The Cove Connection 

 Sunday, May 9th, 2021

Issue #33

For Previous Issues Click Here

UPCOMING DATES

• May 11 - CAASPP Testing Begins

• May 12- Bike to School Day- Meet the group! Details below

• May 18 - LCMSD Board Meeting, 6:00pm-9:00pm

• May 26- PTO Board Meeting, 7:00pm, via zoom

• May 31- Memorial Day Holiday, No School

All Fridays

• Lost & Found outside at the loop

• Assembly, 11:10am, distance learners, please log on 

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

CAASPP Testing

On Tuesday we will begin CA Assessment of Student Progress and Performance (CAASPP) testing for 3rd-5th grade students.  

Testing Schedule- Testing will occur in the morning between roughly 8:15-9:45am Tuesday- Thursday.  ELA (Reading and Writing) is the week of 5/10, Math (and science for 5th grade only) the week of 5/17. 

Home Support- Staff, students and parents form one team to ensure that kids are well-rested and ready to give their best effort over the next couple of weeks. Teachers will make every effort to reduce stress on students. At home, please encourage healthy breakfasts and getting to bed early.  Our children look to us in these situations that can be stressful; please provide calm reassurance and perspective that they can do this and we believe in them. Please have students bring books to read if they finish early. 

Arrive on Time- Bring students to school on time (please don’t schedule morning appointments). Each morning, teachers will be creating a safe, comfortable environment to transition students into the tests. Late arrivals will be unsettling to your child and will be disruptive to the testing environment. If you must pick your child up for an appointment, please do so after testing.  

Testing Approach/ Philosophy- At Cove, we focus on the whole child, and we use multiple measures to determine a child’s progress and proficiency. CAASPP results offer some insights into student learning: by individual, by grade level, by content strand, and as a whole school. This year, after a most unusual past 14 months, we are interested to see what the data shows. It will help us look at trends and see how we can adjust to meet student needs moving forward. The scores are not used to determine whether a student moves on to the next grade.

I ask that we, as the adults in their lives, remind our students that they have been working hard, problem-solving, learning different strategies, showing their work and practicing their skills all year. Whatever task is before them, they should put their best effort forth, believe in themselves and know that they can do this. They have a team of teachers, parents and their principal cheering them on!  

More details about the test can be found in this LCMSD CAASPP Parent Letter from Daniel Norbutas, Senior Director of Educational Services and Technology.

Sincerely,

Michelle Walker, Principal

SCHOOL NEWS

International Bike (or walk or scoot) to School Day- May 12

At last Friday’s assembly, students heard about our challenge- No cars in the drop off loop on Wednesday, May 12.  Can we do it? 

Julie Griffiths, our Safe Routes to School volunteer has organized ways for everyone to participate- whether you live close or far!

• Live in Larkspur? Meet Mrs. Walker for the bike train at the footbridge behind Redwood (near Andrew’s Camp) at 7:35am.

• Live in Corte Madera? Meet Mrs. Walker’s bike train and Safe Routes parent volunteer Julie to bike, scoot or walk from the Cove neighborhood. Meet at 7:50 at the intersection of Spindrift and Seawolf. 

• Live far away? Park and join us at Spindrift and Seawolf (see above).

We would love to have all Cove Coyotes participate!!!

Please Be On Time! We have had a lot of students arriving late. Please arrive at 8:05 to ensure time to transition to your class by 8:10. If the gate closed or no staff member is there when you arrive, please come to front of school and call into the office.

Water Bottles: Please be sure to send your child with a re-usable water bottle each and every day. They can even keep one at school and refill it there.

Test or 10 Livestream Only: Live streaming is only available for mandated quarantine periods. Live stream will continue being offered to students who are on Test or 10 due to symptoms or possible exposure (including required quarantine after travel). Live streaming is not available during travel when school is in session, and it is not available for an occasional absence even if due to non-COVID illness. 

District Update: Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant Meeting was held this week for staff and parents. The district shared what state and federal grants have/will be received to help mitigate the effects of COVID, as well as proposed expenditures. The final version of plan will be recommended for Board approval on May 18, 2021.  Here is the slide deck.

PTO NEWS

So much love for our amazing teachers and staff during this past week! 

Thank you showering our teachers and staff! They received flowers and cards, they enjoyed coffee and donuts, a picnic lunch, a token gift, and an awards show!

The First Annual Coyotes Awards At Friday’s Assembly we held our first ever Coyote Awards! Each Cove teacher and staff member was nominated for and won in varied categories. The teachers and students loved it!  

For a complete list of categories, nominations and winners, click here. 

To watch the Award Show click here.

Special thanks to Erin Alvarez, Kristen Slowe, Kate Kropf, Karen Ruppaner and Catherine Wold for making Teacher Appreciation Week happen!

PTO Board Member Moment "We are so lucky to have such a wonderful and dedicated PTO at The Cove and I love being a part of this group. Our sole focus is to make this school the most enriching, innovative, engaging and accepting place it can be for our kids. What could be better than that? - Julie Kirsner Griffiths

PTO Board for 2021-2022 Open Positions! We are looking for:

• Lost & Found Lead: organizes L&F, and coordinates walk-thrus.

• Variety Show: help with rehearsals, coordination of the event, and/ or have technical show experience.

If you’d like more information or are interested, email PTO President Kristen Slowe at president@covepto.org 

SPARK UPDATES

Fund the District Gap! We are $21K away from our goal! One generous Challenge Grant donor family has just donated half of our challenge grant! That’s $25k because we are halfway there. Let’s do this! 

This is our last big push to reach our $1.5M fundraising goal for our district budget for this year-2020-2021. Last year we raised $65K from more than 120 families through our virtual paddle raise and we know we can do it again! Donations count towards your family's Annual Giving contribution for this year. Any amount - big or small- is deeply appreciated. Check out our progress here. And donate here. 

We need you! Every dollar counts!  Our kids & their teachers need us! 

Spring Online Auction Items Still Available In case you didn’t get a chance to bid on items, we have a select group of items still available as well as open sign-up party spots. Check them out here.

SPARK Biz Partner F45 Training Corte Madera is offering a special:  Locally owned and operated by District parents, F45 is conveniently located in the Village at Corte Madera.  Sign up for a 7-Day trial by May 31, 2021, and 100% of the proceeds will benefit SPARK!  Check out the link in the @f45_training_cortemadera bio to sign-up using promo code: SPARK or call (415)800-2066 for more information. 

Join the SPARK Board next year! We have several openings including: Biz Chair, Treasurer, and Annual Giving support. Please contact: info@SPARKschools.org for more information.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Please click link to view Community News that includes updates from: 

• Corte Madera Parks & Rec

• NY Broadway Training Camps and Classes

• Warriors Basketball Camp at Redwood High School

• Summer Sings! Music Camp for Girls in Grades K-5

• Summer Volleyball Camp at Piper Park

Follow Us! #CoveSchool  #WeAreLCMSD

ABOUT THE COVE CONNECTION The Cove Connection is a digital bulletin published by the CovePTO and distributed to The Cove School community each Sunday via email. To submit content to the Cove Connection, please email info@covepto.org. To receive a subscription to The Cove Connection, or to change your email address, send a note to  covesecretaries@lcmschools.org.