Dear Lion Families

We have wonderful children here at Mason and, for them, WE NEED YOU! Please remember that it takes a whole village to raise a child! Teachers will be scheduling parent conferences during the week of November 17th (note: dismissal is 12:15 EVERY DAY that week) and we need you to attend one for each of your children. Also, our teachers are doing an expert job of establishing new learning communities in their classrooms and PTA sponsored events have helped our families to stay involved. Even still, we need more parent support. If you can assist with our Everyone a Reader Program (EAR) by listening to some of our children read, please contact Ms. Tse at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

At our school, one of our goals is to keep parents well informed of our efforts to provide a rich educational experience for our children. We work hard to enlist parent support and participation. We have many other communication vehicles set up to keep you informed throughout the year. Some of these vehicles include our website, our school calendar, “Connect Ed”® phone calling system, open house/back to school nights, parent education classes, our PTA newsletter, our principal’s board, e-mail and various forms of classroom communications. In addition, we have our Site Governance team, School Site Council, PTA unit meetings and many PTA sponsored activities. Please immerse yourself in the lion spirit and continue to support our school because participating in school events promotes a sense of community and helps to improve student achievement.

I realize that many of us are working parents, so here are some more ways that parents can support our efforts at home:

• Have high expectations for your child and clearly communicate them to him/her.
  Expect your child to do his/her best on tasks and in all subjects. Don’t set goals too high unrealistic expectations do as much harm as low expectations.
• Establish some good home routines. Get children in the habit of getting ready the night before each school day.
• Set up a home study place. Decide on a place to complete work that is quiet, has adequate lighting, and is away from distractions.
• Discuss your child’s schoolwork each day. Review your child’s day with him/her. Review homework after it is completed.
• Read to your child each evening. Practice basic math facts by making flash cards and playing the math games.
• Communicate the importance of daily attendance and the accountability for being on time. Being tardy is a huge disruption in your child’s day and for the rest of the class.
• Discuss the monthly Character trait with your child and remind him/her to practice good character. The monthly trait can be found in our school calendar or on the school website www.sandi.net/mason/Mason_Calendar_2008-9.pdf .
• Visit the Parent section of the district website: www.sandi.net/indices/parents.htm. There is a wealth of information!)
  
• Help us keep our lunch lines moving by making sure your child’s lunch account has funds(Did you know that you could receive an e-mail reminding you to deposit money and/or, you can set up an automatic payment so you child will always have a funded account? The website is paypams.com/HomePage.aspx .)

Thank you so much for your help and all that you do to make Mason a great school! We are having an amazing year!