El Morro Elementary School

 Beginning of the year School Message:

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year at El Morro Elementary School.  This is an exciting period in the school’s history as our school was named a California Distinguished School in 2008 for the second time in our history and our students' achieved the school's highest API score ever of 869.  We also continue to grow and evolve.  We have just completed the process of building two additional classrooms on our campus.  Our school is also surrounded by change as the State of California constructs the Crystal Cove Campground next to our campus.  Eventually, the stop light in front of our school will be moved to the entrance road for the State Park.  It is unknown when this project will be completed because of the State of California's budget crisis, but El Morro Elementary School and the Laguna Beach Unified School District are prepared when the change occurs.  We worked and studied together with district staff, consultants and parents to create a safe and efficient traffic circulation plan for entering and exiting the school parking lot.  This means revising our current parking lot and circulation pattern to allow for new entrance and exit points and traffic patterns.  As always, the Laguna Beach Unified School District and I have been making every effort to protect the safety of our students and school community.  We have been working hard to minimize and mitigate any impacts from the campground.  Together with the State Park we are working to create operational procedures to eliminate and minimize any noise impacts on our instructional program.  

Our instructional focus remains early literacy skills in grades K-3.  Reading, writing, listening and speaking are taught and reinforced daily.  The upper grades (4 & 5) continue to reinforce literacy, as well as focusing on more complex standards in math, science and social studies.  Our Teachers collaborate in grade level Professional Learning Communities (PLC) each week.  These weekly PLC meetings not only allow the staff grade level collaboration to review student data, plan instructional strategies and design common assessments, they also enable articulation from grade to grade.   Response to Instruction (RtI), is how we intervene with students when they do not understand critical concepts or how we extend learning for students who have mastered concepts.  RtI allows us to differentiate our instruction to teach all students at their appropriate level, whether it is advanced, intermediate or emerging knowledge.  The Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) program allows us to build a safe social and emotional environment for students and reduce interruptions to the teaching staff to maximize instructional time.  Our counselor, Dr. Jami Parsons, assists myself and the staff to strive to create an optimum learning environment on our campus.

El Morro Elementary is a school where teachers have a passion for teaching young students and helping them to develop a lifelong love of learning.  I look forward to working together to inspire of love of learning in all students!