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Dear Kentfield Community,
We take the safety and security of your children very seriously. Should an emergency or disaster situation ever arise in our area while school is in session, we want you to be aware that the Kentfield School District have made preparations through a detailed disaster plan, formulated to respond effectively to any crisis situation. All public schools in California are required to meet stringent disaster response standards.
The Kentfield School District has identified a Building Emergency Response Team and maintains a current Building Emergency Operations Plan. Every staff member is trained in the appropriate responses and their responsibilities.
In order to maintain a safe environment for our children to study and learn, it is necessary that we practice our emergency and crisis response plans by having drills designed to exercise our procedures. The Kentfield School District regularly conducts fire, earthquake, and lockdown drills to ensure that our staff and students are prepared in case of an emergency. We work closely with our local fire and police emergency responders to guarantee quick response times in case of an emergency.
To help ensure the safety of your children during emergencies and drills, your cooperation is vital. In case of such an emergency, please help us by doing the following:
- Do not telephone the school, as phone lines are needed for emergency or drill communication. Any large overload of calls may result in the entire phone system shutting down, disabling phone contact with emergency personnel.
- In the event of a serious incident, students will be kept safe until they are picked up by an identified, responsible adult, who was designated as an emergency contact by parents through our online registration system, Aeries.
- Please do not rush to the school during or after an emergency. We will follow safety procedures, which include having all students and staff assembling at a safe location on campus. We will not dismiss students during or after an emergency if students’ and staff members’ safety is at risk.
- In the event of an actual emergency evacuation, you will receive notification where to pick up your child as soon as practicable.
- Do not contact students or staff members via cell phone or social media (as they will be busy with the drill or actual emergency)
- Avoid social media posts. Correct information will be disseminated through our automated system as soon as possible.
- Please make sure that your contact information is current at all times so that you can be reached without delay in the event of an emergency.
- Be sure to update your family’s Aeries profile anytime your phone number(s) and/or email(s) change, so we have updated contact information to reach you in case of an emergency.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding these procedures, please contact me at lschott@kentfieldschools.org.
Liz Schott
Superintendent
Parent Partners Meeting
Parent Partners is a group for parents of students with learning differences.
The group meets three times per year with the primary goals of providing parent perspective and feedback to the school districts, supporting children with exceptional needs by increasing knowledge and acceptance of learning differences in the community, and supporting other parents of students with exceptional needs.
- December 4, 2018, 4-6 p.m., District Office
Youth Truth Survey Information
Please take 15 minutes to complete an online survey that will help us improve Bacich and Kent. We have again asked YouthTruth – a nonprofit organization that supports hundreds of schools and districts across the county – to conduct an anonymous survey on our behalf.
Please access the survey before it closes at midnight on Friday, December 14, by clicking this link: http://www.ytsurvey.org/ksdfamily18
Please note:
- The survey needs to be completed in one sitting.
- We ask that one member of each household fill out the survey.
- If you have more than one child who attends the same school, you may respond to the survey multiple times – one time per child.
- If you write any comments, please do not include your name or anything else that might identify you. Your responses are anonymous, and they will be combined with the responses of other parents and guardians before being shared back with school and district leadership.
We sincerely thank you for taking the time to help make our schools better places for our students. Your input is valuable to us.
If you have any questions about the survey, or our plans for how we will use your feedback, please contact Superintendent Liz School at lschott@kentfieldschools.org.
School Board
School Board Information
Next Meeting: December 11, 2018 at 5 p.m. in the District Office.
- The Agenda will be posted by 5 p.m. the Friday before the meeting.
Bacich News
Dear Parents,
Recently, our very generous PTA presented both Bacich and Kent with funding for nineteen KSPTA Grants. Staff and parents wrote grant applications, and the Grant Committee, composed of teachers and parents, reviewed them and determined which applications would be funded.
Our school counselor, Maia Yamasaki, and transitional kindergarten teacher, Amber Stewart, wrote a grant for a Bacich Peace Path. Recognizing that many of our young students are just learning how to manage conflict and disagreement during the school day, this path will empower our students to have an additional tool to solve simple social problems and find a safe and effective resolution to the day-to-day challenges we observe on the elementary school playground.
The Peace Path will be located in the kindergarten play yard and piloted with our youngest students. The process for using the path will be shared with yard duty personnel and kindergarten teachers. It will serve as an active communication tool to help students develop a common language to use when trying to solve conflicts. It will provide a visual path, physical movement, and a step-by-step process to manage feelings such as anger, frustration, sadness, and disappointment.
The goal will be to build upon this communication tool starting with the 2018-2019 kindergarten classes. If we find it successful, we will add an additional Peace Path on the big playground for other students to use when conflict arises. Like the Buddy Bench, which sits on the big playground, we want our children to be sensitive to the emotions and feelings of others and build upon their own social skills. This supports healthy friendships and allows students to recognize the power that they have to make a positive difference in their small world.
Thank you,
Sally Peck
Bacich Principal
Bacich Announcements
Bacich Events
- Thursday, December 13, 2018: Fourth Grade Winter Voices Concert, 6:30–7:30 p.m., Bacich Community Center
Bacich Site Council
Next Meeting: December 3, 2018, 3-4 p.m., Bacich Library. All parents are welcome to attend.
- Please visit our Site Council page for meeting dates, agendas, and minutes.
Bacich Resources
Please visit our Bacich Families page for information such as the Bell Schedule, Parent Handbook, and other important resources and forms.
Follow Bacich on Instagram
Bacich Elementary School @bacichelementary
Bacich STEAM Projects @bacichsteam
Bacich Construction
Kent News
Greetings Kent Community,
In the days leading up to our Thanksgiving Break from school, eighth graders participated in a unique Kent program named Teens In Transition: Strategies for Informed, Responsible Decision-Making. The Teens in Transition program helps our eighth graders develop a sense of awareness and understanding of a wide range of health and sex related topics including growth and development, peer pressure, decision making, sexual harassment, sexual orientation, and affirmative consent.
A large team of Kent teachers, as well as a few Bacich staff, facilitated seminars and discussion sessions with small groups of eighth graders, creating safe spaces to explore these complex and sensitive themes. I learned a ton about our school and our students by serving as a Teens in Transition instructor this fall. I’m thankful that our school dedicates the time and resources to prepare our students to be responsible and informed teenagers and young adults. I’m exceedingly proud of our eighth graders for the mature way they discussed and debated these topics, and thankful for our dedicated teachers and counselors who supported our students in this work. This pause in our day-to-day academic program provided critical instruction at an important time in our eighth graders’ development.
Next Monday, December 3rd marks the end of our first trimester of school. During these final days of the trimester please encourage your child to check-in with Aeries and with their teachers to ensure all assignments are submitted and assessments complete. First trimester grades will be available for students and families by Friday, December 14th. These grades and comments will give you and your student feedback about learning progress so far this year, and can be a great discussion starter about current successes, challenges, and accomplishments in anticipation of the start of the second trimester. With the second trimester comes a fresh start in core classes as well as adventures in new enrichments!
Grant Althouse
Kent Principal
New Winter Tradition
After years of looking at how to upgrade Kent's winter celebration, I feel confident that the classes currently at Kent are the ones who can pull it off spectacularly! So, our new tradition instead of Candy Court will be ... drumroll please ... New Year's "Rockent" Eve! In an ever-changing world of many winter traditions, as well as Kent's commitment to spread kindness and inclusion, we will be upgrading our December 21st celebration to be one that all can celebrate: a New Year's kickoff. I am working with the Student Council leaders on specifics, but here's how you all can help you kiddos prepare at home:
- The new color scheme will be silver and gold.
- We wish to inspire the kids to wear 2019 glasses and party hats.
- Innovative costuming to ring in the new year is encouraged!
- While candy cane sales no longer make sense with the new theme, the kids are brainstorming another fundraising idea such as "Cookies and Cocoa" or cider.
Will we still have fun? Absolutely! Will some kids be disappointed? Probably. But we can assure them that change is good, helping others is amazing, and including everyone is a must. Let's kick off the new year with a bang, folks!
Thank you,
Melissa Stephens
Activities Director
Kent Library
I hope everyone found time to relax with a good book during the Thanksgiving holiday! Break time is the perfect time to encourage your child to read and relax. There are so many incredible titles for young people right now, I can hardly keep up. Some books I have enjoyed recently are: Dry by Neal and Jared Schusterman, Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krozocka, Tyler Johnson was Here by Jay Coles, Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard, and Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo. Car trips are the perfect time to share an audiobook through Overdrive, the free app available through the Marin County Free Library system!
Give the Gift of Reading!: Kent Middle School has partnered with Laurel Dell Elementary, located in San Rafael, for our third annual holiday giving campaign. Please join us by donating a new book for each student at Laurel Dell Elementary. Students and teachers from Laurel Dell have shared their wish list with us so we can buy them the books they want to read!
- Please see this link to sign up for a book for a child from our partner school. You may bring all donations to the Kent Library by Wednesday, December 12th.
Students will be raising money through fundraisers such as bake sales to purchase books, and we also encourage you to buy one and donate one at the KSPTA book fair the week of December 3rd. You can also purchase books locally at the Book Passage (mention Kent and a portion of your purchase goes back to our library!) or through an Amazon Smile set to Kentfield Schools Foundation (visit smile.amazon.com and then next to "supporting" select "Kentfield Schools Foundation"), which also generates money for our schools. Thank you for helping to make someone’s holiday season brighter by giving the gift of reading!
All School Read Ahead! As you may already know, Kent students and staff will be participating in an All School Read of the book Refugee, by Alan Gratz, who will visit Kent in May. During the two weeks before winter break, we will have a special schedule where all students will read at the same time in their fifth period classes. We hope each student can obtain a copy of the book by December 3rd. They can pick up a copy either from a local bookstore, through our KSPTA book fair (you can pre-order the title using this link), or they can borrow a copy from the Kent library. Students who have already read the book are encouraged to bring their copy of the book into school as well, and we will provide alternative book ideas and activities for those students. This should be an incredible shared experience for our students! We encourage you to read the book as well as it will provide some really meaningful conversation starters for you and your family.
Author Visit with Gennifer Choldenko on November 29th: In conjunction with our upcoming KSPTA Book Fair, we had a visit from the Bay Area’s own Gennifer Choldenko, author of the Al Capone series and other wonderful books. Many of us enjoyed her presentation last spring at the Kent Book Passage event, and she is an incredible speaker and presenter.
Mock Newbery Club: We have had two wonderful meetings with our Mock Newbery Club with Ms. Janney and Ms. Sterling. Our attendees include some incredibly enthusiastic fifth graders and a mix of students from grades 6-8. We are reading ten titles we think could possibly win this prestigious award, and we trade books and discuss them during each meeting. The conversations are inspiring and these kids are on fire with their reading! We will meet several more times before the awards are announced at the end of January. Here is the link for more information and the titles we are reading.
Laurel Dell After School Volunteer Program: Students visited Laurel Dell Elementary School to help in their after school program earlier this month. They played outdoor games, made crafts and had a blast with the younger students in the program. This is an ongoing program and we encourage all students to come to our next meeting to hear what it’s all about. Our next visit will be on Wednesday, December 12th, and meetings will be announced on the Kent Falcon News.
Thank you,
Rebecca Jelen
Kent Librarian
Kent Announcements
View Kent Daily Announcement on Kent website.
Last Chance! Good Eggs Fundraiser Ends November 30th
So far, we have raised $69.55 to purchase the book Refugee for our "One Book School" read in December and to bring the author, Alan Gratz, to campus in the spring. If 17 new customers join Good Eggs, we can earn an additional $500!
- Sign up here using the code: FALCONS2018. View Good Eggs information flyer.
- New customers get $15 off with this code and if 20 new customers join the fundraiser, our school also gets a $500 fundraising bonus.
8th Grade Students Applying to Private High Schools in 2019-2020
Please read this letter outlining the request process for transcripts and teacher recommendation letters to apply to a private high school.
- The final date to submit all requests for teacher recommendations and transcripts, to Kent, is Friday, December 7, 2018.
- No requests will be accepted during Winter Break, as the office will be closed.
Students Applying to Transfer to Another Middle School
- 5th, 6th, and 7th graders applying to a private middle school or moving should contact Lisa Sandberg at lsandberg@kentfieldschools.org, so that she can facilitate the process.
Follow the Kent Library on Instagram
Kent Site Council
Next Meeting: December 4, 2018, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Main Office Conference Room
- All Kent parents are welcome to attend Site Council meetings. Please visit our Site Council page for meeting dates, agendas, and minutes.
Kent Athletics
Attention all 6th grade basketball parents: coaches are needed for the 6th grade boys and 6th grade girls basketball teams! Contact Ryan Palmer at rpalmer@kentfieldschools.org if you or anyone you know would like to coach!
Kent Athletic Director: Ryan Palmer, kent-athletics@kentfieldschools.org, website
Kent Resources & Forms
Visit our Back to School page for the Parent-Student Handbook and important reminders and forms.
The District Resources and Forms page contains all forms and notices for the entire district.
Safe Routes News
The Kentfield School District encourages all families to actively participate in our nationally-recognized KSD Safe Routes to School Program, a neighborhood-focused initiative to advocate green travel alternatives, and address traffic safety at our schools.
A team of Neighborhood Parent Captains provide suggested safe route maps and carpooling options all customized by neighborhood. We also advocate for traffic safety concerns on behalf of the families in our district's neighborhoods.
- Locate "Safe Routes," "Park and Walk" spots, visitor parking, bike/scooter racks for Bacich and Kent. Note in particular that the designated parking lot for your neighborhood at Bacich. Determine your neighborhood and contacts with our zone map, then visit the neighborhood map for Berens Route Plan, Greenbrae Route Plan, Kent Woodlands Route Plan, Laurel Grove Route Plan, Murray Park Route Plan, and SFD Firehouse Route Plan.
- Public bus option for middle school students: The Marin Transit Bus 29 has a route designed perfectly for our Kent Middle School students. The bus picks up on SFD and Eliseo at 8:12 a.m. and drops off at College of Marin at 8:17 a.m. It's a short walk to the crosswalk and then to Kent. It costs $1 per child.
- Safe Routes to School Safety tips in English and Spanish.
kik News
kik Speaker Series
Any contribution at any level makes an impact on our schools.
Help us reach 100% participation for our schools.
Save the Date! kik Auction | Dinner | Dancing
May 11, 2019
KSPTA News
KSPTA Love in a Backpack
We are thrilled to announce that due to the amazing efforts of our community – with an extra special shout out to, our incredible coordinator, Ina Gotlieb – we created over 182 backpacks, filled with essentials and sent them up to up the children affected by the Camp Fire. The Kentfield School District community continues to amaze us.
Thank you all, for your generosity and effort!
Book Fair
Hours and information are here kspta.org/2017-kentfield-schools-book-fair/.
** Note that we have the taco truck, free coffee and free donuts for Kent students.**
Monday, December 3, 2018: 12-5 p.m
Tuesday, December 4, 2018: 7:30-10 a.m.* & 12-5 p.m
Wednesday, December 5, 2018: 7:30–10 a.m.** & 12-5 p.m
Thursday, December 6, 2018: 7:30–10 a.m. & 12– 7 p.m.***
Friday, December 7, 2018: 7:30–10 a.m. & 12-5 p.m
* Free Coffee
** Free donuts for Kent Students
*** Taco Truck from 4:00 – 7:00 pm
KSPTA Grants Awarded
Thank you to everyone who submitted a KSPTA grant proposal. We are pleased to announce the 19 grants approved for a total $21,455 for interesting projects and supplies ranging from STEAM equipment to safety equipment and instruction materials to gardening supplies. We look forward to seeing these new projects and materials benefit our students.
Support our schools with Minted
Order your holiday cards with Minted, by November 30, 2018 and receive 15% off your order and get 15% of your purchase donated to our schools.
- Bacich Code: FUNDRAISEBACICH
- Kent Code: FUNDRAISEKENTPTA
A special offer from Good Eggs
- Use this code, BACICH18, when signing up for Good Eggs to support our schools. Click here for details.
- This week you can win dinner for two at Chez Panisse, if you sign up for Good Eggs.
Next KSPTA Meeting
- January 28, 2019, 8:30-10 a.m., Kent Library
Connect with KSPTA!
Community News
These programs are not sponsored by the Kentfield School District. Distributing flyers and information is a community service and does not imply endorsement.
Prius Raffle To Support Special Education in Marin
The parent volunteers of Dedication to Special Education announce the kick-off of our 14th Annual Prius Raffle. We fund supports that special education students need in the classroom throughout Marin’s public schools. Look for our volunteers at The Village Shopping Center Saturdays and Sundays through December 30th and every weekend through February 10th at shopping centers and farmers markets around town selling chances to win. Special Education families at your school should have tickets available.
Jenny Novack at (415) 812-5366 can provide more information or get tickets to you. Go to specialed.org for more details.
Winter Wildlife Camp at WildCare
- Jan 2-4, 2019 (3 days) from 9 a.m-3 p.m. at WildCare, $220
It’s a winter wonderland at WildCare! Come out of hibernation and join us for a fun-filled session of camp—all about wildlife! Campers will have the opportunity prepare meals for a tortoise, dissect an owl pellet, and make toys for a turkey vulture. This unforgettable session of camp is packed full of animal encounters, nature exploration, wildlife-themed games, crafts, and more!
- Camp fills up quickly! Sign up today!
- www.discoverwildcare.org/CAMP
WildCare, 76 Albert Park Lane, San Rafael, CA 94901 ~ 415-453-1000 ext. 12
Tidalwaves Swim Team Registration Opens January 9, 2018
TidalWaves Swim Team is a community-based swim team organized and run by parent volunteers. We are dedicated to providing access to high-quality competitive swimming in a nurturing and fun environment. Our swim practices, meets, and spirit events all promote not just improved swimming skills and physical fitness but also healthy self-esteem, sportsmanship, and a strong team spirit and achievement.
We are part of the Marin Swim League (a league of 10 community teams who compete within Marin County) and are open to boys and girls of all abilities ages 5-18.
The spring/summer program is our competition season and is run primarily at Redwood High School from mid-February through early July. All swim practices are run by professional coaches. Parent volunteer commitment is required to run team events and meets. It’s fun for the whole family!
- New family registration opens January 9th, 2018 and will fill up fast.
More details about our 2018 spring/summer season as well as our winter swim programs are available online at www.gowaves.com . Head Coach Marie McSweeney is also available to answer questions about your child's readiness for the team at mariemcswim@yahoo.com or 415-453-9563.
San Francisco Boys Chorus Auditions and Open Admissions
The San Francisco Boys Chorus teaches boys with unchanged voices how to sing, read music, and perform. They offer classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:45-6:15 p.m. in Marin. The boys perform with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Jose Opera, and San Francisco Opera.
The mission of the San Francisco Boys Chorus is to provide music education, vocal training, and performance experience at the highest artistic level to boys from all cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.
If you would like to learn more about our program, please visit our website at sfbc.org/auditions.Boys in Preschool to age 12.
- Marin Auditions: January 12, 2019 in San Rafael.