Dear Yujin Gakuen Families,

We're hitting our stride this academic year, and that includes the intensive rollout of a major new curriculum.

Elementary teachers across the district are currently implementing a new math curriculum, Bridges and Number Corner. This curriculum is designed to be rigorous and wonderful, helping students internalize, understand, manipulate, and discuss essential math concepts.

Co-Planning in a Dual-Language Setting

Our Yujin Gakuen teachers are working incredibly hard to fully understand and roll out this new material. For our immersion teams, this process involves an extra layer of complexity:

• Strategic Introduction: It's not as simple as cleanly splitting lessons. They must strategically decide: Should a difficult concept be introduced in English first, then solidified in Japanese? Or is the entire lesson best suited for English or Japanese only?

• Intensive Co-Planning: Grade-level teams must meticulously co-plan how to divide and sequence the math components alongside all other content and subjects.

• Translating and Adapting: Our Japanese language teachers are busy translating materials and adapting instruction to ensure true language immersion.

We share this context so you can appreciate the intricate work our bi-lingual teachers put into collaborating every single day. Their thoughtful coordination ensures our students receive a high-quality education in both languages.

Finally, below you will find some important YG/4J policies, expectations, and updates that support our entire school community.

Thank you, 

Kimberly Ingram, 

Principal (Kocho Sensei)

📣 Important Reminders

Volunteer Expectations

We are incredibly fortunate to have such a dedicated community of volunteers! Your support is vital to our school, making possible everything from cultural events and PTO activities to fundraising (like the UO Beverage Booth) and essential classroom support. We deeply appreciate your commitment to our students and school.

Important Note on Volunteering

To ensure the safety of all our students and maintain a smooth learning environment, we have established clear expectations for all volunteers while on campus during school hours. These guidelines are similar to those adopted by many other schools across the 4J district.

Please take a moment to review the linked document outlining our Volunteer Expectations. It covers key areas related to student safety, confidentiality, and general school functioning.

By understanding and adhering to these expectations, you help us keep Yujin Gakuen a safe, focused, and supportive place for every child.

Attendance 

Like schools across the US, including ours, we've noticed a drop in student attendance post-COVID. We know that life happens—illness, trips, and unexpected events occur—but it’s vital to understand the impact of missed school days on learning.

The Impact of Missing School

When a student misses just 10% of school days (which is about two days per month), they often struggle to keep up with basic learning. This consistent absence makes it difficult for them to grasp fundamental math and reading concepts.

At Yujin Gakuen, this challenge is compounded. Missing school also means your child gets further behind in their Japanese language content, which is core to our program. Consistent attendance is essential for building and maintaining momentum in a dual-language environment.

Our Plan to Support You

Over the next few months, our staff will be closely reviewing student attendance data. We will be sharing this data with families to start a supportive conversation about your child's attendance. Our goal is to partner with you to help your student build strong attendance habits.

We want to provide resources to help you manage this:

• (1) Information about why attendance is important for academic success.

• (2) Tips and strategies for building consistent school attendance habits.

• (3) 4J's "Too Sick for School" handout to help you decide when it is necessary to keep your student home.

We understand that supporting your child's attendance can be challenging, and we are here to help. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have needs, questions, or concerns.

Drop off times and Late pick up 

We appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain a safe and well-supervised environment for all our students. We've noticed a little "creep" with families dropping students off earlier, so we want to clarify our official supervision times.

Morning Drop-Off

Please understand that Yujin Gakuen has a very limited staffing schedule, and we must maximize our adult time to focus on learning during the school day (8:30 AM – 3:00 PM).

Staff are scheduled and ready to provide supervision starting at 7:55 AM.

• 7:55 AM: Staff are in place for the official start of the morning routine, including bus drop-offs (per 4J Transportation's schedule).

• 8:00 AM: Breakfast service begins.

Please do not drop off your student before 7:55 AM, as staff will not be available to provide supervision before this time.

A Note on Our Volunteer: We love seeing Tom with his fun hats in the morning! Please remember that Tom is a dedicated volunteer, not a staff member, and is not able to provide student supervision. He provides a warm and welcoming face to start the day, but students must be supervised by staff.

Afternoon Pick-Up

Students must be picked up at 3:00 PM (dismissal). When students are picked up late, it impacts our staff's scheduled duties, meetings, and preparation time. We rely on your timeliness so staff can fulfill their responsibilities once the school day ends.

Thank you for helping us keep our students safe and for respecting our limited staff time.