ACS eNews


	•September 2	- Dress Down Day
	•September 5	- Labor Day, School Closed
	•September 12	- Governing Board Meeting, 6 p.m. to 7:30
	•September 13	- First Soccer Game, First Volleyball Game

Dear Families and Friends of ACS, The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is advertising their Parents Encouraging Parents (PEP) Conferences for this year. These are family-centered conferences designed to offer support, information and education to parents and professionals who have or work with students with disabilities. Please stop by our school office for more information on these conferences. The Family Support Line is also an available support for all families. It is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian agency devoted to strengthening families and protecting children. If you are in need of advice, information or practical answers to your questions, you can call The Family Support Line at 303-695-7996 or toll-free at 1-877-695-7996, or for Spanish-speaking parents at 1-866-LAS-FAMILIAS. Reminders from the last two Newsletters: This summer I sent home a letter communicating that Dean Peters and I will share more administrative job duties this year. In order to promote effective communication with parents and community members, I have outlined in more detail our Administrative Job Division below: Dean Nelson- 'Administrative Dean' All Policy and Procedure development, support and reinforcement District communication and meeting attendance Parent communication Monthly Planning Meetings with all teams and Dean Peters Student Discipline School Improvement Goals Developing and holding staff meetings Developing and holding staff development to meet SIP and other goals Classroom Visits Formal evaluations, informal observations, goals and PP with teachers Yearly timeline and deadline support and reinforcement- for District, State and Charter deadlines All other Administrative paperwork and deadlines Board Meeting Reviews* ISS Coordinator 504 Coordinator Dean Peters- 'Curriculum and Instruction Assistant Dean' Curriculum support and reinforcement Teacher and Student Schedules to support above curriculum and instruction Standards Coordinator (Standard checkpoints and BOE) CBLA Coordinator (ILP’s) Weekly Planning Meetings with all teams Parent Communication as it relates to curriculum and instruction Student Meetings Classroom visits Student Grading support and alignment Attendance at Board Meetings to support Curriculum and Instruction piece of Reviews* Support of School Improvement Goals Support of staff meetings and staff development ISS Support thru Instruction 504 Support thru Instruction Other Administrative Tasks as delegated by Dean Dean Peters and I hope this will support parents in communicating with the correct Dean for future feedback, questions and concerns. MS Parents- our MS has adopted a few new communication procedures. First, student papers will be going home on Fridays just like our elementary. Please look for your student’s work in their backpack every Friday. Our MS students will also receive an individual class progress report attached to the above student work if their grade has fallen below a C. This will give you, as the parent, notification that your student’s grade has fallen and you can email or call the particular teacher with questions or a meeting. If you are not receiving these papers, please talk with your student to see where these papers are going. Please note that if you student already has a C, you have been notified and we do expect you will call our teachers for more communication, since you may or may not receive another notice. If your student is in need of more support, you can call me for an individual student plan. Briefly, this plan includes teachers signing student planners or an individualized plan and more parent communication. MS Parents- I would also like to make sure all parents of students in the 6-8 grades know that I am implementing a new program for students who receive consistent detentions. If a student has been sent to me three or more times in a quarter for the same issue, like bullying, anger issues or conflict issues, the student will be assigned a specific learning program in the area that they had the detentions. Once the student is assigned, the student will participate in their learning program at their very next lunch period, which can last anywhere from one to five days. When the program is completed, the student will be able to return to their regular lunch schedule. Notification will be sent home if this does occur to your student. All Parents- Safe2tell is a toll-free Colorado hotline that has been designed to help with issues that happen in schools today. This hotline has been created for teachers, students and parents. It is a nonthreatening way for anyone to call with information about a crime that has or may occur. Anyone can call Safe2tell to prevent a tragedy, help a child who is in trouble or to solve a crime. If you have seen something suspicious, been bullied, feel threatened or notice that a friend needs help, call Safe2tell at 1-877-542-7233. This information has been made into a sign that will be posted in all classrooms and throughout the school. Teachers have shared the poster with their students and I would appreciate it if all parents would share this information with their students at home. Thanks! All Parents- I would like to remind all parents of our school policy when there is lightning present or during a lightning storm. We will not send students out to recess, lunch or carpool when there is lightning. This is a District Policy that we enforce strictly, as each student’s safety is very important to us! If there is lightning during recess or carpool, students will not be allowed to leave the building unless accompanied by their parent or guardian. It is your choice as the parent or guardian to enter or leave the building with your student. We will not penalize students or parents during this time with Academy Kids fees if you are late in picking up your student because you are waiting until the lightning has ceased. You are also welcome to wait out the lightning in our school before returning to your car. I appreciate your support! Have a terrific weekend! Kindra Whitmyre-Nelson Dean of Academy Charter School email: nelsonk@academycharter.org web: http://www.academycharter.org/deannelson

We have filled all the classroom coordinator positions within the school except for the 8th grade. Do I have anyone that would agree to be classroom coordinator for 8th grade? We will be having a volunteer training in the near future, so watch for this date to be announced. Thanks for volunteering to help the classroom teachers in this way. I haven't heard of anyone volunteering to help with the shelving in the Art Room. This is a simple metal shelving project for the art teachers. Please contact Mrs. Marsh-Rose at marsh-rosea@academycharter.org to get more information about this project. Allan Ross did a great job of mowing all the weeds around the school property last weekend. Thanks again, Allan, for making this big improvement to our building. The volunteer name badges are now done thanks to Cyndy Hong. You will find a small filing box containing the new name badges in alphabetical order on the volunteer table. Please take your badge out and attach it to a lanyard hanging on the wall and you are ready to go! If your name is spelled wrong, or you don't find your name, please let me know and we will get one for you right away. Thanks again, Cyndy, for making these badges for our volunteers. Misty O'Leary did a wonderful job sorting all of the volunteer registration forms by classrooms for me and Christi Fuller finished this project off by sorting the copies of the registration forms for the classroom coordinators. I appreciate the help on this time consuming but important job! If you have any questions about volunteering around ACS, please let me know and I will help you. Anne Belfrage Volunteer Coordinator email: belfragea@academycharter.org Campbell's Soup Labels Thank You to all the parents that are sending in the Campbell's soup labels. This is great. We have a total (through the years) of 28,931 points and I would like to see this grow to at least 32,000 this school year! Campbell's has notified me that there are bonus points that can be redeemed and they are worth 5 points each, so please send these in. These are Campbell's soups that FEATURE Jimmy neutron, Batman, Dora the Explorer, Goldfish (meatball only), and Spaghetti O's FEATURING Batman (original and meatball). Don't forget to ask friends, family and neighbors to help us collect these labels. The more we redeem,the more we help our children. If any one is interested in getting some volunteer time in, this is a great way to do it. I could use some help trimming and sorting the labels. Just give me a phone call or email. Thank You, Sara Johnson spkrj4hisglory@aol.com. 303-688-9006 Carolyn DeGarmo's parents will be going to Baton Rouge next Wednesday to take supplies for the hurricane victims in New Orleans. Carolyn's parents are working through their church (they live on the western slope of Colorado) and these items will be distributed through a church in Baton Rouge to victims of the hurricane. They are driving a motor home down there so they will have room for the supplies. The following items are suggested for this badly needed relief: toothbrushes, toothpaste, bars of soap, baby wipes, diapers and money donations. If you want to contribute to this effort, please bring in any items on Tuesday, September 6, so they can go on to help these folks! I know it may be hard to remember this over the long holiday weekend but it gives you more time to think about what you may want to do. For more information you may contact Carolyn DeGarmo at 303-663-1994.		Many concerned parents and staff members were in attendance at the Governing Board meeting held Monday, August 29. The purpose of this meeting was to educate the ACS community about the school’s current financial situation, and to solicit any help or ideas to reduce expenses and increase income. A variety of suggestions were made. They included donating cash directly to the PTO, implementing an on-line learning program at the school, creating a “wish list” for school needs, utilizing donated services and/or skills of ACS parents when possible, and working with local business(es) for school fundraiser nights, among others. The input from Monday’s meeting will help the board determine how best to raise funds needed to cover rising school expenses. We appreciate all those who came and shared their suggestions. The next regular monthly Governing Board meeting will be held on Monday, September 12th at 6:00 p.m. at the school. Your school needs you! Would you like to be more involved at ACS by serving on a Governing Board committee? Volunteers are needed for the following committees: Academic; Operations; Communications; Policy; and Strategic Planning. Contact any Governing Board member if interested. ACS Governing Board govboard@academycharter.org Please call the office to report your students absent or coming in late. Making this easy call saves our attendance secretary a lot of time and frustration. You may leave voice mail before school starts to report these absences. If someone other than a parent is picking up a student or taking them to lunch, please call the office or write a note giving permission for this person to do this. When we don't have this information, we will have to call and find out about the situation. This person also needs to be prepared to show identification before we will release your student to them. The clinic has already been very busy this year! Please encourage your student to bring a water bottle to school in order to keep hydrated during the day. Thanks for your help. Anne Belfrage Office Manager It is that time again!.... Mark your calendars for our annual ACS Flu Shot clinic. Clinic Date: ACS Cafeteria 8-10 a.m. on Wednesday October 26th. Costs: Flu Shot $22 Pneumonia vaccinations $35 Tetanus vaccination $30 Pneumonia vaccinations are due every 5 years if you are over 50 years old or have asthma. Tetanus vaccinations are due every 10 years for the general population. For other questions contact: Jaynee Hodgkins JMHodgkins@msn.com 303-660-5110 I am trying to add to my substitute list for this school year. If you would be interested in substitute teaching for Academy Charter, please come in or call me in the school office for more information and requirements. Perhaps you have a friend or relative that would be interested in being a substitute for us--please have them contact me. Thanks for your help! Anne Belfrage belfragea@academycharter.org

This newsletter for ACS parents and students is published each week on Thursday. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform parents and students of events and information directly related to Academy Charter School. If you have inclusions for this newsletter, please submit them to newsletter@academycharter.org in written form (Word Preferred). Deadline for submission is Wednesday at Noon. All submissions must include the name of the person submitting the article and a contact phone number or e-mail address. Articles must be related to ACS, its students or school life. ACS reserves the right to edit submissions and content.

Web: www.academycharter.org E-mail: newsletter@academycharter.org Phone: 303-660-4881