Hello Carnelian Cardinal Families!

That's a wrap on another great year! It is now summertime for our Carnelian Community and we hope that many wonderful memories are made that can be shared with one another when we return to the 25-26 school year. The Carnelian office will open on Monday, July 21, 2025 and the first day of school for our Cardinals is Monday, August 4, 2025. As we close the 24-25 year, we are able to celebrate what went well and plan our next steps for moving forward in the 25-26 school year. This year, we had focused on refining and improving our PBIS program and instilling in our students and community what it means to do things, "The Cardinal Way". Our hard work was validated in the results of our LCAP survey, which showed that a majority of our community either strongly agreed or agreed that Carnelian is both a physically and emotionally safe place for students. We will continue to move our work forward as we monitor the progress of our students and create clarification in the implementation of our MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support) for students in the areas of academics, behavior and social emotional well-being, with a focus on our Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels of support. As we head into the next school year, we will use the results of our LCAP survey, along with student performance data, to help drive our instructional focus and next steps for Carnelian. A huge thanks to our entire staff, Leadership Team (PBIS Team), School Site Council and PTA for supporting us through this school year.

Our students in grades K-2 received the foundational strategies and knowledge necessary to become highly skilled readers through the implementation of Orton-Gillingham (OG), Science of Reading. Thanks to our incredible K-2 teachers, RSP team and support from our Title 1 instructional aides, our Cardinal students will have the necessary literacy skills as they head into the upper grades will they will be reading to learn. Next school year, the OG implementation will continue with our students in grades 3 and our upper grade teachers in grades 4 and 5 will start to receive their training as well so that students as students make their journey through grades K-5, they will continue to make growth in their literacy development. Don't forget to visit the public library this summer, so that students can continue to exercise their reading skills! In mathematics instruction, we will continue to implement the 8 Mathematical Practices and prioritize targeted support for students to improve their achievement in math. Students can continue to practice their math facts at home this summer, so that they are ready to hit the ground running in August!

 Here is "Carnelian by the numbers" as we say goodbye to 24-25:

• On the I-Ready ELA Diagnostic, our Cardinal students grew from 42 % proficient and above in August to 66% proficient and above in May! That's a 24% increase in ELA achievement!

• On the I-Ready Math Diagnostic, our Cardinal students grew from 24% proficient and above in August to 60% proficient and above in May! That's a 36% increase in Math achievement!

• Carnelian Cardinals read 86,113,617 words this year in the AR program.

• We had 12 Carnelian Cardinals become Millionaire Readers, or read over 1 million words!

• We had 120 teeth lost this year! Mrs. Lewan, our health clerk, makes sure that these milestones are celebrated for our students.

• THOUSANDS of Cardinal Tickets were given to students who were showing us how to do things "The Cardinal Way" by being safe, kind and making our community proud. There were too many tickets to count, but it continues to be a testament of the outstanding character our Cardinal students continue to show.

 Keep your eye on social media, emails and the District app for more specific information about the upcoming events at the start of the school year. TK Parent Orientation is on Thursday, July 31st @ 5:00 PM.  Kindergarten Parent Orientation is on Thursday, July 31st @ 6:00 PM.  TK and Kinder Meet and Greet will take place on Friday, August 1st @ 11:00 AM.   If you have not downloaded the Alta Loma School District app for your phone, please download it as soon as possible. You can select Carnelian Elementary as your school and view anything that is posted to the app. We want to communicate information out to our community as efficiently as we can, so please check us out on instagram too! You can follow our school @carnelian_cardinals and Carnelian PTA @carnelian_pta. We always encourage our community and our students to continue to "Be safe, Be Kind, Be Proud and have a GREAT Cardinal Day!"

 Autumn Williams, Proud Principal
Carnelian Elementary