Welcome Back South Fork Staff

School starts on Tuesday, August 25th. We have had to make a lot of changes right before school started so I have been very busy hiring new staff and switching staff around to accommodate the changes. I am excited at the new additions but sad to see some people move on to bigger and better positions within the system.

Please welcome Barry Hill to our 4th grade, along with Beth Hodges. It will be the "H" team as it is Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Hodges, and Mr. Hill. We have also added a new kindergarten teacher, Ms. Rachel Hicks. Her assistant has joined us from Kimberly Park ES. Her name is Carol Green.

Ms. Cheryl Wright has taken the position of the Summer School Academy and the SES Coordinator for Title One Schools. She will be great at this position but we will miss her more than we can imagine. Angie Anderson, from 4th grade, has taken on the challenge of being our new Tech Facilitator. Ms. Wright and Mrs. Anderson have been working night and day to get technology lab prepared for the classes to start.

We have made several grade level changes. Mrs. Sanchez moved to 1st grade. Mrs. Quigley moved to 2nd grade, Ms. Allen moved to 3rd grade, and Ms. Knote moved to 5th grade. We have also added Ms. Revelle and Ms. London to our primary reading support staff. Mrs. Hunt has joined out staff for the mornings for ESL. She will be at Brunson ES in the afternoons. Mrs. Dixon will be in a full time support role working mostly with 2nd grade to begin with and then pick up small reading and math groups as the need arises. Please welcome and help all the these new additions and people new to these different grade levels.

It is going to be a fantastic year. We have incorporated the theme this year as, " A Firm Foundation Builds a Nation". This is how we will include the "Essential Skills of the 21st Century", which is our overall school theme for the county school of choice. We had a great beginning of team building with our staff on the 17th. The Theme Team that went to the Teacher Academy this summer, worked on this idea all summer to help unite our staff, students, and community. By all of us working together, our students will become the leaders one day that we need them to be. More to come on that later....

Remember that we will use the blog and wiki to communicate ideas, discuss staff development ideas, and share instructional strategies with each other.

I will be glad to have all the students back at school. It will be nice to have a routine in place.

Trish