Clarendon JBBP Alternative Elementary School

America/Japan Grassroots Summit

Last Thursday, Clarendon JBBP hosted 40 Japanese participants from the America-Japan Grassroots Summit and the 5th Graders performed Taiko and a historical play detailing the life of John Monjiro, a key player in the beginning of US-Japan relations. The participants loved the opportunity to see an American school and appreciated the play as the Summit was started 20 years ago because of John Monjiro and his connection to an American family, the Whitfields. Amazingly, 4th and 5th generation descendants of John Manjiro were in the audience on Thursday! Thank you to Ms. Tanaka, Mrs. E, Mr. Hippard, and the 5th graders for preparing this very special performance for our guests! Thank you also to Harumi Debono, Madoka Hokamura, Kyoko Mori, and Keiko Golden for taking our visitors on a tour of the Clarendon classrooms at the conclusion of the play. Megumi Inouye, Sydney Nakamura, Terri Shearer and Atsuko Saito did an amazing job creating a memorable stay for 250 (!) guests. A special thanks to the many Clarendon families who hosted homestay guests, served as translators, helped with organizing the many Summit events, and made sure that this yearʼs Summit was the best it could be. Domo arigato gozaimashita!

Message from PAC

By the time you read this you will most likely have experienced Back-to-School Night. Thank you to Mr. Van Court and all of the teaching staff for taking the time to help us understand the year ahead! We are lucky to be at a school with such a dedicated group of teachers. As parents we can do our part towards making the school year a rich and rewarding experience for our children. We can actively engage with our children and support them in their academic pursuits (i.e. help them with their homeworkJ ), we can volunteer at school or school events when possible (many of our events occur in the evening or on the weekends so many work schedules can be accommodated), and we can strive towards being a community and not just a “ school ” . Our PAC exists to help support the school staff, the students, and the parent members. Please come to the PAC meetings (2nd Thursday of every month (except Sept. which will coincide with Back to School Night) and learn what is going on at school and how you can be a part of it. We look forward to seeing you there!

PAC Executive Committee
Laura, Terri, Yumiko, Harumi, Rick, Daniel and Lina

Monday Morning's Rajio Taisou (Stretching Exercise)

This year to experience a Japanese tradition, we'll have Raijo Taisou time, once a month usually first Monday of the Month at Upper and Lower Yards in the morning 9:25am. Raijo Taisou is a traditional Japanese stretching exercise with music, its about 5 minutes long. This month's session took place on Monday, September 13th. Please join us in the yards. Please check out Raijo Taisou movie on youtube . Thank you to JBBP Volunteers for sharing this tradition with Second Community Program! It was such fun participating in this physical activity and starting off the day on the right foot!

Clarendon UNDOUKAI (P.E. Festival) Wednesday, 9/29

We'll have UNDOUKAI (P.E./Sport Festival) again this year! The date has been set for Wednesday September 29th. All elementary schools in Japan hold Undoukai every year, Undoukai is the largest event there which involves all families. We can't have exactly the same style as Japan, but we'd like to make it as similar, and as fun as possible. PLEASE JOIN US: Please participate in the event! You can come and watch your child(ren) and your classroom(s)
particpate in relays and other activities, and cheer the children! We are also looking for volunteers.

Art News from Ellen Weinstein

In art we are focusing on the Impressionist exhibits at the de Young and Legion of Honor Museums. We are learning the color wheel and color mixing through pointillism and the impressionist painting techniques of Seurat, Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas, Mary Cassatt, Gaugin and more. I encourage you to see these art shows with your family. I also recommend the Pixar exhibit at
the Oakland Museum.

Afterschool art classes will be held (Sept 21 - Dec 14) and Wednesday (Sept 22-Dec 15) (12 weeks for $180) (snacks & supplies included). For more info. email ellenart@pacbell.net or call 415-587-7424. The same art projects will be done on both days (drawing, painting, arts & crafts). To enroll, please fill in the form that is sent home via Wednesday Envelope, attach check and put in my mailbox in the school office.

Clarendon Mosaic Mural

The Clarendon Mosaic Mural is back in session after a summer hiatus. Please stop by and see the children's beautiful works in clay as we continue to install the Clarendon students' vision of San Francisco. If you have purchased a tile and wish to decorate it, we will be having a tile decoration event this Fall. Watch the newsletter and your inbox for details. If you wish to purchase a tile and leave a lasting mark on Clarendon, you can do so buy visiting the website (click here) or by contacting Linda Larson (Linda@lrlart.com).

The 2010-2011 School Year Starts Today!

August 16, 2010

Dear Parents & Guardians,

Welcome Back!! Our staff and the construction crews worked very hard to prepare the school for your children and I think they were highly successful. What a thrill to have new windows, paint and plumbing that works. We’re still resolving a few kinks, but on the whole, we’re very pleased with the results.

Drop Off/Pick Up
Remember while dropping off or picking up your child, please don’t park, idle or dawdle in the white zone. Curbside monitors can assist your child. Please don’t get out of your car; it will only slow down the steady stream of cars pulling up behind you. If you wish to come onto campus, please park in a legal parking space further up the block or across the street. Finally, please stay out of the bus zone during school hours.

Please don’t arrive before 9:10 a.m. And, please pick up your child at the end of the school day at 3:25 p.m. There is no supervision for your child other then between the hours of 9:10 a.m. and 3:25 p.m. Your adherence to this rule will be greatly appreciated by our staff. Thank you.

School Lunch
The price of the school lunch is now $3. Every family will receive a lunch application for free or reduced lunch. All families are required to fill out and return the application listing all children on the form. If you do not want to apply for free or reduced lunch you can check the box on the top right hand corner and return. The information from this form affects our schools funding on several levels. All forms need to be filled out and returned to school by all families.

Back to School Night
We’re pleased to announce that Back to School Night (for most JBBP classes) will be on Wednesday, September 1 at 6:30PM. Note that your class might choose a different date, so please confirm details with your classroom teacher.

Sincerely,

Peter Van Court
Principal

Message From Our Family Liaison, Chris Arenas

Dear Clarendon New and Returning Families,
We hope you enjoyed your summer vacation and are ready for the 2010-11 school year !!! Clarendon has had a nice facelift this summer. We have sparkling new windows in all the classrooms and fresh paint and even some new doors. The Clarendon Mural Project is still in the works and coming together beautifully. Thanks to Linda Larsen and Lucy O’Dwyer. The Garden is blooming and there will be a workday on Saturday Aug 21st coordinated by Elise Rousseau, our Garden Committee Chair.

We started out the school year for the new families with a Picnic at Midtown Terrace on Saturday Aug 14th. Thank you to Yumiko Maeta, Laura Springer, Terri Shearer, Mark Kinoshita, John Trevithick and Susanna Benningfield for coordinating this welcoming Picnic.
Monday August 16th the first day of school was off to an energetic start with our Welcome to School Coffee/Tea and Information for new families. Thank you to Tori Cohen and the social committee for coordinating this event. All students received a beginning of the year packet on Monday so please remember to check your child’s backpack for this important information, read and return the forms that must be submitted as soon as possible especially Media Access forms, Lunch applications, Dismissal forms and EMERGENCY CARDS. The Wednesday Envelope has started today August 18, 2010.

The next newsletter will be September 1, 2010. September 1st will also be the JBBP Back To School Night and September 2nd will be the SC Back to School Night. Please mark your calendars for these important dates and watch for more information that will follow.

Please come and visit me in Room 6, the Volunteer Room Tuesday-Friday 8:30- 3:30. I look forward to talking to you and assisting you with volunteering at Clarendon.

Volunteering Opportunities
Needed lunchtime volunteer assistants, 12:30-1:45PM help supervise students on lower, middle and upper yards, you can sign up for 1 day a week or more if you like.

Sincerely,
Chris Arenas, Family Liaison 415-759-2801 clarendonconnect@gmail.com

JBBP PAC would like to welcome new & returning families!

What is PAC?
PAC is the Parent Advisory Council of the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program at Clarendon School. Every parent is a member of PAC. PAC members can attend monthly PAC meetings (generally the third Thursday of the month), vote on budget issues, and vote to determine the PAC Executive Committee. The PAC Executive Committee is a group of elected parent volunteers who provide leadership to the Parent Advisory Council. PAC parent volunteers raise funds to support the enrichment subjects for all JBBP students and participate in JBBP and schoolwide events. Last year we raised funds over $160,000 to support our Japanese Language and Culture, Librarian (Darlene Kenny), Physical Education (Marc LeBiavant), Art (Ellen Weinstein), Taiko/drums (Melody Takata) and computers (Jeremiah Menez). PAC's fundraising efforts also supplement teachers' classroom funds and other activities.

What is Site Council?
The school site council consists of 10 members including the Principal, teachers and parents from both the JBBP and the Second Community Program, and non-teaching staff. It holds public meetings approximately once a month to oversee the Academic Site Plan for the whole school. The Site Council manages the budgeting of school resources and is responsible to SFUSD.

Fundraisers

ANNUAL FUND
From the ANNUAL FUND Committee: Welcome to a new school year! The Annual Fund is Clarendon JBBP PAC’s direct donation fundraiser. All our "extras" such as Art, PE, Computer, Library and our special Japanese Language and Culture education are paid through JBBP PAC fundraising efforts. Given how the district is in a budget crisis, we need to raise more money than ever to continue our great program at JBBP. For details, please see flyer and donation form in your Wednesday Envelope.

If you have any questions, please contact the Annual Fund Co-chairs below.
- Lisa Leung : (415) 509-9949 leung.lisa@gmail.com
- Madoka Hokamura : 694-3599 madoka@hokamura.com
Domo Arigato-Gozaimasu-Thank you very much!

eScrip
Let’s get ready for fundraising! eScrip is an easy way to help raise money for the JBBP. By registering your Safeway card and/or credit cards with this merchants reward program you will earn money for Clarendon every time you shop at participating merchants. You can earn 1%-8% of your purchase simply by shopping as you normally do. To sign up, go to www.escrip.com and start earning money for the JBBP! Our eScrip group ID is 137317170. You will need your Safeway Club Card number to register but if you can't remember it, call Safeway at 1-877-723-3929 and they will provide your number after you answer a few questions. If you participated last year, you need to renew with eScrip in order to continue earning money for Clarendon. Simply visit www.escrip.com and click on “Yes! Renew”.

Amazon Fundraiser
This is a great way to support our school! If you are shopping at Amazon, please first go to www.ClarendonJBBP.org and click on the Amazon link at the right bottom of the page. We earn 4 - 7% of every purchase and our percentage increases as our participation does!! Amazon is a great last minute gift too - you can get an e-certificate instantly!

BOX TOPS
Clarendon is collecting Box Tops labels. They are usually 10 cents, and they can be found on the packages of certain products, such as Ziploc Bags, Kleenex, and snack packages, etc. Please bring your collection to school! You can drop them in the box that is located on top of the shelves in front of the school office.

WALKATHON (Sunday, October 3rd)
Save the date for our annual Walkathon fundraiser, which both kids and parents love!
　- WHEN : Sunday, October 3rd, 10:00AM - 1:30PM
　- WHERE : School of the Arts (SOTA) track
More details to come.

VOLUNTEERS OPPORTUNITIES!

Please let us know if you are interested in helping the school. There are many volunteer opportunities and we even have open committee chair positions, such as Performing Arts Night, School Tour, and Auction. We’ll have more lists of committees at or before Back To School Night that on Wednesday, September 1st.

If you are interested in leading or helping any committee or would like more information about them, please contact Laura Springer at or Terri Shrearer at . Thank you!

Want the Latest Info?

Clarendon JBBP Listserve is a great way to stay informed as well as share information with the community. Please join by sending a request email to
Please indicate your child’s name and classroom in the body of the email since we limit the members to parents/guardians of enrolled students. Alumni can remain on the list if they wish. If you have questions, please contact Madoka Hokamura at

Clarendon Listserve is separate from the JBBP Listserve and serves both SC (Second Community) and JBBP communities. Information common to both programs will be sent out through this list. Please join by sending an email to

Nominations for Site Council & PAC Positions

Last chance to nominate yourself or someone you love for a position on Site Council or PAC. We particularly need 2 Site Council Reps as most of the current PAC officers have indicated a willingness to stay on for one more term (thank you!!) (but please still contact us if you are interested in any of the PAC positions). Here is the description of the Site Council Position: The Clarendon Site Council consists of elected members including the Principal, teachers and parents drawn from both the JBBP and the Second Community Program, and non-teaching staff. It holds public meetings approximately once a month before school to oversee the Academic Site Plan for the whole school. The Site Council manages the budgeting of school resources and is responsible to SFUSD. JBBP Site Council members can also hold another position on the PAC Executive. Alternates are also needed to attend meetings when somebody is absent. This position is held for 2 years. Meetings are held once a month at 8:00 a.m. (currently on the second Tuesday of the month).

Please e-mail Laura Springer any nominations or fill out the nomination form and put it in the PAC box in room 6. Nominations are due by this Friday (5/7). Thank you for considering these important positions!

Our final PAC Meeting of the year is next Thursday, May 13th at 6:30 .
It will be a fun potluck and end of year party (with just a little business) It will be our opportunity to celebrate a great year and say goodbye to the graduating families. We hope you can join us!!

We really need your help to fill some critical Committee Chair positions next year! Please contact Laura Springer (Lspringe@pacbell.net) if you are interested in any of the positions below or would like additional information:

1) Auction
2) Grounds & Gardening
3) Lost & Found
4) Safety Committee
5) School Clean-Up Coordinator
6) School Tours

Please consider stepping in to one of these important positions and doing something great for the kids of Clarendon JBBP. Thank you!!
- Laura, Yumiko, and Terri

Our Tsuzumi Performance at Cherry Blossom Festival

17 children from JBBP, Second Community and alumni dressed in real Hakamas (Kimono pants) performed Tsuzumi (Traditional Japanese drum) at the Cherry Blossom Festival last Saturday. The children in Hakamas looked stunning and their tsuzumi sounded great! They showed off our community! We'd like to thank NPO Infusion for sponsoring the Tsuzumi lessons and giving our children this wonderful opportunity to learn about Japanese culture. Thank you to Jimmy-sensei and Kato-sensei for giving the children afterschool lessons to prepare for the performance! Also a big thank you to Chip and Sydney Nakamura (Grant, Bungalow E's parents) for their kindness of opening their dental office lobby as Tsuzumi kids' changing room on Saturday.

Clarendon Elementary School JBBP 2010 Cherry Blossom Festival Udon Booth

A Very Big Thank You to everyone who worked, donated and supported our Udon Booth during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Even though the Food Bazaar was shut down one of the four days, due to rain, the Udon Booth did well. We will report results and acknowledge everyone who helped make the Udon Booth a success in next weeks news letter!
Thank You! - The Udon Booth Committee

Cherry Blossom Parade

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Cherry Blossom Parade on Sunday. Thank you to all the JBBP teachers, Mr. Van Court and to all the parent volunteers who helped to keep the Cherry Blossom Parade running smoothly so that we could all have a lot of fun. We would like to especially thank Harumi Debono for all of her help (again!) this year with the music, choreography and classroom visits. In addition, we would like to acknowledge Harumi for her special effort to decorate the float this year. With Harumi's leadership and creative touch, and help from volunteers who she recruited, the float looked really spectacular this year! Arigato Gozaimasu!

Auction Appreciation

I wanted to thank everyone for their participation and support for last night’s auction. The Clarendon community really came together in so many ways, and I wanted to thank everyone involved.

A special thank you goes to those Clarendon parents that got creative and donated “Clarendon’s Own” items. We had an unprecedented amount of really nice donations, which raised a large amount of money for the school.

I also would like to thank the auction team who put in months and months of hard work to make last night the special event that it was. For those unfamiliar with the process, work for the auction kicks into high gear in October and doesn’t stop until March.

Again, thank you to everyone for a great evening!

Mike Springer-- Auction Chair

A Message from PAN Committee

We hope you enjoyed this year's Performing Arts Night as much as we did. The teachers and the students all worked very hard preparing for their performances, and we truly enjoyed them. We would like to thank all the teachers, staff, and parent volunteers for their hard work and support for the successful evening. We sincerely appreciate your help and feel fortunate to have such a great community to work with. Thank you!
You can still submit an order form for a copy of the PAN DVD, which will become available sometime in late spring. A copy of the order form was included in last week's Wednesday envelope, and you can also find it in the PAN drawer in Room 6.

Walkathon Trophy Assembly

Walkathon Awards Assembly has been scheduled in the mornings listed below (subject to change if weather conditions don't permit). All medals and trophies will be given out at 9:30 in the school yard.
< 2nd grade awards > Tuesday, Jan 19th, 9:30 a.m.
< Kinder awards > Wednesday, Jan 20th, 9:30 a.m.
< 3rd grade awards > Thursday, Jan 21st, 9:30 a.m.
< 4th & 5th grade awards > Friday, Jan 22nd, 9:30 a.m.
< 1st grade awards > Monday, Jan 25 9:30 a.m.

Greetings from PAC

We hope everyone had a happy and restful Thanksgiving surrounded by loved ones! In the spirit of the season, we are collecting contributions towards holiday gifts for our hardworking consultants and staff. Please see the flyer in the Wednesday Envelope for details or e-mail LSpringe@pacbell. net with questions.

PAC Meeting Notes
At the last PAC Meeting on November 12th, the parents present voted to elect Yumiko Maeta as our Japanese Co-Chair and Jana Munyon as our Recording Secretary. Thank you Yumiko and Jana for taking on those important positions!! We are happy to announce that with those elections all of our PAC Executive positions and Committee Chair positions have now been filled. Thank you to our many dedicated volunteers!

PAC General Meeting
- Thursday, Dec. 10th at 6:00 - Special Presentations!
Our next PAC meeting will feature a special presentation regarding the new process for school assignmen t (to be implemented next year for enrollment in 2011). Presenters from SFUSD's Parent Advisory Council will be at Clarendon to explain the proposed changes to the student assignment system and to collect feedback from Clarendon parents to be included in their report to SFUSD and the Board of Education. This is our opportunity to have a say in the assignment process and the effects it will have on our families and Clarendon JBBP. Childcare will be provided and dinner will be served. Please contact Laura Springer at LSpringe@pacbell. net to RSVP.
At 7:30 we will have a GATE presentation by Peter Van Court and Bev Webster. Their presentation will explain the GATE identification process, discuss the GATE program at Clarendon, and present information on how the GATE identification is used at the local public middle schools.
It should be a very informative evening so please try to join us. Again, please RSVP to LSpringe@pacbell. net so we have an accurate count for dinner and childcare. The SFUSD PAC would like at least 10-20 participants so that they can collect sufficient feedback from the meeting. We hope to see you there!

Bootiful Halloween Carnival

hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween - and that the extra hour on Sunday gave everyone some well deserved rest!

We wanted to add our thanks to all of the people who worked so hard to make this year's Halloween Carnival a fun event for the kids of Clarendon and their siblings and friends!

Thank you to David Godmintz for willingly chairing the entire event - He planned the whole event, procured our prizes, jumpy houses, dunk tank, cotton candy machine, SFPD horses, SFFD truck (with some help from Steve Bokura), hauled a lot of tables and equipment up from room 6 and really made this carnival happen!

Thanks to Harumi Debono and Mayumi Oya for a fantastic food table - from finding volunteers, planning a menu, and working the tables all day, Harumi and Mayumi did it all. Thanks also to the many parents who helped them pull it off with delicious contributions and many work hours.

Thanks to Walter and John our Haunted House gurus for hours of set-up, working the House during the carnival, and many hours of clean up after! It always adds a fun level of creepy to our carnival! Thanks to the parents and many alumni who helped bring the house to life during the carnival.

Thanks to Tina Greco for managing the volunteer sign up and then working the volunteer table so people could find their stations!

Thanks to all of the parent and alumni volunteers who helped set up and clean up, run games, sell treats and tickets, and helped keep things fun for the kids!!

Finally, thanks to all of the teachers and staff who attended our carnival. Special thanks to those hearty souls who braved the dunk tank: Sumako Morimoto, Joli Gordon, Shirvan Mahto, Junko Tanaka, Principal Peter Van Court, Ex-Principal Mark Barmore and brave parent Dave Conroy.

Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation!!

PAC Executive Team
Terri, Laura, Daniel, Rick, Harumi, and Jana

A Message from the Garden Committee

First, we want to express a huge thank you to the twenty or so parent volunteers who came out to help on our 1st Garden Work day (Oct. 3rd) --We accomplished a lot with our relatively small crew. We also want to thank all of you who used the Sloat coupon to make purchases for your own home gardens during the 1st 'Growing up Green' week (Sept. 18th - 28th) --We earned a whopping $2000. for our Global Habitats Learning Gardens for our Green School Yards program. We were the highest earning school that participated in this program and received the full 20% credit on our spending. THANK YOU!

Now, the work continues... Our 2nd Garden Work Day is again paired Sloat's 'Growing Up Green' program coupon use for Nov. 6th - 16th). Many Parent Volunteers are Needed on Sat November 14th, 10 - 4 p.m. We will be planting fruit trees, and landscaping the hillsides next to the Lower Yard play structure, and the area along the side walk next to the Upper Yard. Many, many holes to dig, dirt and compost to haul... PLEASE come out and help--and PLEASE use the Sloat flyer coupon :)

Other plans that are underway... Our beautiful cedar potting and storage sheds have arrived. You may have noticed the two large wrapped pallets next to the Middle Yard Garden. The work order has been submitted and we are awaiting the district carpenters to assemble and install the sheds for us. Our lovely picket fence and arbor gate plans have been approved and the materials P.O. is being processed--so that the carpenters can also build our cute garden entry. We have ordered a huge assortment of organic vegetable, herbs, and flower seeds for starting seedlings in the potting sheds. The Garden Committee will be working with classroom coordinators (we do need a parent representative for each classroom) to help facilitate individual projects with each teacher to use our new gardens. Each classroom will have their own individual plots of garden space and will choose what ! they would like to grow. We have grade level specific curriculum science and ecology projects to help our teachers weave the use of the gardens into their core curriculum requirements. Composting, worm casting, butterflies, and bees (no-stinger pollinating species) are also on the way.
This is our learn as we go debut year, and we embark on our test looking forward to the Spring Season--by late April or early May we'll have our first Saturday morning Farmer's Market. Here's to curious minds and getting our hands dirty!

Walk-a-thanks ‘09

Our 2009 Walkathon was a big success thanks to the generous help of many wonderful Clarendon families. So many of you helped in ways big and small that we probably won’t be able to name all of you, so we’d like to give a big thanks to those who helped anonymously by bringing extra food, picking up someone else’s trash, helping a tired (or lost) walker, or pledging an extra buck.

The JBBP and Second Community co-chairs would like to give special thanks to our dedicated always-there-for-us, going-beyond-the-call-of-duty helpers: Game leader extraordinaire Ellen Aquila; Music Maestros Kevin Mullane and Ken Kurita-Ditz; Barbecue Chefs Steve Bokura and Clift Hong and cooks Mike Solow and Kevin Tan; equipment transport guys Mike Otani, Steve Bokura, Mike Solow, Oscar Rosales and Jon Braham; our Raffle and Coffee Gurus Sean and Yasuyo Benward; and the registration and check-out people who make it all possible: Ikuko Kyle, Kazumi Monaco, Terri Shearer, Modoka Hokamura, Laura French, Nina Quarequio, Sydney Nakamura, Gabrielle Hillebrand, Serena Lau, Lydia Ely, Carla Bello, Eiko Bokura, Elaine Rapin, Idit Harlev, Gail Mallimson, Barbara Bevan, Livia Petronio, Sarah Glover, and Walter Villavicencio. For helping set up the field we thank Mike Solow, Mike Otani, Jon Braham, Oscar Rosales, Gil Lee, Joe Hsu, Jim Hannawalt, Stelly Kuo, Voytek Czerw, Steve Bokura, and Jon Braham. For setting up and guarding the food we thank Carrie Hamm, Edith Enriquez, Joy and Jackie Patel, Beth Alberts, Bernadette Fay, Sjon Link, Alisa Kyle, Daniela Gibson, Milo Sprague and Tessa Kemp. Our faithful and fun-loving laptag punchers included Camilla and Rick Newhagen, Lilia Chen Larson, Kathleen and Rene Vignos, Sue Benningfield, Tom and Megan, Stephen Moore, Michele Pense, Elena Felder, Michelle Levenson, Marina Basich, Lea Yeung, Scott Robin, Sjon Link, and Kinsley Binnard. Our course monitors included Lisa Leung, Diedre Foley, Debra Rose, Brion Charles, and Stelly Kuo. At the water station we had Linda Garcia, Ofri Harlev, Katelyn Tan, Lily Holm, Lisa & Melissa, Dan Holm, Zuzka Czerw, Heike Ellers, and Ayla Macomber. Helping Ellen Aquila with the games were Patricia Miller, Diedre Foley, Jesse Hannawalt, and Gene Galicer. Selling t-shirts were Voytek Czerw, Linda Larson and Lucy O’Dwyer. Breaking it all down and cleaning up were: Steve Bokura, Clift Hong, Mike Solow, Gil Lee, Jesse Hannawalt, Beth Albert, Jim Hannawalt, Tiffany Wong, Allen Wong, Voytek Czerw, and Jon Braham. Taking it all back to Clarendon and helping us put it away were Steve Bokura, Jon Braham, Gil Lee, Voytek Czerw, and Mike Solow.

A big thanks to Principal Peter Van Court for starting us off and cheering us on, and to our favorite PE teacher Marc LeBiavant for warming up the walkers before the start. Thanks to all the teachers who took time out of their busy lives to come and walk and talk with us, especially Mrs. E who opened the school at 8 a.m. A special thanks to SFUSD Athletic Director Don Collins and Assistant Athletic Director John Zlatunich for their help in making sure the gates were open on time and the electricity was on for us.

And of course thanks to ALL the children who walked laps and miles to earn money for their wonderful school!

Sincerely,

Your walkathon co-chairs: Barbara Moulton, Julia Reiff, Kashka Czerw and Susan Gin

Bake Sale Fundraiser

Clarendon school tours are scheduled to begin on October 28th. Over 1,000 interested parents are expected to tour our school. This year we will offer hot coffee and fresh pastries for purchase as a special fundraiser to support JBBP and Second Community class overnight trips. Classroom bake sale assignments are as follows:

Clarendon UNDOUKAI (Sports Festival)

Japanese Cultural Committee is planning Clarendon Undoukai (Japanese Sport Festival) with JBBP teachers, P.E consultant Marc, and Japanese consultant Ryoko Morimoto. The date has been set for Tuesday November 10th (Nov.12th if it rains on the 10th). All elementary schools in Japan hold Undoukai every year, Undoukai is the largest event there which involves all families. We can't have exactly the same style as Japan, but we'd like to make it as similar, and as fun as possible.
- DEAR PARENTS: Please participate in the event if you can! You can come and watch your child(ren) and your classroom(s) particpate in relays and other activities, and cheer the children! We are also looking for volunteers who can help us coordinate activities, and set up equipment, etc.. Please look for more details and the sign up sheet that will be sent home next Wednesday.

San Francisco Taiko Dojo's 41st International Taiko Festival

This event is hosted by San Francisco Taiko Dojo. The San Francisco Taiko Dojo will also be performing for us at our auction on March 13th so please show them your suport if possible. The show includes a performance by JBBP parent, Lisa Carlson! Tickets are from $28~. You can buy tickets directly through San Francisco Taiko Dojo and save yourself the cost of the convenience fee that Zellerbach Hall charges. People can call the dojo showroom directly at 415.928.2456 or you can email Lisa Carlson at lisaacooper@yahoo.com, and she would be happy to deliver the tickets to school (to save you a trip to pick them up in Japantown) Taiko Dojo: www.taikodojo.org

Volunteers Needed!!!

JBBP AUCTION
We Need Your Help With Our Auction Fundraiser!
We need additional volunteers to assist us with JBBP's largest fundraising event! Our Auction is on March 13th, and we need your help! Please contact Mike Springer (mike.springer@zomexa.com) if you're willing to lend a hand.

Noontime Volunteers Needed For Upper Grades
We need more volunteers for second lunch time, for Gr. 3~5 from 12:50 to 1:45, in the Middle Yard, especially this Thurs, and Fri OCT 14 and 15th. Please call Chris (759-2801) if you can help.

Fundraising Info

From See's Candies Fundraiser Committee
It's time to start thinking about the Holiday Season!!! Yes, our popular Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hannukah See's Order sheets are sent home in your child's Wed's Envelope last week. One is for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas/Hannukah. Your Thanksgiving order is due on Wednesday, Nov. 4th (order pick up is Tuesday, 11/17). Christmas/Hannukah order is due on Wednesday, Dec. 2nd (order pick up is Tuesday, 12/15) Extra order forms are available in the Main Lobby, in Room 6's See's Candies Drawer or contact us and we will place them in your child's backpack. Questions, suggestions? Please contact Atsuko (alohafromako@aol.com) Thank you for your support (^o^)/

Annual Fund Committee
Welcome to a new school year! The Annual Fund is Clarendon JBBP PAC's direct donation fundraiser. All our "extras" such as Art, PE, Computer, Library and our special Japanese Language and Culture education are paid through JBBP PAC fundraising efforts. Given how the district is in a budget crisis, we need to raise more money than ever to continue our great program at JBBP. More information to follow once the JBBP budget is finalized in the next week or so. Domo Arigato-Gozaimasu-Thank you very much!

Box Tops
BoxTops and Labels Committee hopes that you had a wonderful summer. We also hope that you kept collecting BoxTops through the summer break!! We will continue to collect them through this 2009 - 2010 school year and we would like your help with that. Each BoxTops coupon is usually worth 10 cents, and they can be found on the packages of certain products, such as Ziploc Bags, Kleenex, General Mills cereals, etc. We will give you a list of the participating products in the near future. Thanks to your cooperation we were able to submit $352 worth of BoxTops coupons and received a check for $262 during the school year of 2008 - 2009.
Please collect them and bring them to school! You can drop them in the box which is located on top of the shelves in front of the school office (where Beth is). Also you are welcome to send them in with your child's Wednesday envelope that will be prepared in a few weeks. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact BOX TOPS' JBBP co-chair Kazumi Monaco (enkami@hotmail.com). Thank you for your cooperation! We look forward to working with you this exciting new school year!

eScrip
Let's get ready for fundraising! eScrip is an easy way to help raise money for the JBBP. By registering your Safeway card and/or credit cards with this merchants reward program you will earn money for Clarendon every time you shop at participating merchants. You can earn 1%-8% of your purchase simply by shopping as you normally do. To sign up, go to www.escrip.com and start earning money for the JBBP! Our eScrip group ID is 137317170. You will need your Safeway Club Card number to register but if you can't remember it, call Safeway at 1-877-723-3929 and they will provide your number after you answer a few questions. If you participated last year, you need to renew with eScrip in order to continue earning money for Clarendon. Simply visit www.escrip.com and click on “Yes! Renew”.

Welcome Peter Van Court (Our New Principal)

I hope everyone has had a great summer! It is hard to believe that the first day of school is just around the corner. I hope your kids are ready.

I wanted to send on a brief bio of our new Principal, Peter Van Court. I hope you will join me in welcoming him to the Clarendon community.

Peter Van Court came out of the private sector as a business owner involved with global trade, marketing and sales and moved into the public sector as a teacher, technology coordinator, dean of students and principal.

Van Court started teaching in San Francisco at the San Francisco Conservation Corps. Founded by Senator Dianne Feinstein in 1984, this program serves young San Franciscans, ages 18-26, who have “fallen off the radar but have decided to get back on track.” From there, Van Court went to the SFUSD teaching several years at Mark Twain Alternative High School. Administrative positions held by Van Court include Dean of Students / Head Counselor at Luther Burbank Middle School, Assistant Principal at Lowell High School, Principal at Carden West Elementary School, and Assistant Principal of Curriculum at Galileo High School.

Van Court has taught at all levels from Preschool to Adult Education. “One of the lessons that I have learned working in a wide range of diverse communities is not to rush to judgment on anything. Things are not always what they appear and building a high functioning learning community involves all of its members collectively working together”.

Van Court holds Masters Degrees in Administration and Instructional Technology has served in various positions for the Association of California School Administrators, including President of Region V, and lives in the east bay with his wife Anne and their two elementary aged children Elliot and Emma.

See you on the 24th!!

Laura Springer

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