Special Notices

A more detailed look at selected current events, announcements and forthcoming activities here at Madison School.

Madison School Open House

Dear Parents and Guardians,
You are cordially invited to attend

OPEN HOUSE AT MADISON SCHOOL!

Plan to visit your children’s classrooms and see the outstanding teaching and learning environments created by the teachers in order that their students can excel in their daily work.

WHEN: Thursday, May 22, 2008
PTA Meeting in the Auditorium 5:30-5:45 p.m.
Classroom Visitation 5:45-6:45 p.m.
PTA Sponsored Book Fair 5:30-7:30 p.m.

PLAN TO JOIN US FOR AN EVENING FOCUSED ON THE STUDENTS AND THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS!
On behalf of the faculty and staff, we look forward to meeting you on this special occasion!

Sincerely,
David T. Hoffman
Principal

PLEASE NOTE: We respectfully ask that you refrain from parking in the STAFF ONLY Parking Lot on Open House night. The teachers need to be able to park in order to be in their classrooms to meet the students and parents in a timely manner. Thank you in advance for your consideration and cooperation!

PLEASE NOTE: Open House Day is an EARLY DISMISSAL DAY for all classes, including PM Kindergarten.

Madison Career Day

Madison's annual Career Day will be held on Wednesday May 28, 2008, from 8:30-10:00 a.m.

The police department, fire department, a fitness expert from AdventurePlex, a veterinarian, engineers from Raytheon and Northrop Grumman and many more interesting people will be visiting Madison School to talk about their careers and inspire our children about the career choices they can make for their own futures.

For more information about this event, please contact Cynthia Burgess at burgess.foshe@verizon.net.

Madison Variety Show

Madison's Annual Variety Show will take place on Wednesday June 12th in the school cafeteria, with performances at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. for the school and at 6:00 p.m. for families.

All interested performers must attend a short meeting on Wednesday May 7th at 1:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria to learn more about guidelines and ideas, and to collect application forms. These forms must be completed and returned to your child's teacher by Friday May 16th. The first tryouts will take place on Wednesday May 21st at 1:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

If you have any questions about the Variety Show, please contact Mr. Johnson, Miss Hollow or Mrs. Gobee.

Kindergarten Pre-registration and Open Enrollment

Advance registration for children who live in the Redondo Beach Unified School District boundaries, who were born on or before December 2, 2003, and who plan to enter kindergarten in September 2008 will be held on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Children may be registered during office hours (8:00 am – 4:00 pm). The required registration forms must be completed by the parent or guardian. You do not have to bring your child in order to register.

A birth certificate, baptismal record or other legal document must be presented at the time of registration. Proof of residence is verified with a California Drivers License as well as a utility bill (gas, electric or water) in your name. In addition, escrow papers may be used but must be followed in 30 days witih a utility bill in your name (phone bills will not be accepted).

State law requires a child to be fully immunized against polio, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, measles, mumps and rubella. Kindergarten and 7th grade students must be immunized against Hepatitis B, and to have two doses of measles-containing vaccine (rather than one) usually given as MMR. All students entering a California school for the first time must have a Varicella (Chicken Pox) immunization OR proof from a physician of having had the disease. All kindergarten students must have proof and results of a Mantoux skin test for tuberculosis within the last 12 months. Please bring evidence of required immunization and the Mantoux skin test at the time of registration. Immunization must be completed before the first day of school. Children may not attend class until all records are complete.

If you are interested in having your child enroll in a school other than your neighborhood school within the Redondo Beach Unified School District, you must first complete registration at your local neighborhood school. Once registration is completed, you may obtain a School of Choice form at the District Office, 1401 Inglewood Avenue, Redondo Beach (if one was not given to you at registration time). The completed form must be returned to the District Office by March 31. Based on space availability in the school of your choice, students will be selected for attendance through a random lottery to be held in April.

To find out which is your neighborhood school, please check the RBUSD Schools Boundary Map.

For information on after-school child care, please call the RBUSD Child Development Centers at 310-798-8683 ext 202.

Please see that your friends and neighbors who may not receive this notice have a chance to read it!

eGuardian Online Safety Program

A recent Thursday packet contained information about an internet safety program called “eGuardian” from the company FoundationCare. The Madison PTA board is very aware how concerned we as parents are in protecting our children while on the internet. Here is some additional information about this program.

• This is a Madison PTA sponsored event.
• It has been approved by Principal Hoffman.
• The one-time fee is $20 (or $30 for all the children in your household).
• $13 of your donation goes to Madison PTA.
• When you participate, the school has access to the program as well.
• The sign-up process is done online through your home computer.
• Pay online with a credit/debit card or send a check to school made out to Madison PTA.
• Paying online is safe and secure.
• FoundationCare does not share information with third parties.
• If you cannot afford the fee, you can get a hardship waiver. (Should you need this waiver, please email Sybilla Turner at unicorn61@roadrunner.com)

We feel that this program is a step in the right direction towards alleviating some of the worry we have when our children are online. The initial roll out for this program will be over the next 7 weeks and will end February 1st, 2008. Please join us in protecting our children and making this program a success.

For more information about the program, please visit www.eguardian.com. If you have any further questions about the program, please email Sybilla Turner at unicorn61@roadrunner.com.

RBUSD Website Upgrade Notice

The Redondo Beach Unified School District has recently reorganized its website and, as a result, the individual school websites have been moved to a new web server.

The official address of the Madison School website is now http://www2.rbusd.org/madison.

If you have bookmarked any of the pages on the Madison website in your web browser, such as your child's class page, your bookmarks may now be broken! Please edit your bookmarks so that the address that they point to begins with "http://www2.rbusd.org/madison/..." instead of the old "http://www.rbusd.org/madison/..." address.

The old website address of http://www.rbusd.org/madison still works for now, but simply points to our new homepage.

Make A Difference - Be A Bucket Filler!

Recently, each class received a lesson based on the book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Kid’s Guide to Daily Happiness” by Carol McCloud. Students have embraced the lesson and the project, so we would like you to understand and participate with us as well.

The idea of the book is that everyone carries an invisible bucket which holds our good thoughts and feelings about ourselves. “Everyone” includes students, adults, volunteers, parents and all school staff on campus. We need others to fill our buckets by doing or saying things that make us feel good or special. When we do these things (bucket filling) we can also fill our own buckets. Bucket filling can be as simple as a “hi” and a smile, inviting someone to play, standing up for someone or saying or writing a positive note. If we do things that are mean or hurtful to others we are dipping from their buckets and in turn are not filling our own either. Our goal is to make Madison a GREAT place to be, where everyone works to be respectful and encouraging to each other. This goes right along with our goal of teaching and following the 6 Pillars of Character.

Each lesson included a discussion that we are in charge of our own happiness and that we have the ability to choose to be happy or not based on our choices and way of looking at things. Included in this discussion was the idea that sometimes things don’t go our way or we have a few bumps in the road, but we can choose to think positive and look at what has gone right or what our “wins” are instead of focusing on the negative,

As an extension of this lesson, each class, the Library and the Office have received a special bucket that everyone is invited to write a nice note to someone that they appreciate, a quality that they admire about that person, or an encouraging thought for someone. These “Drops in our bucket” notes are then read in class or given to the special person as a way to fill up their bucket.

We would like to invite and encourage you, as parents, to join in our lesson and challenge to make Madison School a GREAT place to be by filling up someone’s bucket. Notes can be found by the buckets in the classrooms, office and Library. Make sure to include who it is to and who it is from and put it in the bucket. We will make sure it gets to that special someone.

As all of the students learned, it really can only take a second to make a difference in someone’s day. So join us in being “Bucket Fillers” today!

If you have any questions about this lesson or our bucket project, please feel free to contact Kimberly Pappas, Counselor, at (310) 798-8623 or kpappas@rbusd.org.

Student Drop-Off Service

The morning drop-off on Nelson Ave. is often chaotic and potentially dangerous to our students. Many children are being dropped off in the middle of the street or in the staff parking lot on MacKay. These situations are causing students to run across the street in the middle of traffic and teachers having to avoid students while parking. The Madison School Site Council wants to address the situation.

If you drop off your child by car, please plan to use the new drop-off lane on Nelson Ave, between 8:00 and 8:15am. You will see parent volunteers standing curbside waiting to open your child’s door and assist him or her to the sidewalk. You will also notice that the gate near the tetherball courts is now locked and the larger gate near the cafeteria will serve as the entrance point.

The new drop-off system is very effective and safe, and we hope it will be much more convenient for everyone. Please assist us in making it as safe and quick as possible by doing the following:

• Wait patiently in the line of cars; do not pull in front of other waiting vehicles.
• Pull all the way up to the parent volunteers before letting your child out of the car.
• Make sure your child is ready to exit when you enter the school block. There won’t be time to dress, comb hair, or dig for lunch money. If your child is not ready, please go around the block.
• Check carefully for oncoming traffic before pulling back into the street.
• Volunteer 2-3 mornings per year to help make this system work.
• Be courteous to the volunteers assisting you and your precious children.

Drop-off in the staff parking lot is not allowed. If you choose, you may park a distance from the school and walk your child to campus. Thank you for making Madison a safer place to go to school!

If you have questions please contact Cyndi Wicks or the school office.

Manning the Student Drop-Off will be done a rotating basis by the parents of each class room. Please see your room parent for your assigned days.  Thank you to all those parents who have stepped forward to be Daily Drop-Off Coordinators or work a drop-off shift!

Message from the Madison School Office

• Please remember to call the school office on the day your child is absent to report the reason for their absence. Call every day your child is out.
• Please remember to sign in / check in at the office if you are volunteering or visiting your child’s class.
• Do not take forgotten lunches/ forgotten homework to your child’s class.  Leave it on the table outside the office, notify office staff that it is there and we will make sure your child gets it.
• Children are not to arrive at school before 8:00 a.m. each morning unless they are reporting to the dining hall for breakfast program or are enrolled in the CDC Program.
• Students are to go home immediately upon dismissal unless they are attending the CDC Program or the Park and Recreation Program.

Drop-Off Procedure for Forgotten Items

We are initiating a new proceudre for forgotten lunches, lunch money and homework.  We now have a table outside the office for bringing in late lunches and forgotten items.  Please instruct your child to check the table if he/she realizes they have forgotten something.  Please leave these items on the table - do not take to the classrooms.  Please notify an office staff member that you have left something for your child.

Important - Please put your child's name and room number on the item(s).

The office staff thank you for your cooperation.