Dear All Saints Families, 

Welcome back everyone!  It is so lovely to see all the children back.  Their happy faces, eagerness to learn, and openness for new friends make my heart sing.  Thank you everyone for returning forms, particularly the emergency form, as so many of them are critical to the functioning of our school.  If you have any concerns about the forms or need new ones, do not hesitate to ask our front office for assistance.  All but the emergency form, can be printed off the website, www.allsaintsjupiter.org.  The emergency form is on colored cardstock paper for immediate identification. 

I am also amazed at our car line.  We seem to be getting through drop-off and pick-up rather smoothly for this time of the year.  These procedures were developed from the Jupiter Police Department and our security evaluation. The biggest concern at any school, as told to me by the professionals, is children in any parking lot.  Children, no matter their age, are often distracted by friends and other issues and do not pay attention to the cars.  All our families are busy people and often are rushing to get to work, extracurricular activities, or appointments, and do not check areas carefully before backing up or moving through traffic.  We are all humans, making mistakes, as we move through life.  Unfortunately, a mistake in the parking lot can have tragic results for our children.  We have been told by the security evaluations that we must eliminate children in any capacity in the parking lot.  That is why we ask that if you have school business in the morning, you go through the carline, drop of children, park by the gym, and then enter the school.  I know you may think your children listen and the walk is an easy one from the parking area by the gym and it is no big deal to walk in with them, but last year as parents did this we almost had two students hit.  One was a 4th grader and one was an 8th grader, ages you would think they are old enough to be safe.  On one incident, a parent was in a huge hurry and backed up without fully looking and on the other incident, the student ran towards a friend who was calling her.  I would never want anyone hurt. 

Further, walking in for your child at afternoon pick-up also causes a similar situation. Once someone starts this and other parents see this, it happens more often. Our faculty and staff are extremely busy helping students listen for their numbers and directing them to the right area.  We do not always catch people walking.  However, if we have lots of children walking throughout the line for pick up, an accident may happen.  On this note, when older siblings come to pick up, they are the worst for trying to avoid line and tell us "mom" told us to come in.  We realize car line is the not the happiest place to spend part of our lives, but it's ALL ABOUT SAFETY.  For you it is about one or two children and you may feel you have it under control, but if we all did it, there would be accidents.  Every child is precious to us.  Thank you for understanding and appreciating our goal of safety.  We really do not enjoy being the parking lot police.

In the next few weeks, students from Kindergarten through sixth grade will learn about the new MAP's testing and be taking the first fall test.   A letter will be going out next week to parents explaining the test, procedures, and how we will use the data to optimize learning in the classroom.  If you would like to learn a little more go to www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/. We are really excited that this test will allow teachers to modify and drive student learning so all students may succeed.

Have an amazing long weekend - no school on Monday!  I know everyone is tired from the first week of school.  Enjoy the eclipse and make sure no one looks at the sun directly.  There are great ways online to make pinhole boxes to view the eclipse.  It would make a fun activity for the little ones Monday morning!