September 6th, 2009
Dear Parents,
The beginning of each school year at POLA High brings new faces and changes to be excited about. This year is no exception. We welcome aboard another large freshmen class and are excited about what they and their parents will contribute to our school. The faculty and staff look forward to watching the personal academic and development of these young people over the next four years. One of the most rewarding experiences of our profession is being able to witness the younger students establish themselves and make their mark on the school before they go off on their life journeys.
In addition to many new students, we have wonderful new faculty and staff members to welcome aboard as well. One of the newest staff members, Mr. Joe Vega, is a person with whom you will become quite familiar. Mr. Vega will be directing traffic at the front desk this year. You should also be aware that Ms. Armas is now our full-time school psychologist (I should add that you would be hard-pressed to find another school our size with its own school psychologist). In order to serve in this capacity she had to relinquish her responsibilities as an academic counselor. Mr. Erick Guiterrez has taken her place in the counseling office and will work side-by-side with Ms. Lucia Valdivia. Our counselors are wonderful people with years of experience under their belts. However, they are relatively new to POLA High and, as such, are still familiarizing themselves with our students and way of doing things. I ask that our parents show patience with them so that they can assist students with schedule changes during the first couple of weeks of the semester. Bombarding them with phone calls will not make the process any easier.
On a different note, I would like to offer my sincerest thanks and gratitude to Chris Rochte and all the parents who helped with the Parent Information Night at the Warner Grand, the distributing of textbooks, and welcoming students on the first day of school. Chris has put in a lot of hard work and effort to make the organization more active and involved with the daily operations of the school. I urge you to attend the booster's meetings in the upcoming months to learn about all the new and exciting ideas we have for increasing parent involvement over this school year.
Finally, we are very happy to announce that the west side of the building has been reopened and we are now using our main entrance again. The driveway access is only for emergency vehicles. Parents may not use it to drop off students or pick them up. We must have your cooperation in order to keep our students safe as they arrive before school and leave after school. Please pull up to the curb to drop your child off. Stopping in the middle of the street may be more convenient for you but is far more dangerous for your child and other drivers and pedestrians. The construction along Fifth St. should be finished soon and drop-off/pick-up will get much easier. I ask that you exercise good judgment and patience during these first couple of weeks.
Sincerely,
Mr. Scotti
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