By Liz Trujillo, Palmer Elementary Principal
As we round the last week of school, I reminisce about all the wonderful days I have spent with your children, getting to know them and making them a part of my life. It has truly been one of the rewarding years of my educational career. I have been so impressed with the diversity among our students and the connection and bond they have built. I am proud of the behavior of our students and the caring attitude of our parents. The school, staff, parents, students, and community have worked together as a team to provide the best education possible and it is a wonderful sight.
Teamwork and Learning
I would like to thank everyone for working so hard to make this school year one of the best. I would like to thank our staff for their dedication and hard work, our secretary for bandaging injuries, answering phones and everything else she has to do, our parents for their persistence in making sure their children receive an excellent education, our PTA for working so hard to bring new experiences to our students, our student council for making sure our students enjoy the school year and, especially, our students for being the lifeline of our school.
As I look back on the school year, I think of all the learning activities we have had at Palmer and I am amazed on our accomplishments. From our Kindergarten Roundup and Registration in August to our final Culminations in May, the school year has been full. We began with no playground this school year with our children playing on the front grass and in the parking lot. Our children were made an important part of the new Learning Landscape playground as they planted flowers and plants and designed tiles that would eventually line our walls. The dedication of our staff begin immediately with the after school enrichment clubs, followed by our all school science fair in October. October also brought in one of PTA’s best presentations, our Halloween Carnival.
Variety, Character and Fun
With children, teachers and parents working together, Palmer filled to the brim with happy children. Our Pride Rally Assembly had begun by then celebrating our students for their pride. The “Birthday Book Club” Program joined our assembly which allowed students to present new books to our library in celebration of their birthday. Our new positive discipline program began this year and our students fell right into being kind, caring, and polite. In December, we worked on keeping our school “Bully Proof” as our students were introduced to the ideas of making the right choices. Our students enjoyed the first round of our RIF Book Distribution and were presented with free books, thanks to the hard work of Rachel Feast. In February, Palmer celebrated Black History with an assembly which brought beautiful drum presentations for our students. Our “Young Author” Celebration was excellent with almost 100% participation in most classes. Our children demonstrated their writing ability and we were able to see wonderful stories developed out of the minds of children and their great imaginations. Earth Day helped our students remember how important our earth is and as they walked to the parks, picking up trash, they realized how important it was to protect our environment. Our “Literacy and Math Nights”, Family Art night, and Jammies in the Gym were a success as parents learned strategies to help their children at home, and were able to see the excitement their children were experiencing in school. These are just a few of the events that Palmer has participated in during the school year.
Good-bye—With Pride
This year is now coming to a close and we end with our Shakespeare Festival which showed us the dramatic abilities of our students as they performed for each other. At the end of this month will see our Early Childhood Education and Kindergarten Culminations marking their first and second (for many) successful years of school. And, last but not least, our fifth grade graduation where we say good-bye to our leaders who have, for more than two-thirds of the enrollment in fifth grade, been with us for six or seven years. It is a sad time, but a glad time, because we know that they are ready for middle school and will be successful. We thank the parents for allowing us to be a part of their lives and we wish them success.
