Principal's Message

Welcome to the San Andreas Elementary Website!

At SAE our philosophy is to address the whole child. While academic achievement is certainly a focus, we understand that kids are more than how they perform on academic tasks. A priority for us to to ensure that all students feel safe and welcome, and that their social emotional needs are being met. A few years ago, several members of the SAE staff attended a training about Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). During that training, the graphic below was shared. This shows the balance between academics, social/emotional learning, and behavior, with the whole child being in the middle of those three areas.

To address academics, our teachers focus on crafting standards-based lessons to help students understand the concepts being taught. We use technology to help individualize the instruction and have 1:1 devices in our first through sixth grade classroom. Teachers administer regular assessments to monitor student progress, and we have two intervention paraprofessionals who help to deliver small-group instruction.

On the social/emotional side, we focus on building a school where students feel safe both physically and emotionally. We help students connect with each other and the adults and we make sure they understand that they are the reason we are here. We strive to build a positive, engaging environment where students feel like they belong. We incorporate Character Counts! throughout the day with the seven pillars of Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship. Additionally, we have been learning about Adverse Childhood Experiences (A.C.E.s) and the dramatic impact chronic trauma can have for our students. If you'd like to learn more about what A.C.E.s are and the impact on young children, I highly recommend this Ted Talk from Dr. Nadine Burke Harris where she gives an overview of childhood trauma and the lifetime impacts it has.

The third area we focus on is behavior, and helping students make good choices. To do this we emphasize Positive Behavior Interventions and Strategies (PBIS). With PBIS, we treat behavior like an academic subject and make sure that we have clear expectations and teach what those behaviors should look like. At SAE, we have three school-wide expectations, Being Safe, Being Responsible and Being Respectful. When students are demonstrating these behaviors, we acknowledge them with positive praise and Cool Cat Cash, which can be redeemed in our student store.

SAE is a great place for kids, and that is because the great adults. We encourage you to take an active role in your child's education and become partners with us as we strive to help address the three areas of Academics, Social Emotional and Behavior.

Go Wildcats!

Dan Mayers

Principal