The Deep Seas are upon us!

5/13/2022

Quote of the week: " The sea cures all ailments of man." -- Plato (philosopher)

Dear Ocean Shore Families,

May is Mental Health Awareness Month which makes sense. For me, May has ALWAYS caused anxiety. When I was in school, it was finals, dances, trying to find a summer job or a "real" job if I was graduating college, graduate school, or my teaching credential program. For an educator, May means standardized testing, grading, chaperoning dances, planning graduations, finishing staff evaluations, prepping classrooms or the school for the summer, planning for next year--the list goes on. Students do not always cooperate with the need to complete tasks because behavioral issues tend to spike during the last month of school. At Ocean Shore, we have the added activity surrounding Oceans 411, which is an amazing event, but also takes a lot of planning and energy. All of us need to remember to stop and breathe. Better yet, walk down to the beach, look out at the waves, and breathe deep.

Speaking of Oceans 411, or Oceans Week, our hallways are being transformed into the Deep Seas, we will start beach field trips on Monday, and class rotations on Wednesday. We can always use more volunteers, so contact your child's teacher and they will put you in touch with their Oceans 411 coordinator. Thank you so much to the parents and teachers who are putting in hours of extra work in order to make this happen! It is so exciting to have a "real" Oceans Week again!

Take care,

Jeanne

A special shout out to our amazing Mr. Ben Gower and our beginning and advanced bands. The concert combined our band classes with those at IBL and it was extraordinary, especially considering that each group had only ONE rehearsal together. Middle school parents, please encourage your children to continue with band. The process of learning to read a piece of music and doing the work to perform it successfully while collaborating with your fellow musicians, is a powerful, sometimes life-changing experience.

I can't discuss music without mentioning the Pacifica Education Foundation. Please donate for our final donation day! PEF has raised $62,235, but we need to get to $85,000. As you can see by the graphic, Ocean Shore is doing well, but Cabrillo is beating us in both total dollars and total number of donors. I would love to see us have the highest number of donors. Ocean Shore is all about participation. You can give any amount from $10 to $10,000. Please don't wait, donate right now so that PEF can achieve their goal of continuing to fund our middle school band, elementary school music, and SPARC poetry programs. We can't do it without you! https://www.pacificaef.org/
School Business:

COVID reporting: We had one pool test positive on Wednesday, and the follow up testing on Friday revealed one positive case. If you or a family member test positive, please email Ayesha Siddiq, asiddiq@pacificasd.org. Our last day of pool testing will be Wednesday, June 1st.

DLG: Diversity Learning Group – Wednesday, May 25 @ 7-8:30pm. Come join our last meeting of the school year! DLG serves as a resource for parents, teachers, staff and students in the OSS community to identify and discuss ideas, concerns and areas in need of further growth or awareness. The Diversity Leadership Group’s mission is to provide leadership, guidance and support to the Ocean Shore community to cultivate an environment of inclusion where each individual is valued and respected. Join via Zoom Meeting ID: 630 060 3544 password: DLG

TDAP: Incoming 7th grade parents, please remember that students can't start school until they have their TDAP booster. Please contact your pediatrician and set up an appointment.

Open House: We will be having a "live" open house on Thursday, May 26th. We are staggering start times by last name. Families with last names from A-L will attend from 6:00-6:45 and those with last names starting with M-Z will attend from 6:45-7:30. Families with multiple last names can pick their time.

Fliers: May Lunch Menu, SPCA Donation flier, PEF Donation Days, TDAP reminder, ThinkBridge Camp, Portuguese and Spanish translations of my letter.