Notes From Oak

• Tuesday, October 22nd- Picture Make-up day

• Tuesday, October 22nd - October Surprise 8:15 am on Blacktop

• Friday, October 25th- Spooktacular 2:30-4:30 pm in MUR and Blacktop
  

• Wednesday, October 30th- Coffee with the Principal 8:45 am in MUR- State Test Scores and next steps as a school

• Thursday, October 31st- Halloween, all parties from 11:30 am-noon; Parade at 1:00 pm

• Friday, November 1st- End of Trimester 1

• Monday, November 11th - No School- Honoring Veteran's Day

• Wednesday, November 13th- 8:45 PTA meeting- MUR

• Friday, November 15th- Reader's Parade for Kindergarten @ 10 am on blacktop

Today we held our annual Earthquake Emergency Drill at Oak School. I thought it would be timely to share our expectations for families in case of an emergency.

Emergency Procedures

What to do in case of an earthquake or other emergency

All schools students are housed in buildings, which meet the “Field Act” (earthquake safety) construction standards. All LASD employees and students are instructed regularly in emergency procedures. All procedures have been planned and practiced.

WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF AN EARTHQUAKE OR OTHER EMERGENCY

1. Do NOT telephone the school. DO turn your radio station to 1590 AM which is an Emergency Broadcast Station.

2. Do NOT park in the school parking lot blocking emergency vehicles. DO park away from the exits, and if able, report to the Volunteer Station for help.
3. Do NOT attempt to withdraw your child from school until you have signed out through the Student Information table located at the lower playground picnic tables. DO inform your neighbors and friends that you listed them on your child’s emergency card and that they are eligible to sign out your child.

CHECKOUT PROCEDURE

The check-out procedure is simple and very clear.

• There will be a student information center near the parking lot of the school. All parents or designees will be directed to go to the checkout table.

• At that time, staff will direct staff located in student assembly area to bring a group of students to the student information center table to be dismissed and checked out.

• The parent or designated adult will sign the sign-out emergency form. The child is dismissed.

This procedure has been modified a bit from what we learned from the recent shelter in place dismissal. The school will need to maintain a safe secure environment, however still provide a reasonable way to expedite the release of students to proper emergency contacts.

In an actual earthquake, Oak will continue classes on a normal time schedule after analysis of the situation and implementation of additional safety precautions.

However, if the quake hits while students are on their way to school, they should continue on to school; if they are on their way home, they are to go home in as safe a manner as possible. If conditions are stable at school dismissal times, normal dismissal procedures will be followed.

If the earthquake has been severe, no student will be dismissed from school unless an authorized adult withdraws him/her. Children will NOT be allowed to leave with another person, even a relative or baby-sitter, unless that person is listed on the student’s emergency card- Please update your information.

Each Oak family is encouraged to do some pre-planning, to hold family earthquake drills, and to decide where family members should meet if they are separated.

Coffee with the Principal

Wednesday, October 30th after morning assembly, I would like to invite you to come and have coffee with me and others, as I share state test scores, Oak Growth academically and how we use this information and other data to guide our practice during instruction. I hope to see you on Wednesday, October 30th.

Oak Tours

As we move into October, there may be families new to the area or those who are thinking about school for the 2020-2021 school year. We want to make sure families who live in our area know how incredible our wonderful Oak community is for their children. If you know someone who might be interested in a tour of Oak School, please contact kattell@lasdschools.org

Halloween- Thursday, October 31

11:30-12:00 Class Parties

12:45 students change into costumes and parents arrive

Parade begins at 1:00 pm on blacktop-

Students in Grades 1 - 6 should wear regular clothes Thursday morning, and bring costumes in their school bags (only Kinders are allowed to come in costume). Students will go to lunch recess, eat and play according to their regular schedule. When the bell rings, students will go to their classes as usual. Each grade will have changing rooms designated for girls and boys.

Costume guidelines: Age appropriate attire, no violent themes, no excessive blood or gore, no weapons, and no scary masks. Non-scary masks are permitted, if vision is not impaired.

Students will walk in a circle around a route on the blacktop. They can walk with students in their grade level, their buddies or even their siblings. We want to make sure students have the opportunity to walk with anyone they would like to walk with. Parents are invited to watch and/or take photos from the parent viewing area outside the parade route. Please arrive early, and allow extra time to walk from a potentially distant parking space. When parking, do not block residential driveways.

In case of rain, the parade will be canceled and students can dress up in their costumes for their grade-level and class parties.

STEM Lunch Club

We are looking for parents who might want to assist in the STEM Lunch Club where interested students build and create. Currently, we are hosting the STEM Lunch Club on Thursdays.

Students in Grades 4-6 come to the STEM Lab from 12:00-12:20pm, followed by students in Grades 1-3 from 12:20-12:45pm. If you would like to volunteer during this time as an assistant, please contact Mrs. Attell.

CALLING 6TH GRADE PARENTS

SPOOKTACULAR NEEDS 6th GRADE PARENT VOLUNTEERS!

Please help make this annual event a success. We are short many volunteers for the day of the event. There are also early morning and evening help shifts available. PLEASE sign-up to help HERE.

Our very own Oak 6th graders will be hosting the Halloween Spooktacular on Friday, October 25th from 2:30pm - 4:30pm in the multi and on the blacktop after school.

This fun and spooky event helps the 6th Grade raise funds for their class gift to Oak and their end of year 6th Grade pool party. It is also a wonderful event for our 6th graders to show their leadership, teamwork and creativity.

Please be sure to join your children and enjoy this fun afternoon and support our 6th graders. Activities include:

• Haunted House. With lights-on tours for younger kids, and lights-off tours for thrill seekers,

• Fun Carnival Games.

• Food Sales. All 6th graders will be showcasing their best baking skills for an amazing Bake Sale. Pizza and drinks will be available too!

• Raffle. The 6th grade class have brought together an enticing array of Raffle prizes!

Tickets are good for the Raffle AND all other Spooktacular activities. Ticket sales & raffle booth will be available before and after school Wednesday, October 21tst - 25th.

We recently started a sixth grade group for students to facilitate good deeds and activities across our school. There was so much interest we decided to call this group facilitators instead of leaders. These students will help facilitate and work with other interested students to lead charity drives, spirit days and support for the community.

In September the students created a school drive to collect money for Hurricane Dioran Relief through the American Red Cross. Oak students collected $1520.23 and Google matched the money so we ended up donating $3040. Thank you CFO’s and the students at Oak School for helping others in need.

Great news! Like to Bike class is now open to all grades! Like to Bike is a class for students with biking experience, where kids learn to bike to new places, and learn fun games that they can play with their friends there. We start by meeting at Oak School every Saturday at 3:00pm and bike to nearby parks and schools such as Blach, McKenzie Park, Heritage Oaks Park and Loyola School. When we arrive, we will play fun games and provide snacks. Learn more and/or sign up on our website:

tinyurl.com/liketobike

Samika Arun and Priya Kumar

Oak Alumni & Current Blach Students

Dear Team Oak-

Thanks to everyone for an AMAZING Team Oak Walks Walkathon this weekend!! It was great to see so many students, parents, siblings, and teachers out walking, running, skipping, climbing, and having fun with their friends. Thanks to our kids for their contributions to our marketing, music, decorations, and a very successful PledgeStar fundraiser! And an extra big thanks to the parents for your help with planning, set up, donations, staffing, and clean up. We could not do this without you!

This week, we launched Classroom Parent, our new online directory. Please visit https://oak.classroomparent.com/ to register. After registering, you will be given the opportunity to decide what information you would like to share in the directory. This secure directory is ONLY available to members of the Oak Community.

To Register:

1. Go to https://oak.classroomparent.com/

2. Click “Register” in the top right corner

3. Enter your email address and choose a password

**NOTE: You must use the email address you provided to LASD in your registration forms to register for Classroom Parent

1. Once you have logged in, build your profile and decide which information to share in the directory.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Join us Wednesday, October 30th for our first Coffee with the Principal. The PTA will be sponsoring a coffee cart, and Mrs. Attell will be discussing and answering questions about Oak’s state testing results.

Our Lifesavers this week are....

Ross Fernandes for installing and troubleshooting our new outdoor speakers.

The ENTIRE Walkathon Planning Team! Thank you for the countless hours you dedicated to planning and running this wonderful community event!

Jen Oku & Claudia Garcia - Walkathon Chairs

Sabrina Hoellrigl & Jennifer Chiu - Decorations

Joe Commendatore - T-Shirts/Sponsors

Annette Chan - T-Shirts

Vik Banthia - Obstacle Course

Ross Fernandes & Bill James - Sound system

Ksenia Lewin - Snack Cafe/Energy Lead

Wendy Marti - Water Lead

Anu Vadhan - Pocket People

Angela Kao, Shweta Kumari - Co-VP’s of Fundraising

Peter Boyle - DJ/MC

Chris Anne Lai - Nurse/First Aid

Rumi Bhattacharyya - Oak Bakers Coordinator

And the 82+ additional volunteers who filled a total of 159 volunteer shifts! We could not have done this without you!

Sincerely,

Sara Payne

Oak PTA President

oakptapresident@gmail.com

Oak Apparel

OAK SCHOOL PTA ANONYMOUS SUGGESTION BOX

What’s Next in the Community Engagement Process for Facilities

On September 25th and October 5th, the Community Engagement for Facilities Project Team (“Project Team”), led by MIG, hosted charrettes at Blach and Egan, respectively. With active engagement of a diverse cross-section of our community of over 200 people on September 25th and over 250 on October 5th, participants at small group tables went over previously considered solutions for facilities and introduced new ideas.

We thank each and every participant for their engagement in the process as equal stakeholders and their help in providing insight into discerning a solution to this complex issue.

At LASD’s regularly scheduled board meeting on October 28th, MIG will report on the charrettes and discuss the upcoming November workshops with the LASD Board.

Please join us for one of the upcoming Workshops

(Each workshop will have the same format, so please only attend one)

Saturday, November 2,

9:30-11:30am

Egan Junior High School Multipurpose Room

100 W. Portola Ave.

OR

Monday, November 4,

6:30-8:30pm

Blach Intermediate School Multipurpose Room

1120 Covington Rd.

Participants in the workshops will have a chance to discuss, evaluate and weigh public support for the community-generated ideas from the charrettes. MIG will then organize and summarize the results, which will be presented to the LASD Board in January.

For more information visit our Community Engagement on Facilities page.

Please email communityengagement@lasdschools.org with any questions.

Bonnie Halpern-Felsher

The Vaping Crisis: What Is It Doing to Our Kids?

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019 - 7:00 - 9:00pm

LAHS Eagle Theatre

201 Almond Ave., Los Altos, CA

Join us as Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University, discusses the harmful impacts vaping has on the minds and bodies of adolescents.

Dr. Halpern-Felsher will provide an overview of current tobacco/nicotine products, including vapes, Juuls and other pod-based systems, which are more commonly used among teens than combustible cigarettes.

Drawing upon on-going research, Dr. Halpern-Felsher will address why adolescents are drawn to using these products, dispel common misperceptions held by both adults and teens, and share effective, evidence-based strategies that parents, caregivers, and teachers, can leverage to help prevent and reduce the use of these addictive products.

The talk will be followed by a panel of local administrators and a mental health professional.

To register for this free event, go to https://mvla2019-20-bonniehalpern-felsher.eventbrite.com

Sponsored by Los Altos Educational Foundation (LAEF), MVLA High School Foundation, Mountain View Educational Foundation (MVEF), and Los Altos-Mountain View PTA Council.

You’ve contributed $2M! Thank you!

We’re making good progress towards our 2019-20 goal of $3.4M. Your donation is funding teachers and staff who are making a difference for your student every day.

We are grateful for Oak volunteers Ben Huang, Danielle James, Kevin Lint, Aubrey Wing, and Kimberly Attell, along with many others who reached out to district families during our LAEF Phonathon. You did a fantastic job promoting LAEF and explaining the importance of 100% participation.

If you have yet to make your annual donation to LAEF, Donate or Pledge today and help fund teachers at Oak this school year. The suggested donation is $1,200 per student or $120/month per student. Every donation of any amount is appreciated.

Email: kattell@lasdschools.org
Website: https://oakschool.org/
Location: 1501 Oak Avenue, Los Altos, CA, USA
Phone: (650) 237-3900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Oakavenueschool/
Twitter: @OakPrincipal