Park Side Elementary

Recent Park Side Activites

Passport Day

Park Side will host its annual Passport Day on Wednesday, May 14th. This is a celebration of international customs, music and food. Ms. Aloha Fox has graciously volunteered to shepherd the event. Local acts of music and dance are currently being scheduled for the students’ entertainment. Teachers will select a country, and then prepare a variety of foods, music and games that will highlight the customs of that particular region or country and will share these with the students. Put it on your calendars and come join us for a morning of entertainment and fun with an international flair!

Student Council Spirit Days

In order to encourage school spirit and a sense of fun, the Park Side Student Council has scheduled Spirit Days here at Park Side to be held on the following shortened Wednesdays:

  • April 9 Fashion Disaster Day
  • April 23 Sports Jersey Day
  • May 7 Pajama Day
  • May 21 Crazy Hat Day
  • June 4 Hawaiian Day
  • President – Katrina Kuhn, 1st Vice President – Erica Munoz, 2nd Vice President – Terran Compton, Secretary – Amanda Nubozek,Treasurer - Alex Kuhn


Park Side 07-08 Yearbook

Do yourself a favor and get one more thing checked off that To-Do list … order your yearbook now! Make those memories last and purchase your child’s yearbook for $20.00. ALSO … we need pictures for the yearbook of all the school events, field trips and fun stuff the kids have been doing. If you’ve got the photos, we need ‘em. Please send them in so we can begin the page layout process. Contact Cindy Austin (546-7358 or norcaltrans@sonic.net) or Susan Maners (486-1209 or maners@sbcglobal.net.

Make those memories last … get a yearbook now. ALSO … we need pictures for the yearbook of all the school events, field trips and fun stuff the kids have been doing. If you’ve got the photos, we need ‘em. Please send them in so we can begin the page layout process. Contact Cindy Austin (546-7358 or norcaltrans@sonic.net) or Susan Maners (486-1209 or maners@sbcglobal.net).

Spelling Bee Winners

Our 4th and 5th graders recently engaged in classroom spelling competitions. The winning spellers from each class then participated in a school spelling bee to narrow the field down to two winners. Our two winners will represent Park Side in the Sonoma County Regional Competition scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 4:30 pm. The Regional Spelling Bee will be held at Mark West Elementary School, 4600 Lavell Road in Santa Rosa. We want to congratulate all our classroom winners, and we wish the best of luck to our school champions who will represent Park Side next month!



Classroom Winners: Trinette Aivao, David Cundall, McKenzie DeLuca, Ja’Narrick James, Riley McHale School Champions: Top Speller: Rene Lunardi, 1st Runner-Up: Alia Salomon

Food Drive

Park Side recently concluded its Food Drive with a Pre-Thanksgiving delivery to the Redwood Food Bank. Park Side families donated many boxes of canned goods and a donation of cash, as well. All food was donated to the Redwood Empire Food Bank to support their county-wide efforts. A sincere thank you goes out to all the families who supported this donation.

Sebastopol Tree Lighting

On Thursday, November 29 Park Side was well represented at the Sebastopol city’s annual lighting. Our three Kindergarten classes adopted a tree and made beautiful paper ornaments for tree decorations. Second grade teacher Ms. Paula Martens’ dance class entertained the over 100 people who attended the evening’s event. Live bands played and Beth Ann Turner’s Brook Haven Honor Choir sang an eclectic program. Beth Ann said the best part of the evening was seeing all the happy children running around enjoying themselves.

Walk To School Day

On October 3rd students from Pine Crest, Brook Haven, Sebastopol Charter and Park Side met at the Veteran’s Building and enjoyed a brisk walk to school. Celebrating “Walk to School Day” hopefully reminds us all that biking or walking to school benefits our health, conserves our resources and reduces pollution. When it comes to saving our earth, every little bit helps!

School Garden Grant

Our school has applied to participate in a grant program that will support our garden and science curriculum. The California Instructional School Garden Program will compliment our academic program by creating opportunities for our students to learn about healthy food choices, food origins, and the wonders of garden science. We are planning garden activities to include weather tracking, plant growth and garden structures, plants and ecology. We are looking for interested parents to sponsor various garden projects this year. These parent volunteers would work with the principal to develop the curriculum/instruction, and would help prepare the elements of the project for the students. Interested parents are asked to contact Mr. Camarillo at 829-7400.

GATE Testing

District GATE Coordinator Richard Kolodin tested a number of 3rd grade Park Side students for possible entry to the district’s Gifted and Talented (GATE) program. Students in the Sebastopol District are identified using multiple assessment measures, including CST testing scores, teacher and parent recommendations. All students are tested using the SAGES assessment. The SAGES testing system was chosen because it is easily used with students from different cultural backgrounds. A special area of interest in the process of testing is identification of minority student populations. The current identification procedures were developed collaboratively and will be reviewed by the GATE Committee.

PTSA Fall Festival

Thanks to the hard work of PTSA Executive Board Member, and her wonderful volunteers (parents and Brook Haven students), the 4th annual PTSA Fall Festival, on Friday, October 26, was fun for MANY Park Side and Pine Crest families! There was music, games, contests and prizes, pumpkin and face painting, scarecrow building, pizza and bake sale. All money raised from food sales covered expenses from the Festival, as well as support PTSA programs.

Walk and Bike to School Day

Wednesday, October 4th was Walk and Bike to School Day. Principal Camarillo, Sebasotpol Mayor Sarah Glade Gurney and Police Chief Jeffrey Weaver gathered at the Veteran's Building before school and met the walkers and bikers participating in what they called the Walking School Bus. At a designated time, the students walked and biked to their respective schools in the company of teachers and parents, police and the mayor. At Park Side, several parents had prepared a table of healthy snacks and goodies to meet the walkers when they arrived. Children participated in a raffle, received freebies, and enjoyed a bit of exercise.