Steeplechase Success!
Congratulations to all of the students who ran, walked, and cheered their way through a most successful Steeplechase day on Friday, October 26th!
Our kids galloped through their Steeplechase lapathon, but the fundraiser is not complete until we collect all those pledge packets! Please turn in the pledge packets with all collected donations to your teacher or the school office by Friday, November 2nd. Of course, donations/packets will be accepted after this date, but we are hoping to have as close to 100 percent turned in by Friday as possible. Thank you for helping us provide Edna's teachers and students with the resources they rely on for a successful learning environment!
Many thanks to VALERIE LINDSAY, for her organization, coordination, flexibility, and leadership. Thank you also to the Steeplechase Committee: Bethany Conybeare, Marie Cardinal, Janet Fox, Janie Karp, Josie Viscardi, Nancy Felder, Katrina Kehl, Deb Luster, and Sean Norton. And, finally, a standing ovation to Principal Lisa Zimmer, Steeplechase Queen Schuyler Harvey, the Edna Maguire teachers and staff, and the VOLUNTEERS who made this event such a success!
Special thanks from Lisa Zimmer
I wanted to send out a huge thank you to all the parents who helped volunteer for our annual Steeplechase Lapathon! The kids were so excited and it was a beautiful day. Val Lindsay and Janie Karp, the official organizers, did an excellent job! All the families who helped with set up, the course volunteers, and the after party and pledge coordinators can't be thanked enough. If you go to our website you can see the many things that this fundraiser helps provide for our students, staff, and classrooms. I am so grateful to all of you.
- Lisa Zimmer
Harvest Festival: a Smash Hit
If you have never spent any time in our garden until this past weekend, you now understand the magic. What an extraordinary feeling! What a wonderful show of community support for the children to witness. How do we thank all our incredible volunteers, all the children, bakers, all our sponsors, scarecrow makers, parents, teachers, girls scout troops, and everyone who bid on on our scarecrows?
Mischievous garden fairies kept raising the arms of parents holding auction paddles. Countless times the paddles went up, up again, and just kept going. So much goodwill in one afternoon! We raised $2,129 from our scarecrow auction alone! Every scarecrow had an incredibly unique personality and was obviously made with so much love, which is why the crowd responded so much. A world record was broken by Adam Sanchez's class scarecrow: a whopping $425!!!!! And, that ain't hay! The money raised will go to our much beloved hands on outdoor classroom and laboratory for our children. Kudos to everyone!
Click here to see pictures of some of the fabulous scarecrows.
Thank You Lunch Waste Committee
We want to thank the following fourth- and fifth graders for organizing Edna’s lunch waste program:
Joshua Kim, Sarah Asch, Maddie Pratt, Hayley Jackson, Micaela Robinson-Duran, Nicole Friedman, Caroline Frost, Daisy Meisler, Megan Lindsay, Eliza Ross, Taylor Hicks, Olivia Terrano, Alexa Zener, Miki Dalke, and Kate Vangalos. Great work!
Healthy Kids = Healthy Families
Ideas for nutritious and waste-free lunch ideas from Nutrition and Wellness
Try to pack it in and pack it out. Make your lunches nutritious and waste-free!
Packing food in reusable containers helps avoid "squishing," reduces
paper/plastic waste in landfills, and allows kids to pack out food to
be eaten later. Cutting up fruits and vegetables, etc, enables kids to
save what they don't want at lunch. See these links for more healthy
ideas:
http://www.laptoplunches.com/articles/PackHealthyLunchesFlyer.pdf
http://california.startingouthealthy.com/story1.html
Halloween Safety
Click the link below to read important safety tips from the Marin County School/Law Enforcement Partnership. Have a happy and safe Halloween!
http://www.ednamaguire.org/halloween.pdf
MSRA Infection Information
Over the past few weeks, reports have appeared in the news media regarding students who have contracted a staph infection known as MRSA. Last week, Marin County School Districts received a briefing from Dr. Anju Goel, Deputy Public Health Officer for the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, about MRSA. Key points included:
- MRSA is a staph infection. While staph infections are common, this type of staph is showing an increasing resistance to antibiotics.
- The vast majority of cases studied by the Journal of the American Medical Association were contracted in health care settings such as hospitals. Only 15 percent were contracted in community settings, such as schools in people without risk factors for infection.
- MRSA is commonly transmitted by skin-to-skin contact. It can also be transferred from the infected person onto a shared object or surface. Athletic facilities are susceptible so it is important that precautions be taken with regard to commonly shared items such as towels, soap, and athletic equipment.
- Unless directed by a physician, students with MRSA infections should not be excluded from attending school. Students who have draining infections that cannot be covered and contained should be excluded from school until the infection is healed or can be covered and contained. If the student is involved in a physical activity or sport that involves skin-to-skin contact with other students, they should be excluded from those activities until the lesions are healed or can be covered and contained adequately; return to those activities should be approved by a school official or doctor.
- The Department of Public Health does not keep a record of MRSA cases. Some school districts taking part in the conference call reported incidents of students with staph infections. Dr. Goel will be consulting with her colleagues to determine if it would be helpful to have cases reported and will advise.
Dr. Goel provided the following information for schools and for individuals with regard to preventing the spread of the staph infection:
- Washing hands thoroughly and frequently with soap and warm water, or use of an alcohol based hand cleaner (when hands are not visibly soiled) can help prevent spread of infection. Use some of the same precautions for prevention as you would use to prevent other illnesses, especially washing hands thoroughly and frequently with soap and warm water.
- Alcohol-based hand cleaners are effective. Wipes are only effective if they are alcohol-based. It is important to note that the most important part of washing hands is the vigorous rubbing of the hands together to thoroughly clean the skin.
- Keeps cuts and scrapes clean and covered.
- Avoid skin contact and sharing personal items with anyone suspected of having MRSA.
- Regarding athletic equipment, it is helpful to clean or wipe down equipment used by one person at a time, such a weightlifting bench or exercise machine. No extraordinary precautions or cleaning are necessary for equipment, such as mats, that might be used by multiple people, other than regular proper cleaning procedures.
Any additional information will be provided to school districts as it becomes available. We are very grateful to our partners at the Department of Health and Human Services for their support on this issue and for so many other programs and projects that support our students and their families.
