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Quote of the week: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." --Charles Dickens (writer) Dear Ocean Shore Families, This week was a roller coaster for me, and maybe you feel the same. Oceans 411 was amazing, and we had the best beach weather in the 10 years that I have been at Ocean Shore. There were no freezing children in the sand this year. Thank you to all of the parents that made it possible. We literally depend on your participation in order to provide this amazing educational opportunity for our children. Tonight is our Open House where you will have the opportunity to view our hallways and all of our classrooms. The teachers will be available to answer questions, but do not do presentations. This is a great time to peak into the classrooms of the grade your child will be in next year. We are staggering start times by last name. Families with last names from A-L will attend from 6:00-6:45 and those with last names starting with M-Z will attend from 6:45-7:30. Families with multiple last names can pick their time. The event in Uvalde, Texas has left all of us shaken. It's hard to find words to discuss it, especially with our children. Gitima will provide some additional resources that our ombuds will send out for helping children process horrific events in the news, but I thought I would send a link to this article in the meantime. https://www.npr.org/2019/04/24/716704917/when-the-news-is-scary-what-to-say-to-kids In happier news, Ocean Shore raised the most money during the Pacifica Education Foundation Donation Days school competition, raising $25,190 for PEF. Thank you for making this happen! I will send out a separate email giving information about the pizza party which will not be on June 11th as originally planned. Look for an email from me soon with details. Keep our military, currently serving and veterans, as well as their families in your thoughts this Memorial Day. Take care and enjoy the long weekend, Jeanne Shout out to Michele Tuman and Patricia Garcia who were honored last Friday at the Elna Flynn Volunteer Awards banquet. Michele and Patricia are both "graduating" from Ocean Shore this year. Michele had two children go through our program and served in many roles, most recently as PTO president for 4 years and 8th grade graduation coordinator. Patricia was our PTO treasurer for ELEVEN years, PTO Co-President last year and 8th grade ombud this year. I've had the good fortune of working with both of them, as a teacher, and as a principal. They have saved me time and time again! School Business Monday is Memorial Day and there is no school. We'll see everyone Tuesday! COVID reporting: Results from yesterday's pool testing are pending. If you or a family member test positive, please email Ayesha Siddiq, [email protected]. We have sent home COVID tests with each student. You do not need to share test results with the school unless your child tests positive or is returning from an illness. Our last day of pool testing will be Wednesday, June 1st. Return to School after an illness: Parents, please remember that we need a negative COVID test if your child has been out sick. Parents are also required to fill out this return to school form: Ocean Shore Return to School Form. COVID numbers are rising in San Mateo county. There is no mask mandate, but masking, vaccinations and keeping your child home when sick are vital ways to minimize the spread of disease. PTO Elections/Signups/Appointments have arrived! This really can be an easy way to fill your recommended volunteer hours on evenings/weekends. Many jobs can be done in just a few hours a month. It is also a great way for you to know what is happening at school AND to give your feedback and steer the direction of the PTO-activities!!! We need your amazing ideas and energy. Please, everyone is welcome to chip in to help. We value your help, and you will feel more connected to the school. Sign up by May 31. Any “run-offs” will be done at the PTO General Meeting on June 2nd (7-8:30). This link goes to sign up for ALL positions (if viewing on phone you may need to “tab over” to see all jobs). Job descriptions are on the PTO website https://www.osspto.org/pto-positions.html. Please use this link to sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/tabs/13575db03a4cdebc5ac5-202223. Summer Learning through the library: Link: https://smcl.org/summer-learning-challenge/ (English, Spanish, Mandarin) Join this year’s 2022 Summer Learning Challenge, which runs from June 1 - August 31. The Summer Learning Challenge is a fun -- and FREE -- way to engage youth, families and adults by challenging them to read, explore new activities and learn new skills all summer long. Youth 18 years and younger can participate in the program to earn a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship! Complete the program more than once to increase your chances of winning. Other prizes may be available. Check your local library for more details, including your free book. Fliers: PTO jobs/elections, SPCA Donations, Thinkbridge flier, Elna Flynn Awards, Portuguese and Spanish translations of my letter.    
Quote of the week: "The deep sea is the largest museum on earth, it contains more history than all the museums on land combined, and yet we're only now penetrating it." Robert Ballard (oceanographer and deep-sea explorer) Dear Ocean Shore Families, It's been a busy, busy week. Oceans 411 is in full swing. If you haven't seen the hallways, you need to take a peek. They are amazing. Our students, parents, and staff have gone overboard as usual. The beach trips have been fantastic and we've been blessed with great weather. I am learning so much about the Deep Seas. The 7th and 8th graders are doing a wonderful job of teaching the 2nd-6th graders and the Kindergarteners and first graders are enjoying learning about the deep ocean. I got to experience that first hand when I was a substitute for Halie's class one day this week. When you hear 6-year olds using words like bioluminescence in conversation, it's impressive to say the least! Enjoy this beautiful weekend! Take care, Jeanne A special shout out to Khaleesi Santos, Rosie Wong, Maya Warner and Cami Martin Cervantes who have placed as finalists in the North Coast County Water District's 2022 Water Awareness Poster Contest. Congratulations, girls! You are carrying on the proud tradition of Ocean Shore student artists using their work to spread awareness about an important issue. Coming next week: celebrating our Elna Flynn nominees and an update on the PEF Donation Days! School Business COVID reporting: We had one pool test positive on Wednesday, and one pool that was contaminated and couldn't be read. We also had several parent reported cases and staff cases. The follow up rapid COVID testing on Friday revealed six positive cases. If you or a family member test positive, please email Ayesha Siddiq, [email protected]. Our last day of pool testing will be Wednesday, June 1st. Return to School after an illness: Parents, please remember that we need a negative COVID test if your child has been out sick. Parents are also required to fill out this return to school form: Ocean Shore Return to School Form. COVID numbers are rising in San Mateo county. There is no mask mandate, but masking, vaccinations and keeping your child home when sick are vital ways to minimize the spread of disease. PTO Elections/Signups/Appointments have arrived! This really can be an easy way to fill your recommended volunteer hours on evenings/weekends. Many jobs can be done in just a few hours a month. It is also a great way for you to know what is happening at school AND to give your feedback and steer the direction of the PTO-activities!!! We need your amazing ideas and energy. Please, everyone is welcome to chip in to help. We value your help, and you will feel more connected to the school. Sign up by May 31. Any “run-offs” will be done at the PTO General Meeting on June 2nd (7-8:30). This link goes to sign up for ALL positions (if viewing on phone you may need to “tab over” to see all jobs). Job descriptions are on the PTO website https://www.osspto.org/pto-positions.html. Please use this link to sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/tabs/13575db03a4cdebc5ac5-202223. DLG: Diversity Learning Group – Wednesday, May 25 @ 7-8:30pm. Come join our last meeting of the school year! DLG serves as a resource for parents, teachers, staff and students in the OSS community to identify and discuss ideas, concerns and areas in need of further growth or awareness. The Diversity Leadership Group’s mission is to provide leadership, guidance and support to the Ocean Shore community to cultivate an environment of inclusion where each individual is valued and respected. Join via Zoom Meeting ID: 630 060 3544 password: DLG TDAP: Incoming 7th grade parents, please remember that students can't start school until they have their TDAP booster. Please contact your pediatrician and set up an appointment. Open House: We will be having a "live" open house on Thursday, May 26th. We are staggering start times by last name. Families with last names from A-L will attend from 6:00-6:45 and those with last names starting with M-Z will attend from 6:45-7:30. Families with multiple last names can pick their time. Fliers: May Lunch Menu, PTO jobs/elections, SPCA Donations, Portuguese and Spanish translations of my letter. 
Quote of the week: " The sea cures all ailments of man." -- Plato (philosopher) Dear Ocean Shore Families, May is Mental Health Awareness Month which makes sense. For me, May has ALWAYS caused anxiety. When I was in school, it was finals, dances, trying to find a summer job or a "real" job if I was graduating college, graduate school, or my teaching credential program. For an educator, May means standardized testing, grading, chaperoning dances, planning graduations, finishing staff evaluations, prepping classrooms or the school for the summer, planning for next year--the list goes on. Students do not always cooperate with the need to complete tasks because behavioral issues tend to spike during the last month of school. At Ocean Shore, we have the added activity surrounding Oceans 411, which is an amazing event, but also takes a lot of planning and energy. All of us need to remember to stop and breathe. Better yet, walk down to the beach, look out at the waves, and breathe deep. Speaking of Oceans 411, or Oceans Week, our hallways are being transformed into the Deep Seas, we will start beach field trips on Monday, and class rotations on Wednesday. We can always use more volunteers, so contact your child's teacher and they will put you in touch with their Oceans 411 coordinator. Thank you so much to the parents and teachers who are putting in hours of extra work in order to make this happen! It is so exciting to have a "real" Oceans Week again! Take care, Jeanne A special shout out to our amazing Mr. Ben Gower and our beginning and advanced bands. The concert combined our band classes with those at IBL and it was extraordinary, especially considering that each group had only ONE rehearsal together. Middle school parents, please encourage your children to continue with band. The process of learning to read a piece of music and doing the work to perform it successfully while collaborating with your fellow musicians, is a powerful, sometimes life-changing experience. I can't discuss music without mentioning the Pacifica Education Foundation. Please donate for our final donation day! PEF has raised $62,235, but we need to get to $85,000. As you can see by the graphic, Ocean Shore is doing well, but Cabrillo is beating us in both total dollars and total number of donors. I would love to see us have the highest number of donors. Ocean Shore is all about participation. You can give any amount from $10 to $10,000. Please don't wait, donate right now so that PEF can achieve their goal of continuing to fund our middle school band, elementary school music, and SPARC poetry programs. We can't do it without you! https://www.pacificaef.org/ School Business: COVID reporting: We had one pool test positive on Wednesday, and the follow up testing on Friday revealed one positive case. If you or a family member test positive, please email Ayesha Siddiq, [email protected]. Our last day of pool testing will be Wednesday, June 1st. DLG: Diversity Learning Group – Wednesday, May 25 @ 7-8:30pm. Come join our last meeting of the school year! DLG serves as a resource for parents, teachers, staff and students in the OSS community to identify and discuss ideas, concerns and areas in need of further growth or awareness. The Diversity Leadership Group’s mission is to provide leadership, guidance and support to the Ocean Shore community to cultivate an environment of inclusion where each individual is valued and respected. Join via Zoom Meeting ID: 630 060 3544 password: DLG TDAP: Incoming 7th grade parents, please remember that students can't start school until they have their TDAP booster. Please contact your pediatrician and set up an appointment. Open House: We will be having a "live" open house on Thursday, May 26th. We are staggering start times by last name. Families with last names from A-L will attend from 6:00-6:45 and those with last names starting with M-Z will attend from 6:45-7:30. Families with multiple last names can pick their time. Fliers: May Lunch Menu, SPCA Donation flier, PEF Donation Days, TDAP reminder, ThinkBridge Camp, Portuguese and Spanish translations of my letter. 
Dear Ocean Shore Families, Quote of the week: " When you have teenagers, it's important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you." --Nora Ephron (writer & filmmaker) Dear Ocean Shore Families, What can I say about being a mother that hasn't already been said more eloquently and more humorously by other people? I used to tell parents during back to school nights that children are the greatest inconvenience. They upend your life in every way imaginable. Suddenly, life is full of excess bodily fluids, inexplicable crying, and sleepless nights. And the stuff! My "babies" are 18 & 21, but I distinctly remember the drama involved in leaving the house. The checklist changes as they age from diapers, wipes and snacks to various types of gear (sports, music, drama, surfing) and, well, wipes and snacks. It still seems strange to me that I can leave the house with just my purse. Motherhood is also incredibly humbling, especially when you are also an educator. There is sometimes the assumption that because you deal with children for a living, and are knowledgeable about child development and educational milestones, that you will be more successful as a parent or that your children will be expert readers or well-behaved in class. Yeah, not so much, at least not for me. When I was president of the Pacifica Mothers Club, I wrote a monthly column for our newsletter on different aspects of motherhood. I joked that if I ever put those essays into a book, the title would be, "You're a Better Mother than I am." The pandemic certainly didn't make parenting any easier and blurred the line between home and school in ways that we are still coming to terms with. The bottom line is that parenting is exhausting, but also exhilarating, stressful, but also joyful, expensive, but also priceless. Are there things I wish I'd done differently? Sure. But I also wouldn't trade a second of my time as a mother for anything in the world. Happy Mother's Day to anyone who is mothering children: mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, school staff members, coaches--everyone! Cheers! Jeanne School Business: Playground update: You might notice that the parent parking lot is open again. Construction will be on and off for a while due to the fact that the playground structure is in transit. I do not have any information about when it might arrive in California. If workers are on site, the cones will be put out and the parking lot will be off limits for that time period. Thank you for your flexibility. Things went very smoothly last week for the most part! COVID reporting: We had all negative testing pools on Wednesday! If you or a family member test positive, please email Ayesha Siddiq, [email protected] 2022-2023 School Year - Intent to Return Survey link Please help us prepare for the next school year by confirming your child’s enrollment. Please do so by completing the survey asap. The office will soon start making phone calls to confirm enrollment and student services will begin reaching out to families on our waiting list. (Eighth grade parents do not need to complete the survey). PSD Intent to Return Form Open House: We will be having a "live" open house on Thursday, May 26th. We are staggering start times by last name. Families with last names from A-L will attend from 6:00-6:45 and those with last names starting with M-Z will attend from 6:45-7:30. Families with multiple last names can pick their time. Oceans Week Training: If you are attending one of the beach trips during Oceans Week, you must attend the training this Saturday from 10:00-11:00 in our Science Room. Spring Auction: Ocean Shore's Spring Auction is still active. This auction has a lot of special items. The spring auction of 2020 was canceled due to Covid and we are now able to put those amazing baskets and much more up for auction. This bidding process will be online; however, baskets and items are available for viewing in the main hallway. 25% of all proceeds from the auction will go to Ukraine Relief Efforts. PEF: Pacifica Education Foundation (PEF) is hosting its virtual 2022 Donation Days on May 11-13. As most of you know, PEF raises much-needed funds to support the elementary music program, middle school band, SPARC Poetry, and other programs that benefit Pacifica School District students and staff. PEF is excited to reach out to all district families to ask for participation in its Donation Days. Fliers: May Lunch Menu, Terra Nova Band Concert (5/12), Spring Auction, PEF newsletter & Donation Days, San Mateo County COVID testing/Vaccination information, Portuguese and Spanish translations of my letter.
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Jeanne BellingerPrincipal of Ocean Shore. Check back here for weekly updates and messages from the principal. Archives
June 2022
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