INTEGRATED NEWS Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies October 20, 2006 PRINCIPAL'S REPORT Dear Families, It was a joy to welcome back the snow this week. Seeing the children building snow-people, sticking out their tongues to catch snowflakes, and rushing to the classroom windows to see the first blast of snow falling was a wonderful sight! Along with the snow comes the yearly reminder to please dress your child appropriately for the weather. Children should come to school with warm coats and hats on cold days. Thanks! Community Meeting The Fall Community Meeting was a big success. Many enthusiastic parents were able to attend. Here are some highlights: * We discussed the creative ways in which our classroom teachers integrate the district’s academic standards and curricula with our unique arts focus. * The teachers shared stories and children’s work from their classrooms. * Our two district visitors, Ken Roberge and Don Orr, discussed the upcoming 3A Bond. They stated that within the framework of the bond, the district is committed to spending over seven million dollars on A-7 building improvements within the next six years. * We met our two new staff members, Ema Lyman and Devorah Dettloff. Ema is our Community Liaison. She will be reaching out to our neighboring communities and encouraging low-income and Spanish-speaking families to enroll in our program. Devorah is our new ESL Program Coordinator. She will be training teachers in the area of ESL classroom strategies. She will also guide our Design Team to plan and implement our new ESL program starting next year. Both Ema and Devorah expressed to the community that our school’s unique arts focus is very compatible with ESL instruction. They have both expressed their appreciation of the excellent instruction the students are currently receiving in our classrooms. Safety and security Here is another update on recent safety and security concerns. The district is being very proactive and is planning to install special locks on our west hall doors that will open with an electrical door opener, similar to a "fob" that opens a car door. These should be put on in the near future.We are asking for this system to be installed on our east doorway, also. The front hallway mirror is ordered; this will help us see down our entry hall from the office.We are looking at the setup of the front office to help us see arrivals, but this is a process that may take some time.We are also keeping all portable doors locked, so you will need to knock if you visit out there. All kindergarten parents: Please remember to close the front outside doors if you find them opened. If you arrive late for class, you must enter through the school’s front doors, check you child into school with the Attendance Secretary, and walk down the hall to the kindergarten. Thanks! Dismissal update Several weeks have passed since we began our new traffic guidelines at dismissal. The following reminders are important: * Please make sure to use the crosswalk near the school entrance when you or your child crosses the front drive-through lane. Never allow your child to cross the drive-through lane anywhere other than the crosswalk. This is critical to everyone’s safety. Thank you. * If you find that the drive-through lane traffic is backing up onto Aurora Ave., please attempt to park on the street and walk to the front to meet your child. The neighborhood residents are expressing safety concerns and general frustrations about the traffic gridlock on Aurora. * Although we no longer have a "pick-up zone," please do not load your children near the front of the drive-through lane. This tends to create an unsafe traffic back-up on Aurora Ave. * Although it is now okay to pass the person in front of you in the drive-through lane, please watch very carefully for children and parents walking across the lane. Thank you! Have a relaxing weekend! Phil MARK YOUR CALENDARS! October 25 (Wednesday) Picture Retake Day October 26 (Thursday) 3rd-5th Grades Fall Festival 5:15-6 pm November 2 (Thursday) K-2nd Grades Lantern Walk November 10 (Friday) Veterans Day -no school. November 16 (Thursday) 6-8pm. Thanksgiving Soiree and Silent Auction. November 20-24 (Monday-Friday) Fall Conference Days and Thanksgiving Break-no school. 3RD-5TH GRADE LANTERN WALK Thursday, October 26, 5:15-6 pm Please come and help us celebrate the change of season through song and storytelling. This is a wonderful, reverent event. Please help support your child by joining in the songs and maintaining quiet during the story. Class responsibilities: 3rd grade: cookies; 4th grade: hot cider; 5th grade: decorations and paper products. IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM OUR TREASURER Did you mean to donate to BCSIS... and you even filled out the form and turned it in, but it hasn't shown up on your credit card statement? A donation form was turned in at the beginning of the school year with a credit card number (Visa) which didn't have any identifying information. Whoever filled it out intended to charge $50 per month for eight months. So, if this might be YOU, could you please check your statements and call me if your charge didn't show up for September? Thank you! Your ever-faithful and long-suffering Treasurer, Michelle: 303-527-0960. BCSIS SCHOOL CLUBS Start a club. Join a club. During most of BCSIS's 10-year history, it has been a "club school," meaning that numerous parents ran clubs such as a chess club, a math club, Odyssey of the Mind club and a robotics club. These were held before and after school and during lunch. Thanks to Kimberly Zerbey, TAG Coordinator, and Sabine Smead, we now have two school personnel who will be assisting parents who want to start a club. Do you have a skill or talent that you would like to share with students? Your commitment can run the gamut, from working on a month-long LEGO project to taking students to art museums or scheduling a monthly dance class. Please contact Kimberly at mamaberl@yahoo.com with your ideas. AFRICA CLUB NEWS Thanks to all the kids and parents who joined in for the first meeting of the Africa Club! It was such a success! We had 18 kids and several parents who were inspired by the slide show about our sister school, the Rock Foundation School in Uganda, and who shared ideas and thoughts about what the club should look like. It’s going to be a fun and educational combination of learning about African culture and supporting the relationship already in play with our sister school. Our plan is to meet once a month. Please join us for the next meeting of the Africa Club, which will be held on Wednesday, November 8th, from 3:30-4:30pm. Kids: be sure to bring a photo of you in your Halloween costume to send to our African friends! BOULDER VALLEY ROTARY CLUB - 2006 SHARE-A-COAT PROGRAM It is time for the 2006 Share-A-Coat drive that the Boulder Valley Rotary Club sponsors. In addition to coats and other items of clothing, they plan to collect children's used story books and other books that can be recycled back through the schools and to other organizations. They plan to have collection boxes available at school on October 12, with pick-up dates of October 26, November 9 and November 30. There will be a first, second and third place prize for the most coats collected per student population. The prizes are $150, $100 and $50 respectively for each category. "....only at BCSIS" Phil’s comment at the Community Meeting about the teacher’s time limit for presentations: "You have two minutes, and I don’t mean two BCSIS minutes." One sibling to the other who evidently has studied Jane Goodall when they heard the song, Repo Man by David Gray: "Oh, it’s my favorite David Greybeard song!" If you experience a situation that leaves you saying, "Only at BCSIS," please send it to Phil at phil.katsampes@bvsd.org. Or, if it involves Phil, please send it to cynthiacarosella@hotmail.com. ED COUNCIL REPORT The fall Ed Council meeting took place on October 11th. The meeting had the form of a real community building council: we all sat in a circle and answered a question posed by Will: "Which animal does each of us connect to today?" This was a quick way to share something about ourselves and see it resonate with others. Moving on to business, part of the meeting was devoted to introducing key members of our community, such as the Ed Council class representatives, the supervisor of the Aurora 7 YMCA program (Angie), our community liaison (Ema Lyman), and the consultant on the design of the ESL program (Devorah Dettloff). Devorah comes to us from Casey Middle School and will work with a team to design an ESL program that is consistent with BCSIS’s philosophy. This is a good time for parents to provide any input or feedback concerning the destratification process and the creation of an ESL Program at BCSIS. Please stop by Devorah’s office, contact Phil, or get in touch with Will in person or by leaving a note in his cubby. Finances Jennifer Shriver, co-treasurer, presented the figures from the full participation campaign: 46% of the families have donated a total of $23,762, which was considered very successful. It was stressed that Full Participation means that every family donates as much as they can, even if it is a small amount. The taxdeductible donations go straight to the school, with minimum overhead. Friends of BCSIS report Kim Green reported on two upcoming events. The first one is the Silent Auction on Thursday, November 16. Volunteers are needed for this event, so please contact Kim if you can support this fun event! Businesses are currently being solicited for donations, and parents will soon receive information about how they can contribute. The second event is a fundraiser at the Crawdaddy Toy Store in Lafayette on December 13. This store is locally owned by BCSIS parents! Our school will receive 20% of all purchases. Teachers’ report Phil brought up the subject of teaching in a way that is consistent with the District practices yet reflects the BCSIS guidelines of honoring multiple intelligences and the Waldorf philosophy. To demonstrate how this is done, all teachers shared some of their latest activities done in class. It was an amazing show and tell! Just as an example, the 5th grade teachers brought masks that their students made. They used plaster of Paris to take molds of each other’s faces, an activity that required a heightened trust of one another. The masks were used to discuss perceptions we have of ourselves versus how we are seen by others. Students then wrote poems to illustrate the inside and the outside of their personas. Mona illustrated the study of the alphabet in kindergarten. Children are using the letters as characters ("little ‘a’ has a round face and a monkey’s tail"), designing letters in different media (sand, clay), and doing paintings from left to right to learn the direction of writing. Visit from BVSD reps Don Orr, BVSD Director of Planning, Engineering, and Construction and Ken Roberge, BVSD School Board member, came to discuss Amendment 3A in the November ballot. If it passes, it will create a $297 million bond for Capital Improvements on BVSD Schools. Aurora 7 would receive approximately $7 million to expand, repair, and improve its facilities. Many BVSD sites are in need of infrastructure repairs. However, only 21% of the bond would be destined to repair existing facilities. Sixty-nine percent would go toward bringing buildings up to standards that can support the delivery of new curricula developed in the last decades, including computer laboratories, facilities for arts, larger office spaces, etc. Please get informed about this important issue that already has many endorsements: teachers association, City Councils, realtors, etc. The November Ed Council Community Meeting is on November 8th, 4-5:30pm in the library. WHO IS ON YOUR ED COUNCIL? Parent co-chair: Anna Stewart Teacher co-chair: Will Humke Secretary: Lígia Bernardet Treasurers: Jennifer Shriver and Michelle Wemple Specialists rep: Sara Benson Certified Staff rep: Connie LeClerc K-2 parent rep: Darcy Vanderbie K-2 teacher rep: Jen O’Brien 3-5 parent rep: Beth Parisher 3-5 teacher rep: Batya Greenwald in the first semester and Terry Nickie in the second semester If you have information to be included in the newsletter or ideas for the newsletter, please email Phil at phil.katsampes@bvsd.org. <>