The anniversary....

One year ago on October 9, 2017, the entire attendance area of my school was burned by the Tubbs Fire. Over 200 students and staff lost everything. 

And I choose this school to be the principal of this year.  

When I was hired in April 2018, I asked my superintendent, "Do we have kids for next year?"  He laughed and said "We are over full.  We thought we would have some declining enrollment, so we took some outside of district kids, but they all came back."

I knew the first anniversary of the fire was going to be a difficult day, week and month.  I knew I needed to change the day for students.  I knew I needed to make it fun.  I knew that this would define the beginning of my principal-ship.  I knew that I would be exhausted at the end of the anniversary day.  

Planning started 6 weeks before the event. It began with a donation, 450 backpacks and schools supplies from the San Francisco Jr. Giants that I found.  The donation was made in the right after the fires and was forgotten about.  This sparked an idea.  But, I needed to include my stakeholders.   I met with individual teachers and got ideas of what the staff needed from that day.  I also had teachers talk with their kids and ask 'What would you want to do at school on the anniversary day."  We gathered a lots of ideas and information.  In hindsight, I should have surveyed parents as well.  They may have thought of something different/easier.

The day had many different activities.  They were:

• Students will plant flowers to take home.
• Students will write cards to Hurricane Florence affected schools to pass on their kindness.
• Community poster:  Each student will paint their hand and make a handprint on a poster that says “#Rieblisoars.”
• Cut out a feather and write their name on it.  Each grade level will have a different color feather.  We will make a school set of wings to hang inside the MPR that states “Together We Soar”
• We invited Heroes (Police, fire, nurses, doctors, PG&E) to come and read the book “After the fall” to students while they enjoy a healthy treat.
• Kindness Wreath was made in each classroom
• Book Reading
• Primary: Read Wemberly Worried and make Guatemalan worry dolls
• Upper: Read A terrible thing Happened and did a writing activity
• Counselors on hand
• Therapy dogs on campus

All of these activities were done with their buddies. So, cross age support was also provided.

The day went great.  Students loved it, teachers loved it, First responders loved it and parents were able to participate.