Dragon Tales
Trinidad School, 677-3631
April, 2013
Volume 12/13, Issue 7
F ro m t h e P r i n c i p a l ’s D e s k
Dear Students, Parents, Staff and Community Members:
You’ve probably always wondered how to plan a school budget, right? Well, at least
you’ve probably thought how remarkable it is in this difficult economy that Trinidad School can
find the money to provide for all kinds of enrichment programs, mostly small class sizes, and
aides in every classroom. It’s all about budgeting, and I thought I’d let you in on how we figure
this out.
Budgeting is really fun as you can imagine – well, it is if you’re working on it with Desiree, our premier Business Manager. Three times per year Des has to put together the figures
which show that our revenues balance our expenditures for not just this year, but for three
years into the future. The need for updating this constantly is because so many things keep
changing midyear: Federal laws and revenues, state legislative changes, delayed funding, promised funding not given, enrollment changes, actual daily attendance reports, mid-year happenings
such as repairs or field trips, and changing special education needs. It takes a great deal of expertise to properly plan for this because both federal and state funding often come in small
batches of money for specific school needs: Nutrition, special education, class size reduction,
counseling, textbooks, after school program, etc. The whole thing is so complicated that most
professional auditors don’t want to audit public school accounts. But we’ve got Des.
Des begins by looking at future enrollment projections which we get by talking to parents and to Kathleen Nunley in Salmonberry Preschool. Based on prior year experience, Des
predicts average daily attendance, and anticipated lunch revenues (from the free and reduced
price lunch program). As the many state and federal revenues flux, Des calculates each of their
impacts, and re-calculates them with every change. Then she looks at the expenditure side, of
which about 85% is for staffing. Scheduled wage enhancements are calculated and anticipated
wage negotiations are penciled in. Then there’s adding in new staffing needs or subtracting for
retirements or layoffs. Every year we have to layoff a few employees, but after the Sacramento
and Washington budget messes get cleared up a bit, we are able to add them back in.
At every regular monthly Board meeting, the Trustees receive budget updates and/or
make budget-related decisions. Four times per year, the Board does a thorough review of the
entire budget picture – a document of sixty pages or so of numbers smaller than those in the
New York City phone book (and just about as interesting). Three of those thorough reviews
are for current and future years; one of the reviews is a final review of the prior school year.
Ya gotta love numbers to be on a school board!
One of the most important things Des calculates into our little treasury is the amazing
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Special Dates
4-15
Character
Assembly
9:15 am
4-20
4th grade
Rummage Sale
9am to 4pm
4-22
Earth Day
4-24
Secretary Day
Thank You
Desiree!
5-3
Ocean Dance
and Dinner
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contributions of our school and community members. Without the Parent Teacher Organization, Trinidad School Education
Foundation, grant sources, Rancheria assistance, and our generous community we wouldn’t be able to offer all that we do for
students. Thank you!
Also very important to being able to offer all of these services is that our teachers and staff aren’t paid as much as in
many other districts. Part of this is due to a funding formula which does not give every school the same funding per child, so that
Des and Trinidad School must navigate dangerous financial waters with less money than many other districts. But, honestly,
some of this low pay is the fault of the teachers themselves: They continue to support costly things like music, art, gardening,
marine science, technology improvements and aides in every class. They’d rather that kids have educational benefits than have
the cash for themselves. Oh well.
We’re doing pretty well financially at Trinidad School. We owe ‘thanks’ to a lot of people, but especially to our Desiree. She’s really got this thing figured out. Well, at least she did – now the state wants to radically change the entire formula,
so it’s a whole new minefield and she has to plan in the dark. If Des is grumpy this spring, you’ll know why – and it’s not my
fault, really!
So that’s how school budgeting works. Now you know – sorta. We’re all trying very hard to make it right for our kids.
Thank you Trinidad community.
Geoff Proust, Principal
Board Vacancy
With the retirement of Board Trustee Michelle Hasselquist,and the upcoming retirement of Trustee Frances Damian after twelve years of service, the Board of Trustees of
Trinidad Union School District now has openings. The Board is currently preparing a process by which a community member will be appointed to these seats. Applicants must be registered voters residing in the district, 18 years of age, and must submit a letter of intent to
the District office by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, 2013. If you’re interested in taking on
this important challenge, please call the office to find out how to throw your hat in the ring.
Library News
Be sure to check in with the library and check out some books! Hundreds
of books that have been waiting to be labeled are out on the shelves, so
there’s more and more selection everyday. Parents are always welcome to
check books out, so please visit. We are in need of volunteers to help with
library tasks. Please let us know if you are interested.
Many students have overdue books—please encourage them to be responsible and renew or return them, and avoid being charged to replace them.
Thanks!
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OZ-some
The cast of Oz, The Great and Powerful is busy rehearsing three afternoons
each week for their performance May
17th. Denise Dolan, After School Director, and Meadow Bell, our Music
Teacher, are directing this Junior Musical.
Pictured here are Jo Archuleta (the
Wicked Witch), Sophie Roberts
(Dorothy), Melissa (the Scarecrow),
Patrick O’Brien (the Tin Woodsman),
and Lizzie Dolan (The Wizard of Oz).
May 17th
Ocean Dance and Dinner
May3rd
The month of May is M.A.R.E. month.Time for the K-8 in-depth marine studies which is one of the jewels in the crown of our small ocean-side school.The
month kicks off with the fun Ocean Dance and seafood Dinner on May 3rd.
The P.T.O. will be decorating the gym and they need help in creating the watery
dance wonderland. Please contact Shore for information on how to help out.
[email protected] or [email protected]. Thank you!
Kitchen Crisis !
Hey! Diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the forks have been running away!!
Please help re-supply the cafeteria with forks. Please donate forks!
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Fifth Grade Reporters
5th Grade Science Equipment by Jane McCaffrey
Trinidad school has recently bought our fifth grade class new science equipment
and textbooks from FOSS. We have already started to use them. There are three
different modules we’re studying. Mixtures and solutions, living systems, and water
planet. We are currently working on the mixtures and solutions module. We get to do
experiments all the time. Once, we made salt crystals. It’s something easy that anyone can do. All you have to do is add a little bit of salt in some water. The salt dissolves into the water, so you can’t see it. This is called a solution. Then you pour
some of your saltwater solution in a small dish or tray. After a few days, the water will
dissolve. If you have done your experiment right, you should see squares with X’s
across them. These are the salt crystals. Say you did this experiment with sugar instead of salt. You would get sugar crystals. If anything dissolves into a liquid (which
is usually water) it will reappear once the water dissolves as some sort of crystal. The
difference between a solution and a mixture, is that in a mixture, you can see all the
ingredients that you put in. In a solution, the solids dissolve into the liquid. This is
one of the super cool things we have learned from our new equipment. All fifth graders will get to use these things, but I’m so glad that I get to be one of the first students
to use this stuff.
Rummage Sale—April 20th— in School Gym
Ms. Dilthey’s 4th grade stars are having a Rummage and
Bake Sale on Saturday, April 20th from 9am to 4pm at the
Trinidad School Gym. The proceeds will go towards the class
trip to Redding where we will stop at the Joss House for a
tour, the Sundial Bridge, Turtle Bay Park, Waterslides, and
Lake Shasta Caves.
Please come out and support the 4th grade class;
there will be great stuff at the rummage sale—great clothes
(adult and kid), sports equipment, household goods, games,
furniture, a beautiful custom made dog house and more! Tell
your friends and neighbors, spread the word!
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TRINIDAD SCHOOL HONOR ROLL
Trinidad School is once again publishing an academic honor roll for grades 5-8. The District has not published such a list for some years, but is
bringing it back thanks to interest expressed by parents, Board members and teachers. These students have done all that is required to excel in the challenging world of language arts, math, art, science, physical education, social studies, technology and elective (grades 7-8). No doubt they also have great
attendance also, as that contributes so much to achievement. Congratulations to these youngsters – a great start on a great future!
With Honors 3.0 – 3.49
High Honors 3.5 – 3.99
Principal’s List 4.0
Fifth Grade
Fisher Boroughs
Diego Aguire
Aidan Hasselquist
Dylynn Hardee
Josh Bennett
Louis Margolin
Abbey Croy
Zuzu Longstreth
Jane McCaffrey
Shoni Rheinschmidt
Emily Sanders
Sixth Grade
Elia Bishop
Simone Coate
Nina Crossen
Ryan Dolan
Bella Garrett
Liana Freeman
Grant Kitchen
Lucas Homan
Julia McLeod
Christian Powell
Scott Malkus
Angelica Meade
Michelle Rheinschmidt
Claire O’Brien
Jayden Morehead
Theo Stick
Kai Pajares
Patrick O’Brien
Gwynevieve Stratton
Seventh / Eighth Grade
Cheyenne Bailey
Jo Archuleta
Greta Bishop
Caden Collins
Betsy Christie
Emilia Diggins
Tia Collins
Finn Clark
Harlyn Fitzgerald
Lizzie Dolan
Emily Edmiston
Kai Ishii
Callie Duncan
Devin Fuentes
Garrett Kitchen
Orion Scheidler
Jackson Homan
Kate McLeod
Madison Waters
Melissa Kingman
Sophie Roberts
Alyssa Mickelson
Sierra Wood
Hazel Talkington
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300 Trinity Street
Trinidad, CA 95570
STUDENT ART SHOWS
Geoff Proust,
Principal/Superintendent
Desiree Cather,
Business Manager
PHONE:
707-677-3631
FAX:
707-677-0954
E-MAIL:
[email protected]
NEWSLETTER EMAIL:
[email protected]
We’re on the Web!
There’s just two more weekends to view the fantastic Trinidad student art show at Westhaven Center
for the Arts. All grades and all students are represented
in a fantastic showing of watercolor, tempura, pastels,
pencil drawings, collage, and Chinese brush painting.
Please come see your child’s artistic efforts in this great
student show, and come see what a schoolwide quality
art program looks like! Gallery hours are Thursday
thru Sunday 1:00 – 4:00. It’s fun and it’s free!
Trinidad seventh and eighth grade students also
have their own show at the Humboldt county Office of
Education on Myrtle Street in Eureka. Drop by for a
hallway gallery art experience!
See us at:
http://www.humboldt.k12.ca.us/trinidad_sd/
TRINIDAD SCHOOL
Non-Profit
300 Trinity Street
US Postage Paid
Drawer 3030
Trinidad, CA
Trinidad, CA 95570
95570
Permit No. 29
Return Service Requested
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