News

Support This Week & Donations

I wanted to take a moment to thank our community for your outpouring of support related to the tragedy that occurred last Thursday to one of our Phoebe families.  We have been given permission from the family to share the identity of the mother that passed away as Lupe Jimenez.  Lupe was a light and a gem.  She volunteered countless hours at Phoebe and above all, she loved her children.  We collectively mourn her loss and will work together to support one another through this difficult time.

As a reminder, we will have our crisis team on campus tomorrow to support students and families.   If you feel that your child is in need of speaking with one of our crisis team members, please email me and I will ensure support is given.

This week I will be working with city officials and our district facilities team to discuss the revision of our current traffic flow to ensure that families can travel to and from school safely.  I will keep our community abreast of the progression of improvements and welcome any feedback that you can share with me regarding safety.

Many have asked how to support the family.  We are working on setting up a scholarship fund for Lupe’s children. There will be more information to come on how to contribute to that fund in the near future.  Right now we will be accepting gift cards for food (restaurants, grocery stores, door dash, etc…) so that the family can have meals delivered and maintain their privacy during this very delicate time.  You are welcome to drop gift cards off with our front office staff any time between 7:30-3:30. Our PTO will provide green ribbons for all of our students and staff to wear tomorrow to show support for Lupe and her family.

As always, I am here to support and serve our Phoebe community.
Take care,
Michelle Pechette

A Message to Our Phoebe Families

I hope you are taking good care of yourselves and each other this Friday afternoon. As you’re aware, there was a car accident on Folsom Boulevard during afternoon dismissal yesterday that resulted in major injuries to a parent of one of our Phoebe Dragons. We learned last night that, unfortunately, this parent did not survive the accident. While we are not yet at liberty to share the family’s information, I know we share a collective shock and grief, and will provide support and care to this family and each other. 

Today, district leaders and the crisis response team were on campus to support our staff and students and will return next week. We met with staff before school to brief them on the available resources and to encourage them to access them for themselves and their students throughout the day. Also next week, our district social emotional learning team will be here to support our teachers and students with community building and healing practices as needed. 

The children and adults in our community will undoubtedly have a range of responses to this situation, based on their exposure, prior experiences, and development, and this incident may trigger other negative memories and emotions. Because there were so many children and families present when the accident occurred, it’s important for you to know that children have been sharing what they saw and what they heard at school today. We are doing our best to check in with and monitor the well-being of your children at school, and I encourage you to check in with them as well, be open to conversations with them, and reassure them that the adults in our community will work together to make coming and going from school as safe as possible. If you’d like some resources for navigating this with your child, these resources may help. Please feel free to reach out to me if you think your child would benefit from working with our crisis team on campus next week. 

As usual, our Phoebe community has been generous and compassionate in response to this tragic accident. I want to thank those of you who responded to the accident yesterday, supported the families involved, and ensured all of our children were safe and cared for. Our office staff, teachers, and I have received countless calls, emails and texts asking how you can be of support. Our PTO is working on a collective way for us to support the family, so please standby for more information on that next week.  On Tuesday, they will provide green ribbons for us to wear in support of our affected student and family. For now, please feel free to leave flowers and mementos for the family at our front gates throughout the weekend.

Superintendent Aguilar and Board Member Garcia asked me to share a few words with you this afternoon as well. 

“We take the safety of our students and families to heart. A tragic accident such as this should give everyone pause to realize the roads around our schools need to be treated with extreme care. We extend our deepest sympathies to our impacted families and we are extending them our full support during this time.” – Jorge A. Aguilar, Superintendent, Sacramento City Unified School District.

“Like you, I am devastated that we lost a member of the Phoebe family in a pedestrian accident.   Parent pickup is often a joyous time as families reunite after a day of school, and it’s easy to forget the dangers of high speed traffic.  I’m committed to work with city officials to thoroughly investigate this accident- and improve street safety. We are grateful to those present who quickly responded to help a fellow parent in their time of need.” – Leticia Garcia, Board Member, Sacramento City Unified School District.

I am endlessly grateful for the kindness and generosity of this community. Please take care of yourselves and each other this weekend. 

Sincerely,
Michelle Pechette
Principal

New Family Tours, COVID Tests, Email Issues, GATE Assessment & Holiday Drive

New Family Tours
Do you know of families that are interested in having their child attend Phoebe? If so, please share this link with them to sign up for our in-person or virtual tours.  Please also share the link on social media platforms.  

At Home COVID Tests
Today, your child brought home a free at home COVID test and informational flyer.  The box they received contains two tests.  Please read the flyer that came home and follow the directions.  Taking these tests will ensure that our students are healthy when returning to school on January 3rd.

Email issues
Yesterday, I discovered that hundreds of parent emails were going to my junk folder.  I can only access emails from 30 days prior.  Please know that I answer all emails as quickly as possible.  I have since remedied this issue. I apologize to any individual that did not receive a response from me due to this flaw in our system.  

GATE Testing
If your child is in grades 1st-4th they will participate in our universal GATE assessment.  These assessments will be administered before February 25th. We do not have a specific date for testing quite yet. You should have received a letter sent home with your child earlier this week explaining the process.  Please email [email protected] with any questions. 

Holiday Drive
The Holiday drive was a huge success, the Phoebe community has done it again!
Together we collected over 500 items and helped 25 families have some extra joy this holiday season. 
Thank you for your generosity! Pictures will be available on our  website.
A big thank you to Jessica Tindel and team for their volunteerism in spearheading this event.  

COVID update, Holiday Drive, Spirit Week & Spelling Bee

COVID Testing and Vaccine Mandate

Our district uses an outside company to conduct all weekly COVID testing on our campus.  That company, for unknown reasons, was absent today from our site.  If your child was signed up for our original weekly COVID testing, they were not tested today.  Testing will resume next week only for those students that are signed up for weekly COVID testing.  Beginning in January unvaccinated students will be tested weekly and will need to sign up for testing through Primary.  

If your child is fully vaccinated (no matter their age) and you have not submitted it yet, please send in a picture of your child’s vaccination card to [email protected].  If your child is 12, proof of vaccination or exemptions are due no later than January 31st.  

Holiday Drive Final Push! 

The 2021 Holiday Drive is in full swing! 

Please make sure your ordered items arrive before the December 15th deadline, or shop locally and avoid the wait!

The gifts you purchase will support foster youth in our community. 

December Spirit Week – 
December 13th-17th Daily Themes
Monday – Pj Day 
Tuesday – Holiday Hats & Socks Day
Wednesday – Winter Wonderland (Wear your blue and white best!) 
Thursday – Flannel Day  
Friday – Festive Friday! (Wear your holiday inspired finery!)

Spelling Bee Top Spellers!
What a week for spelling at Phoebe Hearst this week!  Over 150 students participated in the first round of competition, including almost every 3rd grader!  Late next week, the competition heats up as the top spellers will face off in a grade-level oral competition.  Be on the lookout for a dedicated email with updated study list instructions, times, and locations for this exciting event.

Winter Break
Winter break will be from December 18th – January 2nd.  We will see you back on January 3rd.  Have a wonderful winter break!

Tours, COVID Testing, Spelling Bee, Holiday Driv

Phoebe New Family Tours
It’s that time of year for new family tours.  This year, we have received permission to hold in-person tours with limited capacity.  We are allowing one adult per family to attend.  That adult must show proof of vaccination or have a negative COVID test within 72 hours of the tour date and time.  If you know of families that are interested in seeing what our amazing school has to offer, please share this sign-up form with them.  2022 TOUR SIGN-UP

COVID Testing & Vaccination Records
On December 10th we will begin testing all students that have signed up for testing through the Primary application.  At this time our district is processing vaccination records that have been submitted. If your child is fully vaccinated and you would like to submit their vaccination record you may do so here or bring their vaccination card to the office and our front office staff will be happy to help.  

Spelling Bee
It has been such a treat to see so many champions-to-beeeee sign up to compete in this year’s Phoebe Spelling Bee!  There is still time to study those words and participate in next week’s first round of competition.  Grade level written test competition begins this Tuesday, December 7 in the multipurpose room, with 6th grade at 8:30 am that day, 1st grade at 10:00 am that day, 5th grade on Wednesday, December 8 at 8:30 am, 2nd grade later that morning at 10:00 am, 4th grade on Friday, December 10 at 8:30 am, and 3rd grade at 10:00 am that day.  Students who advance to the next round will participate in oral competition the week of December 13.  Our final group of top spellers will show off their stuff in a school wide competition when we return from Winter Break in early January. Sign up through the link   here  and as always, do not hesitate to email   [email protected] for more information or to answer any questions.

Holiday Drive
2021 Phoebe Holiday Drive:  Items due by December 15 (NEW DATE)
It’s that time of year! In past years, our wonderful Phoebe Community has come together and impressively gathered over $25,000 worth of donations for families in our local community. This year, we are supporting foster youth right here in Sacramento. This time of year can be particularly difficult for these kids, many of whom would typically not receive anything for the holidays. Some kids on the list have NEVER received gifts. With your help we can make their holidays brighter.
How to get involved:
Reserve a gift on your class list which can be found here:  https://phoebehearst.org/holiday-drive/ It’s s important to have the same number of items per child so please keep this in mind when selecting a gift.

Deliver your NEW, UNWRAPPED gift LABELED with the recipient’s name and family name by  December 15 to your child’s classroom.

SEL Monthly Theme for December
Perseverance

Vaccines, Conferences, Book Fair, Movie Night, & More!

Vaccination update:
On November 2nd the CDC approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11.  Please refer to the board presentation from Victoria Flores, Director of Health Services, for more information regarding vaccine mandate timeline.  If you are interested in having your child vaccinated, SCUSD will be hosting a vaccination clinic on November 10th from 4:00-7:00pm at the Serna Center.  

Parent/Teacher Conferences:
Parent/Teacher conferences will be held on December 3rd-10th.  You should be hearing from your child’s teacher soon regarding date and time.  Conferences may be held in-person or via Zoom. Please note that conference days are minimum days.  Dismissal times are as follows:

Kinder 8:00-11:40
1st-3rd 8:00-12:10
4th-6th 8:00-12:24

Dollar Free Dress Day – November 18th:
On Thursday, November 18th we will have a dollar free dress day.  Sixth grader, Taige Benham, has partnered with Principal McGill at Ethel I. Baker to support a family returning from Afghanistan.  The money raised from this dollar free dress day will aid this family with rent, food and other necessary items.  Any amount is much appreciated.  

Book Fair:
There is still time to order through our online book fair.  The last date to order is November 14th.

PTO News:
A HUGE thank you to our PTO for putting on yet another fabulous jog-a-thon.  There were very few volunteers this year but the event went on without a hitch.  Thank you to all of our community members that donated, as well.  

Movie Night:
There will be a Family movie night at East Portal Park on November 12th.  Please see link for more information.  https://phoebehearst.org/family-movie-night/

Dine & Donate:
Who doesn’t love PIZZA! Skip cooking and help fundraise for your favorite school!
Where: Round Table Pizza –  5101 FOLSOM Blvd, CA 95819
When: Wed Nov 17, 2021 3pm – 8pm
Order ahead or dine in, just mention Phoebe Hearst at checkout.