PRINCIPAL'S CORNER

2011-12 Welcome Letter from Principal Johnna Maraia

My first full year at Park Avenue is now completed and I am excited about the new year to come. It has been a very busy summer here at Park Avenue. Work on the new gym floor, new wiring and doors are all in full swing on pace to be ready for our first day of school. New staff and faculty have moved into their new spaces with truck loads of boxes and supplies. Our custodial, maintenance and technology departments have battled the heat all summer long to get us cleaned, painted, repaired, updated and running all ready for the start of school. Of course, our office staff has been sailing along preparing for the arrival of staff and students. I thank them all for their hard work and drive to get it done and get it done right!

Many of the faces around Park Avenue this year will be new. We welcome over 120 new students and 12 new faculty and staff members from around the district to our school. What a perfect time to introduce Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, affectionately known as PBIS.

School-wide PBIS is a systems approach to establishing the social culture and behavioral supports needed for all children in a school to achieve both social and academic success. This is not a packaged curriculum, but an approach that clearly defines behavioral expectations, teaches students what those expectations look like in every area of our building, reinforces positive behaviors, addresses negative behaviors and rewards progress and changes in behaviors. I am very pleased to say, this is not only a building wide initiative but one of the entire district grades K-8. I look forward to sharing more information about PBIS with you in my welcome back letter home, at our Back to School Nights and in our newsletter, The Park Avenue Press, posted every month on our website. Visit http://warwickvalleyschools.com and click on Park Avenue.

As you may know, we are very proud to be the Park Avenue Owls and our students and staff are always ready to demonstrate that pride! Our owl is displayed throughout our building and we are sure to celebrate our Park Avenue spirit the first Friday of every month with “Spirit Day”. Our students and staff members show their pride by wearing purple and gold, Owl wear, Park Ave. gear or anything Warwick!

Our PBIS theme will embrace our Owl mascot and our expectations will reflect our motto, Be W.I.S.E. It is our goal that every student in our building will know that being W.I.S.E. means being well-mannered, making intelligent choices, being safe, and showing effort every day. Our PBIS team has been working closely with the faculty and staff to infuse the new culture into every part of our building and even on the buses. We hope that students will embrace our initiative and jump on board! It will be challenging but we are confident that students will also have fun!

At Park Avenue, we continue to value the partnership between our students, their families and our faculty and staff. Communication will be the cornerstone of our success as an entire school community. I encourage you to be involved with your child’s school. You can begin by joining our Parent Teacher Association. Of course, I thank our Park Avenue PTA and their officers for all the fine work they do to create an “involved” and productive PTA. I look forward to working closely with them again this year. I wish everyone an amazing school year!

Please mark your calendars for…

Welcome Back letters to be mailed on or about August 22

New Students Tour on Friday, August 26th at 9:00 am

Meet Your Teacher the date and time to be announced in your welcome back letter

Opening Day on Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Back to School Night #1 (Grades K-2) on September 22, 2011, at 7:00 pm

Back to School Night #2 (Grades 3-5) on September 27, 2011, at 7:00 pm

Please remember these Back to School Nights are for parents and guardians only.