Liberty Ridge Elementary Newsletter

9/30/22 Picture Day

Dear Thunder Eagle Families,

What a great first week of school it has been! Our first through fifth grade students have had four days of learning expectations and getting back into school routines. Our kindergarten students joined us today and had a wonderful first day of school. Please ask your child what they learned about SOAR (Safe Choices, Ownership of Actions, Achieve Excellence and Respectful Behavior) expectations this week!

Each month during the school year we focus on a leadership trait, this month we are focusing on the trait of Respect. One way to think about Respect is “seeing value in all people and things & treating them with care.” Many people feel Respected in different ways and we hope this month inspires discussions with your family about what Respect means to you and how you can practice it together! Respect is 1 of 3 traits we will focus on throughout the year that helps students Be Kind. Throughout the school, students will be developing skills like perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and leadership. At the end of every month we will have a leadership assembly where we will recognize two students from every classroom for showing the leadership trait of respect. Below is a Respect challenge you can complete together as a family:

Agree as a family to set aside a certain time each day this week to unplug from devices and plug into family time. It shows Respect to practice being present in the moment without the distractions that can come from technology. Debrief and discuss this challenge afterward and commit to this practice at least 1 day each week!

Have a wonderful weekend-we look forward to another great week of learning!

Thank you to all our parents who have made dismissal arrangements before 2:45. This has been very helpful in helping us keep the system moving quickly so that our neighborhood roads don't get backed up.

Changes to dismissal can be made by contacting our office by 2:45 so that we can update the software so that your student's plan gets changed and uploaded to the teachers dashboard.

We appreciate your cooperation, participation, and patience while we get routines established with staff and students so that we can help improve traffic flow in our community.

Just a reminder, you can search your student's bus route information (including pick up times and drop off times) on the district website. This is a handy tool we use frequently. Please note, bus numbers have changed from last year. Also, please make sure you are out before pick up a few minutes early as times may fluctuate while drivers get used to the new routes. Also, drop off times may be delayed the first few days as students are also getting used to routines. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Also available on the website is a Monday Late Start pick up time conversion chart. Please make note of the Monday pick up times!

Driver Shortage:

Due to a bus driver shortage, it's highly likely that some bus routes will be affect to some degree on a daily basis. Any given route on any given day could experience a different bus number, earlier or later pick up times or the potential of no transportation at all.

This bus driver shortage also affects:

• Waivers: While a condition of waivers is that District transportation is not provided, we have made exceptions in the past if a bus is not full. This year, however, our buses will be full and we are unable to accommodate students on waivers. Families will need to provide their own transportation to and from school.
• Bus passes: We are unable to allow students to ride a different bus when wanting to, for example, go home with a friend or be dropped off at a grandparent's house.

This school year, there are some important changes to meal prices. A national school meal waiver that provided free meals for all students due to the pandemic expired over the summer. This means that meals are no longer free for everyone.

We encourage families who may be eligible to apply for free meals. Applications can be found at sumnersd.org/meals.

Copies of forms are being sent home with all students in their folders and are now available in Spanish, Ukrainian, and Russian.

• There has a close contact with anyone confirmed to have, or suspected to have COVID-19
• The Student has tested positive for, or is waiting on a test for COVID-19
• The student has been told to self isolate or quarantine by public health or a medical professional
• Any of these symptoms are present:

• Fever of 100.4 or higher

• Cough- frequent and persistent

• Loss of taste or smell

• Shortness of breath

• Fatigue

• Muscle or body aches

• Sore throat

• Congestion or runny nose

• Nausea, diarrhea or vomiting

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Email: LRE@sumnersd.org
Website: sumnersd.org/lre
Location: 12202 209th Ave Ct E, Bonney Lake, WA, USA
Phone: (253) 891-4800