There are many serious issues that a Principal must be aware of and educate people about when helping to support a positive learning environment for all students and staff (and parents too). At Cleveland Elementary School, we have members of our community who are highly sensitive to perfumes and other scented products, as well as people who are allergic or highly sensitive to some foods.

Please review the following information and help make Cleveland a safe and caring place for everyone.

Scent Free Building

We have many posted signs reminding people that we are a scent free building, but at times we all need reminders. Our signs read:

“Many people are extremely sensitive to perfumes, colognes, aftershaves and other scented products. Please do not wear them at anytime in this building. Thank you”

For more information, visit the Scents page from the Canadian Lung Association or Fragrance Free Living.

Be Allergy Aware

Food allergies are one of the many different medical issues that a school needs to be aware of. We have children and staff in our school who are highly allergic to some foods, or very sensitive to other foods. Not all food allergies are created equal, but all food allergies need to be treated with respect.

If a child has any allergies, parents need to communicate this information with the school’s staff. Please let our office staff know, as well as your child’s teacher(s). Please provide as much detail as possible, as well as any medical documentation.

One of the many interesting school cultures that develop over time involves the sending of cupcakes to schools when a child has a birthday. This seems like a great way to provide a treat to children, and to celebrate a special day. The cupcake tradition does, however, present some challenges in classes where children have allergies to eggs or wheat. Before sending anything to school, please contact your child’s teacher. While they cannot share any information about a specific child, they can let you know that there are peanut allergies or gluten sensitivities in the class.

Are there other alternatives to cupcakes? I know, many of you have those giant cupcake containers (I had never seen one before coming to Cleveland), but perhaps those could be filled with gluten free cupcakes (are there such a thing?).

Sometimes parents will ask if it is possible for a student to have an alternate treat available when goodies are brought for everyone else. This can sound like a reasonable compromise, however, it may be more respectful to bring food that everyone can eat. How about a veggie platter? (won’t I be popular with the kids?)

What about celebrating birthdays with something other than food? If food is involved, please make plans with the classroom teacher for how and when the food can be handed out.

For more Allergy information, visit these sites:

• Allergy Aware School and Childcare Settings
• Food Allergies
• Be Food Allergy Aware When Packing School Lunches
• Allergy Aware

My next reading on this subject will be to review the documents on the Canadians for A Safe Learning Environment web site.

Thank you for supporting us on these important issues and helping Cleveland be a safe school for everyone.

Take care.

Today we start Bike Week at Cleveland Elementary. Early this morning the lower field will be filled with children on bikes, along with many parent volunteers who will be helping them be safe and careful on the road.

Our Cleveland PAC has more information on Bike Week on their web site. Classes are scheduled to participate throughout the week.

In order to participate, students must have helmets.

We are looking forward to activities planned for the week. There will be prize draws, lessons for students from the staff at Escape Adventures, and students will get a chance to see professional trail riders in action.

It will be a fun week. See you there.

Take care.

I hope everyone is aware of our upcoming Cleveland Walks event on Wednesday, June 6th. It has been in many newsletters, including our May 25th newsletter. For those who have not read it, please do so.

Thanks to the efforts of Sarah Taylor, and the support of a number of other parents, we have had a great number of children participate in walking, scootering or biking to school on our Cleveland Walks days.

The are so many benefits to walking with your children in to your neighbourhood school. Even if you live far away, you can drive part way to school, park, and then walk in the rest of the way.

An interesting article came my way recently via twitter – Kids Who get Driven Everywhere Don’t Know Where They’re Going. This is an interesting read. Some key ideas from the article for me were:

“vehicular traffic …changes the way children see and experience the world by diminishing their connection to community and neighbors.”

“Children who had a “windshield perspective” from being driven everywhere weren’t able to accurately draw how the streets in their community connected, whereas children who walked or biked to get around produced detailed and highly accurate maps of their neighborhood street network.”

There are many initiatives underway to broaden our perspectives on school zones. Active & Safe Routes to School is a web site with some good ideas. With the support of many Cleveland parents, we have been working this year with the District of North Vancouver and our School Board to look at our routes to school. We need your help. Can you do your part to help with the traffic congestion in front of our school? I believe you can.

• Imaging a school without a traffic jam out front every day.
• Imagine that as 3:00 pm roles around, we see most parents have parked a few blocks away and walked to school to meet their kids.
• Imagine everyone driving less than 30 km per hour in the neighbourhood (not just in front of the school) when children are present.
• Imagine all drivers modeling excellent etiquette around school zones.
• Imagine no one parking in front of the neighbours drive way.
• Imagine all children and families using the proper crosswalks.
• Imagine roads where no one is texting on their phone while driving.
• Imagine safe routes to school.

Please all commit to making sure our roads are safe for everyone. We need to make our roads safer. This article, and this video (AT&T Don’t Text While Driving Documentary – note: this video may not be suitable for children – watch it first before you share), might help everyone understand why we need to do better.

Take care.