Dear Drachman Families and Community Members,
I’m excited to welcome you to the 2022-2023 school year. We are eager for continued success this year and we thank you for choosing Drachman. Please review the following information, and thanks for sending your child to school each day on time and ready to learn:
School Hours: The hours for K-5 students are 8:35 – 2:45 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the hours for K-5 students are 8:35 – 1:45. The hours for Middle School students are 8:35 – 3:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the hours for Middle School students are 8:35 – 2:25.
Visits to Campus by Parents, Guardians, Family and Community Members: To increase the security of our campus, we will only allow parents, guardians, and family and community members to enter areas of our campus beyond our front office BY APPOINTMENT ONLY except for the parents/guardians of children in kindergarten or in our self-contained classrooms of children with Autism. Visits to our office will also be limited to a small number of individuals at a time, and those waiting to enter our office will need to wait by our front gates in order of arrival until access is granted. We will also require adult visitors to present IDs to our office staff at our office window before entering the front gates instead of passing through the gates and presenting IDs at our front desk. (Visitors who are fully and priorly recognizable by our office staff will be granted access without the presentation of IDs of most occasions.) As a result of this policy, individuals will not be able to be on campus with their children in the mornings before the first bell rings, or in the afternoons after the dismissal bell rings, as in the past, unless they have a previously scheduled appointment.
Approval Process for Becoming a 2022-2023 Drachman Volunteer: As mentioned last school year, individuals interested in serving as Drachman Volunteers must “reapply” for clearance to officially volunteer through TUSD’s Human Resources Department each school year. We were so fortunate and grateful for the nearly 100 Drachman Volunteers who went through the process for official approval in the second semester of last school year to help chaperone field trips and provide service on campus. We hope each of these individuals reapply and that all our parents/guardians go through the process to volunteer at Drachman!
Click here to apply to volunteer.
TUSD Human Resources will review the online application and conduct a background check. Parents and legal guardians will be required to upload valid photo identification. Adults who are not parents or legal guardians wanting to will be required to upload valid photo identification and a valid fingerprint card…this includes grandparents and other family members who are not the student’s parents or legal guardians. Drachman will pay the $20 cost for the fingerprinting. Although this process may be cumbersome, it is only necessary once each school year, and it supports our campus safety and security by ensuring Drachman Volunteers have passed a background check to work with our students. Lastly, Drachman Volunteers will be allowed to be on campus before the morning bell to help support the supervision of their children and other students.
Reporting Possible Risks Near Drachman’s Campus: Our beautiful school was built in the Barrio Santa Rosa Neighborhood in 1996, along with our partners the Santa Rosa Public Library and Santa Rosa Head Start that are adjacent to the northwest side of our campus. After construction, Drachman also became partners with two entities managed by Tucson Parks and Recreation which are the Santa Rosa Rec Center that is located across Tenth Avenue and with the Santa Rosa Park that is adjacent to the north of our campus. We share our parking lots with each of these organizations. In addition, there are two Sun Tran Bus Stops near our grounds. As a result of our location set among these public partners and entities, individuals who are not affiliated with Drachman are sometimes near the exterior of our campus. Our staff conducts periodic checks of exterior spaces surrounding our school, and we report possible risks to the Tucson Police Department and TUSD School Safety.
We also urge you to report possible risks or suspicious behaviors as soon as possible to our office staff and the Tucson Police Department (Calling 911) to help keep Drachman safe.
Student Drop-Off/Arrival: The earliest that you may drop off your child each morning is 7:45 a.m. since we do not have the adult staffing to supervise children earlier. If you drive children to and from Drachman, we expect drivers of automobiles to drive safely throughout our parking lot and to park within appropriate parking spaces. The only location where parents/guardians should drop off students in the morning without parking and walking with them to our front entrance of campus is off of Meyer Avenue at our Student Drop-Off Bay outside of the southeastern area of our playground. It is important to note that Meyer Avenue is a one-way street that only has traffic driving in the south direction. We only want students to enter the school through the front entrance if they walk to school or if they are accompanied by a parent/guardian to the front entrance, and WE DO NOT WANT children dropped off in our parking lot by themselves. Please note that the parking spaces closest to our main building are designed for TUSD Staff only. Also, an additional parking lot is located on the west side of 10th Avenue that should be used if our main parking lot is full and you plan to park and escort your child(ren) into campus.
Student Dismissal: Please help maximize the safety of Drachman during dismissal by ensuring that your child is fully aware of how he/she will be dismissed. Also, please provide advance notice if there will be a change in dismissal for your child. Our student dismissal procedures will follow what we implemented last school year. Students of all grades that ride the busses or get picked up by daycares will dismiss from the gates off Meyer Avenue. Students who attend the Santa Rosa KIDCO will be walked to the Santa Rosa Center by Drachman Staff. Kindergarten students that get picked up by parents will dismiss through our front gates. Grades 1st – 8th, and students from our self-contained programs of children with Autism, will dismiss through our soccer gates by our parking lot. We want parents/guardians to wait for their children outside of these gates and to not enter the campus to pick up their child(ren).
Dismissal/Supervision of K-5 Siblings of Middle School Students: We provide supervision of K-5 students who have middle school siblings every day from the K-5 dismissal time until the middle school dismisses. Families are welcome to have their K-5 students dismiss at the regular time of the K-5 dismissal, or they may elect to have their K-5 child(ren) wait on campus to be supervised by staff until the middle school dismisses. Please notify our front office and/or me how you want your K-5 student with a middle school sibling to be dismissed as soon as possible.
Drachman’s Bullying Prevention Program: Our students and staff are continuing to learn about, and take an active part in, our bullying prevention program. In our program, we teach about the differences between bullying, rough play, and fighting. We also teach ways for children to support others who may experience bullying by being active defenders of the victim and/or reporters of bullying incidents. Drachman’s School Rules Against Bullying are:
· We will act peaceful towards others.
· We will help students who are bullied.
· We will make it a point to include students who are left out.
· When we know somebody is being bullied, we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home.
· We will receive consequences and apologize if we show bullying behaviors. If we keep showing bullying behaviors, we will get a greater level of consequences.
We ask for your support of the program by ensuring that we are made aware of incidents that your child may report to you as soon as possible so we can respond. It is not okay to ignore instances in which children are treated negatively, and it is okay to report issues that may seem “minor.” These may be incidents your child observes happening with other students or ones he/she experiences himself/herself. The key to preventing bullying is open and frequent communication between home and school so that we can work with the families of children who show bullying behaviors, and who may experience bullying, to encourage positive decision-making and peaceful choices.
We appreciate your efforts in valuing your child’s experience at Drachman, and we thank you for helping to maximize our safety and security. Please contact me if you have any questions or ideas.
Sincerely,
Jesús Celaya, Ph.D.
Principal, Drachman K-8 Montessori Magnet
Drachman Montessori
@drachmanmontessori
@DrachMontessori
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