Welcome Back!  I hope that you and your family had a restfulSpring Break.

Thank you parents, teachers, office staff, and custodians for a splendid 6^th Grade Orientation Night!!!!!

  I would like to thank the Parent  Teacher Organization for a great 6^th Grade Orientation on April 4^th. Kudos to you all who assisted in making this night possible. It is hard to believe that the last trimester has begun and soon 5^th graders will be moving on to the next significant stage, a very important right of passage, and embarking upon their middle school years.  Though the transitioning is on the minds of our 5^th graders, Michell Elementary will be full of activities and events that will take us through the last eight weeks of school at an incredibly fast pace.  Spring can be a very distracting time of the year for students, with Spring Break and warmer weather.  I want to remind and encourage all students to stay focused on academics and put forth your best efforts in the classroom to ensure that you will finish the last trimester in good shape academically.   

    The last trimester serves as a turning point for our students.  As they mature, the information they have been learning begins to come together and allow them various opportunities to apply what they know.  In addition, with the many end of year activities, students should remember that they do need to meet behavioral and disciplinary expectations. 

  STAR testing will begin April 28  and continue through May 9, and all students in grades 2-5 will be taking the California State Standards Test in language arts and math.  The scores from these assessments are used to help determine the progress of a student in achieving the grade level standards.  The STAR results are also one of the multiple measures used in identifying students for the Gifted and Talented program or for students academically at risk.  If you are interested in learning more about the STAR program you can visit the Department of Education website at www.cde.ca.gov  or if you are interested in working with your child in completing some practice tests to prepare them for the STAR test, you can also visit www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp

Important Notice:

For the following reasons we discourage families from beginning summer vacation before the official end of the school year:

·  No independent study contracts are given at the end of the school year. Teachers are doing the final assessments for all of the major concepts taught during the year. If your student leaves school before the end of the term, no assessment can be given and the teacher will have no measure of your child’s success in school. The score on the assessment is thus a zero, which affects your child’s grade.

●second level of concern is legal. Parents have a legal obligation to send their children to school. Exceptions are made if the child is ill or if there is a death in the family, but for the most part, parents are held legally responsible for making sure that their children are in school. The school is responsible for enforcing these laws and is required to follow up on problems with attendance.

●school and district lose revenue due to student absences.  Parents know the financial situation of the district, and know we need the revenue at this time.  Taking your children out of school hurts your child’s education, both in terms of learning and in terms of financial resources available to the school for your child’s instruction.

●loss of funding hurts not only the child who is absent, but also all of the other children at the school, which leads to the last level of concern—which is ethical. The ethical concern is perhaps the most troubling. Not only does the voluntary absence of a child hurt the whole community of the school financially, but it also sends the message to students that school is not important—that rules are made to be broken and that observance of the law is in name and not in spirit. This is probably not the lesson that we want our children to learn.

We want to educate the whole child, and we agree that students should spend time with their families—but there are lots of three and four-day weekends, a week each for Thanksgiving and Spring Break, two weeks for Winter Break, and a very long summer to nourish the whole child. Please keep your child in school during the entire school year.

         Angela Ehrlich, Principal

Welcome to the Michell School web site. The goal of this site is to provide you with valuable, timely information about our school. We are very proud of our students, staff and exceptional educational programs. I invite you to explore our web site and learn more about Michell Elementary School.
Angela Ehrlich
Principal
aehrlich@livermore.k12.ca.us
Mission Statement

To provide an environment where students develop academically, emotionally, and socially to their full potential.  We want our students to acquire:

Parental Support

School Environment

Shared Responsibility
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Curriculum and Instruction

Professionalism
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Opportunities for Success