Ralston Elementary Blog

Ralston will host the Colorado Rockies mascot Dinger for a character education assembly on Tuesday, February 16 at 2:00 p.m . The message will include making good choices, respect, and getting involved in your community. Students are encouraged to wear Rockies colors on Tuesday!

The deadline is rapidly approaching for submitting photos to be considered for the yearbook. Please email photos to Michelle Dos Santos, michelle_3733@comcast.net, along with a brief description, e.g., event and grade. The deadline for submitting photos is next Thursday, February 18.

Autumn Montgomery, the Ralston media specialist, is putting together the spring volunteer schedule for the library.

Thanks so much to all the parents and grandparents who already volunteer in the library. We are looking for a few more volunteers to fill in the scheduled shifts. If you could commit to two shifts a month it would be a tremendous help!  Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons would be especially helpful. Volunteering in the library is a fun way to make a contribution to Ralston whether your child’s class is scheduled during your shift or not. On the job training is provided!

Please consider helping out in the library. It is a great way to be involved and present at the school.  Give Autumn a call at 303-982-4386, or shoot her an e-mail at amontgom@jeffco.k12.co.us to let her know when you might be available to help in the library this spring!

The Jared Polis Foundation is proud to honor fifteen outstanding K-12 classroom teachers who work in the Colorado public school system. Honorees will each receive a $1,000 award and their schools will also receive a $1,000 teacher-directed grant during the Teacher Recognition Awards Ceremony on Friday, May 7 from 4:30-6:30 p.m., which coincides with the 2010 National Teacher Appreciation Week, at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield.

In order to nominate a teacher for this award, go to http://www.jaredpolisfoundation.org/TR and submit a brief one-page essay on how the teacher nominee demonstrates the following three qualities:

• Innovative and effective teaching that demonstrates clear academic results for students; please describe these results by providing a detailed example/s
• Commitment to their students; please explain how the teacher goes above and beyond official job requirements
• The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to create a positive school environment; please illustrate the teacher’s collaboration with peers through one or more examples.

All nominations must be submitted online, including contact information for the nominee and the person nominating. Submit your nomination to http://www.jaredpolisfoundation.org/TR. All nominations must be submitted by Friday, April 2, 2010, and will be reviewed by an external review committee of educational non-profit organizations. Teacher honorees and their schools, as well as all those who nominated a teacher, will be notified by Friday, April 23.

For more information, contact Kristin Bugbee at kristinbugbee@gmail.com or call the foundation at 303.865.3980.

We are seeing a new round of viruses including strep, stomach illnesses and coughs. Please don’t send your child to school if he/she is displaying signs of being sick. There a few kids coming to school “to see if they can make it through their day,” which exposes others to illness and doesn’t allow us to stay healthy as a school community. If your child has a fever, is vomiting or has an extremely severe cough, please keep your child home. Thank you!

Ralston held its annual Spelling Bee on the evening of January 21, and Noelle Van Lerberghe emerged as the winner with Logan Westgard as the runner-up (pictured below with Principal Quanbeck). They will progress to the area spelling bee on February 4.

The other finalists competing in the Bee were Carson Green, Daniela Torres, Dylan Dempsey, Elise Gaskell, Rachael Staebell, Mariah Cross, Emma Moyers, Ashley Smith, Jack Schutz, Steve Poindexter, Dayn Pyykkonen, Josh Schlicht, Jordan Laughlin, A.J. Dolan, Aspen Williams, Daniel Bjorklund, Brooke Love, Mac Tuten, Gunnar Bertas, Abby Moser, Adam Boylston, Grace Machovina and Max Abariotes.

Thanks to all of the volunteer teachers and parents that helped prepare the kids and put on a successful Spelling Bee. We’ll do it again next year!

Science Fair 2010 will be held on Thursday and Friday February 4 & 5.  This is a great opportunity for you to get more involved and learn about science!  Our school will also be hosting the Mountain Area Science Fair this year on Saturday, February 6.  Our school hosts this fair once every ten to twelve years!  All first place winners of standard scientific method projects will be invited to participate in this Mountain Area fair.

Registration packets are now available in the school office or can be downloaded from the Ralston Web site at http://sc.jeffco.k12.co.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=235 Registration forms were due Tuesday, January 19; however, late registrations will be accepted.  Please turn them in ASAP.

Display boards are available in the school office for $7 each.

Back this year: Prize drawings for all who participate! You can win your own Slime Science Kit, Fingerprint Science, Erupting Sparkling Fizzing Fun, Mentos Geyser Tube (4 to win), Cyclone Tube to make your own tornado in a bottle, Soda Can Robug, Solar Science, Magic School Bus Soaring into Flight or Usborne Big Book of Science.

Parents: We are in need of volunteers to help judge the science projects on Thursday evening, February 4 from 5:30 to 8:30.  Dinner & dessert will be provided to all judges!  If interested, please fill out the bottom portion of the science fair registration form or contact Amy Flynn 303-526-9263 or Lanie Westgard 303-526-2574.

Principal Quanbeck is hosting a school sleep in — come catch some ZZZ’s in the place you spend your days and see what it’s like to sleep in your school. We will be making and playing games, learning how to draw, watching a movie, eating food and seeing the goings on in the school at night.

Not wanting to sleep in the school? Come play with us until 9:30 p.m. and have your chariot come pick you up. All participants will have to have a permission slip signed and turned in.

To volunteer or for questions contact Paula Smith at paperaino@yahoo.com, 303-594-2189 or 303-526-0649 (home).

When: Friday, January 29 – Saturday, January 30

Where: Ralston Elementary School

Time: 6:30 p.m. -8:15 a.m.

Cost: $30 for the full night, $25 if you are leaving at 9:30 p.m. Friday night. (All proceeds will benefit Ralston PTA).

RSVP: by Wednesday January 27 with the permission slips [coming soon] to the school office.

What to bring: Sleeping bag, pillow, sleeping mat, favorite stuffed animal, PJ’s (appropriate for the school setting), slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, etc. and water bottle. Please label all items.

The Facilities Usage Committee presented a new list of options to the Board of Education last night, Thursday, January 14. If you have not seen the latest report, see the latest press release.

Our winners in the district level of the Reflections program will be on display at Red Rocks Community College until Saturday, January 23. Those that were selected as winners at the state level will be notified soon.

For Ralston, our winners are:
Thomas Rasmussen – Photography
Thom Wilkinson – Photography

Congratulations!

The Facility Usage Committee, made up of about 30 community members, had its last meeting Monday. The group finalized recommendations it will present to the school board on January 14. 

Jefferson County Schools faces a $40 million budget shortfall over the next two years. This committee was formed in March as the district began looking for noneducational areas to cut.

See the Denver Post article for more information.

Join us for an Internet safety presentation to help parents understand the risks children face when they go online.

Ralston is hosting a PARENT-ONLY presentation at the PTA meeting on Tuesday, November 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the Ralston Library Media Center
Mike Harris, a Jefferson County District Attorney Investigator, will give a presentation followed by a Q&A session. Students are NOT allowed at this meeting so that parents can have an open, candid and graphic discussion of what dangers exist for children who go online. Babysitting will be available at the school.

We are also hosting an assembly for the 4th – 6th graders on Friday, November 20, at 10:00 a.m.

Family Movie Night is back! Join us for the showing of Hotel for Dogs on Friday, November 13 at 6:30 p.m.

We’ll be watching in the Ralston Gym, so bring your sleeping bags, pillows and camp chairs and get comfortable.

Admission is free. Popcorn, treats and beverages will be available for purchase. No children will be admitted without parent.

See you there!

Jefferson County Public Health and Jefferson County School District implemented a real-time school influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance project in late Spring of this year in preparation for the 2009 influenza/flu season.  As of October 2009, 91- 97% of Jefferson County Public Schools are reporting daily.  

They have posted some charts, to be updated regularly, on thier Web site: http://www.jeffco.us/health/health_T111_R242.htm

Also on this page is a series of Q&A about school closure and monitoring influenza activity.

Do you want to be able to attend a conference with your student’s teacher and not worry about missing work? This summer, Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill that allows parents/guardians to take unpaid time off of work to attend school-related activities.

The Parental Involvement in K-12 Education Act gives parents, who work at public agencies or companies with more than 50 workers, the chance to take six hours per month or 18 hours each school year of unpaid leave to go to things like parent-teacher conferences, special education interventions or behavioral meetings with educators. The bill says employers have the discretion to limit the time taken to be no more than three hours at one time.

Part-time workers have access to a portion of those leave hours depending on their work schedule. According to the law, all employees have to give their supervisors a week’s notice and provide them with written verification from the school or school district of the academic activity.

The leave under this bill is specified as unpaid leave, but it states employers can make agreements with employees, allowing them to take paid leave and then make up the work time in the same week or use available accrued paid leave such as vacation, sick, personal or paid time off.

Our temps are leaving us! With the addition of our new classrooms, we are ready to say goodbye to our temporary buildings. Preparations will begin for the actual move with heavy equipment on site and a ramp being built to move the temp that currently resides near the playground. We will use temporary and chain link fencing to keep kids away from the areas affected. The temps will be staged in our parking lot for part of a night, then moved in the middle of the night. The whole process will take a couple of weeks and is weather-dependent. The field will be returned to its original state, but they won’t re-sod until March.

Thank you in advance for all of our wonderful families that signed up to bring donations for the Carnival’s Cake Walk. Please drop those off at the school on Friday, October 2, either before or after school. There will be a table in the office to accept your donations. And even if you haven’t already signed up to do so, please feel free to bring those donations to the school! Thanks for helping to make our Carnival fundraiser a big success!

Weigh in on questions being discussed by the Jeffco Facilities Usage Committee at the public meetings. Share your ideas on how to make Jeffco Public Schools more efficient and effective. Be part of the change!

Monday, September 21
Arvada West High School Auditorium
6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Posted by Karen Quanbeck, Principal

On Tuesday, Sept. 8, President Obama will address the nation’s school children via a live broadcast at 10 a.m. (Denver time). The speech will be carried live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN. According to the White House, the intent of the speech is to encourage students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning. School districts across the country have been asked to make the speech available to students.

We are allowing teachers to make a classroom-based decision regarding showing the speech. Students are allowed to “opt out” of the speech if it is shown in their classroom.

Teachers will not discuss political beliefs with students. As indicated above, the intent of the speech is to “encourage students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.” Any follow up activities must be tied to the district’s curriculum and NOT include political beliefs.

Teachers will let their students know on Friday, Sept. 4, if they plan to show the speech. If you would like to have your child “opt out” of viewing the speech, you can call or email your child’s teacher, contact me at 982-4386 or kquanbec@jeffco.k12.co.us OR return the note that will be included in your child’s weekly folder. We will provide a fun educational alternative activity.

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Although this has been an interesting controversy throughout the nation, our attention is still focused on the students in our classrooms and the aligned curriculum we deliver.

Welcome! We’re glad you found us. We are Ralston Elementary, a wonderful school located in the foothills overlooking Golden. We’ll be posting a lot of helpful information for you and your kids on this blog, so please visit us often.