Our Principal
Principal's Message
A Message from the Principal
Welcome to Sunnybrae Elementary School! Home of the Sunnybrae Stingers.
Dear Sunnybrae Families,
I am excited to embark on my second year as Principal of Sunnybrae Elementary School and my eighteenth year working in Hamilton Township Schools. It is my thirty-second year working as an educator. It is an absolute privilege to work in my neighborhood school. My son attended Sunnybrae (Class of 2014) and my wife was a former PTA President. My mentor, Dr. Fizzano, was a former Principal at Sunnybrae. He instilled a tremendous culture of positive character as well as high academic expectations.
This year one of our main focus areas will be on attendance. Our district theme is Every Day Counts. The way we look to make every day count at Sunnybrae is by having excellent student and staff attendance. This way our students have the greatest chance to maximize their achievement.
Our school theme is Bee a Champion! The Bee a Champion incentive program will reward students at various levels of attendance.
Record Holder- Perfect Attendance- 100% attendance- 0 days absent
Gold Medalist- 98% and above attendance, 3 days or less absent
Silver Medalist- 95%-97.9% attendance, 4-9 days absent
Bronze Medalist- 92%-94.9% attendance, (10-14 days absent) or 10% improvement from the 23-24 school year.
The goal of the Bee a Champion incentive program is to create a tradition of celebrating outstanding attendance. This program celebrates students with high attendance as well as the students who may have struggled with attendance in the previous year but are showing improvement.
One of our Bee a Champion goals is for 95% daily attendance. When we reach fifty days of 95% daily attendance the entire school will get a reward!
During the 24-25 school year we will be having monthly character development assemblies. We will be celebrating selected students that have displayed the character trait of the month during our assembly. We will also be recognizing students that are meeting our attendance incentives at our character assemblies and throughout the school year.
Our main Sunnybrae rules include the following:
- Keeping our hands, feet and objects to ourselves. This school-wide rule covers everything from avoiding any physical conflicts to respecting the property of others.
- Walking in a straight, silent line. Our expectation is that students are always walking inside. When students transition as a whole class, they have to line up in number order. This avoids conflicts in regards to "being first". Students walk with their eyes forward, hands to themselves and mouths are closed.
- At Sunnybrae we also operate under the Golden Rule which is, "Treat others as you would like to be treated".
These school-wide procedures help to maximize time and avoid conflicts which could distract us from our mission of academic achievement. In addition we follow our district Code of Conduct.
I encourage all families to become PTA members. Families are encouraged to participate in meetings and events throughout the school year. Sunnybrae has a strong PTA which supports our students, staff and families, but volunteers are always needed.
24-25 PTA Meeting Dates:
September 17, 2024 (Virtual only)
October 15, 2024
November 12, 2024
December 10, 2024
January 14, 2025 (Virtual only)
February 11, 2025 (Virtual only)
March 11, 2025
April 13, 2025
May 13, 2025
June 10, 2025 (Virtual only)
I look forward to another great school year! Please reach out if I can be of assistance in any way.
You can reach me at (609)631-4166 ext. 2850. Or you can email me at rkesting@htsdnj.org
Respectfully,
Roberto Kesting
Principal
Sunnybrae Elementary School
