FRANK C. HAVENS SCHOOL

WELCOME TO THE SCHOOL YEAR

We are off to a great start to the 2007 - 2008 school year! We opened our doors this morning to 494 students in 23 classes and we welcomed 15 new families to Havens School!
Our staff is changing and growing a bit this year.

Megan Pillsbury moved to Wildwood School where she will be teaching first grade. In her place, teaching second at Havens is Lydia Hoffman. Miss Hoffman has been teaching 3rd and 4th grades in San Rafael for the past two years. She also taught in our summer school program for the past 4 years. Miss Hoffman comes to Havens with the highest recommendations. She is a former Piedmont student and is thrilled to return to the district in which she began her educational career. Please join me in welcoming Lydia Hoffman to our school.

Ms. Lawson is going to be dividing her time this year between Piedmont and the Emery School District where she will be a Physical Education Consultant. Drawing upon her extensive experience and knowledge, Ms. Lawson will be supporting change and improvement in the physical education program in Emeryville. When Ms. Lawson is not in Emeryville, she will be teaching PE at Havens. Mr. Jorcino will be teaching PE full time and Kelly Ellis will teach PE three afternoons a week. Ms. Ellis is currently an instructional aide and a parent at Havens. She is a credentialed teacher and is looking forward to broadening her many skills to include physical education instruction.

An exciting change; we now have a 100% Librarian position at Havens. For at least the past 16 years, we have been staffed at 80%, and the library was not really open for operation on Thursdays. Now however, we will be fully staffed every day of the week. Laura Remer will become the official Librarian on Mondays and Barbara Flores will continue Tuesday – Friday. This 20% increase in library time will allow us greater flexibility and more classroom/library collaboration time to enhance our already outstanding program.

Although not a summer change but a new teacher on our staff, we welcome Terry Smith as our new Science and Math Resource teacher. Ms. Smith is taking over Jennifer Bridgman’s position and comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and an abundance of enthusiasm.

We are so fortunate to have Kathy Morrisroe become one of our permanent Speech and Language Therapists this year. She had been working at the Middle School for many years but after filling in for Liana Burke at Havens last year, has chosen to return to the elementary level. She is extremely skilled and will add a wonderful new dimension to our program.

So, our teaching staff is in place but I am still in the process of hiring a few additional instructional aides. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please have them give me a call at 594-2681.Other work has been going on this summer, although nothing like our major transformation last year! With the addition of a new fence, we were able to regain use of most of the kindergarten playground. This will once again provide our kindergartners their own yard for snack and recess. Also, the benches around the trees by the annex were taken out and new asphalt fills the empty tree holes, which creates more actual playground space. Given our current situation, every little bit helps!

Valerie Jew, Barbara Flores, Helle Vistisen, Laura Remer and Suzanne Binder, for turning an idea into this reality! Go to piedmont.k12.ca.us/havens and see for yourself what an amazing site this has become. Our goal is to make it as useful and helpful as we possibly can with up to date information, links to sites like Children’s Choice and the PUSD Bond/Construction information center as well as interactive opportunities through the library and classroom pages. You will certainly want to bookmark this site and refer to it often throughout the school year!