Community Letter

Hello LISD Families,

We had a great first week and the school is buzzing with positive energy!

As you may know, we have four district-wide habits of character: kindness, belonging, ownership, and perseverance. This month, we are focusing on the habit of belonging. We have new students to our school and some returning students, and it's important for us to create a culture of inclusion. During our staff start up week, we made plans to ensure that every student in our school knows that they matter to this community and that school feels like a place of true belonging.

Our very best to you and your family,

Mary and Martha

If your child needs to take medication at school, please provide an authorization form for medication administration for this school year, and make sure the medication you send to school is a current prescription.

Also please provide updated immunization records if your child received any immunization over the summer.

We can do COVID testing for your student and family if anyone has symptoms of COVID, particularly if you were around anyone with COVID. If family members were off island and would like to be tested 3 days after returning to the island, please email for an appointment. khattman@lopezislandschool.org

We will be testing with the Binax 15 minute antigen tests, the students in sports activities as per the WA Department of Health recommendations. Consent forms will be sent home with both middle and high school athletes today. Please sign and return by Monday. Vaccinated students without symptoms will not be tested. Unvaccinated students with or without symptoms will be tested twice weekly. Anyone with symptoms of COVID will be tested to insure their own and others' safety. This is a quick, accurate and non-invasive self administered (with supervision) test we have been using through the Health Commons Program. They have been providing free testing for participating schools.

This new testing protocol will begin on Monday, September 13 for high school and on Monday, September 20 for middle school. Please bring proof of Covid-19 vaccination to the secondary office. We will keep it in your students' confidential file.

School picture day is Monday, September 20, with Kevin Hellriegel, the photographer, offering the same great quality and service. A safe and efficient walk-through process will be set up for students and staff photos in the Library Media Center. Our office coordinators, Karrie and Ronda, are putting together a schedule from morning until noon. Please watch for an order form with package prices coming home next week.

We hope that all students and staff will get their photos taken for ID cards and yearbook, even if they are not purchasing photos. Email questions to Ronda in the secondary office, rberg@lopezislandschool.org

The LISD Transportation Department strives to provide safe and reliable transportation of your child. In order to meet this goal, we ask your cooperation in helping us know where your child will be going after school. If your child is in elementary school and will be riding the school bus or being picked up on a daily basis, we would like to know your plan. Once we have this information, if the plan changes, we will need a note. Notes are the preferred method of communication, but if you forget to send a note, you may call Karrie in the elementary office. PLEASE try to remember to call early in the day and not at the last minute. Karrie will write the information down for the bus drivers and will get a note to your student by the end of the day. Please do not call the school to give permission for someone else’s child to go to your home, unless it is an emergency and the parent is not available.

Secondary students may fill out a permanent bus note for the school year. A form to complete will go home in a packet next week.

Bus routes have been posted on our school website. You can find that information here: Bus Routes. The routes are very different from past years due to new stops and safety issues.

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Flashing amber lights mean slow down there will students getting on or off the bus and the red flashing lights will be happening quickly. When you’re driving, please watch for the big yellow buses with a blinking lights and slow down.

If you drop your student off in the morning, please remember to use the secondary entrance.

We have some great news. The USDA waiver continues, so LISD will continue to offer our delicious homemade meals for free to all students! When possible, our lunches and breakfasts include produce from our production garden that our garden staff and kitchen staff have lovingly processed and prepared.

Breakfast is served from 8:10-8:25. For secondary students, this replaces the nutrition break that used to be later in the morning. If your students does not eat breakfast before leaving for school, please encourage them to take advantage of our school breakfast program.

The 2021-22 Household Application for Free and Reduced-Price Meals is now available HERE on our school website. Please complete this form and turn it in to the elementary or secondary office, even if you think your family may not qualify. Although lunch and breakfast are free this year, a significant amount of our federal school funding is based on this important data. Thank you.

The LIFE Garden produced a bounty for the school breakfasts and lunches. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, basil, apples and pears, oh, my! We are so proud of this healthful produce making it into the mouths of our students.

Thank you so much volunteers and kitchen staff for your excellent work. The garden team still has much more harvesting and processing to do this fall, and needs help. If you'd like to volunteer, please fill out this form https://forms.gle/qT2HqQQ5UXhgjr4fA, or contact Sara by email sjones@lopezislandschool.org or by phone 360-468-2202 x2300.

Elementary Enrichment students also ventured into the garden to do a scavenger hunt and harvest carrots. We all had so much fun!

Though Decatur School is part of the LISD school district, they have a strong sense of their own identity. With the help of their new teacher, Chelsey Campbell, they have decided to adopt a new mascot this year, the dogfish. Here are a few pics of the first day of school on Decatur Island. Go Dogfish!

The Decatur community is contributing to our school's interactive art gallery. Students participated in a math/art lesson learning about Picasso and Cubism. Students and community members gave feedback w sticky notes of compliments, questions, and/or comments. Students are practicing receiving feedback graciously, and answering questions about their personal aesthetic choices. Please enjoy these MATHterpieces!

Yesterday, the high school soccer team played Providence Christian here on the home field. On Monday, September 13, we compete against Grace Academy in both soccer and volleyball at 3:00. Hope to see you at the games :-)

Middle school sports practices began this week for volleyball and soccer. Competition begins the week of September 20.

Go Lobos!

This week during enrichment we had fun with an engineering challenge. Students had 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure with spaghetti, string, tape...the catch was a marshmallow had to be on the top.

Hello Secondary Families,

It has been so nice to be with students this week. I just have a few updates and announcements.

• Drivers - Student drivers parking on campus must provide a copy of their driver's license and insurance card. High school students who leave campus at lunch are required to come to the office to sign out and sign back in when they return.
• Matrix - We made a small error in the matrix (daily/weekly schedule) that we sent home last week. As you may have guessed, school does start at 8:30 every day.
• One to One Device Implementation Procedure - Please sign this document in order for your student(s) to take home their school issued computers. The form is available in English and Spanish, and you can sign it on-line HERE or print and sign.

As always, we are here to be helpful and answer questions.

All my best,

Martha

Dear Family Lopez Lobos,

This was a fantastic week filled with fun, excitement, and learning. We are off to a great start for the 2021-22 school year!

Early next week, please be on the look out for a Beginning of School Year Packet. Inside this packet, you will find important information that will assist us in supporting your child at school. For example, updating personal information sheets, student transportation routine forms, health forms for medication (if needed), volunteer forms, and free and reduced lunch forms. We ask that you complete all necessary forms and return them back to the elementary office as soon as possible.

If there needs to be a change in your child’s normal routine for transportation to/from school, please notify Karrie Warner, elementary office coordinator, as early in the day, as possible. Karrie can be reached at (360) 468-2202, x2100 or kwarner@lopezislandschool.org.

Sincerely,

Mary

Ed Murray, Superintendent

Martha Martin, Secondary Principal

Mary Fordham, Elementary Principal

The Lopez Island School District does not discriminate in any programs or activities on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The following employee(s) has been designated to handle questions and complaints of alleged discrimination: Civil Rights Compliance Coordinator, Ed Murray – emurray@lopezislandschool.org; Title IX Coordinator, HR Specialist, Renee Koplan – rkoplan@lopezislandschool.org; Section 504, Mary Fordham – mfordham@lopezislandschool.org; OR contact by phone, 360-468-2202, OR mail to 86 School Rd, Lopez Island, WA 98261.

Email: mmartin@lopezislandschool.org
Website: lopezislandschool.org
Location: 86 School Road, Lopez Island, WA, USA
Phone: (360) 468-2202
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lopez-Island-School-District-500747673389618