Dear Parents,

There is always something very special about this time of year. There is a spirit in the air. Regardless of one’s religious affiliation and regardless of the commercialism in our streets and stores, a spirit of joy and sharing always seems to prevail during the holiday season.

The holiday season provides a rich opportunity for sensory experiences—the taste of traditional dishes; the smell of spices used in cookies, pies, and other goodies; the sight of beautiful lights, candles, cards, and longed for gifts to give and receive; the sound of bells, music, fires crackling and popcorn popping, and the special feeling of being close to loved ones and appreciating our heritage.
Our children brings us a special joy during this season, as we share meals with friends and relatives, share gifts with our loved ones and share time together as a family. As the year draws to an end, nearly all of us in most occupations receive some extra time off. The best thing to spend on your children is time.

The gifts we give provide momentary pleasures that fade over time and are insignificant compared to the time and love we give each and every day throughout the year. That is the foundation we build in shaping the kind of adults our children will become. Children bring us their special gifts and we can build their confidence and self esteem during those crucial formative years if we as adults:

Remember people, not things, matter most.
Love and accept our children from the day they are born.
Respect our children’s individual differences and appreciate each child’s unique capabilities.
When we think good thoughts about our children, tell them.

Cherish the moments of the season of joy with your children, family, and friends. These are the experiences that give richness and meaning to our lives and are to be treasured and fondly remembered in years to come.
With warm wishes for the holiday season,

Miss Ginnetti

In honor of Robert Louis Stevenson’s birthday, the students of his namesake elementary school had a visit from the Time Traveler himself, played by Arwright Chamberlain, brother of co-PTA Prexy, Felix Chamberlain.

Complete with Scottish attire and brogue to boot, R.L. informed K-2 the true meaning of ‘counterpane’ as a type of blanket and went on to treat them to a reading of his famous children’s poem, “The Land of Counterpane”, encouraging them to create fantasy worlds of their own with toys of choice atop their own comforters at home.

For the upperclassmen, Mr. Stevenson gave a more detailed version of his life and encouraged them to follow their truth and own hearts as he had breaking with the family tradition of lighthouse engineering to writing and as a result, leaving the world a gift of wonderful literature translated world-wide.

Poignant and heartfelt at the end of his presentation, Stevenson unfolded the very treasure map he had drawn for his wife’s son, Lloyd which served as the inspiration for perhaps his most famous work, Treasure Island. He explained great things often come from the smallest of gestures.

On behalf of Principal Ginnetti, the student body, the R.L. Stevenson Day committee and Time Travelers team, we would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and devotion of Ardwight Chamberlain for serving as such a wonderful Robert Louis Stevenson to the delight of us all!

It’s the time of year for numbers. Good or bad, numbers ring as loudly as the bells of the season. How many days until Christmas break? How many hours does the turkey need to cook? How many houses does Santa Claus visit? OK, you get the idea. And speaking of numbers, this year gift cards are among the top-requested presents for the holidays. The National Retail Federation’s recent survey found that holiday shoppers plan to spend nearly $140.00 each on gift cards and that total spending on gift cards is expected to reach $23.63 billion.

Bringing that home, if every family at Stevenson Elementary chose just one $40 gift card from the Shop With Scrip program this holiday season, we would add $500 toward the fund to bring shade to the playground. And that would really help. We are one third of the way into the school year and almost one third of the way to funding the first shade structure. Now that is something we can celebrate.

Another cause for celebration – The Made In The Shade committee has secured a local dermatologist, Dr. Jeff Ashley, as a sponsor for our application to the American Academy of Dermatology’s Shade Structure Program. That’s also terrific news. But there are challenges ahead. The budget crunch has affected corporate funding and we have received a handful rejection letters on our grant proposals to date. We will continue to forge ahead with persistency, sending out more grant applications and identifying more opportunities to bring sun safety education to our families.

And we need more help. Only one in seven families at Stevenson Elementary participate in the Shop With Scrip gift card program. The escrip program, having been in place longer, boasts 56% of families participating, but there is room for improvement. Please help increase these numbers by visiting http://stevensonpirates.net/home/ffs/about-made-in-the-shade. Make sure your family is participating and offer your additional family members, in and out of town, the information they need to register their grocery and credit cards and purchase gift card in our program. It’ll go a long way toward reaching the winning number – 1 – as in the goal to construct our first shade structure in 2010.

I must confess…..If the green police came to my home they would be very disappointed with their findings. I try to do what I know is right. However, I know that there are things in my blue can that shouldn’t be there and there are things in my black can that should be in the blue one!

I must also confess that sometimes I forget my reusable bags. I leave them at home or even in the car and I don’t appreciate the dirty looks I get from the people behind me in line as my groceries are being bagged in paper or plastic.

Several years ago I began a journey that has changed my life. I hope I can share a little bit of it with all of you. It has changed the focus of “being green” to a place I can’t ignore – my children’s health.

Did you know that that commercial cleaning products are not required by law to list their ingredients? I was very surprised when I learned this fact. We work very hard to provide a safe and clean environment for our children to grow up and yet the very products promising to help us do that may actually be causing more harm. This is not the place to get into huge discussion about all of the chemicals but once you are aware of the dangers it is very difficult to go back!

I am going to take a brief moment to talk about chlorine. It is listed in the 1990 Clean Air Act as a hazardous air pollutant.Chlorine and chlorinated compounds are toxic respiratory irritants. When I eliminated chlorine from my home, I noticed a significant improvement in my sons allergies and skin condition. All I did was change my household cleaners and buy filters for the shower and bath. It was the easiest change I have ever made! I currently make my own all purpose cleaner with vinegar (which has been proven to work very well as a disinfectant) and essential oils. There are also so many natural cleaning products out there today, it’s hard to miss them.

I would simply urge parents to take a moment to learn about what is under their sink. The fewer toxic chemicals we use, the healthier our families are and the healthier our earth will be.

Our Students, Teachers and Staff are our Treasure!

We are very proud of our Students and Teachers at Stevenson Elementary for collectively raising our Academic Performance Index by 52 points to a whopping 877 total! That’s 77 points above the target for the state of California schools.

Stevenson’s “Heavy Medal” Awards Assembly on October 30th, 2009, was quite exciting as 569 bronze, sliver and gold medals were awarded to 3rd, 4th, & 5th grade students for:

• advanced in reading and/or math
• proficient in reading and/or math
• moving a band (from basic to proficient, from proficient to advanced, etc..)
• increasing overall score by more than 20 points in either math or reading.

Five of our top students: Connor Boulais, Juno Cendejas, David Jaramillo, Vincenzo Rauso and Makenna Kane, each scored a perfect 600 on the math section – they became members of the 600 Club!

Stevenson’s teachers were also awarded for helping our children exceed our goals.

Distinguished!

Because of this spectacular achievement, Stevenson has been invited once again to apply for the California Distinguished School honor.

To meet the criteria for Distinguished honors Stevenson had to:

• exceed our API growth target as set by the state (we exceeded this goal by 40 points over the national average)
• have all of our subgroups (Hispanic and Socio-economically Disadvantaged and White) improve more than the average statewide growth. This means that our Hispanic group had to increased by more than 17 points. Our increase was 47 points for this subgroup! For SED, we needed to increase by more than 18 points. This group increased by 90 points! We also showed an increase at more than the state average for the White group!

As a school we meet the “Closing the Achievement Gap” eligibility.

Congratulations Stevenson Teachers, Students and Staff for all your hard work!

More Heavy Medal Pictures

The 2009-2010 PTA Reflections Contest at Stevenson has come to a close. Our call for entries was heard and our students submitted some amazing Art, Literature and Photography! The entries were judged and I am pleased to announce the students whose work has been chosen to move on to the Burbank Council Level for Judging!

Visual Arts: Kindergarten – 2nd Grade

• Lucia Thorne
• Catherine Garcia

Visual Arts: 3rd Grade – 5th Grade

• Maya Christian
• Mia Storer

Literature: Kindergarten – 2nd Grade

• Arthur Eldridge

Literature: 3rd Grade – 5th Grade

• Andrew Goodman
• Lillian Hughes

Photography: Kindergarten – 2nd Grade

• Luke Boag
• Nikelle Lonsinger

Photography: 3rd Grade – 5th Grade

• Caroline Dowers
• Phoebe Hughes

Thank you to EVERY student who participated in Reflections – your work was inspiring! Your entries will be displayed in the school Gallery very soon and please stay tuned for information about a special “Artist’s Reception”!

Jessica Good
Reflections Chair
ingoodco@me.com or 818-281-9476

More Reflections Informations