Please take the Covington Site Survey
We are asking Covington parents to take a few minutes to fill out a brief survey regarding your child’s experience at Covington this year.  The feedback we receive in the survey is invaluable as we are constantly striving to make Covington an even better place to learn. The survey is designed to be brief.  If you have more than one child at Covington, we are asking that you fill out the survey for each child- as the experience amongst grade levels can be different. This survey is open until Friday, June 1st.   You may access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XV5HX3Q

New Parent Survey:
If you are new family to Covington this school year, we are also asking that you fill out an additional survey for new parents: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X3ZPN33

This information from this survey will help us learn how to better support families who are new to Covington.   This survey is also brief.

Staffing for next year
We are still in the midst of locking down staffing for next school year.  I anticipate being able to share with the community our staffing in the last Howler of the year, scheduled for June 7

Thanks for all your support!
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

Magical Bridge Playground Fundraising starts next week

A Magical Bridge playground is one where the design allows for all abilities to access the playground. A Magical Bridge playground takes into account the physical disabilities that limit children from playing on a playground. It is a fun and INCLUSIVE play setting.

Covington, along with Los Altos School District, is partnering up with Magical Bridge Playground to fundraise for the construction of a Magical Bridge playground at Rengstorff Park in Mountain View- which will be the first of its kind in this community.

Starting next week, each class is encouraged to bring in coins to fill the bucket in each room. We will run this coin drive until June 1st. The school goal is to raise $3000 which, along with other school drives, will help make the Rengstorff Park Magical Playground a reality.

To learn more about the Magical Bridge playgrounds, you may view this video.

Thanks for all your support!
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

Stand Up for Public Schools!
Our school is fortunate to be part of a caring community where we value educational excellence for our students. LAEF, together with other Bay Area educational foundations,  recognized May 9th as a day to Stand Up for Public Schools.

I’m excited to let you know that the mayors of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and Mountain View signed a proclamation in support of this day and our public schools. The proclamation recognizes that public schools are integral to the development of our future leaders and citizens and their excellence is dependent on every child, at every school, having access to a competitive, well-rounded education. The Los Altos-Mountain View Council of PTAs also declared their support of this special day.

LAEF will be promoting awareness of our public schools on Stand Up for Public Schools day and encouraging parents, community members, and local businesses to support our schools.

During my daily visits to classrooms, I am often reminded of the impact LAEF-funded programs have on our students. We have a librarian, PE specialists, music teachers, the Los Altos Art Docent program, STEM and cSTEM programs, and more, thanks to LAEF funding.

Donations to LAEF from parents, community members, and companies enable our school to offer many excellent programs. If you have already donated this year, I want to personally thank you! If you haven’t, there’s still time to donate and help LAEF raise the remaining $200,000 to meet their goal of $3.7M for this school year. You can do so by visiting laefonline.org

Thank you for all you do to support our school community. Together, we Stand Up for Public Schools!

Preparation for next year
May is a busy time for our community as we are wind up the current school year and, at the same time, plan for the upcoming school year.  An important task for the Covington team to perform before they head out for summer is the building of next year’s classes.  The amount of time and thought that each grade level team puts into the creation of each class cannot be understated.  With the goal of building balanced classes in each classroom, teacher teams consider numerous factors.  It is the teachers who know the students best, and it is the teachers who know each of their colleagues’ classroom environments- hence it is the teachers who are most suited to this task.  

The planning for next year’s classes has started and teachers are deep in thought about creating the best, most optimal learning environment for each student.  As always, we ask that parents do not make specific requests for teachers.  Doing so puts your child’s teacher in a very difficult position for a number of reasons.  Staffing is not yet solidified for next year.  While I know of the make-up of most grade level teams, changes are still being made.    

If you have a specific concern about your child’s learning needs, you can convey that to your teacher via email.  The Covington team will consider that information as we build balanced classes at every grade level.   

Thanks for all your support! 
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal
 

Bike to School Day is Wednesday!
Did you know that Wednesday, May 9th is Bike to School Day?  In an effort to diminish automobile traffic on the streets around Covington we are encouraging students and parents to bike to school.  If you don’t want to bike, walking to school will also accomplish the goal of less cars on the street.  When biking, please remember to wear a helmet and obey all traffic laws.

Great Coyote Way Spirit at Junior Olympics
Last Saturday’s Junior Olympics offered ample opportunities for our students to give their personal best and display the character traits of the Coyote Way.  There were numerous examples of sportsmanship and compassion.  We will recognize both the athletic and sportsmanship achievements at an awards assembly later in the month.  
But, I wanted to share with you how proud I was when a parent (not from Covington) stopped me at the Junior Olympics and shared with me how impressed she was by the gracious acts of Covington students.  The entire Covington community should be proud!

Congratulations to...
Aarav Das’s team won the “Outstanding Device Performance “ award at the Tech Challenge 2018 “Drop and Dash” contest hosted by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. His team was one among a total of 12 teams to get awards in various categories, chosen out of a total of 200 teams that participated.

Thanks for all your support! 
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

4th Grade Writing Honors.  Each year the Los Altos History House sponsors the Margaret Thompson Essay Contest, which is open to all students in grades 3rd through 6th in Los Altos schools (public and private).   We are very pleased to announce that Covington’s 4th graders nearly swept the top places for that grade level!
Congratulations to:
Mariana Leaver (Goines)- 1st place
Alara Martin (Yust) - 2nd place
Logan Crawford (Yust) - 3rd place

Junior Olympics is this Saturday!  The annual Junior Olympics takes place this Saturday at Mountain View High School.  4th-6th grade students from LASD’s 7 elementary schools will give their best in a variety of track and field events.  If you have not attended a Junior Olympics, now is your chance to see a whole-community event that celebrates student athletes giving their personal best.  Thank you to the many volunteer parents who coordinate and coach our Covington Coyotes!  

Reminders about playing after school. Please remember if you stay after dismissal with your students to play on the playground, you must be directly supervising them. That means you must be within proximity and watching them at all times. Students are not allowed to ‘wait on the playground’ until you arrive.  If you decide to stay, you should meet your student at the front of the school, and accompany them to the playground.  

School rules apply after school:
-No skateboards, bicycles or scooters on the blacktop, in the corridors, or in front of the office.
-No sitting on the tetherballs and riding them like a swing.
-No climbing on chain link fences.
-No climbing up slides, the play equipment must be used as it was designed.
-No climbing on the TIPTOP of the play structure.
-No jumping off swings.
-No tackle football.
-No standing or jumping on top of the picnic tables.
-No playing on the stair banisters.
-No climbing on top and jumping off the sheds.
-No climbing up poles.
-No picking the plants and flowers.
-No riding on rolling backpacks down the corridors, down the playground hill or anywhere on campus.
-No throwing items on top of the roof (i.e. toys, shoes, balls, frisbees etc).

Believe it or not, ALL of these behaviors are observed after school when parents are supervising the playground.  If you have a childcare provider picking up your child, please inform them of these rules as well.  

Thanks for all your support! 
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) testing begins next week for our 3rd through 6th graders.  The testing window for Covington is from April 23rd through May 11th.  

The SBAC is a state mandated exam that is given in all public schools throughout the state.   Testing takes place in the areas of English/Language Arts and Mathematics, with a piloted Science test given in 5th and 8th grades this year.  Parents receive testing results over the summer and we use the results to help guide our instruction to ensure that we are teaching to the standards at a high level.  

Grade level teams have created a testing schedule for their classes that fit their curriculum plans.  Teachers will be sharing their testing schedule with you via their newsletters.  In all grade levels, teachers have scheduled the testing to take place in the morning hours (between 8:30am and noon), when we know our students our at their optimal cognitive level.  For this reason, we are asking that families refrain, if at all possible, from scheduling doctor’s or other appointments within the morning hours during the testing window.  
A portion of both the English/Language Arts and Mathematics test are computer adaptive; meaning that the more questions the student answers correctly, the more rigorous the questions become.  This fact is told to our students because we need them to know that there will be a point where the test becomes difficult.  

As always, we encourage our students to get plenty of rest- especially during SBAC testing.  A healthy breakfast also helps the brain do it’s best work!  Also, as a staff, we coach our students to do the best they can on these tests, but also stress that the SBAC is not the “end all, be all” of examinations.  The SBAC is an opportunity for students to show what they have learned.  And, it serves as only one measurement of Covington.  

You can learn more about SBAC testing, as well as take practice tests, at their website.

Thanks for all your support! 
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

Open House Tonight!  (Note correct time: 6pm-7pm): I’m looking forward to seeing everyone tonight at Open House.  Please remember not to park in the front portion of St. William’s church parking lot.  You can park in our lot, at Rosita Park or walk over if you live nearby (with an umbrella if its raining).

Also, remember tomorrow is a minimum day, all grades dismiss at 12:15pm to get an early start on Spring Break.  Enjoy your week off and we will restart on Monday April 16 for a fantastic final eight weeks for this school year.

Thanks for all your support!
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

Open House is Next Week (Note correct time: 6pm-7pm):Preparations for next Thursday’s Open House have begun!  In fact, our students have been preparing for this event all year.  Since Open House is our students’ chance to show off their learning, they have been preparing for this since the first day of school.

Please note the correct time.  Open House is from 6pm to 7pm.  

STEM Expo Success!: Today was our last day of Covington’s STEM Expo.  We had nearly 200 entries and many, many visitors last night.  Mrs. Farley, and her team of parent volunteers, worked very hard to make this science showcase a great success.   

Fantastic Auction: Thank you so much to our Auction Committee and all the volunteers who worked so hard for months putting together such a fun and memorable community building evening.

Thanks for all your support!
-Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

K-3rd Grade Music Concert is tomorrow!
Parents are invited to attend tomorrow’s vocal music concert tomorrow in our Multi.  The concert is a chance for our students to showcase their talents and learning from nearly a year’s worth of instruction from our Starting Arts program.  Having listened to the student rehearsal the last two days, I can assure you that we are in for a treat.

Kinders and 1st graders perform at 9am.   2nd and 3rd graders will be on at 10:30am.

Thank you to PTA for funding our Starting Arts program at Covington.  We are very excited for our new dance lessons to begin, starting next week!

SBAC Testing
Please note that April 23-May 11 is our CAASPP (State mandated) Standardized Testing window.  Students in grades 3 through 6th will be assessed. Teachers will begin working on testing schedules and will communicate those to parents when ready.  I want to give all parents a “heads up” about the testing to avoid, as much as possible, absences. We appreciate your ensuring that non-emergency absences/appointments (during school hours) are not scheduled during this time. Students are required to make up these assessments if they are absent which disrupts the students’ schedule.

Auction
This Saturday 3/24 at the Elks Lodge in Palo Alto.  Doors open at 5:30pm and the fun begins. Come out and socialize, bid on great items, and help build a stronger Coyote community.  I’m really looking forward to this fun night.

Tremendous thanks to the PTA Auction committee for putting this event on!

Be well,

 -Wade Spenader, Covington Principal

STEM Expo is coming!

Covington’s annual STEM Expo is coming quickly.   On March 27th through the 29th, the multi will become a scientific hot bed, with exhibits that demonstrate our students’ knowledge, curiosity and skill in the world of science- and beyond.

Currently, there are over 200 exhibits that have been registered!  Each exhibit tackles a concept in one of six fields: Coding, Invention, Reverse Engineering, Scientific Inquiry, Wearable Design, and Robotics.

The STEM Expo is open to the public on Wednesday, March 28th from 4:30pm to 8:00pm.  This is always a well-attended event as our community has a strong interest in science.  Students are encouraged to bring in their exhibits, to the multi, throughout the day on Monday, March 26th.  

This event is only possible with a large cadre of volunteers.  We are still looking for help in judging, set-up and take-down.  If interested, please contact Mrs. Katie Farley, our STEM teacher, at kfarley@lasdschools.org

We appreciate LAEF’s support of this vital program for our students.

Thanks for all your support!
 -Wade Spenader, Covington Principal