Dear Foothill Community,
The school year has started with great success! Once again we would like to give a big thank you to the parent volunteers who manned the walk-through tables. Over 900 students were processed during walk-through. On August 22, the students arrived prepared, excited and ready for school. In addition, our PFA (Parent Faculty Association) provided a wonderful breakfast for the staff. Thank you for your generous donations that support our staff and students!

We are also excited to welcome our new staff members: William Smith, Spanish; Joel Meier, 7 th Grade Core; Sandy Villers, 6 th Grade Core; Lauren Dowd, 8 th Grade Core; Elizabeth Kreta, 8 th Grade Science; Julie Strong, Strategic Autism; Sandy Anderson, Mixed Choir; Jeanne Johnson, French 1B. Please be sure to give them a friendly Foothill welcome. We are all looking forward to a wonderful year with your children.

Traffic:
Thanks to the efforts of the entire Foothill community and the City of Walnut Creek, improvements have been made to Cedro Lane. New pedestrian and bicycle access points, crosswalks, signals, and lanes have now made our main access street safer for children. However, it is important that we respect the following guidelines for the drop off and pick up of students to support the safest environment possible:

• Please do not drop off students in the staff parking lot
• White zones are for drop off, and red zones are No Parking any time
• The south side of Cedro is No Parking from 7:30 am - 4:00 pm
• Crosswalks should never be used to drop off or pick up students
• Students should always use crosswalks
• Please pick up students in white zones only. There is plenty of room for pick up on the north side of
• Cedro by the field
• Do not pick up students in the staff parking lot
• Be courteous to your fellow drivers and staff!

The top three landfill items at Foothill - Chip Bags, Sandwich Ziplock Bags, 

and students throwing their entire lunch away in a brown paper bag.

5 Tips on How to Pack an Eco-Friendly, Waste-Free Lunch Box:

Foothill students are working hard to be green. One way families can help is to shop for a waste-free lunch box. (Honestly, if you could count the number of brown bag lunches that were tossed, uneaten, every day at Foothill it would change your view of the brown bag lunches forever.) Here are 7 helpful tips:

1. Use a reusable lunch box. Kinda ruins the whole "brown bag lunch" thing, but sending your child's lunch in box, tote, or container is much greener than using and tossing a paper bag each day.

2. Use reusable sandwich bags, no more plastic baggies or zipper bags. There are tons of styles, colors, and materials of these waste-free sandwich bags, as well as snack-sized bags, and many can be washed in the washing machine or dishwasher. Plastic sandwich boxes also work great! 

3. Supply a waste-free beverage bottle or container: Daily juice boxes and water bottles create a lot of unnecessary waste. 

4. Fresh food, whenever possible. Serving your kids fresh lunch items will automatically cut down on your waste -- and it's healthier for your kids too.

5. Buy locally. Buying food items produced locally is super eco-friendly cause that means no one wasted a bunch of gas transporting your edibles all around the country before they got to your kid's lunch. Buy locally whenever you can: try the farmer's markets and local delis and bakeries and more.

CAASPP

The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress results have been released through the California Department of Education. Here is the link to view State, District, and school results: http://caaspp.cde.ca.gov/

At first glance, we are very pleased with the Foothill student's performance. More detailed information will be released after we have had the opportunity to study the data and analyze the results.

MDUSD Intramural Middle School Sports Program:

The MDUSD Middle School Sports Program continues this year with all nine middle schools participating in three sports: soccer, basketball, and flag football. Soccer sign-ups are happening now. Please contact Ms. Whitehead, whiteheadm@mdusd.org, our Foothill Sports Site Coordinator for more information. You can also find more information by going to the Foothill website. The program is free. Walnut Creek Recreation is still offering additional Foothill programs for a fee. For more information check out their website.

Site Council Openings

There are currently three openings on this year's Foothill Site Council. The positions available include: a three-year parent position, an ELAC (English Learner Advisory Commission) parent position, and a 6 th grade student representative. Site Council is an important group that meets once a month to discuss program, funding, and other areas of importance at Foothill. Please contact Carolyn Cruz at cruzc@mdusd.org for more information.

Community Service Day:

Don't forget your gloves and shovels for the October 14 Community Service Day at Foothill. We will continue to work on campus beautification. Thank you to PFA for funding these wonderful Foothill improvement projects!

A6 Computer Lab Open Daily Before School/ New After School Library Hours:

The A6 computer lab will be open Monday thru Friday from 7:30 - 8:00 am for academic purposes. Mrs. Wesser-Singh will be supervising. In additional, new this year - if your child has a project to complete with a group, or wants a quiet place to get some homework completed the library will be open after school on Tuesdays from 2:35 -3:30 pm. Mrs. Lamb will be supervising. All are welcome!

Back By Popular Demand, Coffee With Dave

Don't miss the first Coffee With Dave from 7:30 to 8:15 am at the Foothill Library on Friday, September 29. This is an opportunity for mingling, question asking, and getting to know more about Foothill. Mr. Roe will be your host and his coffee is always from Peet's!

Wishing you a great fall!

Respectfully, 

April Bush, Dave Roe, Theodora Pappas, Mary Phalon, Elizabeth Brathwaite

Every parent at Foothill is automatically a member of the Parent Faculty Association.  Getting involved and attending PFA meetings is one of the best ways you can stay engaged and informed about what is going on at Foothill.  On  Wednesday, September 20 at 7:00 pm in the library, the PFA will be having our first meeting of the year.   We will be voting on some important items, including some new board members and possibly a few funding items.   The PFA generally meets the third  Wednesday of the month, and the agenda for the meeting is published on the  PFA website the week prior.  We still have a few open board positions so if you are interesting in volunteering please email:  president.foothillpfa@gmail.com.  Mark your calendars - we hope to see you there.