West Elementary School -

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year! We hope you enjoyed a relaxing summer despite the heat, and that you’re ready for another exciting year here at West School. As we prepare to come together for a new school year, we are filled with anticipation and enthusiasm.

Our goal is to create an engaging, challenging, and rigorous learning environment where every student can thrive. We believe that students excel when they are actively thinking, participating, and connecting with others. With this in mind, our dedicated faculty and staff have been diligently preparing to provide a safe, nurturing, and stimulating atmosphere for our students.

Class placements will be sent out at the end of this week. We understand how important it is for your child to have a smooth transition, and our team has carefully considered each student’s needs and strengths to make thoughtful classroom assignments. Our aim is to support your child’s academic, social, and emotional growth.

As we embark on this academic adventure, we encourage you to stay actively involved in your child’s education. We value the strong partnership between home and school and believe that open communication and collaboration are crucial for a successful school year. We look forward to many opportunities for you to engage with our school community, including through our West School PTC.

Thank you for entrusting us with your child's education. We are committed to providing an outstanding educational experience that fosters a love of learning, curiosity, and personal growth. We eagerly anticipate the year ahead and are excited to work together to make it a fantastic one filled with growth, discovery, and achievement.

Placement: We know you are eager to receive your child’s placement information; placement will be sent via email at the end of this week. 

Who’s Who (and What’s New) @West: We have several new staff members to welcome to our West School Community!  Please read on for details…

Grade Level Changes:

Faculty Updates:

New to West Orientation: On Thursday, August 22nd, we will host our New to West Orientation for all new students in Grades 1-4. The event will be held at West at 10:15 am.

Kindergarten Meet and Greet: Our kindergarten students will come to school with their parents on Thursday August 29th, the first day of school. They WILL NOT ride the bus on the first day of school. Each kindergarten family received a letter with the specific time for their visit to the classroom.

Meet and Greet 10:30-11:30am: On Wednesday, August 28th, we will host a Meet and Greet for all students in Grades 1-4. This will be held in your child's classroom from 10:30-11am. The Meet and Greet will end promptly at 11am to give teachers the opportunity to have lunch. The first day of school for students in Grades 1-4 is Thursday , August 29, 2024.

West School Hours: The instructional day for students is 8:40 a.m to 3:10 p.m.

• School begins each day at

  8:40 AM

  and ends at

  3:10PM

  . Supervision begins at

  8:30 AM

  ;

  students are not to be dropped off prior to 8:30 AM

  unless enrolled in Early Birds.

• Our Early Bird program is available for working parents who need child care. It runs from 7:30-8:30am. Registration information for Early Birds can be accessed HERE

  .

• We encourage families to use bus transportation to ease traffic flow at the start and end of the day. If your child will be picked up by car, we will continue to use the back loop.

• YELLOW cards

  will be distributed to your child on the first day of school

  . The card has your last name on it.

  Please place your card in the passenger side window so that staff can easily read it and have your child ready.

    On the first day, a simple sheet of paper with your name will suffice. Please be sure that you place this name card on the passenger side window each day to allow our staff to match your child to your car.

Enrollment Update: We reduced one section of kindergarten this summer, likely due to the age requirement for kindergarten entrance. Simultaneously, we added a section of Pre-K. We currently have 24 sections in grades K through 4. We will be welcoming 13 NEW STUDENTS in grades 1-4 and 76 kindergarten students.

One Book West: This year, we selected the book “The Power of YET” as the books we will use for “One Book West” This charming picture book tells the story of one small piglet who uses the Power of Yet to conquer frustration. While it may not be possible to perfectly flip pancakes or play the violin, “yet”, with practice and patience and courage and grit, anything is possible! The book aligns with our focus on “West K.I.N.D. Kids” this year. (Kind, Independent, Neighborly and Determined). (...more details to follow). Thank you to our PTC for collaborating with us on this school-wide project.

Custodians and Maintenance Dept: Our custodial and maintenance staff have done an amazing job preparing the school to “shine” this fall, and remain committed to maintaining a healthy and safe environment here at West. This summer all of the classrooms in building three were painted and 12 classrooms received new SmartBoards. Thank you to Scott Olson, Juan, Vik, Bill and Pashk - a great team!

Secretaries: A huge shout out to Lauren and Kelly for their hard work this summer in helping to get the school year off to a great start!

School Lunches: Here is a LINK with information about our school lunches

• Student Options $3.70 (Students should order double portions in the morning)

  • Hot Lunch

  • Extra Portion (Hot Lunch)

  • Sandwich Lunch

  • Sunbutter & Jelly Sandwich Lunch

  • Bagel Lunch

  • Cheese & Cracker Lunch

  • Pinwheel Lunch

  • New! Vegan Burger Lunch (Black Bean Burger)

Parent Resources: All of your most important documents can be found on the East Quick Links page, under "Parent Resources". We've also included a link to the A-F Rotation Calendar and the District Calendar.

Important Dates:

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Jan Murphy, Principal

Trish Gracia, Assistant Principal