H. Green

It is good to be back, to see the hustle and bustle of kids in our halls going hither and yon.

As always, while your child is at Steller his/her safety is of paramount concern for us.   I just want to touch base on a few issues that are well within our ability to affectively deal with.

The first is skateboards: Skateboards are not allowed and will be confiscated and held to the end of the day if brought to school.  If there is a repeat incident a parent will need to come and pick up the skateboard.  We had some students playing with them in the streets.  A community member called the school to inform us of what was happening.  When I went to check, sure enough a group of our students were where they were said to be.  I observed one student fall in front of a moving car causing the car to come to a stop just to avoid hitting him.  So, please keep skateboards at home.

Open campus Students are prohibited from leaving the campus during the school day EXCEPT during lunch. The exceptions are students who attend King Career Center, have pre-approved late arrival or early dismissal privilege and students who have classes on different school campuses. Students who do not fall under any of those categories must stay on Steller’s campus. If students, need to leave campus during the school day for any reason, they must have prior parent permission. Parents must contact the Office before the student leaves school allowing the front office staff to amend their attendance records.

Because Steller does not have a lunch program our students are allowed to leave campus and go to any of a number of establishments for lunch.  As they are going about the business of getting lunch, students need to remember basic safety precautions.  Walk on sidewalks or as close to the edge of the street as possible.  Do not walk in the middle of the streets and play chicken with oncoming cars.  And, please remember to cross streets at designated crosswalks.

One item that is at the forefront of everyone’s concerns is supervision of students.  As you all know school is over at 3:00.  Teachers are here at least until 3:30 after which they leave the building.  We still have kids that have not been picked up by that time.

After 4:00 there is no one that can maintain a modicum of supervision for our students. There is just too much that can happen with unsupervised kids.  We need the students to be picked up between 3:30 and 4:00pm.  If you absolutely cannot pick your child up by 3:30 or 4:00pm give them an alternate location for you to rendezvous.  Barnes and Nobles is one space a lot of parents use, one of the nearby eateries is the next logical choice, also some students are enrolled in one of the martial arts programs, Kim’s Tae Kwon Do, Mr. Kim picks those students up from the school.  If you have an alternative place in mind that would be fine.  But regardless, for the safety of your child we ask that you pick them up between 3:30 and 4:00pm.  The exception would be if they were in an after school activity. Then of course we would ask that you pick them up after the activity.

On to other news, we did finally get an Art teacher.  Her name is Alayne Tetor.  She has a brief bio in this newsletter.  We think that she will do a wonderful job in that position.  We still do not have word on the sped teacher.  We did pick someone and have sent her name to the district.  As of yet I have not received any information as to whether she accepted or declined the offer.  So, we wait a little bit more.

The kitchen is finished and looking good.  I think that it will serve the Steller community very well.  We need to get pots and pans that are appropriated for the ceramic cook tops.  Once that is done we can start cooking, hosting or entertaining as we choose.

I invite each of you to join with us in making this year one of our best.

Parking and Building Safety

It is school board policy that all students parking in ASD student parking lots have a parking permit.  This permit [if displayed properly] will work for any school district student parking lot.  The cost of the permit is $50.00 per semester. To obtain a permit please take all monies to the main office and see Elizabeth. Students will then receive a Vehicle Registration and Parking form. Take the completed form and payment receipt to JayBee and he will issue the actual permit.

There will be periodic checks of vehicles in the parking lot to make sure vehicles have up-to-dated permits prominently displayed. If you do not have a permit a warning citation will be issued for the 1st offense. However, a $20.00 fine will be assessed for the 2nd offense. Cars maybe towed at owners expense if there is a 3rd offense. Be aware that if you have a class at another ASD school you must have a permit prominently displayed or you may be cited. Also, each school has their own fine system for their parking areas. Permits from our school are valid at any other ASD student parking lots.

Vehicle safety is important. Please do not speed in the driveway or parking lot. Please make sure that each of your passengers has access to a seat belt. Our school is about responsible freedom, which means just that, freedom to be responsible in all things you do. Driving responsibly is the only way we can be certain of our privilege to drive to school and park on campus.  If proper choices are not made, those freedoms could be taken away

All visitors must sign in at the office. This allows us to know who is in the building for security and fire purposes and helps alleviate confusion about non-permitted cars in Steller’s parking lot.

The front access drive is a Fire Lane. Dropping off and picking students up is fine but parking is not allowed. Any car parked in the Fire Lane (without a driver in the auto) may receive a citation from Anchorage Police.

When we are having an emergency or a drill and vehicles are stopped in the front entrance driveway be aware of students coming out of the doors and please move your car to the parking area as soon as you are able. In the advent of a real emergency, if your car is unattended, we may not be able to locate the owner of the car. Our first concern is the safety of the students. If your car is blocking the emergency vehicles they will move it any way they can.

Thank each and every one of you for your cooperation in helping to keep Steller a safe place for kids to be.