Dear Family and Friends of ACS,

Tomorrow (Friday, February 17th) our school will be closed for an in-service day. On in-service days, even though our ACS staff is going through different trainings, our office has always been open; however, on this particular day please make note that our entire staff will be in-servicing and even our office will be closed this day. Please do not try to come to the school to retrieve missing student items or to discuss an issue with our office or staff, as we will all be learning about positive and effective communication this day and cannot be interrupted. Thanks for your understanding!

I have attached to this Newsletter the 2006- 2007 school calendar that was just approved at our February Governing Board meeting. The calendar has a few differences compared to past school years, so please look over the calendar carefully and email or call me with any questions you may have.

Earlier this year our ACS PTO awarded us $35,000 to update our Elementary and Middle School Computer Labs. I am happy to announce our Network Administrator, Robert Fortelka, and our Middle School Technology Teacher, Mike Hall, worked many hours of overtime to complete the Elementary Computer Lab update. We are now waiting for the rest of the computers to update the Middle School Lab. The computers that were in the labs will be installed in classrooms, as some of the classroom computers are very old.

The Center of Environmental Health has issued a consumer alert regarding the findings of small traces of lead in insulated vinyl lunch boxes. Please visit www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.htm to learn more about this study and alternative ways to store food for lunch. Dennis Uniform Mfg. Co. is also extending a refund offer to parents who have purchased lunch boxes from them, even though the lunch boxes they sell were not listed on the above site. If you would like to return your lunch box that you have purchased from Dennis Uniform as a precautionary measure, you may do so at your local branch or send it to the mail order department and they will be happy to provide a full refund.

It is the time of year that I start to create a list of items that our ACS staff will work on for next year. I am very proud of all the improvements our ACS staff has worked hard to implement this year and am looking forward to hearing any feedback you might have for me about this year. Creating and aligning policies and procedures in K-8 (not just K-5 as I was accustomed to) is a huge job and I would like to hear how you are feeling about our school this year and what improvements can be made for next year to continue our mission toward a unified K-8 school. Please email me at nelsonk@academycharter.org if you have any feedback for me. The feedback I have received so far has been very helpful! Thank you.

Parent/Teacher Conferences are just around the corner. They are Thursday, March 16, and Friday, March 17. Elementary Parents, don’t forget that it is during your Parent/Teacher Conference time that you may turn in a written request to your student’s teacher, if you would like to request a teacher for next year. Our teachers do the best they can to honor requests as they complete the class lists for next year; however, we cannot guarantee that a request will be honored, since it is impossible for us to honor all. Thank you for your support with this school policy. MS Parents, Thursday will be an open time that you can rove to visit teachers, while Friday will be special appointments made by the teacher. Parent Teacher Conference letters will be coming home soon.

A Look Ahead:

• Friday, February 17- In-service Day
  No Students (see the first paragraph above for important information about this day)
• Monday, February 20- President’s Day- School Closed!
• Friday, February 24- PTO Breakfast
• Friday, February 24- Elementary Virtue Assembly, 8:50, Cafeteria
• Friday, February 24- MS Virtue Assembly, 2:50, Cafeteria
• Friday, February 24- MS and Specials Newsletter goes home
• Thursday, March 2- End of Third Quarter
• Friday, March 3- Teacher Work Day- No Students

Have a fabulous weekend!

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

Dear ACS Families and Friends,

I’d like to thank the third grade team of teachers and students for working so hard on their CSAP reading tests this week. I have the specific dates for CSAP testing for grades 3-8. They will be administered on March 13th – 16th and the following week March 21st – March 23rd. As you can see, testing will be conducted Tuesday through Thursday of both weeks. Students will be testing on many of these days in the morning and the afternoon, so please be sure to schedule any appointments around these days. Thank you in advance for making all efforts to have your student(s) here on testing days. If you have prior scheduling conflicts, please contact your classroom teacher for grades 3-5, and let the office know if your student is in middle school.

Middle school Parents- I wanted to remind you about our communication procedure when a student’s grade falls below a ‘C” in any subject in middle school. As you may recall, Dean Nelson informed the ACS community about the change in this procedure from last year in several issues of the newsletter during the first quarter of the year. Middle school teachers will notify parents whenever a student’s grade falls below a ‘C’ via a progress report in that week’s Friday packet. It is up to the individual teacher whether they require a parent signature on the progress report. I hope this clarifies this procedure as we head into the final weeks of third quarter.

As a reminder, the after school drama club informational meeting will be held today, Thursday, February 16th, at 4:00 in Ms. Been’s classroom.

I have recently received the “IB Matters” newsletter from the IB program at Douglas County High School. If your have an 8th grade student who will be entering the IB program at DCHS next year and would like a copy of the newsletter, please give the office a call and let them know. I will contact the IB contact person at the district and request more copies.

I’d like to thank the members of Student Council for hosting the ACS all school Athletic Day this past Wednesday. Many students and ACS staff participated by wearing their “athletic wear” to school. The pep rally to honor and celebrate our Middle School students who have participated in sports so far in the school year was a huge success. We even had the ACS eagle mascot there to help cheer on our athletes as they were presented their certificates! GO EAGLES!

The middle school Valentine’s Dance last Friday was an event to remember. Students were decked out in their formal attire and danced to music by our own personal DJ, Mr. Orcutt. Many of the students and staff who attended the dance thought this was the best dance yet due to the large student participation and the staff who were on hand to teach them the “Electric Slide” and “Macarena.” Thank you to student council for planning, organizing, decorating, and setting up for this event!

Thank you as always for your support of Academy Charter School!

Kendra Peters
Assistant Dean of Academy Charter School
email: petersk@academycharter.org

I hope everyone or a lot of you folks picked up a piece of chocolate candy as a small expression of our thanks to our wonderful volunteers.

Following are some volunteer opportunities around ACS. Please contact me or the person listed to help with these projects:

• The sand box for the preschool is in need of some more sand. If you can help out with this, please contact Jayne Friesen, the Director, here at the school.
• Cindy Hazlehurst will need some help for the Original Artworks fundraiser. She will need someone to help stuff the packets (can be done from your home, needs to be done by the end of this month), help in labeling artwork, hanging artwork and putting artwork into packets (this all needs to be done at school in early March), removing the artwork from the walls on 3/20 and filling the packets for Friday folders. If you can help with the Original Artworks project in any way, please contact Cindy Hazlehurst at 303-688-9134.

The following have completed at least 20 hours of volunteer time as of February 14, 2006: Angela & Matthew Akin (20), Kristi & Peter Cal (21), Karen & Christopher Cox (22), Christi Bolton (26), Sunni & Chris Bottin (20), Heidi & David Brady (20), Kristy & Rick Chadwick (20), Lora & Tim Colander (20), Jennifer and Carl Craigle (22), Karen & Ken Davis (25), Carolyn & Bryan DeGarmo (21), Ellen & Don Eakin (21), Julie & Steven Graves (25), Yolanda & Rod Greer (25), Cali Hanson (20), Lisa & Barry Haneke (27), Leverne & Tony Holmes (28), Rebecca & Alexander Larson (21), Chris & Mark Laverty (37), Camille & Michael Lemon (26), Teri & Bill Marsh (21), Angie & Russell McCombs (20), Kim McDonald (32), Michele & Dan Myers (21), Colleen & Michael Page (20), Dawn & Brent Pankonien (21), Emily & J. Clark Ragan (20), Erin & Gary Smith (25), Cindy & Chuck Solomon (21), Jennifer and Sean Templeton (25), Amy & Steven Tenn (22), Chris & David Thiessen (22), Sheryl & Wayde Walker (22), and Tina & Michael Wicklein (27). Please remember to stop by the office and pick up your license plate holder—thanks for all your hard work!

To date we have logged over 6,683 hours!

I am in the process of updating my records concerning Volunteer hours, and show the following families with ZERO hours logged, as of the 14th of February:

ALEXANDER, AMIOT, BARNETT, BENNETT, BISHOP, BUTERA, CALDWELL, CHAVEZ, COX, CRAIG, CROSS, CRUTCHER, DAHL, DEBENEDICTIS, DIBLASI, DIEKER, EITREIM, FENDRICH, FISHER, FOGEL, FRIESEN, FULLINWIDER, GANEM, GATRELL, HEIKES, HENDERSON, HORN, JOHNSON, KING, KOEHN, MANN, MARTINELLI, MASTERS, NEELY (Tim & LeighAnn), NEVAREZ, NORRIS, O’CONNOR, PARKER, PARTRIDGE, PATRICK, PEREA, PYLE, ROSE, ROSS, SCHRINER, SCHUCK, SCHUSTER, SILVERSTON, SMITH (Jeffrey & Jacqueline), STROM, TAYLOR, TEAL, VONREYN, VOSSLER, WEATHERFORD, WILLIAMS, WILLIS, WILSON.

If you feel the above information is not correct, and I know many of you have given some volunteer hours but have not logged them in the book, please contact me as soon as possible.

Thanks for “Making a Difference” at ACS

Anne Belfrage
Volunteer Coordinator
belfragea@academycharter.org

Please click here for the 2006-2007 ACS calendar.

The Governing Board held its February monthly meeting this past Monday. At the meeting, PTO President Kate Fischer presented Deans Kindra Nelson and Kendra Peters with a giant facsimile of a check for $35,000. The check represents funds raised by the PTO, earmarked for technology needs at the school. Many thanks to all involved for making this possible!

Dean Nelson discussed enrollment numbers at the school, particularly those concerning 7th grade. She also presented, and had approved, the 2006-2007 school calendar.

Dean Peters updated those in attendance on CSAP testing, which will begin in third grade this week. She said that representatives from the local high schools have recently visited ACS, with information for eighth graders.

In other news, GB member Duane Clark clarified a statement made in the Governing Board’s recent “Report to the Community” - the PTO funds were able to purchase 42 computers for our computer labs, not just 21 as previously stated. The elementary computer lab already has the new equipment in place. Help is needed to transport additional monitors from Colorado Springs to the school. Next Tuesday has been tentatively set as a time to pick them up.

Librarian Janet Zoetewey presented the board with information on her needs for a part-time library technician. Her request will be reviewed at an upcoming working session of the board.

The next Governing Board meeting will be held Monday, March 13th, at 6 p.m. at the school.

Chick-fil-A Monthly Restaurant Days

Mark your calendars for Thursday, February 16, for Resaurant night at Chick-fil-A. You can stop by the Chick-fil-A on Founders Parkway ANY TIME (breakfast, lunch or dinner) and tell them you are with Academy Charter School. Drive-thru is fine too. Best of all, this year they are offering more generous splits above the standard 10% based on the ACS generated sales that day. Please take advantage of this easy fundraiser to help the school, enjoy some good food and friends, and hopefully make your life easier as well.

February is usually our peak time for student and staff illnesses. We are seeing this across the school district. Our health room has been very busy and our absenteeism rate has been very high. By working together, we can minimize germs being spread and lower the numbers of students who are out ill.

The following are suggestions that will aid in helping to maintain a healthy school environment, keep children well, and stop the spread of illness.

Parents should be aware of the early signs and symptoms of illness such as:

• Decreased activity – droopy, tired appearance
• Irritable behavior – sleepy
• Sore throat / swollen glands
• Runny nose / cough
• Skin eruptions / rashes
• Nausea / vomiting / diarrhea
• Abdominal pain
• Fever (100º or higher is considered a fever in Douglas County Schools)

Parents can help:

• Check students health before they leave home
• Keep students home when they have signs/ symptoms of illness
• Be sure your student knows where you are
• Give school office current emergency contact information
• Make arrangements with relatives / friends to take care of sick children if unable to do so yourself

Please contact the school if your child comes down with a contagious illness such as strep throat; confirmed influenza; chicken pox; etc.

Thanks for your help in providing a safe and healthy school environment.

Sincerely,
Stacey Barlow, RN
School Nurse Consultant