Student Handbook

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

Parent involvement can accelerate student achievement and enhance school programs.  Our staff encourages parents to share their energy and talents to enrich our curriculum and programs. Dedicated parent volunteers continue to help provide opportunities for students to learn new skills and develop positive feelings of self-worth.  Please contact individual teachers if you are interested in offering assistance.  In addition to volunteer work, three organized groups provide tremendous assistance to our school.  If you would like to become a member of the School Site Council (SSC), Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), or English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC) please call the school for more information.  Please check with the office for the district requirements to be a school volunteer or volunteer driver.




SCHOOL HOURS

All visitors must sign in at the office during school hours.  

School starts at 8:00 a.m. and is out at 2:23 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  On Wednesdays, school still starts at 8:00 a.m. and gets out at  12:56 p.m.  Students can arrive after 7:30 a.m. and be picked up promptly after the final bell; please do not go into a classroom prior to the final bell for the day.  School office hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 

If you need to leave a message for your student please call the office at (707) 472-5550 before noon to allow adequate time to deliver the message. 

ATTENDANCE

Good attendance helps children do well in school and eventually in the workplace. Good attendance matters for school success, starting as early as prekindergarten and throughout elementary school, and helps students stay on the path to academic success. By middle and high school, poor attendance is a leading indicator of dropout. Absences represent lost opportunities to learn in the classroom.

Student absences will be excused for personal illness, medical services, bereavement due to a death in the immediate family (one day of services held in California and three days for services held out of state), and religious holidays. Excessive excused absences may result in a referral to the district’s School Attendance Review Board (SARB). If a student is suspended, the suspension day(s) is considered an unexcused absence. 

All other absences are unexcused, including but not limited to missed the bus, parent or sibling illness, power failure, overslept, car trouble, hair cuts, flat tire, personal family business, babysitting, etc. Excessive unexcused absences may result in a referral to SARB. If a student is suspended, the suspension day(s) is considered an unexcused absence. 

WHEN IS SICK TOO SICK FOR SCHOOL?

Please remember that if your child is sick, please keep them home. We will be referring to the UUSD Health and Safety protocols to determine when it is appropriate for your student to return to school. 

Keep your student at home if they have a temperature higher than 100.4 degrees even after taking medicine, throwing up or have diarrhea, or their eyes are pink and crusty.

Call the doctor if they have a temperature higher than 100.4 degrees for more than two days, throwing up or diarrhea for more than two days, had the sniffles for more than a week, and they aren’t getting better, or have asthma symptoms after using asthma medicine. (call 911 if they are having trouble breathing after using an inhaler).

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR STUDENT MISSES SCHOOL

State law requires a note or phone call from a parent/guardian for every school absence.  Parents/guardians are asked to call the school by 9 a.m. at (707) 472-5550 if their child will be absent from school for any reason.  If a parent chooses not to call, the student must bring a note to the office, signed by the parent/guardian upon returning to school.  

Your note should include the following:

  • The student’s name
  • Date(s) of absence
  • Reason for absence (“out of town” or “appointment” will be an unexcused reason unless more explanation is provided).
  • The teacher’s name or grade
  • Your name and signature

Students who are absent for three (3) days or more may have their parent/guardian call the office to request work.  Homework requested for absences will be available at the end of the following day. 

INDEPENDENT STUDY FOR PLANNED EXTENDED ABSENCES (5 OR MORE DAYS)

Requests for Independent Study must be received at least ten days prior to the planned dates of absence and must be for a minimum of three school days.  It is the student’s responsibility to pick up assignments from each teacher prior to beginning the independent study.  On the day of the student’s return to school, all completed assignments are to be turned in to teachers.  Independent study is approved at the school site administrator’s discretion.  Past unfilled independent study contracts may result in the current request being declined.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS OR TELEPHONE

Please notify the school immediately of any change in a student’s address or telephone number so that parents or other designated adults can be notified in case of an emergency. The district ALL CALL system relies on our computer records for accuracy, when calling with important announcements for snow days or other events, both for the district and for our school. This can be done in the Ukiah Unified School District Parent Portal: https://aeriesgrading.uusd.net/parentportal/

PARTICIPATION IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION & SPORTS

Students may be excused from P.E. for a maximum of three consecutive days with a note from their parents.  A note from a doctor is required for excusing a longer period of time. Any student excused from P.E. will also be expected to sit out during recess time and after-school sports.  

PARTICIPATION IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Students, who exhibit unacceptable behavior, including behavior on the bus, poor attendance, or poor academic performance, may be denied the privilege of participating in special activities, sports, field trips, etc.

POSITIVE BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION SYSTEMS (PBIS)

At Nokomis, we use a positive behavior intervention system (PBIS). Our school has three expectations to be: Ready, Responsible, and Respectful. Below are examples of the expectations for students on campus.

Setting

Ready

Responsible

Respectful 

Cafeteria

Walk


Stay seated


Face the table that you are eating at


Talk only to your speaking square

Throw away all trash in the garbage bin


Stack tray


Recycle


Wait to be excused

Use voice levels 


Eat your own food


Respond promptly to adult requests


Respond to zero noise level signal (peace sign)

Recess

Use equipment properly


Stay in view of adults


Freeze when the bell rings


Walk when the whistle blows

Use the bathroom

Pick up litter

Use garbage cans

Use your words when problem-solving


Return equipment

Take turns


Open games


Follow game rules


Be a good sport

Bathrooms

Wash your hands


Wait your turn

Flush toilet


All trash in the garbage can

Report any issues

Use quiet voices


Honor privacy of others

PE

Line up and wait for your PE teacher


Use equipment appropriately

Participate


Return equipment


Use the bathroom at the designated time

Follow the directions from your PE teacher


Be a good sport


Follow the game rules

 

All staff will explicitly teach the behavior expectations. Students will be recognized with “ I-Cans ( I cooperate at Nokomis ),” an incentive in which they will be able to collect and use them on school and classroom rewards/celebrations when they demonstrate Ready, Responsible, and Respectful behavior. Please be sure to ask your child and their teacher about our “ I-Cans” and our three school expectations.

Nokomis staff use Restorative Practices to help students meet their expectations. Students can receive Student Behavior Referrals based on infractions of these three school expectations; “Be Ready, Responsible and Respectful. Each Student Behavioral Referral may be sent home, and parents may be asked to sign and return the slip to school the following day.  These Student Behavioral Reports could result in the following:

  • Clarified how behavior didn’t meet expectations
  • Conference with Student
  • Contact parents
  • Goal Setting
  • Identified/Changed environmental predictors
  • Missed work sent home
  • Provided a structured choice
  • Reminder of correct behaviors
  • Replacement behavior
  • Role Play
  • Verbal warnings

After three Student Behavioral Referrals, the student may be sent to the principal’s office.  Based on the referrals, the parent will receive a phone call home, and the student may be given a service task.  The service task will be based on the behavior of the citations.  This could be cleaning up in the cafeteria if they were throwing food or being unkind and having to help kindergarten students.  

All rules and regulations at Nokomis follow the guidelines of the Education Code of the State of California, local laws, and Discipline Policy as set forth by the Ukiah Unified Board of Trustees.

BULLYING 

Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behavior in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally. Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person. Bullying can also be defined as when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons." A negative action is defined as "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways". 

The U.S. National Center for Education Statistics suggests that bullying can be classified into two categories: 

Direct Bullying: Direct bullying is a repeated act that involves a great deal of physical aggression, such as shoving and poking, throwing things, slapping, choking, punching, and kicking, beating, stabbing, pulling hair, scratching, biting, scraping, and pinching. Direct bullying can also be threatening, challenging, or calling someone names directly to their face. 

Indirect Bullying: Indirect bullying is characterized by attempting to isolate the victim socially. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of techniques, including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the victim, bullying other people who wish to socialize with the victim, and criticizing the victim’s manner of dress and other socially significant markers (including the victim’s race, religion, disability, sex, or sexual preference, etc.) Other forms of indirect bullying are more subtle and more likely to be verbal, such as name-calling, the silent treatment, arguing others into submission, manipulation, gossip/false gossip, lies, rumors, false rumors, staring, giggling, laughing at the victim, saying certain words that trigger a reaction from a past event, and mocking. 

Bullying is exposing a person to abusive actions repeatedly over time and becomes a concern when hurtful or aggressive behavior toward an individual or group appears to be unprovoked, intentional, and (usually) repeated. 

Bullying is a form of violence that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power, with the more powerful child or group attacking those who are less powerful. Bullying may be physical (hitting, kicking, spitting, pushing), verbal (taunting, malicious teasing, name-calling, threatening), or emotional (spreading rumors, manipulating social relationships, extorting, or intimidating).

Bullying can include any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or conduct, including: communications made in writing or by means of an electronic act, directed toward one or more students that have or can reasonably be predicted to have the effect of placing a reasonable student in fear of harm to himself/herself or his/her property; cause the student to experience a substantially detrimental effect on his/her physical or mental health; or cause the student to experience substantial interferences with his/her academic performance or ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or privileges provided by a school. 

Bullying also includes one or more acts by a pupil or group of pupils directed against another pupil that constitutes sexual harassment, hate violence, or severe or pervasive intentional harassment, threats, or intimidation that is disruptive, causes disorder, and invades the rights of others by creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment, and includes acts that are committed personally or by means of an electronic act, as defined, that has any of the effects described above on a reasonable student. 

Electronic act means the transmission of a communication, including, but not limited to, a message, text, sound, image, or post on a social network Internet website, by means of an electronic device, including, but not limited to, a telephone, wireless telephone, or other wireless communication devices, computer, or pager. A post on a social network Internet website shall include but is not limited to, the posting or creation of a burn page or the creation of a credible impersonation or false profile for the purpose of causing a reasonable student any of the effects of bullying described above. 

Reasonable student means a student, including, but not limited to, a student who has been identified as a student with a disability, who exercises average care, skill, and judgment in conduct for a person of his/her age, or for a person of his/her age with his/her disability. 

For the school to determine if an action will be defined as bullying, the action must have four elements: 

  • Be an act of aggression.
  • The act must be done to hurt another person INTENTIONALLY. 
  • The act must be done more than once. 
  • There needs to be an imbalance of power either socially, in numbers, or physically. 

NOTE: Even if the act is not determined to be bullying if it is a negative act, it will still be dealt with by the school as a discipline issue. 

WHAT IS NOT CONSIDERED BULLYING?

According to Ronit Baras of the Family Matters project, when talking about bullying, it is very important for parents (and teachers and kids) to understand what bullying is not. Many times, a single act or behavior is out of proportion, but it is not considered bullying. Some people think that bullying is any aggressive behavior, and although such behaviors are a source of concern and need attention, it is important to separate them from bullying. As defined earlier, bullying is a recurring and deliberate abuse of power. 

STUDENT CONCERNS THAT ARE NOT EXAMPLES OF BULLYING 

Not liking someone - It is very natural that people do not like everyone around them, and, as unpleasant as it may be to know someone does not like you, verbal and non-verbal messages of "I don't like you" are not acts of bullying. 

Being excluded - Again, it is very natural for people to gather around a group of friends, and we cannot be friends with everyone, so it is acceptable that when kids have a party or play a game, they will include their friends and exclude others. It is very important to remind kids they do the same thing sometimes, too, and, although exclusion is unpleasant, it is not an act of bullying. 

Accidentally bumping into someone - When people bump into others, the reaction depends mostly on the bumped person's mood. If they have had a bad day, they think it was an act of aggressive behavior, but if they are in the good mood, they smile back and attract an apology. This is also relevant for playing a sport, like when kids throw the ball at each other and hit someone on the head. It is very important for teachers and parents to explain that some accidents happen without any bad intention and it is important not to create a big conflict because it was not an act of bullying. 

Making other kids play things a certain way - Again, this is a very natural behavior. Wanting things to be done our way is normal and is not an act of bullying. To make sure kids do not fall into considering it as an aggressive or "bossy" behavior, we need to teach them assertiveness. If your kids come home and complain that Jane is very bossy and she always wants things to be done her way, you can show them that they want it too and that Jane is miserable because she is not flexible enough and she will suffer in life for insisting that things be done her way. Again, although it is not fun or pleasant, this is not bullying. 

A single act of telling a joke about someone - Making fun of other people is not fun for them, but the difference between having a sense of humor and making fun of someone is very fine. It is important to teach kids (and grownups) that things they say as jokes should also be amusing for others. If not, they should stop. Unless it happens over and over again and is done deliberately to hurt someone, telling jokes about people is not bullying. 

Arguments - Arguments are just heated disagreements between two (or more) people (or groups). It is natural that people have different interests and disagree on many things. Think about it, most of us have disagreements with ourselves, so it is very understandable to have disagreements with others. The argument itself is not a form of bullying, although some people turn arguments into bullying because they want to win the argument so much. They use every means to get what they want and find a weakness in the other person, abuse knowledge or trust they have gained and use it against the other person. It is very important to distinguish between natural disagreements and bullying during an argument. 

Expression of unpleasant thoughts or feelings regarding others - Again, communication requires at least two players. Although it may be unpleasant to hear what someone thinks about you, it is not a form of bullying but a very natural thing. In every communication, there are disagreements and some form of judgment about each other's attitude and behavior. If someone says to you, "I think this was not a nice gesture" or "You insulted me when you said this", this is not bullying but an expression of thoughts and feelings. 

Isolated acts of harassment, aggressive behavior, intimidation, or meanness - The definition of bullying states that there is repetition in the behavior. Bullying is a conscious, repeated, hostile, aggressive behavior of an individual or a group abusing their position with the intention to harm others or gain real or perceived power. Therefore, anything that happens once is not an act of bullying. All the behaviors above are unpleasant and may need to be addressed, but they are not treated as bullying. 

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE BEING BULLIED?

Now that we know that Bullying is a “repeated aggressive behavior that takes place over time”, what actions should you and your child take if it is happening to them? 

Tell a parent - Too many times, students are taught to handle things themselves. Being bullied may be a new experience for your child. You, as a parent, have more life experience to help your child deal with it. As a parent, it is important to pay attention to what your kids are telling you and find out if things are happening more than once. If you, as a parent, have a concern, please contact the school administration as soon as possible. 

Tell a trusted adult at school (counselor, teacher, administrator) - The number one reason bullying occurs at school is that the school does not know about it. If the school does not know about it, they cannot stop it. Work with your school – Remember your school wants to stop bullying as much as you do. Work with them as a team and devise solutions together. Standing up for yourself is not snitching!

GENERAL SCHOOL EXPECTATIONS

We appreciate your support of our school expectations, which helps our school staff provide a safe and productive learning environment for your child.

Maintaining a safe school environment requires that all students use good judgment and display appropriate behavior.  All students are expected to act in a manner that will not harm themselves or others.  Students are also expected to refrain from disturbing classroom activities.  Any behavior that may interfere with a teacher’s instruction or others’ learning is unacceptable.  All school rules and regulations apply to the after-school program and activities held off-campus.  

All students should be familiar with the following basic rules:

  • Always walk when in the classroom and school buildings.
  • An adult must bring all medications, in their original container, to the office, and a medication form must be filled out by the doctor and signed by the parent.
  • Be courteous and considerate.  Respect adults, other students, and property.
  • Be prepared for class with all necessary materials and stay on task.
  • Bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and rollerblades cannot be ridden anywhere on campus.
  • Follow the directions of all the teachers and staff members.
  • Keep your hands, feet, and objects to yourself at all times.
  • Listen quietly and follow directions in an orderly manner during emergency situations or drills. NO TALKING DURING FIRE, EARTHQUAKE, AND OTHER EMERGENCY DRILLS.
  • Name-calling, teasing, intimidating, threats, and put-downs are not allowed.
  • Please throw trash in the garbage cans. 
  • Refrain from playing inside or around the bathrooms, corridors, or hallways.
  • Refrain from pushing or playing at the drinking fountains and hydration station. 
  • Refrain from spitting (including water from the drinking fountains).
  • Stay out of the parking areas or bus loading areas unless you are safely loading or unloading from a vehicle.
  • Students are to remain on school grounds at all times. 

DRESS CODE

The staff believes that student attire should be respectful and show that the students are at school to do their best and learn. Attire must be safe and appropriate for PE and recess. Nokomis is a uniform school. The uniforms are burgundy or white (sleeved T-shirts are permissible)  with khaki, blue, or Jean pants, shorts, or skirts. As per California Education Code, parents may opt out of uniform requirements by signing a waiver. The Nokomis dress code applies to students every day that school is in session, including holidays and spirit days.

The following uniform guidelines should be followed:

  1. No MESSAGES or SAYINGS will be allowed on clothing that represents mature, violent, or inappropriate subject matter.
  2. Shoes must be appropriate for PE and playground activities. Flip-flops, high heels, and open-toed or backless are not allowed.
  3. Shirts and blouses must be long enough to cover the stomach at all times.
  4. No strapless or spaghetti strap tops.
  5. No clothing that reveals undergarments (including low-cut tops, slashed clothing, etc.).
  6. Shorts and skirts must be at least as long as extended fingertips when arms are down at the sides.
  7. No extremely loose hanging or baggy pants or shirts or outerwear that resembles pajamas.
  8. No tongue studs and eyebrow rings or studs.
  9. No make-up, perfume, or cologne (Nokomis is a fragrance-free zone, and some staff may get seriously ill with certain scents)
  10. No jewelry, accessories, or clothing is allowed that disrupts the educational process, intimidates others, or is related to any group that is associated with hate or violence.
  11. Hats, visors, hoodies, and sunglasses may not be worn inside buildings.
  12. Any attire associated with gang membership will not be allowed.

PERSONAL POSSESSIONS

Personal toys, electronics, games, etc., are to be left at home.  Such items leading to distraction in classes or on campus will be confiscated, and/or parents will be called to come and take them home.  

The district or school assumes no obligation for lost, stolen, or damaged items left unattended.  It is recommended that coats, hats, jackets, shoes, baseball gloves, etc., be labeled with permanent markers to cut down on the incidence of lost articles.

Multiple violations may result in increased disciplinary action, including, but not limited to, suspension.

ELECTRONIC USE POLICY AND CELL PHONES

Nokomis follows the Student and Parent Appropriate Use Policy outlined by The UUSD Board of Trustees.