I’m sure many of you are familiar of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Essentially, before a human can transcend to development at the top of the pyramid (self actualization), a stairstep of needs must be addressed: physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem.

Today, I set aside Almond’s end goal of support students in realizing their full potential (tippy top of the pyramid) to address the base and its adjacent layer.

Physiological needs include such things as food and water.  If our children aren’t well nourished, they won’t be able grow their brains to support their future goals.  You are either a parent who provides your child with their lunch or utilizes Almond’s Hot Lunch program.  If you are the latter, then WE NEED YOU!  In the last few weeks we have not had sufficient parent volunteers for hot lunch.  We already have two daily student volunteers providing the service of distributing food.  We need our parents to volunteer and to honor the commitment to do so.  Please reach out to Vicky Lee regarding how you can support this basic need of our students.

When it comes to safety, it’s a no brainer!  Our students need to be both physically and emotionally safe.  Again, WE NEED YOUR HELP!  You must sign in at the office when you intend on going past the Almond Rotunda (the circular area outside of the multi).  And when you sign in, you MUST wear a name tag.  As a staff, we will be stopping you if you do not have a name tag and we will be asking you to return to the office to sign in.  For the safety of our students, we need to know who is on campus at all times.  For your safety, we need to know your location so that we may support you in the event of an emergency.

Next week you will begin seeing signs and stanchions around campus expressing our expectations around safety and visitors.

Thank you for your support and cooperation!