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.