FRiday Note - April-17-2009

From The Head of School

Dear Saklan Community:

Last week you should have received a parent survey from the OMP Group. We are seeking your opinion regarding the quality of the program and your overall experience at Saklan. We are using a third party to collect the data; no one at Saklan will know “who said what about whom.” The data and comments will be presented the Board of Trustees and I without attribution or identifying information. The feedback you provide will serve as the foundation for planning Saklan’s future.

Next Friday is a very special day for the faculty and staff of Saklan. As the culminating event in a week long Teacher Appreciation celebration, the Parents’ Association takes the teachers and staff out to lunch; therefore, on Friday, April 24th, we will have a 12:00 dismissal, and there will be no Extended Day available.

We are in the middle of our search process for the new Spanish and Mandarin teachers. The candidates we have interviewed to date are very strong. During the next few weeks we will be inviting several applicants back to teach sample lessons. It is my hope to have both positions filled by the middle of May.

Please come join us for the Spring Follies on Friday, April 24th. As you are well aware, we have some very talented students; it should be a great morning.

Enjoy your weekend-

David Hague
Head of School

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Student Council Rummage Tomorrow!

Are you planning to do some spring cleaning?

We have the perfect solution: donate your extra toys, books, clothes, furniture, tools, and other household items to Saklan’s Annual Rummage Sale.

Your donations will be accepted from April 6th - 17th.

This annual event has been designed and organized by the student council. All proceeds will go towards the activities and prizes for the Saklan School Carnival, Saturday, May 16th. Unsold items will be carted away to local donation centers at no expense to the donor!

Another reason to clean up your garages and attics today!

We appreciate your support and cooperation!
For any questions, please contact Kim Parks at kparks@saklan.org

Thank you,

The Saklan Valley Student Council

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Calendar 2009-2010 now available

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Introducing our new school tool ...

We’re excited to announce our new school management system – RenWeb School Management Software. We have finalized the process of setting up RenWeb’s ParentsWeb – a private and secure parents’ portal that will allow parents to see academic information specific to their children, while protecting their children’s information from others.

Our new RenWeb School Management Software gives you, the busy parent, an opportunity to get more involved in your child’s academic progress and future success – all via the Internet!

You can see your child’s grades, attendance, homework and conduct, as well as other useful school information. You can also communicate with teachers and other school staff online whenever necessary. All you need is an Internet-capable computer.

This has been a major undertaking and we will start small with only a few services enabled:

• Staff and School Directory
• Attendance
• Family Demographics Update
• School Announcements

Here’s how to access RenWeb ParentsWeb:

• Open any Internet browser (there are some limitations with Safari so please use Firefox instead if you have a mac at home).
• Go to our website: saklan.org and find the link under COMMUNITY/SCHOOL DATABASE or click on this link
• Log in as follows:

Once you have logged in we would like to ask you to visit the Web Forms section (see the link on the left side) - then click on Family Demographic Form link and verify or update your information in case the information we transferred is not accurate.

Here you will have the option to decide what kind of information you would like to list in the online School Directory for the entire community to see. You could block your name, your address, your phone, your email or all of the above according to your preferences.

Please understand we are still in beta testing and we would welcome any feedback you can provide. Please email Adrian Bica at abica@saklan.org for any questions or further instructions.

We hope you will enjoy it. In time we will add more services as they become available and the staff learns how to use the system. We hope this is a great step towards a true online school community.

Thank you,

Adrian Bica

Director of Communications
and Educational Technology

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Live The Hyphen!

As some of you already know, two of our parents, Hillary Conlon and Nicole Mills, have committed to raising $1,800 (each) and walking 40 miles this summer as part of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. They are doing this in honor of our own Cynthia Crespi, who lost a long and hard fought battle with cancer in December, and to show support and love for the entire Crespi Family. "Live The Hyphen" - their team name- is how Cynthia lived her life...not with a beginning or an end in mind, but with love of life now.

To that end, they are providing a community breakfast and coffee at the Church next door for Saklan Parents on Friday, April 24, after Flag and before Spring Follies. ECE Parents who remain after Flag for the Trike-A-Thon are welcome to come over after the Trike-A-Thon ends.

Please join us in celebrating Cynthia's life, supporting Hillary and Nikki's walk through sponsorship and fundraising, and enjoy some homemade breakfast pastries and fresh coffee while you wait for the Follies to begin. All are welcome!

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Camping songs - Movie

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15th Celebration of Children Literature

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Website relocation - possible shortage MonDAY AND TUESDAY

Dear Saklan Community,

As many of you have already noticed our website has gone through some important transformations. Many of you have also noticed that the website has gone down several times last week and sometimes it takes a really, really long time to come back.

In an effort to improve our web-presence and as a step forward towards the design and implementation of a more modern, Web 2.0 enabled website we had made the decision to move the current site to an outside web hosting service provider (Siteground).

The transfer process is almost done and next week we will have to "inform the Internet" that we have moved (for the technical ones of you out there - we need to change the DNS records). While this should be a really easy transition there is a slight possibility there will be a 24 delay before our new IP address is propagated throughout the Internet, therefore our site might now show up in your browsers for a day or two. We are planning to make the changes on Monday afternoon.

We hope it won't be the case but we wanted you to be aware that saklan.org might be down Monday evening and Tuesday maybe all day.

The new web hosting setup will allow us to redesign the website from ground up with a new, community centered philosophy at heart. It will also allow us to better use our website as a marketing tool and it will give us a great idea of how we can improve in certain areas (mainly admissions) by collecting information about what type of visitors we attract. We hope we can count on your feedback during the redesign precess.

Thank you,

Adrian Bica

Director of Communications
and Educational Technology

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Parent Association Speaker – William Damon

“The Path to Purpose”
Thursday, April 30th 7 – 9 pm
Oakwood Athletic Club – Grand Ballroom
4000 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette, CA

William Damon is Professor of Education at Stanford University and the Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence. He is also one of the world’s leading scholars of human development. Damon has focused his work on the positive aspects of “growing up”. His current research explores how people develop character and a sense of purpose in their work, family, and community relationships.

Damon’s work has been published in the Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today and the Washington Post. He has also appeared on Oprah, Today, Primetime Live, Talk of the Nation, The Diane Rehm Show, and Morning Edition.

Damon is the author of many books and articles on education and human development, especially character development. Damon received the prestigious Parents’ Choice® award for his 1995 book, Greater Expectations: Overcoming the Culture of Indulgence in Our Homes and Schools.

• Additional information on William Damon and his publications is available at:
  http://www.williamdamon.com/index.html
• Download the flyer here.
• Please RSVP here.

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