December 16, 2015

Dear Families,

I hope this finds you well and enjoying all the holiday festivities.  Thank you to all that have helped out with all our holiday happenings and Core Knowledge parties at school.  It has been so nice to see so many of you around over the last couple of weeks.   A huge thank you to PTO for our Wonderful Hot Cocoa and Cookies and the generous gift to the staff.  Thank you for all your support!

I wanted to remind you of an opportunity in Arizona to participate in our Arizona extracurricular Activities - Tax Credit Program.  You can make an important contribution to our before and after school programming, and receive an income tax credit for the full amount you contribute up to $200.00 for an individual and $400.00 for a married couple.  Tax Credit Clubs at Pinnacle Peak include: Homework Club, STEM Club, Coding Club, and Typing Club.  Your Tax Credit helps us provide these clubs at minimal cost to the students.  I have attached a flyer with more information regarding the Tax Credit Program and the form to complete. In order to receive the Tax Credit for the 2015 year, your check must be turned in my December 31, 2015.  You can mail the check in and we will mail you a receipt when we return on January 4, 2016.  Thank you!

Happy Holidays!  Enjoy your winter break and your time with family and friends.  I'm looking forward to a great 2016.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Respectfully,


Lora Herbein, Principal

November 9, 2015

Dear Families,

I hope your November is off to a great start.  I’m so excited to have the cooler weather and all the fun holidays right around the corner.

One of our school’s top priorities, as well as the PV School District,  is to ensure that your children are safe and secure while on campus. As you know, in the past couple of years we have installed perimeter fencing and secured access during the school day with only one entrance through our office. All exterior doors are locked and secure, ensuring that all students are safe throughout the day.  Along the same lines, our goal is to have monthly “Evacuation Drills” and a  “Lockdown Drill” each semester.  I wanted to give you a heads up that we will be having a “Lockdown Drill” tomorrow morning, Tuesday, November 10th.  Our teachers are reviewing the process with your children ahead of time, so the drill will not alarm them.

As always, please feel free to email, call or stop by with any questions or concerns. If you would like more information regarding all of the “Safe and Secure” procedures for PV schools, please visit this website:Emergency Preparedness.  

Respectfully,

Lora Herbein, Principal

Dear Families,

I hope this finds you well and you enjoyed your Fall Break.  I'm looking forward to October and hopefully some cooler weather.  You may have noticed a storage unit on the playground and some new conduit on the back of our building.  We are switching our slide key entry system to an ID Badge entry system.  This will provide greater security for our building, especially on the weekends.  All schools in PVUSD will eventually be going to this system.  We will have crews working off and on from 4:00 pm until 2:00 am during the week.  They hope to have to change over completed in 10 weeks. This should cause no disruption to our learning environment.  Please let me know if you have any questions and concerns.

I've had some concerns raised recently regarding our pick-up procedures in the afternoon.  The designated car pick-up area for students, First through Sixth grade, is behind the school.  The "Sonoran Park" parking lot is not a designated pick-up area for First through Sixth grade.  If you are meeting your child in this parking lot, please park in a designated slot.  Thanks!  Also, please remember that students are not allowed to come to a waiting vehicle in the front of the school.   Our number one priority is keeping our students safe while they are in our care.

Our Fall Festival packets should have arrived home yesterday.  I hope you will consider joining us for this fabulous event.  Our PTO Fall Festival Team is hard at working making this an incredible evening for our kiddos!   If you are new to the school or have never attended, it is a wonderful night!  Please see our PTO website for more details!

As you recall, our Third through Sixth Graders participated in AZ Merit Testing last spring.  The Arizona Department of Education has told us that student results will be provided to the schools the week of October 20th.  Our plan is to distribute student results during our Conference Week, October 26-29th.  Please look for more information in the coming weeks regarding the results of AZ Merit Testing.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Respectfully,

Lora Herbein, Principal

September 2, 2015

Dear Families,

I hope your children have settled into their classrooms and are having a fabulous start to the school year.  As I walk through classrooms, our students are happy, engaged and learning.  Check out a few of our classrooms.

Miss Orr's Fourth Graders

Mrs. Okraski's Third Graders

                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                Dr. Stickford's 6th Grade Music Class

I wanted to let you know about a few playground updates.

We have formed a wonderful relationship with the Boys and Girls Club - Thunderbirds Branch.  The director, Paola Gale, is the Community Member on our School Council and very involved in the Pinnacle Peak Community.  She provides a staff member, David Debruin, at least twice a month to come over during our lunch period to play organized games with our students.  The students love it when David joins us on the playground.
 Last year we installed a "Buddy Bench".  The purpose of the "Buddy Bench" is to create an environment that fosters new friendships.  Students that would like to make a new friend sit on the bench and other students know that children on the bench would like to make a new friend. We have just started training students on the use of this bench and we hope this will blossom into a way for our children to expand their friendship to others at Pinnacle Peak.
 One final note on the playground.  For safety reasons, students must wear closed-toe shoes or sandals with an attached back on the new playground equipment, including the obstacle course, the climbing walls, and the spinning equipment.  Students that wear sandals without a back may still play on the swings and the slide area.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Respectfully,

Lora Herbein, Principal

August 17, 2015

Dear Pinnacle Peak Families,

We have a new STEM teacher, Mrs. Suzy Distler.  Mrs. Distler taught at Pinnacle Peak three years ago and her own children, who are now in Middle School and High School, attended Pinnacle Peak.  Mrs. Distler moved out of state a couple of years ago and has now returned and is excited to be back at PPES as our STEM teacher.  I'm so happy she is joining our Pinnacle Peak family again.  Mrs. Distler will see kindergarten, each class for one quarter,  as well as third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders as part of our Special Area Rotations. 

The number of Special Area teachers placed at elementary schools in Paradise Valley School District, is based on the total number of students at the school.  At Pinnacle Peak we have full time Art, PE, and Music.  Our STEM teaching position is a .5 position.  Unfortunately, since the program is half-time, she is not able to see all students each year.  This year first and second graders will not have STEM as part of their Special Area Rotations.  Therefore, we will provide an After-School STEM class for first and second grade.  More information will come home this week regarding this class.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I hope to see you at our Parent Classroom Orientation Night on Wednesday, August 19th.  Parent Classroom Orientation for grades first, second and third is 5:30 - 6:30 pm and grades fourth, fifth, and sixth is 7:00 - 8:00 pm.  At this orientation you will learn more about classroom routines, procedures, expectations, and curriculum.  You will learn how you can best be actively involved in your child's or children's educational experience.  This event is for adults only.  For those of you that have children in the honor's program grades fourth through sixth, Mrs. Stanton has an informational night on Tuesday, August 18th at 5:30 pm.

Have a wonderful week and I hope to see you on Wednesday!

Respectfully,

Lora Herbein, Principal

August 10, 2015

Dear Families,

Welcome to the 2015-16 School Year.  I hope you were able to join us on Friday for our Back to School morning.  I was so excited to see so many smiling, happy faces.  It was great to see everyone.  It sounds like many of you had an amazing summer. The kids, and parents, all sound like they are ready for school to begin!  I know I am ready!

Many of you have probably noticed our SOAR signage, bulletin boards, and even benches on the playground.  SOAR stands for Safe, Organized, Accountable, and Respectful.  SOAR is an instructional approach that is anchored in scientifically proven practices and research.  It is proven to help prevent problem behaviors, reduce distractions in the classroom, and support students’ social-emotional and academic growth.

SOAR is based on the PBIS framework and has been tailored for Pinnacle Peak, allowing us to build upon and enrich the strong and favorable culture that we have today. We are harnessing the power of providing consistent expectations for our students across all environments and across school years.

SOAR allows us, through harnessing the power of instruction and positive reinforcement, to proactively cultivate and acknowledge positive values and behaviors throughout our school community, both in and out of the classroom. SOAR aims to strengthen and strongly root the Pinnacle Peak culture in an engaging and reinforcing school environment where every student feels a sense of belongingness, inclusion and participation.

Students will be systematically taught our expectations for the learning environments, restrooms, cafeteria, playground, and hallways.  Students will be intermittently reinforced for positive actions and behavior with SOAR tickets.  These tickets will be turned in for weekly and monthly drawings in the classroom and in the office.  Students will have the opportunity to earn privileges and prizes such as, lunch with the teacher, homework passes, sit by a friend in class, SOAR bracelets and SOAR T-shirts, just to name a few.  You will learn more about SOAR at PPES at our Parent Information Night on Wednesday, August 19^th.  First Grade through Third Grade classes will meet 5:30 – 6:30 pm and Fourth Grade through Sixth Grade will meet 7:00 – 8:00 pm.  We are also creating a short video panel discussion about SOAR at PPES.  I will send that out as soon as it is finished.

I am looking forward to a great school year.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Dear Families,

I wanted to send a quick note with an update on staffing information.  Due to small class sizes as well as other factors, our district Human Resources Department has requested that we reduce the number of classes in sixth grade from four classes to three classes.  Our three sixth grade teachers will be Mrs. Gilling, Ms. Grill, and Mrs. Wren.  Mrs. Leigh, who was teaching sixth grade will move into the second grade vacancy, replacing Mrs. Demas.  Mrs. Leigh has taught several grade levels over the last ten years.  Last year she taught third grade at Cactus View Elementary in the Paradise Valley School District.  I know she will be a great addition to the Second Grade Team.  Just as a reminder, I’ve listed all grade level teachers below.  We are still interviewing for our .5 STEM teacher.  I hope to have an announcement regarding that teacher soon.  

Kindergarten:

• Mrs. Adler
• Mrs. Engels
• Mrs. Smith
• Mrs. Snapp

First Grade:

• Mrs. Canella
• Mrs. Ogden
• Mrs. Orsini

Second Grade:

• Mrs. Essert/Mrs. Hornbeck
• Mrs. Fouts
• Mrs. Leigh

Third Grade:

• Mrs. Gengle
• Mrs. Okraski
• Mrs. Whaley

Fourth Grade:

• Mrs. Calamaio
• Mrs. Hughes
• Ms. Orr
• Mr. Sanchez

Fifth Grade:

• Mrs. Ives
• Mrs. Schultz
• Mrs. Scheuermann

Sixth Grade:

• Mrs. Gilling
• Mrs. Grill
• Mrs. Wren

Enjoy your last week of summer and I hope to see you all at the Back to School Morning, Friday, August 7th, 8:00 - 9:30 am.

Respectfully,

Lora Herbein, Principal