Alamosa Parent Academy - April 6th

The first annual Alamosa Parent Academy will be held on Saturday, April 6th from 8am - 1:30pm.  This workshop is being hosted by the Alamosa School District and is tailored to the needs of Alamosa middle school and high school families.

The Alamosa Parent Academy was designed to provide parents with learning opportunities that will assist them in fostering their children's success in school and in life.  Parents will partake in three learning opportunities of their choice through our breakout sessions as well as hear from the keynote speaker.

The workshop is FREE, however, if parents are able to make a $5 donation or provide a canned food they will be accepted at check-in. Free childcare will also be available.

You can find out more about the Parent Academy by downloading this flyer and you may register for the event at the Alamosa Parent Academy website.

Sign up for OMS and AHS Parent Teacher Conferences

A-PAGE has once again worked with the Alamosa School District to be able to pre-schedule parent-teacher conferences online. The feedback we received from parents and teachers for the OMS trial of this system in October was very positive and so we have worked to add AHS to the pre-scheduling lineup for this next round of parent-teacher conferences. 

You can now sign up for conferences at either school by visiting these links to sign up:
OMS: http://ptcfast.com/schools/A_PAGE_OMS_School
AHS: http://ptcfast.com/schools/A_PAGE_AHS_School

If you don't want to sign up online (or can't for some reason), call the school directly and the secretary will sign you up. Sign-ups will be open until the day prior to the conference.

Instructions for how to schedule a Parent Teacher Conference online can be found by clicking this link.

We will again be soliciting feedback on this process from both parents and teachers to use in improving the process in the future. If you would like to leave us feedback directly, you may either leave a comment on this post or email us directly at alamosapage@gmail.com.

January District Accountability Meeting (DAC)

The DAC met on Jan 14th.  Key items of discussion were:

Presentation from Andy Lavier on the Block Schedule (which was moved away from several years ago) and how the amount of planning time for teachers is insufficient.  No high performing schools have as little planning time as we have.  High performing schools have planning time to teaching time ratio of approximate 25% (as compared to our 16%).  This is not an issue just at the high school, but at all grade levels - especially with the changes in curiculum in the last several years.

NWEA Mid-year test scores.  K-8 on track in 13 out of 18 categories.  No mid-year testing was done at AHS.  The categories NOT on track to meet end of year goals are:

• Math all grades 5th grade and up
• Reading in grades 7th and 8th 

Parent/Teacher Conference Pre-scheduling will be available at both OMS and AHS for the February conferences.  A-PAGE is setting up the conference system for both schools.

School Board Meeting 1/14

The Board of Education meet on Jan 14th - A-PAGE was in attendance.  Key items of parent interest were:

• Community Gardens has been funded $10,000 to continue to provide classroom instruction at AES. 

• Athletic and VoAg complex planning continues - the VoAg complex will now be a separate facility across Carroll Street on the south side of AHS.

Alamosa Elementary is a finalist for a $50,000 grant from Clorox to build a greenhouse at the school.

You can help make this a reality by voting here: http://www.tinyurl.com/alamosagarden

There are only 7 more days to vote and you can vote EVERY day. 

We need your help spreading the word! Tell your friends, family, and neighbors! Post it on your facebook page.  This is an easy and free way to help your kids and your community.

Follow this link to view the proposal and vote: http://www.tinyurl.com/alamosagarden

School Board Meeting 11/19/12

APAGE attended the most recent BOE meeting on 11/19/12. The Valley Courier did a very nice write up of the most important aspects of the meeting, free lunch for AES students and the National Clean Diesel Rebate Program. To read the article, click here.

School Board Meeting (Nov 5)

A-PAGE attended the School Board Meeting on Nov. 5th.  Notable parent related items were…

Group of parents of Gifted and Talented students addressed the school board concerning the inadequacies in the GT program from planning to communication to the spending of GT funds.

Community Gardens requested funds to continue to teach K-5 students garden science and nutrition.  The community gardens are also pursuing funding to build a year round greenhouse at the K-5 schools.  Everyone can vote at www.tinyurl.com/AlamosaGarden