Covington School Howler - Sept. 2, 2014

From the Principal

Dear Covington Families & Community Members,

It was fantastic to see everyone at Back-to-School Night last Tuesday.  There are great things happening on our campus and your involvement is always welcome! Thank you to the many parents who have already volunteered in numerous capacities already this year and especially to the parents who took on parking lot duty the first two weeks of school. You are appreciated more than you know!

On the topic of our parking lot, I wanted to share the protocol for parking, pick-up and drop-off.

When driving through the pick up lane, pull as far forward as possible and please stay in your car (please do not leave your car unattended to go and pick up your child).

• You are welcome to park your car in a space and walk over to meet your children.
• Please drop your children off at the curb; the middle of the parking lot is not a safe place to drop children.
• Once you drop off your children, please proceed out of the parking lot. Traffic needs to continue to flow to avoid back-ups on neighboring streets.
• Thank you for not using your cell phone while driving in the school parking lot.
• If the Covington parking lot is full, you may use the back portion of the St. William’s parking lot.*  The church is generously sharing their parking lot and we respect their wish to keep the front lot available for their functions.  Thank you so much for helping to keep all of our students be safe!

* Just a special request to avoid the St. Williams parking lot this Friday 9/5, due to their annual rummage sale.  Covington parents are invited to shop at the pre-sale on Thursday as a thank you!

Staying Connected at Covington

Communication at Covington  is pushed-out and available to you in a variety of ways.  From the Covington Website, the Tuesday Howler and Twitter, to Emails, Classroom Google Groups and Thursday Folders, information is always available to you.  If at any time you have questions about any of the above or upcoming events, please do not hesitate to call our school office at 947.1100.

With so many different types of communication I wanted to make sure you were aware of other ways to keep up to date at Covington.

Come to Monday and Friday Morning Flag Assemblies, attend PTA meetings and Principal Coffees (the 2nd Friday of each month), and especially look out for communications directly from your child’s teacher. The teachers spend a lot of time crafting the messages that go out to you and they try to provide regular talking points to inform your conversations at home.  Here’s to open, frequent and great communication this year!

Best Regards,
Erin S. Green

Important Dates to Note:

September 11 - Picture Day
On Picture Day all your child needs to bring is a smile! Shooting Stars will take multiple photos of every student, and all orders are placed after Picture Day, so you don’t need to worry about taking out your checkbook.  For the best possible photo, please be sure to schedule all haircuts 10-14 days before Picture Day.

September 19 - No School - Staff Development Day

PTA NEWS:

Outdoor Family Movie Night at Covington.  The whole family is invited to set out chairs, sleeping bags and blankets under the stars on Covington’s lawn!  It’s your own private viewing and all your school chums are invited.  This special event is not to be missed!  Pizza, popcorn and refreshments will be provided! Movie will start at 7:30pm.

Hosts: Yasmin Braun, Ula Ghosheh, Jenny Bennett, Nadiah Mshasha,
Sarah Anderson and Suzette Anderson
Date:  September 12, 2014. Time:  6:30-10:00pm .Venue:  Covington
Price: $60-  (you can leave a check in the PTA box in the office)

Alice in Wonderland 5th and 6th Grade After-School Play by Starting Arts.
This year the 5th and 6th graders will have the exciting opportunity to be in a PTA after-school play production of Alice in Wonderland. Starting Arts will be directing a fabulous show, starting in September through December, with two performances on Friday and Saturday December 12th and 13th. Must be available to participate in both performances to sign up.

Practices will be held in the multi after school on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Cost: $285 per student* Deadline to register is this Friday, September 5th!
*partial scholarships may be possible- please call for info

To Register: go online www.startingarts.com/enrollment or complete registration form (sent home or in office) make checks payable to "Covington PTA"   ((NO CASH PLEASE)) drop off registration and checks to school office. All 5th and 6th graders are encouraged to register!

And register early before space fills up!! Cannot register after class starts on sept 17th. No refunds after Sept 17th. For more information contact Arezou Bahman arezoua@yahoo.com

eScrip is one of our most important shopping fundraisers. Register your Safeway card to earn extra money for Covington every time you shop at Safeway -- at no extra cost to yourself. Safeway is no longer contributing for groceries paid by credit card, so please use debit, cash, check, or gift card whenever possible. Contact kathrynhan@gmail.com with any questions.  http://www.escrip.com/signup

After School Programs: Classes start in September. Register early to ensure a spot. Monday classes include MiT-Mathletes In-Training (gr 3), Mathletes (gr 4-6), Young Rembrandts Drawing (gr 1-6), Coach Ken Soccer (gr K-2). Tuesday classes include Codebreakers Chess (gr 1-6), Mad Science (gr. 3-6), Yoga (gr 1-5). Wednesday classes include Lego Pre-engineering (gr K-2), CSMA Art (gr K-3) and Skyhawks multi-sport (gr K-2). Thursday classes include Programming/Technology (gr 2-6) and Public Speaking/Debate (gr 3-6). Friday classes include Spanish (gr K-6) and 1:1 Basketball (gr K-6). Contact kathrynhan@gmail.com with any questions. Check the Covington website for flyers and registration information: http://covingtonschool.org/covingtones/4757-After-School-Programs.html

LAEF: Did you know that every child in every grade in all nine LASD schools benefits from LAEF’s 2014-15 grant? Your donation today supports enrichment program staff and smaller classes now through June 2015.  LAEF’s grant is already at work in our school, funding STEM, PE, Art, Music & Library, while also improving the student to teacher ratio. That is why we are striving for 100% participation from our LASD families. Giving to LAEF is our way of investing in what we value: our children’s education.  Please give today at LAEFonline.org

Covington Stem Teacher Links:

tinyurl.com/covingtonstem

https://sites.google.com/a/lasdk8.org/covington-stem/class-newsletters

School & Community News:http://www.lasdk8.org/PDF_Files/Current_School_News.pdf

Post an Announcement in the Howler? If you have an announcement to include in Howler, please send it to sevard@lasdschools.org.  Announcements must be received by 12:00pm on Friday in order to be considered for the Howler scheduled for the following Tuesday.