Message from the Principal 4/16/20

Ms. Prindle shares her weekly update with the Castlemont community.

Hello Castlemont Families,

I hope this message finds you all in good health and adapting to the changes we are all facing. If you are experiencing hardships, please reach out to us. Our wonderful community liaison has contacted many of you, and we all continue to check in on our families as we navigate through this time.  Our district continues to find resources to connect to our community.

This week is the kick-off of our interactive distance learning.  I have had the pleasure of observing and participating in virtual classrooms via Zoom and have also left feedback directly to many individual students on Seesaw. It's new, a little scary at first, and very exciting. Keep a look out for our new online distance learning "hub" where you will be able to find all of our grade level resource links right here on our school website. The hub will be added to our webpage next week.  Teachers will also continue to push out lessons to their individual classes.

I encourage all of you to keep an eye out for emails and Seesaw messages from your child's teacher.  We are trying to balance the needs of families who want as much online learning as we can push out with the needs of our families who are doing their very best to keep up with the minimum expectation for distance learning. The lessons you receive online will also include enrichment lesson links that extend above and beyond the base lessons.  Please tap into these resources to provide the "extra" that some students want and need. Conversely, if you are struggling to guide your student's learning from home, please don't be hard on yourself; we are here to help as much as possible. Each teacher has posted office hours and we are all available via email. If we have left you a voice message or email, please respond to us. We still have numerous families we have not heard from at all, and we very much want to know that you are safe and well. 

We will still be providing paper packets to students who do not yet have online access. We have continued to distribute Chromebooks and will be distributing iPads to our kindergarten students.  If you find that you are having trouble with your borrowed device or with accessing accounts, please let us know-- don't give up! Contact your teacher, and if they cannot find a fix (they usually can!), they will send the issue down to the office.  Also, an important reminder: please do not take photos, screenshots, or video of your teachers or other students participating in distance learning. This is a privacy concern and one we take seriously.

I are very happy to share with you that Mr. Shandonay, our school counselor, will be able to meet with students remotely.  Click the link to his letter that has all of the details regarding how to contact him.

Link to Mr. Shandonay's Letter

I deeply appreciate your supportive messages and offers to help. I can see that our routines are taking root and that we will continue to improve and grow in our distance learning efforts. As always, we are here to serve our students and our families.  

Sincerely yours

Kristen Kimoto Prindle