The Beehive
Issue 37 | 2019-2020
May 27, 2020

From the Principal's Desk

Dear Blossom Hill Families:

“Safety First” is our motto at Blossom Hill and it originated with Mr. John Lux ~ a man with a steel trap mind, heart of gold, and many other gifts, talents, and skills. With service as his guiding force, Mr. Lux has provided compassion and expertise during his impressive career as a public-school teacher, police officer, SWAT Team Lead, and Blossom Hill Hero.

My heart is heavy to share with you that Mr. Lux is retiring. We have been fortunate beyond measure to have benefited from his service as our Safety Coordinator, Read Naturally Instructor, and Noon Sports Director. In addition, he founded the highly popular Mileage Club in 1997. In all these capacities what stands out most is Mr. Lux’s ability to connect with students, families, and staff. It is safe to say everyone knows Mr. Lux and their life is enriched because of the connection. Over the years, many students have benefited from an extra special relationship where he has offered 1:1 support and encouragement socially, emotionally, and academically. In numerous situations when students have had personal challenges impacting their attendance he has turned things around by encouraging them to come to school because he “needed their help” taking care of others and/or the campus. On a personal note, Mr. Lux has been my mentor for leading with a lens to optimize objective judgement, unselfish action, and willing acceptance to address both non-emergency and emergency situations. His wisdom will continue to impact all of us even from afar. 

Below is a letter that he has written to our community.


Date: May 2020

To: The Blossom Hill Community

It is with great regret that I am announcing that I will not be returning to Blossom Hill School. The last 18 months have, unexpectedly, left me facing a number of serious health challenges. The most recent being a near fatal auto accident on New Year’s Eve, near Las Vegas, from which I am still recovering.

I had hoped to return for “one more” year, but that is now not possible.

I would like to acknowledge the Blossom Hill Home and School Club who has financially supported my various jobs from yard duty, Read Naturally, Mileage Club to Safety Coordinator. 

My tenure at BHS has allowed me to have a second career. Along with my years as a police officer, I have had over 50 years of public service and have enjoyed all of them. 

I would also like to acknowledge our principal Lisa Reynolds and the staff at Blossom Hill for their friendship, support, and acceptance for new ideas over the years, especially the Incident Command System. Their support and follow through has allowed BHS to be as prepared as you can be for handling unexpected emergencies.

To all of you, I say Thank You and Good-bye.

Sincerely,
Mr. Lux

If you would like me to deliver a retirement card or note, please let me know. It would be my joy and privilege.

Most sincerely,
Lisa Reynolds, Principal

Important Dates

June

6/4 - Last day of Remote Learning




The H&SC Calendar is Online!

Did you know that our Home & School Club Calendar is online? Click here to see our Google Calendar, which you can subscribe to.
Weekly Wisdom
Reynolds's Round-up

We have two wonderful submissions this week. First up an inspirational swinging tutorial from Meera in Mrs. Despars’s kindergarten class. 
For our final submission Veer in Mrs. Rhine and Mrs. Bassani’s class is doing a great job by teaching himself to play the guitar using the Fender app. Way to go Veer!


Important School Contact Information
Office: 408-335-2100
Attendance: 408-335-2145
Office Hours: 7:30 am - 3:30 pm (currently closed)
Library Time with Mrs. Grespan

Check out our fabulous Mrs. Grespan’s latest read-alouds, fun activities, and puzzles on the Blossom Hill library site .
Home & School Club May Membership Meeting

This morning the Home & School Club held its May membership meeting on a Zoom call. At the meeting, Melissa Crow was voted in as our new President Elect. A big thank you to Melissa for stepping up to fill this critical role. Melissa will serve a three year term – first year as President Elect, second as President, and third as Parliamentarian. Melissa will join returning board members Jennifer Shapiro (President), Ellen Feichtmeir (Vice President), Chitra Ramaswamy (Co-Treasurer), Yamini Ghadge (Co-Treasurer) and Susan Carter Anderson (Secretary). Thank you to our exiting Parliamentarian, and former President, Jen Saban for all her work on the board to make Blossom Hill the wonderful school it is. Also at the meeting, the revision to our By Laws was passed. Thank you to all the members who attended the meeting and to those who voted electronically. Your Home & School Club Board will continue to serve to make Blossom Hill the best it can be.  
Thank you for your support!
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Online Auction. We raised almost $26,000 in gross proceeds from the wonderful selection of items to bid on as well as ticket sales and cash donations. We so appreciate our community’s generous giving. If you were outbid, but would still like to donate to the school, you can make a cash donation at the Hive Auction website through this Friday by clicking here . If you placed a winning bid, The Hive Committee will contact you this week to collect your item(s). Thank you to all of the businesses who make our auction such a tremendous success.
Upper Grade Chorus
Calling all future 3rd, 4th and 5th graders! We have a great Chorus show planned for the next school year. In a non COVID world, registration would open on Friday, August 18 at 12 pm and the shows would be on Thursday, November 5 and Friday, November 6 . However, these uncertain times are leading to uncertain plans for the upper grade Chorus. We still want to sing with you so please stay tuned to the Beehive for up to date information.

Thanks for your patience and understanding,

Lacy Milos and parent producers 
Alex's Wish Update
Ms. Ottinger's class would like to thank the Blossom Hill community for making the Alex's Wish fundraiser such a huge success. In just one week, we were able to raise $5,416! How wonderful that this money can be used to bring comfort to kids in the hospital. Thank you for making Alex's wish come true once more!
Kudos Korner

Thank you to all the volunteers who spent each week in the library helping Mrs. Grespan. Volunteers scanned in books being returned, helped students find new books, and checked out books for students. Each week our volunteers were there to help. Thank you especially to our library leads who coordinated schedules to make sure Mrs. Grespan had all the help she needed. This year our wonderful library leads were Courtney Capone, Kimberly Keck, Julia Harrison, Jennifer Shapiro, Meghan Bakota, Gary Collins, Mary Cassidy, Melissa Crow, Tara Moseley, Marina Chang, Kerry Newlin, DeeDee Dunstan, Rebecca Escobar, Wendy Riggs, and Mia Carlisle. And our dedicated library volunteers were Anna Tranum, Ozlem Huelsewles, Sonya Margolis, Laura Montalvo, Lisa Cross, Jessica Grattan, Stephanie James, Rachel Pandipati, Amy Gregor, Melissa Bottoms, Jenn Sorto, Lina Chamas, Ibet Allen, Lucia Thompson, Kristen Willerer, Amanda Caruso, Cindy Wang, Michele Stefan, Michelle Avlas, Francine Shore, Yangfan Ren, Angela Borland, Goetz Kursawe, Hengyi Yang, Nicole Hancock, Joy Ishii, Kristin Hutchinson, Libby Travathan, Meagan Stephens, Zoe Golden, Ryan Iwanaga, Jess Arya, Heidi Vogel, Shraddha Parekth, Nidhi Thakur, Erin Wentzien, Christa Cormier, Arlene Lee, Yan Xu, Qin Dong, Carmen Liao, Eric Dunstan, Ning Ye, Carrie Endweiss, Kerry Perkins, Ling Law, Susan Carter Anderson, Jia Li, Butch DiSessa, Irene Wong, Monica Park, Ellen Feichtmeir, Jodi Distad, Tina Yeung, Jessica Richter, Jody Wodrich, Nicole Duke, Cat Leitch, Katie Vieceli, Bob Sickels, John Newlin, Shadi Allen, Ting Engelman, Chelsea Doerger, and Sam Huo .
Feed Our Heroes is a campaign, led by our Los Gatos Education community, to supply free meals to local healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus.
The campaign has already raised money for over 2,200 meals, but more are needed. All meals are sourced from Los Gatos restaurants, providing local businesses much-needed support during these tough times.
A simple meal at the end of a long shift is well-deserved thanks to our healthcare worker’s dedication and service. 
We hope you will join us and contribute to Feed Our Heroes.
Visit:  www.feedourheroes.org
All donations are tax-deductible and 100% of the funds go towards purchasing meals.
Feed Our Heroes fits alongside #FeedTheNeed BayArea, another local initiative led by the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce. #FeedTheNeedBayArea provides meals for the most vulnerable Los Gatos citizens (seniors, displaced workers, low-income families), while Feed Our Heroes supports healthcare workers.   Both campaigns are worthy of your support.
The H&SC Thanks This Week's
Sponsor Spotlight

It’s not too late to bee-come a Community Sponsor! For more information on this program, click here or email Debbie Bluestone at fab@blossomhill.org .
Blossom Hill Vision Statement – (Abilities and skills we expect our students to acquire and take-out into the world) All students will have the necessary skills to become enthusiastic, life-long learners and productive, empathetic, respectful members of society.

 Blossom Hill Mission Statement – (What we need to do as a school community to ensure this happens) The Blossom Hill School community takes pride in providing an enriched standards-based curriculum in a safe, nurturing environment. We strive to appreciate an awareness of students’ developmental needs to help them progress towards independence. 
Blossom Hill Elementary School
16400 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos, CA 95032
Lisa Reynolds, Principal |  lreynolds@lgusd.org
Phone: 408-335-2100 | Fax: 408-356-0887 | Attendance Line: 408-335-2145
Blossom Hill Home & School Club
Jennifer Shapiro, President |  president@blossomhill.org    
Contact and make submissions to The Beehive editor, Christi Zenteno, at beehive@blossomhill.org .
The Beehive is approved by Principal Lisa Reynolds and the H&SC Board to provide pertinent information weekly to the Blossom Hill community.
*The Beehive newsletter is written exclusively to provide the Blossom Hill community with school information. Articles, information, calendars, etc. may not be duplicated or re-printed in any manner without the permission of the Home and School Club or the Blossom Hill school administration.

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