"Lyon-Developing Lifelong Learners and Leaders."
May 26, 2017


Principals' Post
Dear Lyon Families,

We would like to share a few celebrations and opportunities for improvement as we wrap up the 2016-2017 school year.  Please take just a few moments of your time to review the following information and our plan to continue to improve as we head into the 2017-2018 school year.

Thank you for your support,

  Casey Mitchell and Jeanette Brown


Beginning with the the 2017-2018 school year, Lyon Elementary will officially be a Leader in Me school! We have been working hard to develop student leaders and an official adoption of The Leader in Me process will provide Lyon staff with the tools needed to move forward in their efforts to ensure students are lifelong learners and leaders.

The Leader in Me process teaches students the skills needed for academic success in any setting. These skills include critical thinking, goal setting, listening and speaking, self-directed learning, presentation-making and the ability to work in groups. This process is based on the belief that each child has unique strengths and has the ability to be a leader. 

Lyon students will develop an in-depth understanding of the Seven Habits of Happy Kids. This is a key component of the process. The 7 Habits are:
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand and then to be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

The adoption of this process directly aligns to the district's Comprehensive School Improvement Plan goals developed from stakeholder feedback. They are: 
  • We will promote leadership by fostering persistence, initiative, and determination in all students.
  • We will foster leadership by establishing & maintaining a character education program.
Lyon staff, including bus drivers, secretaries, cooks, cusotodians, aides and teacher, will attend training this summer. Learning will continue throughout the year. We will share highlights of this process throughout the 2017-2018 school year.

School Improvement Plan:

A few celebrations in writing and math include :
  • All six grade levels increased their percentage of proficient and advanced students in the area of writing from 3rd quarter to 4th quarter by at least 1%.
  • 4th grade increased their proficient and advanced students in writing by more than 10% due to explicit teaching of voice and organization within their writing lessons. 
  • In math, four of six grade levels met their goal of 80% of their students proficient or advanced on all quarterly math standards.
Opportunities for Improvement include:
  • Three grade levels are below the goal of 80% proficient or advanced on 4th quarter literacy standards.
  • 3rd grade had a 23% decrease in students meeting 4th quarter math standards.
Next Steps include:
  • A protocol for looking at student work will be utilized during Early Release Fridays. Kindergarten-2nd grade teachers were trained in Spring 2017, with 3rd-5th grade teachers being trained in Fall 2017.
  • Kindergarten-2nd grade teachers will continue to work with the district math instructional coach to instill a stronger number sense amongst Lyon students.

Attendance celebrations include:
  • Lyon students met their monthly goal of student's average daily attendance at or above 95%.
  • 93.9% of Lyon students have at least 90% attendance for the year.  This percentage exceeds the district CSIP expectation of 93%.
Opportunities for Improvement include:
  • Lyon's average daily attendance for the year was 95.92%.  This percentage is slightly lower than the average from the 2015-2016 school year of 96.02%..  
Next Steps include:
  • Monthly celebrations will occur if Lyon students have 95.5% attendance for the month.
  • Counselors and Specials teachers will continue to monitor individual student attendance.
  • All students falling below 90% attendance will be placed on our tiered attendance intervention plan.
  • Classrooms will continue to celebrate daily perfect attendance by placing attendance flags in the hallway.  Upon 17 days of perfect attendance, a prize wheel will be brought to the classroom to celebrate.
Communication Survey Results



Thank you to all participants who took time to complete Lyon's Communication  Survey.  From those results, Lyon will continue to improve our communication.  

Celebrations include
  • 89% of Lyon families agree or strongly agree Lyon's monthly building newsletter is beneficial and helpful.
  • 72% of Lyon families agree or strongly agree weekly classroom newsletters are helpful in meeting your child's needs.
Opportunities  for Improvement as stated within the survey:  
  • Lyon families suggested more frequent use of text alerts.
  • Ensure fair representation of classes appearing on Facebook.
  • Classroom Newsletters should be more specific about what is happening in the classroom and ways parents can assist their child.
Next   Steps:
  • Lyon teachers will work to ensure classrooms newsletters are formatted in a similar manner, and contain purposeful information.  
  • A systematic process will be developed to ensure fair social media usage of each classroom.
  • Text alerts will be utilized as a tool for quick updates/reminders of building-wide events.
Important Dates and Times:

Summer Office Hours:  7:45-3:45, M-F
  • May 29: Lyon Office Closed in observance of Memorial Day
  • May 30:  PTO meeting, 6:00 p.m.
  • May 30-June 23:  Summer School, all Lyon students will attend Sweeny Elementary for summer school
  • July 3-July 14:  Lyon office closed
  • August 4th:  Class Lists posted at 5:00 p.m.
  • August 7th: Open House, 5:30p.m.-7:00 p.m.


"Don't Just Shoot for the Stars-Be One."