC is to develop, approve, and monitor the School Plan for Student Achievement.
With a few exceptions, meetings are held the second Monday of every month. Until further notice, meetings will be held online. All parents and staff are welcome to attend. Council members serve for two year terms.
Parent Teacher Club (PTC) Meeting
Allen’s PTC usually meets the second Monday of every month at 6pm. Until further notice, all meetings will be held online via this link. The next PTC meeting is August 8th, online at 6 pm. Please also check out the new PTC website to become a member and make a donation: AllenPTC.org
CVESD Board of Education Meeting
The district’s Board of Education meetings are also being held online and generally occur the second Wednesday of each month. The next regularly scheduled CVESD Board of Education meeting is Wednesday, Aug. 10 at 6 pm. Limited in-person access is permitted, but check the district’s website for more information on this.
To access these public meetings, please click the link here: https://www.cvesd.org/board_of_education/board_meetings
CVESD DAC/DELAC Meeting
District Advisory Council (DAC)
The DAC is composed of parent and staff representatives from each School Site Council. It meets regularly during the school year in open public forum to share information, study instructional issues, approve school planning schedules, and make recommendations to the Board of Education on specific items. District meetings take place once a month, mid-afternoon. Most meetings occur on Tuesdays from 12 – 2 pm, with a parent training beforehand. This is an elected position to serve a one-year term.
District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC)
The district will continue to conduct all meetings online until further notice, including all DAC/DELAC meetings. DAC is the District Advisory Committee. DELAC is the District English Learner Advisory Committee. Both of these groups are designed to support and inform parents in a shared communication setting with the district. Parents learn with other parents and district leadership at the DAC/DELAC meetings.
The next DAC/DELAC Meeting will be on August 16, 2022 at 12 noon. This meeting will be in person at the CVESD Education Services and Support Center (ESSC) in room C. The address is 84 East J Street, Chula Vista, CA. 91910.
The link below contains a schedule of all DAC/DELAC meetings for the upcoming school year. I recommend all parents download this schedule if they are interested in learning more about theses district meetings: https://www.cvesd.org/parents/getting-involved/dac-delac
CVESD B-LAC Meeting
District Black Learners Advisory Council (B-LAC)
The B-LAC is composed of parents, staff, and community representatives from around the district. The B-LAC provides and monitors the ongoing support for Black/African American students and families in the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) to ensure unbiased practices/policies, equitable educational outcomes, and equal access to a quality education. The group meets regularly during the school year, once a month. Most meetings occur on Thursdays from 6 – 7 pm. For more information and to download the schedule of these meetings, clink the link: https://www.cvesd.org/parents/getting-involved/black-learners-advisory-council—b–lac
Calendar for the 2022-2023 School Year
The 2022-2023 School Calendar is available online! Click this link to download it. Please reference this when planning vacations or scheduling appointments with your children that may require them to miss school. Excellent attendance is important in student success!
Students in our District are scheduled to start the 2022-2023 school year on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 and end the school year on Friday, June 2, 2023.
Key breaks include:
- Fall Break: September 26 – October 7, 2022
- Thanksgiving Break: November 21 – November 25, 2022
- Winter Break: December 19, 2022 – January 6, 2023
- Spring Break: March 20 – March 31, 2023
Be well Eagles! Stay safe: As a California public school, we encourage everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine and to test regularly. The health and safety of our students, staff, and community is our number 1 concern!
Ella B. Allen Elementary School 