Board Meeting Tonight!

School is out for kids - but not for the EUSD board. I can't make the meeting tonight, but as soon as  minutes are posted, I'll put them up.  You can find the agenda here. It looks to be a lot of authorization of work to be done in the 2008/2009 school year. One piece on the agenda is for Paul Ecke Central to get a paint job. The good news is they won't have to do the lovely, new MUR anytime soon!

Congratulations Class of 2008!

I was lucky enough to see the sixth grade wall dedication ceremony this morning. A surprise guest paid a special visit. Conni Cintas, who was principal from 2004 to 2007 was honored with a special tile on this years wall. In addition, it was announced that this was Patti Haggerty's last year teaching sixth grade.  She also has a special tile on the mosaic that reads 'Big Hair, Big Eyes, Big Smile, Huge Heart'. I have visited many schools over the years, but nothing I have seen exemplifies a schools' character the way our sixth grade mosaics do. Thank you parent volunteers for continuing to assist our awesome sixth grade artists with these pieces. Check out the slideshow to see more images. 

Congratulations to Mrs. Hinze's second grade class!

Congratulations to Julie Hinze's second grade class for their video entry in the Cottonwood Creek Environmental Film Festival  sharing what they know about colony collapse disorder in honeybee hives. From the Reader:

Julie Hinze’s second-grade class (17 students, aged seven and eight) at Paul Ecke Central Elementary created an eight-minute film about the ongoing crisis with honeybees — a disappearing-hive phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder.” The children, dressed in homemade honeybee costumes, act out disappearing-bee scenarios. “They designed their own [costumes],” says Hinze. “They used black T-shirts, some put yellow tape on there and a lot of pipe cleaners. It’s so cute.”

The children broke into groups, and each group presented its own interpretation of the current bee predicament. “One group did a little dance,” says Hinze. Another wrote new lyrics to the Ghostbusters theme song, changing it to “bee busters.” One group acted out honeybees enjoying a garden, collecting nectar from flowers. “After it says ‘the end,’” says Hinze, “there’s a little girl dressed up as a bee eating ice cream [Häagen-Dazs’s Vanilla Honey Bee, of which 40 percent of the proceeds goes toward researching colony collapse]. Then three little kids singing, making up a humming noise. I just love that, because it captures their little spirits.”