Welcome to Eastwood Elementary

Welcome to Eastwood. Your roster lists twenty-three students. Six of them have an IEP, two have a 504 plan, four are ELL students at different proficiency levels, and three are flagged for RTI tier 2 reading. None of that should overwhelm you, and all of it is in our LMS under your class folder, which is where the SPED team has already left their initial notes.

Two relationships matter most this week. The first is with Ms. Park, our SPED coordinator, who runs the IEP and 504 caseloads and is the right person to ping the moment any of your students looks like they need an additional support. She holds a PLC for grade-level teams every Wednesday after dismissal, and she will pull you in for the IEP meetings on her schedule, not yours. The second is with Mr. Brown, our ELL specialist, who pushes into your classroom Tuesday and Thursday mornings during literacy. He will introduce himself in week one and will gently suggest changes to your read-aloud routine that you should take seriously.

On RTI: we run a true MTSS model here, which means RTI is not a SPED referral pipeline. It is the integrated system we use to decide whether a student needs tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3 supports across academics and behavior. Your team's RTI block runs Mondays after school, and the data review for the first cycle is in two weeks. The LMS has the data dashboard you'll need; the front office will reset your password if you've forgotten it from orientation.

SEL is the third big rock. Our district adopted a SEL curriculum two years ago and your grade level uses it in the morning meeting. Stick to the lessons as written for the first month even if they feel awkward — the script is doing more work than you realize, especially with the kids on RTI behavior tier 2 watch. Your PLC will discuss adaptations in the second month.

One more thing: PD calendar. You have two contractual PD half-days in September, one full PD day in October, and the optional SEL summit in November. Sign up by the second Friday or the spots fill. Welcome again — the kids are going to love you, and that is a sentence I do not write to everyone.