A Note from Mrs. Sorensen... August 2010

Hello Parents of our 'Soaring Eagles!'

A new school year is here and the teachers are excited and looking forward to teaching your students. The new all day Kindergarten class has been formed and is being taught by Mrs. Sharp. Mrs. Davis is teaching an A.M. and P.M. Kindergarten and we have two teachers in each grade, first through sixth. Second and Third grades are really full, so we are hoping to have another teacher assigned to Silver Hills in the middle of September. We will form a second/third grade class if we are assigned another teacher. News will be coming out in the next few weeks about these new added classes.

The PTA is holding our first Community Night with a great skate party for the whole family. Our PTA will have one Community Night each month. The purpose of these get-togethers is to allow the parents and students to come together for a good time. We want to get to know each other as we share the task of sharing our children. This year we are fortunate enough to be awarded a grant from West Valley City for an after-school program. The grant we have is very limited in funding but we will be planning three six-week sessions Monday - Thursday for our after-school program. The program will run from 3:45 PM - 5 PM Monday through Thursday.Students will receive tutoring and instruction in Math and Reading and 30 minutes of dance, drama, singing and computerwith dismissal at 5 PM. There is no bus service so parents can have their students walk home or pick them up at 5 PM sharp. Look for more information at the end of September in the Thursday Letter.

Speaking of the Thursday Letter, please look in your child's backpack each Thursday for the calendar of events for the coming week at school and other announcements. The Thursday note is printed on blue paper. As always, my door is always open. Please call with any concerns and suggestions regarding your student(s). We love your children and we want to emphasize that we are in partnership with you, the parents and guardians of our students. Together we can educate our children of our community and make them first class, world class citizens. Welcome to the new school year!

Yours in educating our children,
Mrs. Sorensen
Principal
(385) 646-5014

AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress)

Dear Parents,

According to the mandates of the Elementary Secondary Education Act, No Child Left Behind, Silver Hills Elementary School has been identified as having made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in all of the forty criteria stipulated in the legislation. More information about Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is available at the Utah State Office of Education website at: www.usoe.org.

The Silver Hills school community works hard at challenging students, providing appropriate instruction, guidance and encouragement. Following are some data regarding student achievement, improved participation and performance, and the efforts we are making under our School Student Achievement Plan on behalf of your child/student:

. Our School Student Achievement Plan (SSAP) is developed each year by the community council
after reviewing the results of the prior year’s efforts. Our SSAP has the following focus areas:
Literacy, Numeracy , Technology and Science.
. Our Faculty has identified students at each grade level who were not able to score at the
proficiency level on last year’s CRTs, and have developed a concentrated plan of improvement
for them.
. We utilize many quality testing instruments to frequently check student progress in mastery of
the core curriculum. YPP (Yearly Progress Pro), a computer-based benchmark test in language
arts, and mathematics is given weekly to check student progress in mastery of the grade level
curriculum. Teachers monitor student progress in reading through DIBELS (Dynamic Indictors of
Basic Early Literacy Skills) and the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment).
. Family Nights assist parents with reading and math resources providing home support for your
child’s education.

We are committed to providing each student with a rich, individualized educational experience. We appreciate all of the parental participation that you have offered in the past and we look forward to your continued support. We encourage you to participate in school activities and to reinforce classroom instruction at home. Please feel free to contact me with any and all concerns or questions.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Sorensen