Douglas County School District has created an event to show appreciation to teachers– The Apple Awards. The purpose of the Apple Awards recognition program is to honor teachers who have demonstrated a superior ability to foster excellence in education while contributing to the continuous improvement of student learning and the school environment throughout Douglas County. Teachers, students, parents and community members may nominate qualified teachers for these prestigious awards. A detailed process has been created establishing the criteria for nomination which holds teachers to the highest of standards for the award. Each school administrator will receive the nominations and bring them to the school staff in order to narrow down a representative from each school. This school representative will then be invited to submit an application for the next round of awards. Once submissions are received, one semi-finalist will be selected to represent each of the Feeder Areas. If you would like to nominate a teacher at ACS that has demonstrated superior ability to foster excellence in your student(s), please stop by our front office to pick up a nomination form. The last day to accept nomination forms is Friday, October 28th.

I am seeking Eighth Grade parents to form a Graduation Committee to help me plan and organize Graduation for this 2005- 2006 school year. If you are interested, please see Mrs. Belfrage, our Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator, in the front office. I will be contacting all interested volunteers after Fall Break.

Our website is in the process of being updated with some improvements. For example, a new look--teacher web pages updated and a Teacher Wish List. The Teacher Wish List is a link to a page that teachers will update with items they need and would like donated. We had a tree in the foyer of our school that parents would go to and pick off items their teachers needed and it was very successful; however, teachers would forget to update the tree, so we have decided to put a link on our website so teachers can update their wish list when they update their web page. Please look for this link on the home page of our website.

Communication has been sent out numerous times about why and what happens if there is lightning during our carpool times; however, we recently had a situation where we could not even start afternoon carpool due to the lightning storm that was occurring on this particular day. If carpool needs to be cancelled before it starts due to lightning, there will be signs posted to the right of the crosswalk and to the front of the carpool lanes to alert carpoolers we will not be sending children outside the building due to the lightning storm.

Elementary Parent/Teacher Conference letters are due back to your student’s teacher by October 13. Middle School Parent/Teacher Conference letters for Friday, October 28th, are also due back by October 13. MS parents can pick up student report cards at the office starting Thursday morning. If you have been requested to have a Friday conference with a teacher, each teacher will also have a duplicate report card at the meeting. Remember, Thursday, October 27, will be an open day for MS parents to rotate to the different classrooms and discuss each student with his/her teachers.

Reminder to MS Parents- Your student’s papers, tests and other communication from the school are now put into a packet and sent home every Friday. In this packet there will also be a notification of your student’s grade if they dropped below a C; however, teachers are only required to notify one time. We have received a lot of questions as to why our MS teachers have not called or sent an email to notify parents, and I would like to remind everyone that this is how we are notifying parents this year. If you are not receiving student papers and other school communications, please talk with your student about this issue.

Dates to remember:

• Thursday, October 13- Dress Down Day and End of First Quarter
• Friday, October 14- Teacher Work Day- No Students
• Week of October 17- 21- Fall Break- School Closed
• Monday, October 24- Beginning of Second Quarter
• Thursday, October 27- Parent/Teacher Conferences
• Friday, October 28- Parent/Teacher Conferences
• Saturday, October 29- Fall Carnival, 10:00- 4:00!

Have a great weekend!

Kindra Whitmyre-Nelson
Dean of Academy Charter School
email: nelsonk@academycharter.org
web: http://www.academycharter.org/deannelson

As of September 30, 2005, we have a total of 1,490 hours of volunteer time logged and 14 families have already completed their 20 hour commitment! Thank you to the following families for reaching this milestone: Arnett (25), Bale (20), Fischer (38), Hazlehurst (29), Hong (29), Radcliffe (29) and Woodzell (29).

Please remember to log your time for attending Governing Board and PTO meetings. Also, everyone that is working on the Fall Festival needs to log those hours, too!

In order to recognize the families that are committed to volunteering at Academy Charter School, we are going to have pictures of our “star volunteers” that are giving of their time and talents and have contributed their 20 hours of volunteer time. When your family has met the 20 hour minimum, please come and see me in the office. Look for these faces on our Volunteer Giving Tree in the front hall of the school.

I have a few volunteer opportunities to share...

• Martina Been, the Middle School Language Arts teacher, still needs some volunteers to drive students to the public library here in town once a month. If you can help with this, please contact me or Miss Been.
• Ms. Larkins, 3rd Grade teacher, needs a volunteer for library time on Tuesdays from 2:00-2:30.
• Mrs. Mullans, 3rd Grade teacher, needs a volunteer for library on Thursdays from 10:50 to 11:20
• The Fall Festival folks are looking for someone who can make balloon animals or knows someone that can do this for the Fall Festival. Please contact Sharon Hunter at 303.315.0118 or email sharon.hunter@uchsc.edu.

Thanks again, for helping out at Academy Charter School!

Anne Belfrage
Volunteer Coordinator
belfragea@academycharter.org

ORIGINAL WORKS ARTWORK
COMING FRIDAY!

A packet containing your child’s artwork, Original Works product brochure and order form will be coming home in this week’s Friday Folder. With the holidays just around the corner, we hope you’ll find that perfect one-of-a-kind gift for your family members and friends. Posters and product samples are on display at the school. Please stop by and take a look!

To ensure we get the products back in time for the holidays, orders will be due on October 14th. All proceeds will go to the art department to help buy additional art supplies for our students. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call Cindy Hazlehurst (303-688-9134) or Mrs. Marsh-Rose.

MIDDLE SCHOOL ORIGINAL WORKS ARTWORK ORDERS DUE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14th

Middle School students have been working on a special project in art class these past few months. You can now turn your child’s artwork into great gifts for the holidays. Available items include magnets, note cards, t-shirts, tote bags, aprons, ceramic mugs, key chains, computer mouse pads, tiles sweatshirts, potholders, teddy bears and more.

Each child was given a product brochure and order form to bring home. If you’d like to place an order, please bring your completed order form, child’s artwork and cash/check made out to ACS to the school office by Friday, October 14th.

Additional order forms are available in the front office. If you have any questions, please contact either Ms. Carrie Heiberger (Middle School Art Teacher) or Cindy Hazlehurst at (303) 688-9134.

Thank you for your support!
Cindy Hazlehurst
ACS Original Works Coordinator