WAIAU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MEAL PRICE INCREASE Meal

December 2009
WAIAU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
January 2010
ADMINISTRATOR’S MESSAGE
Dear Waiau Families and Friends,
I hope you are having a great Holiday season. Please be aware of the change in our calendar. Our
students will be coming back to school from winter break on Tuesday January 5th. Originally, January 5th
was a waiver day. Our teachers thought long and hard and together they decided to convert two of the
remaining three professional development days to instructional days. The other day that was changed from a
professional development day to an instructional day is Tuesday February 16. The decision to convert the
two professional development days to instructional days was a tough decision to make. We value the time
we can spend with each other developing curriculum and getting better at helping all of our students to learn.
On the other hand we also value the time we have with our students. At this point in time we
felt that the additional instructional days would help to alleviate the loss of seventeen days
due to the furloughs.
Sincerely,
Troy Takazono
MEAL PRICE INCREASE
Starting in January 2010, the cost
for school meals will be increased:
LUNCH with milk.......... $ 2.20
MILK only...................... $ .50
Reduced lunch .............. $ .40
SECOND LUNCH ……
$ 4.40
BREAKFAST.................. $ .95
Reduced breakfast……… $ .30
SECOND BREAKFAST $ 1.90
The school meal program is
subsidized by the government and
is for DOE students and staff only.
Meals meet the necessary dietary
requirements of children and we
encourage all children to buy
school lunch.
Meal Accounts
All students must have credit in a meal account prior to
taking a school lunch or breakfast. Please ensure that
your child’s account has a continuous balance.
A collection box is available in the office for check
payments. Checks should be made out to the Department
of Education with a note of your child's legal name and
room number. All CASH payments must be given to an
office staff with a Meal Payment Form (provided at
counter). Payment will be acknowledged and a copy of
the Meal Payment Form returned as a receipt.
If an occasional loan becomes necessary, reminders will
be sent home with your child. Loans should be repaid on
the next school day. Loans are limited to three (3) per
student at any given time.
We thank you for your understanding and assistance in
helping to comply with the National School Lunch
Program regulations.
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MEAL BENEFITS
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
December
8-9 HSA Quarterly Assessments grades 3-6
10
Group picture taking
SCC Community mtg, courtyard: 5:30 p.m.
Family movie night and performing arts
showcase to follow
11
Furlough Friday- no school in session
15-19 Student Council Spirit Week
15
Pre and Grade K Story Time with
Mrs. Claus, library: 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.
17
2nd Quarter Assembly, cafe: 1:00 p.m.
18
Furlough Friday- no school in session
21- Jan 1 Winter Intersession
(No School In Session)
January
4
Teacher Work Day (No School In Session)
5
Third Quarter begins for students
7,8,11 Grade 4 ‘Ike Pono guest speakers
8
Collaboration week schedule begins
14
H1N1 Flu Clinic
15
Furlough Friday- no school in session
18
Martin Luther King Jr’s Day Holiday
(No School In Session)
19
Report Cards distributed
27
Grade 5 204A/B to Academy of Arts
29
Furlough Friday- no school in session
Waiver Day Change
Through the School Community Council
(SCC) process, we have requested to convert
our January 5 and February 16
Waiver/Planning and Collaboration Days to
student instructional days. Although we feel
this time for staff development and planning is
valuable, we also feel that the loss of
instructional time due to the furloughs was too
great. Students should report to school after
the winter break on Tuesday, January 5,
2010.
Applications for free/reduced price meals
are accepted throughout the year. If you
would like to apply or re-apply, please stop
by the office to pick up the forms. Follow all
instructions and turn in the form to the
office quickly. We will review for
completeness and submit to the School
Food Services Branch (SFS). They will
process your application and determine
eligibility. A letter of Notification of
Eligibility will be sent home upon
determination. Please call the
office if you need assistance.
Breakfast
Breakfast is served from 7:20 to 7:40 a.m. daily.
Students will not be served after 7:40 a.m.
Breakfast must be consumed in the cafeteria.
Parents may not purchase breakfast for siblings and
other family members.
Lion’s Vision Screening
Good vision is very important to every
child's educational performance. On
November 24th, the Pearl City Lions Club
conducted a free on-site vision screening.
46 students were tested for eye
movements and near and distance vision
under the supervision of professional
optometrists, Dr. Eryle Okamura and Dr.
Ira Fujisaki. The screening helped identify
18 students who may need corrective
eye care.
Thank you to the Pearl City Lion's Club for
their continued help and support of
Waiau Elementary School.
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Birthday Book Program
We have 3 new birthday books to add to our
library. All three can be found in the HawaiiPacific section of our library. Dakota Kaupu chose
Keoni’s Special Gift as her birthday book. It tells
of Keoni, a little fish, whose dream of flying
comes true. Local author Dorinda Lum’s
wonderful story is beautifully illustrated by
Michael Furuya.
Maka Igarta-Pieters birthday book choice,
Pulelehua and Mamaki, by Janice Crowl, follows
the life of Ke Li’i, growing from egg to beautiful
Kamehameha Butterfly in the protective mamaki
tree. Harinani Orme’s illustrations are stunning!
Aloha ‘Oe; the Song Heard Around the World by
Leslie Ann Hayashi and Kathleen Wong Bishop is
Nahe Igarta-Pieters’ gift to our library. What
contributed to the creation of this song and how
did it touch so many people? Fascinating!
Parent Project
Broken Window:
Time off work to meet
with the principal:
Counseling:
Parent Project© solutions:
$ 100
$ 300
$1,000
Priceless!
The Parent Project is a 10-week course to
help parents deal with some of the many
challenges of working with teens:
arguments, prevention and intervention of
drugs and alcohol use and school attendance
and performance. Course will be offered at
Waiau Elementary on Tuesday evenings.
Contact Jenny Kim 454-8815 for more
information.
Birthday Book forms are available at the school
office or library. For $10, your child can select
one of the beautiful new books Mrs. Teraizumi has
set aside for our birthday book program. A
bookplate with your child’s name on it as the
donor will be placed in the book and the book will
be added to our library collection. It’s a great way
to commemorate your child’s special day.
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Geographic Exceptions
for SY‘09-‘10
We will be accepting Geographic Exception
(G.E.) requests for School Year 2010-11 from
January 4, 2010 through February 26, 2010.
Geographic Exceptions to Waiau Elementary
will be considered for all grade levels for
families looking for a school with a balanced
curriculum including the arts as well as the
Hawaiian Immersion program.
New students to the Hawai’i Department of
Education, including incoming kindergarteners,
apply through the school in your home district.
Students currently in the system apply through
their current school. If your child is currently on
an approved G.E. and will continue to attend
Waiau Elementary, you need not reapply.
All 6th graders wishing to attend an
intermediate school outside of your home
school district (Highlands Intermediate for Pearl
City residents), will have to apply for a G.E. If
your sixth grader will not be attending
Highlands Intermediate next school year,
please contact us. Should you have any
questions, please feel free to call the school
office at 453-6530.
Pearlridge Christmas
Spectacular
Come join us as the Waiau Performing
Arts group performs their annual
Holiday Celebration at Pearlridge.
It will be a festive time of joyful voices
celebrating the season. We look forward
to seeing you there!
Monday, December 14. Look for us
Uptown on the 2nd level near Sephora
from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Hope to see you
there!
Spotlight on Grade 2
We, the second graders, have been very
busy learning many new things this year.
We went on a field trip to Makaha Farm in
November. It is a special place that helped us
extend our learning on plants, animals, and the
importance of interdependence in an
ecosystem. We were given the opportunity to
visit different areas of the farm and feel peace
and harmony with the ‘aina. Here we fed
goats, felt the soft fur of a lion bunny, caught
sunfish with a net, fed hungry ducks and
geese, and sat in an apiary as we watched bees
busy in their hives. Tasting the honey that
comes from the hives was a one of a kind
experience.
The ‘aina or land provides so many delicious
fruits and vegetables to eat. On the farm, we
enjoyed sweet papaya, tangy star fruit, and
soft guava picked fresh from the tree. We
harvested vegetables and planted new baby
plants too. It was very exciting to know that
we were helping to continue the life cycle of
plants on the farm.
We have also been busy learning a problem
solving response called “RABC”. RABC is a
strategy that helps us to organize our thinking
in writing. “R” means to restate the question
in our “A” or answer. “B” is where we back
up our answer using quotations or details. For
“C”, it is important to connect the “B” to the
“A” in my “C”. “C” means connect or
conclude.
With the continued help and support of our
parents and school wide system, we look
forward to learning many more things while
facing new challenges.
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Leeward District Young Artists
Show
The 16th Annual Leeward Young Artists Awards
show was held on November 3, 2009 at the
Kapolei Hale Courtyard. This is an annual show
that accepts art work from all Leeward District
elementary, middle, and high schools. This
year there were over 200 entries. Fourth
graders from Mrs. Omura’s class had their craypaz self-portraits submitted and were all
selected as 2009 Leeward Young Artist Awards
Finalists. Congratulations to Makoa Chinen,
Kanani Lopes, Serena Lum, Alexis Marquina,
Jordan Quiles, Ikaika Rutkowski, and Shannen
Sakai on a job well done. Way to represent
Waiau as 7 out of 49 finalists with your
beautiful art work. You surely demonstrated
how to meet GLO #4 as a Quality Producer.
Asbestos Report
In compliance with the U.S. Environment
Protection Agency (EPA) Asbestos Hazard
Emergency Response Act (AHERA), this is to notify
you that our Asbestos Program Report and Plan is
on file in our school office. The report is
available to any interested party during the
school day.
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