Greetings!  I am Principal Waltrip, and I am excited to rejoin the Rio Plaza community.  In 2008, I served as a special education teacher at Rio Plaza, now I have the honor of serving the school and community as the principal.

We have some clear goals that may evolve over the course of the year with input from staff, families, community members and students.  Our main efforts will surround literacy…that is reading, writing, mathematical, and technological literacies.  Embedded in our daily delivery of instruction will be 21st century learning skills.  These are known in Rio as the 5 Cs (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Caring).

I believe that when families, staff, and students work together, great things can happen for the children in our care.  Sometimes families ask, “What can I do to help ensure my child gets a high quality educaiton?”  Here are a few great ways to set your child up for success:

  1. Ensure your child is at school and on time every day – an abundance of research demonstrates that students with excellent attendance almost always outperform students with poor attendance
  2. Read every night – this could be your child reading to you, an adult reading to your child, or a sibling reading with your child
  3. Ask your child two questions every night or afternoon as soon as you see them: What kind thing did you do today? and What did you read about today?  If you ask these questions daily, your children will come to expect these questions.  Furthermore, these questions will show that you value kindness, reading, and school as a whole.

~Principal Waltrip