McKinley celebrated the Lunar New Year for the 21st time, and this year featured a special performance. The San Francisco Police Department Lion Dancers came and amazed the students and community with their traditional dance intended to summon luck and fortune in the New Year.

The Kindergarten and first graders held their own parade in celebration of 4708 - the Year of the Tiger.

Many McKinley students submitted artwork to this year’s PTA National Reflections contest and several have been recognized with awards. Designed to enhance rather than replace a quality arts education, the Reflections Program provides opportunities for students to express themselves and to receive positive recognition for their artistic efforts.

This year’s theme was “Beauty is…” The McKinley honorees are:

Award of Excellence -
Jonathan J. Hyatt - Photo, 1st grade, Beauty is...Roger my Turtle
Madeleine M. Bastable - Visual Art, 2nd grade, Flower Valley

Honorable Mention -
Melanie K. Ige - Visual Art, Kindergarten, Untitled
Vincent T. Stevens - Visual Art, 1st grade, Beauty is Outer Space (pictured)

McKinley is thrilled to welcome back Coaches Michael Simpson and Michael Torterelli, as they lead our students yet again through our Lunchtime Wellness Program. Thanks to grants from CPMC and Visa, McKinley has only had to pay $2500 for a $10,000 program. Mike & Mike are training ASEP staff so that we can sustain this program ourselves in the future, and Mike & Mike can take their expertise to another school.

The program focuses on 5 key life skills, below:
Cooperation
Concentration
Self-Esteem
Relaxation
Imagination

Mike and Mike integrate these concepts into highly energetic post-lunch group activities, with nutritional information included throughout the playtime. In addition to these sessions the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will be introduced to and play games that will become a part of our playground play stations, creating a structured, safe and all inclusive playground atmosphere. The program will also introduce fitness concepts, exercises and play in alignment with the California Standards for fitness testing as well as provide a pre- and post-Fitness Gram assessment.

For over 20 years McKinley K - 2nd grade students have built gingerbread houses under the watchful eye of Mr. Woo, who started this special event and keeps it alive. Parents and community members donate the graham crackers, cereal, candies, and frosting while staff collect the milk cartons that serve as the base for the structure. Parents and staff all supervise this beloved annual event.

McKinley parents and friends enjoyed a sweet treat of holiday music and more, at last week’s evening K-3 performance. The children demonstrated their latest dance moves, vocal achievements, and percussion rhythms in celebration of their classes in performing arts.

The students themselves got to be the audience for a repeat performance on Tuesday, December 15. Each class took to the stage in front of the entire school audience so that the children could see what their friends had been learning. This time the 4th and 5th grade orchestral students also joined in, with some amazing performances of violin, clarinet, and recorder music. Way to sing, jam, and stay on your toes, McKinley!

The Castro Street Fair once again has been generous to McKinley, thanks to the hard work of many families who gave up their Sunday for our school! The total check this year is for $2,160.14 with an additional $750 raised through our new tradition of charging fair attendees to park in the McKinley lot. This gives us a grand total of $2,910.14! Thank you again to all of the volunteers who spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the Castro on behalf of McKinley. Your efforts paid off!

Next week is the end of the McKinley Readathon and the students have been reading up a storm all month! Our first order of new library books arrived last week and the kids were so excited. McKinley students are really avid readers: in the month of November the library circulated almost 1500 books!

This year's Readathon money will be spent on library books (particularly updating our science and history sections), purchasing software, headphones and stools/chairs for our new library computer lab, buying 2-3 digital cameras for multimedia projects, and installing lattice around the perimeter of the library and rebuilding the entrance gates with proper doorknobs and locks.

Please support McKinley by donating to the Readathon.

Room 17's kindergarten class went on a field trip on Friday to the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The children enjoyed a docent-led tour, and frolicked in the outdoor garden before returning to school.

Many of the classes have begun taking the first field trips of the year, including trips to the Mission Science Workshop, SFMOMA, the Symphony, and the newly-opened local library branch in Eureka Valley. Thanks to all the parents who work hard to ensure these trips go smoothly.

The ever-popular Harvest Festival was held on Friday night at McKinley, and raised over $3000. The Halloween carnival is a fundraiser for ASEP and the PTA, and this year's attractions included a jumpy house, carnival games, a haunted house, food and other activities.

Mualimu Collins (pictured) After School Enrichment Program Executive Director and costumed revelers enjoyed a beautiful, if a bit windy, evening of fun in support of the aftershool program.

A special thanks goes out to John Chamberlin and Patricia McFadden for the foresight and professional craftsmanship (not to mention - serious labor) put into the creation of all of the great carnival games. Thank you also to the planning committee (Arjuna and Mualimu who held it all together, Yvette Norman who coordinated the fantastic food station, Linnell Williams for some awesome ribs and potato salad, Christian Neville for our first ever costume contest, Jen Norris the Raffle Queen, Jessica Martines for PR, Le Vu for design work, Annie Bauccio-Moore for learning the ropes for the PTA.) Adrian and his friends get a special thanks for their amazingly professional, fun and spooky Haunted House. And finally, all the amazingly generous volunteers who ran the games, served food, sold tickets, gave prizes, and all did more than they signed up for!

A huge thank you to our wonderful McKinley community of gardeners, fixers, painters, sweepers, rakers, and handymen and women. Our school is gorgeous, sparkling, and organized, and our teachers and staff are thrilled. Thank you to everyone whose hard work and effort makes our school such a wonderful place for our children. We had over 60 parent volunteers at McKinley, and lots and lots of kids for a total of over 275 volunteer hours worked in just one day.

From cleaning out the pine needles from the yard facing Henry Street to planting a garden on the 14th Street side to sorting through all the items in the Lost & Found to helping out in the classrooms, this year's volunteers did it all. A special thanks to Lisa Zahner from the Building Committee and Ariane Reineke from the Garden Committee for planning ahead so everyone knew just what to do.

This year's Pumpkin Patch had beautiful weather on both days for the Halloween-themed games and crafts. Students played games, including Halloween croquet (pictured) and decorated pumpkins. Many thanks to the parents who volunteered to staff the games and shepherd students from event to event and to John Chamberlin for taking over and organizing this year's Pumpkin Patch. And special thanks to James "Tick" Falletti and Falletti's Market for generously donating 300 pumpkins to McKinley so every student could take home their pumpkin.

Two teams of intrepid McKinley parent volunteers simultaneously launched new programs on Tuesday, October 13. The newly created Hospitality Committee hosted the first weekly Coffee Klatch upstairs in the teachers’ lounge. Coffee was donated by Four Barrel Coffee and parents brought baked treats to share. The room was packed and the klatch will meet each Tuesday for the rest of the year.

The second new event, Stop, Drop, & Roll, is in response to the upcoming closure of the lower yard to all vehicles. Since families are no longer able to park in the lower yard, teams of parents and 5th grade escorts in orange vests now greet cars in front of the school on 14th Street. Children are safely led into the building and parents or guardians do not have to worry about finding street parking.

The first day was dark and rainy, but our volunteers weren't deterred. Thank you to parent volunteers Lisa Zahner and Kim Krogan for organizing the program and for keeping our children safe!

Despite windy conditions, McKinley students sculpted their hearts out at the LEAP Sandcastle Classic at Ocean Beach on Saturday, October 3. Taking the award for “Best Interpretation of a Nursery Rhyme,” McKinley created a contemporary twist on the classic “Old Woman in a Shoe” story which featured a high-top Converse sneaker. McKinley takes part in this event every year, with upper grades working alongside community partners to actually create the sand sculpture entry. Younger grades assist by ferrying sand and water, and cheering on the contestants.

Over thirty families contributed at least 100 hours to assist in the annual Castro Street Fair fundraising event for McKinley. The fair raises money via donations for several neighborhood organizations and non-profits, including McKinley Elementary. More volunteers results in a greater size donation to our school!

Volunteer parents, representing kindergartners through fifth graders, graciously gave up their Sundays to stand at one of the fair entrances and solicit donations. A special thank you goes out to parent-with-the-most-stamina, Susie Sanchez, and 4th grade teacher, Mr. Savant. Kindergarten parents Rachel Jacobs and Dan Steiger also held down the fort back at school, raising $750 in parking lot fees from fair-goers. The final amount raised from the fair itself will be available in a few months.

Parents at McKinley have formed soccer teams for students, and the second grade and kindergarten teams have started the year with a bang. The the second grade team (pictured) are under the leadership of willing and able parent coaches, and have had a great first two games of the season. The kindergarten team had their first game of the season, and the kids on both sides had a grand time.

Once again, McKinley beat the record at this year’s car wash and bake sale. A hardworking crew of washers and dryers, including many McKinley students, soaped and scrubbed enough cars to earn nearly $2,400. An equally impressive crew of volunteers helped sell a delectable array of homemade goodies and treats, supplied by McKinley families.

Dianne Zinky and John Chamberlain led the charge for this year’s event, which has become an annual community-builder in addition to a fundraiser. Dianne and John artfully coordinated an army of parents, grandparents, and friends, making the entire operation both fun and seemingly effortless. Go Team McKinley!

Our Annual Direct Fund Appeal has kicked off with the personal distribution of letters on September 16th at Back to School Night. The goal for this 2009 appeal is $30,000.00, and all funds raised will directly support programs for McKinley's students such as Technology, class size reduction in 4th and 5th grades, Spanish, Theater Arts, our annual Marin Headlands Programs, physical education and science.

Watch our progress on the McKinleyLand Bulletin Board in the Main Lobby. To date, we have received five checks in response to the direct appeal totaling $3,325. The Gingerman is on the move! Be sure to stop in and watch the Gingerman continue to climb the path to sweet success, and help keep him from getting stuck in the mud! we have received five checks in response to the direct appeal totaling $3,325. the silver man is on the move

The first PTA meeting of the 2009/10 school year at McKinley had a jam-packed agenda, and a record number of students and their siblings utilized the childcare during the meeting. 54 children enjoyed the potluck dinner before moving to the teachers lounge for fun and games, supervised by ASEP staff. Their parents and guardians enjoyed (endured?) a very full agenda, but newly-elected PTA President Aaron Anderson kept things moving and the meeting ended on time. The next PTA meeting is October 8.

In the library, the back wall is being transformed into our Multimedia Center. In the next 6 to 8 weeks, first grade parent John Renko is installing twenty Sun Microsystems computers in the library, and a server for all of them. John has single-handedly conceived, planned, acquired this technology center.

Taking on a significant project like this is a McKinley tradition. In 2007, new kindergarten parents recognized that the need for a new playground would take more than a small effort, so they banded together and worked furiously, and along with KaBOOM!, a new playground was built in July. In 2008, parents saw that the building needed some simple, and not-so-simple renovations and started our Fall Fix-It and Spring Spruce Up days. They also brought in Rebuilding Together and worked closely with the principal and SFUSD to greatly enhance the facilities at McKinley.

These are just three examples of how parents have transformed the school. Many thanks to John Renko and all the parents who have worked so hard to make McKinley a better school for all our children.

The McKinley community kicked off the school year with the annual BBQ picnic on the school playground. Designed with new and returning families in mind, the event was coordinated by Will Garcia and Avi Goldberg, parents of 1st grader Shai. Hundreds of McKinley parents and children feasted on burgers and hot dogs, and everyone got to sneak a peek at classroom assignments for the year.

The welcoming continued at the traditional first-day-of-school breakfast. Hosted by the Recruiting Committee of the PTA, the breakfast offered new families a warm smile and understanding shoulder to lean on, especially for those parents who said good-bye to new kindergartners. PTA officers introduced themselves, and new families were able to get answers to last-minute school year questions. Big thanks to the many parent and grandparent volunteers who made both events happen!

The work is nearly complete, and the district has promised everything will be done for the first day of school. But between now and then the teachers need to move everything back into their classrooms (and there will be some classroom changes) and get set up for the new school year. Over the summer, McKinley has undergone some significant renovations, including:

*New flooring for classrooms and school hallways - the carpet has been replaced with soundproofed linoleum/vinyl
*New carpet in the library
*Renovated student bathrooms on the first and second floors, including beautiful new tile
*New counter (ADA compliant) and work area for Ms. Vikki in the school office
*Roof has been repaired and the heating/cooling units have been replaced
*New sinks and cabinets were installed in classrooms and the library
*Additional soundproofing in the cafegymatorium

During the 2010/11 school year, the district has committed to replacing the windows and painting the exterior. McKinley will have a bright new look in the next two years!