Principal’s Message
Dear Friends and Families of Los Ranchos,
I hope you were able to make it to one of the end of the year celebrations. We had pool parties, sprinkler parties, author parties, sing along parties, water slide parties, gold rush parties and so many more. We have a lot to celebrate this year.
Change is one thing we have come to expect these days. Next year we will have a few more changes in our Los Ranchos staff. Most of you have heard by now that Mrs. Richerson and Mrs. Ortiz are both retiring. These two teachers have had a lasting impact on all the students they have taught over the years. They will be deeply missed by students, parents and staff. But, we are excited for them as they embark on new adventures.
Ms. Wagner, in fourth grade, is also making some changes in her life. As many of you know Ms. Wagner just got married. She is moving south to be closer to her husband’s work and family. We were fortunate to have her at Los Ranchos, even if it was for such a short time. In that time, she too made a lasting and positive impact. We will miss her and wish her all the best.
Ms. Baele in first grade is taking a break from the classroom. Fortunately she is not taking a break from Los Ranchos. She will be working with students next year in intervention, the garden and maybe even a Creation Station lunch-room. We are grateful that she will still be here sharing her creativity, dedication and thoughtfulness.
So you may be wondering who is teaching next year. Mrs. Beaudoin, Mrs. Weber and Ms. Medeiros will continue as our kindergarten team. We have a new teacher, Mrs. Keefer, who is taking Mrs. Richerson’s place. Mrs. Keefer will have a 1-2 combo. We are so fortunate to have her join the team. In first grade Mrs. Harper will rejoin Mrs. Aguilar. Mrs. McMillen will join the second grade team sharing a contract with Ms. Lesinski. Miss Grossi will continue as the other second grade teacher. In third we have Mrs. Greer and Mrs. Gomes. In fourth grade Ms. Smiley will join Mrs. Block. In fifth grade we have Mr. MacLeod working with Ms. Johnson. Mr. MacLeod has been teaching at another school in our district for many years. In fact, Mr. MacLeod and Ms. Johnson were grade level partners 27 years ago. The two will be departmentalizing next year so all fifth graders will have both teachers. We welcome Mr. MacLeod to the Los Ranchos community. Last but not least, in sixth grade, Mr. Kersten and Mrs. Matteson will continue to departmentalize. Mr. Kersten focuses on reading, math and science. Mrs. Matteson teaches reading, writing and social studies. I am pleased to announce that our specialists remain the same. Ms. Lancaster and Mrs. Erickson will be our P.E. teachers and Ms. Lake will lead our music program. That is our staff for next year. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated and talented team of educators.
At our End of the Year Assembly we celebrated the 70 students who made a big commitment to reading this year. They became members of the Million Word Count. Some read over 5,000,000 words. We want to encourage all of our students to read this summer. We included a copy of our Summer Reading challenge home with every report card. We hope every student takes us up on it. Read in 20 places, send in a picture and you will get to participate in beginning of the year slideshow and a special treat with all the other summer readers.
Math is another important skill to keep up over the summer. We think we have just the thing to motivate students. Over the last couple of weeks our first - sixth graders learned about STMath. STMath can be accessed on a computer or tablet at home. Students know their passwords and are ready to get to work. I encourage you to lean in and learn the program from your child. Students are loving it. Enjoy!
That is all for now. I wish for you and your family a memorable summer, filled with fun family adventures, good books and some engaging math games.
Sincerely,
Marlie Schmidt
