El Morro Elementary School

Principal's Message for the 2009-10 School Year

Mr. Duddy reports: What's News and some dates to remember!

Spring After School Club Registration. Final deadline is Friday, March 12. First come, first served basis.  Click for descriptions on the left hand side of this webpage.

The Annual 5th Grade S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G Bee is coming.  Turn in permission slips by Tuesday, March 9th.  Permission slips are available in your 5th grade classroom.  Help El Morro defend last year's title over TOW.  Final Competition April 29th at TOW @ 6:30 pm with an ice cream social!

JOGATHON!  Become a SPONSOR.  Jog-a-thon is March 26th.  $250 or more sponsors get a banner on the field. Get your neigborhood, bus stop, friends to get together as a sponsor this year!

Afternoon Pick-up Reminders:  Playground/blacktop opens at 2:10.  Do not arrive too early.  This blocks the parking lot and the buses and Kindergarten parents cannot get through.  Please go through the white lane and line up until the gate is opened. Please do not leave your car.  Also, after school, DO NOT park on the blacktop for other after school activities like baseball, soccer, etc.  Thank you for helping keep us all safe.

SAVE THE DATE:  LBUSD, Friday April 2nd Angels vs. Dodgers!  

Beginning of the year School Message:

Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year at El Morro Elementary School.  This is an exciting period in the school’s history as our school was named a California Distinguished School in 2008 for the second time in our history and our students' achieved the school's highest API score ever of 869.  We also continue to grow and evolve.  We have just completed the process of building two additional classrooms on our campus.  Our school is also surrounded by change as the State of California constructs the Crystal Cove Campground next to our campus.  Eventually, the stop light in front of our school will be moved to the entrance road for the State Park.  It is unknown when this project will be completed because of the State of California's budget crisis, but El Morro Elementary School and the Laguna Beach Unified School District are prepared when the change occurs.  We worked and studied together with district staff, consultants and parents to create a safe and efficient traffic circulation plan for entering and exiting the school parking lot.  This means revising our current parking lot and circulation pattern to allow for new entrance and exit points and traffic patterns.  As always, the Laguna Beach Unified School District and I have been making every effort to protect the safety of our students and school community.  We have been working hard to minimize and mitigate any impacts from the campground.  Together with the State Park we are working to create operational procedures to eliminate and minimize any noise impacts on our instructional program.  

Our instructional focus remains early literacy skills in grades K-3.  Reading, writing, listening and speaking are taught and reinforced daily.  The upper grades (4 & 5) continue to reinforce literacy, as well as focusing on more complex standards in math, science and social studies.  Our Teachers collaborate in grade level Professional Learning Communities (PLC) each week.  These weekly PLC meetings not only allow the staff grade level collaboration to review student data, plan instructional strategies and design common assessments, they also enable articulation from grade to grade.   Response to Instruction (RtI), is how we intervene with students when they do not understand critical concepts or how we extend learning for students who have mastered concepts.  RtI allows us to differentiate our instruction to teach all students at their appropriate level, whether it is advanced, intermediate or emerging knowledge.  The Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) program allows us to build a safe social and emotional environment for students and reduce interruptions to the teaching staff to maximize instructional time.  Our counselor, Dr. Jami Parsons, assists myself and the staff to strive to create an optimum learning environment on our campus.

El Morro Elementary is a school where teachers have a passion for teaching young students and helping them to develop a lifelong love of learning.  I look forward to working together to inspire of love of learning in all students! 

Principal's Message

Creating a Climate for Learning!

El Morro Elementary School is a place where everyone is someone special.  Our school is organized and designed to facilitate and enable “teachers to teach and students to learn.”   The efforts of the staff create a positive climate for learning at El Morro and are reflected in the accomplishments and achievements of our students.

We are a Professional Learning Community (PLC) that is dedicated to its children.  Every child has equal access to and is challenged by a rigorous and rich core curriculum in language arts, math, science, social studies and physical education.  The hard working and nurturing staff is both highly qualified and fully credentialed to teach elementary age children.  The teachers are dedicated to meeting the needs and learning styles of each student.  Involved parents, an active PTA, and a supportive community are a visible positive presence of campus.  Our school-wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) system is identified as a "best practice" by the Orange County Department of Education, and our three school-wide rules of Respect, Responsibility and Kindness contribute to a positive school climate.

It is for these reasons and many more that El Morro Elementary School was named as a California Distinguished School in 2008!