By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
As the middle of the first quarter approaches, both students and teachers are beginning to develop a clearer picture of the school year and adjusting goals to maximize student potential. At Creekview Elementary, an emphasis on reading, math and citizenship hopes to create the next generation of scholars.
Creekview Principal Jennifer Black joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss the start of the new year at the elementary, new pickup policies and her first year as principal.
“It has been really fun. It’s been great to have the kids in the building and get to know them. They’re delightful to be around every day when they come up and say good morning to you and want to talk to you,” said Black of her first year as principal. “I’ve enjoyed being out on the playground with them, learning their names, getting to know a little bit about them. I’ve enjoyed seeing them at lunchtime. I’ve also popped into the classrooms pretty much every day to see what they’re learning about and how their in-school lessons have been going. So it’s just been a fun transition that way to get to meet all the staff members.”
Moving to goals for the school year, Black explained,” We identified three goals over the summer. The first was a reading goal. So we’re going to continue working on developing basic reading skills in all of our grade levels. The hope would be that by the time a student comes through Creekview from kindergarten to fifth grade and they’re leaving fifth grade, that they have a good, solid reading foundation where they can read a text fluently and be able to comprehend it.”
She continued,” We started to implement a math facts goal this year, which, as I mentioned with the reading, we know that the math facts are very important. Once a student leaves elementary school and continues their education, they need to have mastered those basic math facts, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. So we’re really focusing on trying to get those fluent within the students so that they can quickly understand that nine plus nine is 18 and they can do it that quick. So one of our goals is to work on that.”
Black also shared the third and final goal,” we’re trying to do a behavior shift this year and really focus on what it means to be a respectful student at Creekview Elementary. So we’ve talked a lot about what respect is, what it looks like, how students show respect, and just some basic procedures and expectations for learning how to be a respectful person.”
Black also discussed the help the school receives from its Parent Teacher Association to help host a plethora of activities. “They are wonderful. I met with the PTA president, and she outlined a list of activities that they’re planning on doing for us throughout the school year. As we get started, we’ll explore the possibility of hosting a family breakfast. We’re also looking at doing a membership drive coming up. They would like to expand and have some more volunteers and helpers, which is great. The more people who can join to help us out with some of these activities, the better off we’ll be. One of the big things that we have coming up would be our Red Ribbon Week in October. That always takes a lot of hands. So the more hands that we can have on deck, the better it will be for our PTA. So we have our Reflections competition coming up, too. And then in November, we’ll start to look at some holiday activities. So if there’s anybody out there that has a little bit of extra time and would like to sign up to help this team out, that would be awesome.”
The principal also spoke on student council elections, and how impressed she was by student involvement within them,“. Our fifth grade group this year is very good, and they did an awesome job preparing some speeches and working towards their elections. We had a lot of parents come in to watch. The two advisors who help oversee our student government noted that the speeches and competition this year made it very hard for them to decide who to pick. So we want to commend all of our fifth graders who took that time and effort to even want to take on a leadership role. In the end, they did go with nine candidates, so we’re really excited for those nine candidates to help our school be a better place.”
Black added,” We expect them to be role models and show what it means to be a respectful Creekview Coyote. So we’re excited to have those nine students to help us and support some of our goals this year, but we’re also going to include some of the other students who tried out in some different activities because they put forth the time and effort and they deserve to be recognized for at least taking that step.”
Rounding out our conversation, Black reminded parents and guardians of the school’s new pickup procedure,“ We have designated areas for each grade level, which enables our parents to be able to find their kids quicker. We hope this will encourage more parents to use the pickup lane, as we invested in our parking lot a couple of years ago to make it more efficient. And using that pickup lane now should be a lot easier.”
Added the principal,“ So if parents are listening and they haven’t tried the pickup lane after school, please start trying that because you can quickly know exactly what area you need to drive to. We can get your kid in the car and then you can drive out and you do not even have to leave your car. For those parents that would like to park and meet their student as they come across through the crosswalk, we are encouraging parents to wait on the sidewalk that is just south of the crosswalk. And as the teachers walk by, we’ll send your kid through the crosswalk so that they can meet you on that sidewalk and you can get out of here sooner. So safety was a big concern, but now we’re really looking at being efficient and trying to get our kids dismissed as efficiently as possible.”
To stay up to date with what’s happening at Creekview Elementary, visit the school’s website or Facebook page.