August 2011

Dear Sope Creek Families,

Greetings to all our new and returning families! It is my pleasure and privilege to welcome you to the 2011-2012 school year at Sope Creek. The beginning of the school year always brings excitement and energy to the school and community. There is little in life more satisfying as an educator than to see the enthusiasm and joy in our students as they begin the school year. My hope is that through their experience at Sope Creek we can inspire their love of learning that will last a lifetime!

Our theme this year is Building Brains which aligns perfectly with our upcoming construction. I want to share updates on the SPLOST 3 project for Sope Creek and the potential impact on the school and community. The building of the 12-classroom addition is expected to start in September and continue through the summer of 2012. The entire construction area, which will extend across the front of the track, will be enclosed by a chain-link fence once the project begins. This will not impact the walkers or bikers from either of the Sibley Forest paths. The traffic exit closest to Sibley Forest will be restructured and designated exclusively for construction vehicles. We will lose a portion of the parking spaces at that end of the campus to the construction entrance/exit and as the staging area for materials. This will doubtless create additional congestion during carpool. As a result, I am strongly encouraging everyone to ride the bus this year to eliminate the carpool lines and traffic congestion on Paper Mill Road. Visit our website for details regarding the SPLOST 3 improvements for Sope Creek.

Building Brains for our students means providing curriculum which is rigorous and relevant. Students are more likely to more to make a personal commitment to engage in rigorous learning when they know that teachers, parents, and other students care about them. Relationships are nurtured so new ideas and answers can blossom and emerge. Creating the emotional environment that supports learning begins with building a sense of belonging and establishing procedures such as trustworthiness, truthfulness, no put downs, active listening, and personal best – the Lifelong Guidelines. Once these procedures are in place, real learning based on rigor and relevance begins to accelerate.

We invite you to join us in modeling these Guidelines for our students. As Horatio Sanchez’s research on resiliency tells us, ―As long as we model the right thing our student’s brains will pick up on it.

I look forward to another great year preparing our students for their future!

Thank you for all your support,
Martha Whalen
Principal