Maria Llerena
Principal

Cheryl Johnson
Assistant Principal

I am very excited about being the Assistant Principal of Sunset Elementary. I ama 16 year veteran of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. I began my career as a second grade teacher at Lillie C. Evans Elementary. My first class inspired me to be the best teacher possible. In 1994 after teaching five years at Oak Grove Elementary, I decided that I wanted to be an administrator. I felt very proud when I was assigned assistant principal at Buena Vista Elementary, which eventually became Eneida Hartner Elementary. My experiences have been challenging and rewarding. I have worked with some outstanding administrators, teachers and students. Therefore, my assignment to Sunset Elementary was anew opportunity for me to grow. I am committed to assisting Ms. Llerena and the teachers with providing the students of Sunset Elementary with the best educational experiences possible. I feel confident that with the continued support of the parents and the community, Sunset will remain a school of EXCELLENCE.

As we come to the end of the first grading period, everyone at Sunset is busy at work! Together with the Educational Excellence School Advisory Council (EESAC), we have completed the School Performance Excellence Plan for the 2001-2002 school year. It is important that all of our stakeholders become familiar with our Vision, Mission, and Goals so that these become our common purposes. Therefore, please read and discuss the following with your children.

Vision: Sunset Elementary's vision is to maximize each student's academic, social, physical, and emotional potential in a wholesome, supportive environment as to create lifelong learners and contributing citizens in a diverse and changing world.

Mission: Sunset Elementary will reach its vision through the support of interactive technology and by providing unique and state-of-the-art programs in foreign language instruction, gifted education, programs for the emotionally handicapped, students with specific learning disabilities and a school of choice program for neighborhood children.

Goals: Our goals focus on the areas of Reading, Mathematics, Writing and Science and they address the maintenance of our "A" standing with the Governor's A+ plan. In order to achieve this again, our students will have to maintain and/or increase their achievement in these areas. We are very proud of our staff's efforts and our student achievement across the board. All of our resources and efforts along with the outstanding support from the parents are needed in order for us to achieve our goals.

We have received $109,009 from the State of Florida in recognition of our high academic performance for all students. These funds will be used to reward staff members with bonuses and to purchase additional technology for our school. Furthermore, we recieved an additional $37,717 in FCAT Enhancement dollars that will be used to hire hourly para-professionals to work with individual students and for the professional development of our teachers and staff.

We are united to provide the best educational opportunities for our students and confident that together we can achieve our goals!

September 2001 Edition

As we start this new school year, we have suddenly and violently been shaken by horrible attacks to our country and our freedom. It has been an opportunity to reflect on our blessings and realize the tremendous importance of our roles as parents and educators. At Sunset Elementary, we are committed to continue providing our students with a safe environment and an outstanding education. It is our responsibility, as the adults in their lives, to provide our children with comfort, safety and hope for the future. Once again, I am grateful for having an outstanding staff that has dealt with all of these challenging situations with professionalism. Furthermore, our parents and community have also been very supportive. Sunset Elementary is indeed a caring and nurturing environment for our youngsters.

Please pay special attention to our new tardy and early dismissal policies. They appear to the right of this letter and are extremely important in making sure that our students are here for the entire duration of their school day.

Another great area of concern is the traffic situation around our school. It is very important that safety rules are followed when you drop off or pick up students. The situation on Schoolhouse Road and Sunset Drive is critical. Parents must not park, double-park or let students off in the middle of the street. Mr. Herrero, Mr. Ben Hammed and other teachers that help us, tell many horror stories of near misses with children crossing at inappropriate places. For the safety of our students, please adhere to the safety rules and obey the teachers directing traffic. You can avoid problems by making arrangements to arrive to school earlier. There is no traffic between 8:00 am and 8:15 am. The problem is aggravated when everyone tries to arrive at the same time. Also, please remember that we have supervision on the PE field in the morning at 7:30 am. I hope that all of you see the importance of this in order to keep our boys and girls safe.

We look forward to another terrific year! Tbanks for all your support during the Opening of School.