Dear ACS Families,

One of our Kindergarten teachers, Adi Sanders, will be on the PBS TV show “Big Green Rabbit”. This show will air for the first time on October 1. Check your local listings to see our new “movie star”! We can all say we knew her when…

Middle School parents, you may have heard your students talk about our new “Peer Counseling” program. We have a new counselor intern, Tina Rolle, working to get this program up and running. She is arranging for Douglas County High School Students to come to ACS and train some of our 8th graders to be peer counselors. This is a great leadership opportunity for our 8th graders to be role models to the younger students at ACS.

DCSD Board of Education approved a new school calendar for 2008/2009, which will be similar to our calendar. You can go to the website to see the calendar. Some of the highlights of the calendar include: first day of school beginning August 11, 2008 for students, October break 20-24, Spring break-March 23-27, and the last day of school will be May 27, 2009.

The ACS staff and I have been working hard to create our School Improvement Plan (SIP). We have been analyzing our needs and creating goals to meet these needs. If you are interested in our SIP goals, we will go over them at our SAC meeting on October 10!

As always, thank you for your support of our staff, your students, and our school. We need you on our team!

“The work can wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you do the work.” Patricia Clafford

Sincerely,

Yvette Brown
Academy Charter School Dean
browny@academycharter.org

Important Dates

• September 27 Dress down day
• September 27 Virtue Assemblies
• September 28 Teacher In-Service Day
• September 29 Preschool Playground Construction

Fun Fact

A bald eagle may use the same nest year after year. Each year it may add more twigs and branches to the nest. One bald eagle’s nest that was found after years of use weighed more than two tons!

Fun Website

Wacky Web Tales
www.eduplace.com/tales/

Dear Families and Friends of ACS,

We have many events coming up in the next week and I would like to take this opportunity to share them with you.

• Our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have been busy campaigning for Student Council positions. Students will be voting tomorrow to narrow down our candidates. Next Thursday, 9-27-07, we will be combining our Middle School Virtue Assembly with the campaign speeches in order to limit the time away from our elective classes. Students will be voting after the speeches and we should know who our representatives are the following Monday. Once this is done, STUCCO can begin to plan their events for the year which will include school-wide fundraising events for needy causes, middle school dances, and middle school movie nights. I’d like to take this time to thank Mrs. Jo-Ellen Solita for being a co-sponsor for STUCCO the past two years and would like to thank this year’s co-sponsors, Ms. Hollister and Mrs. Matlock for their willingness to work with our student council!

• This week, Dean Brown and Mrs. Rolle, our Counseling Intern, took some time to visit with our 8th grade students about the new Peer Counseling opportunity we are providing for students who are interest in becoming Peer Counselors. Mrs. Rolle will be working with the Peer Counselors from DCHS to “train” our prospective counselors. We’ve had a very good response from our students and are very excited about starting this program this year!

• We have our first virtue assembly scheduled for next Thursday, September 27th, at 8:50 for our elementary students in the cafeteria and at 2:50 for our middle school students. We’d love for you to be there and give well wishes to our virtue winners (Respect and Responsibility) for the month of September! You can find the dates for all of our virtue assemblies on the website event calendar.

• The Scholastic Book Fair will be here the week of conferences so don’t forget to stop by and see the great collection of books that will be there! I know our librarian, Mrs. Zoetewey, will be giving you more details in the next few weeks.

• I’d like to thank Dr. Ed for talking to all of our students last Friday during our bullying assembly about what bullying is, what rules are in place, and what to do if you are bullied.

• Parent teacher conferences are approaching and our teachers in grades K-5 are preparing to send out sign-up sheets by next week. During these conferences, teachers will be going over the SSLP’s, Report Card, and ILP’s (if applicable). If you have more to discuss with your teacher than what can be covered in the 20 minute time frame, please be sure to set up another time to meet with your teacher while you’re at conferences.

• In middle school, we have a set day for “scheduled appointments” which will be on Thursday, October 25th, and Friday, October 26th, will be a “drop-in” day where parents can come by and visit with their student’s middle school teachers. We had several reasons for this change and I would welcome any feedback after conferences regarding this change. Parents will be called for “scheduled appointments” to meet with middle school teachers in the next few weeks. Of course you can always request to meet with your middle school student’s teachers as well.

• Remember that parent/teacher conference days are early release days and students are released at 12:40 on Thursday, October 25th, and Friday, October 26th. Conferences run from 1:40-6:00 p.m. each of those days.

Thank you for all of your support for ACS and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

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

A few volunteer opportunities for you to consider. Cindy Hazlehurst needs some volunteers to help her label artwork on Wednesday, October 3rd, at 1:30 p.m. If you can help Cindy with this project, please call her at 303-688-9134.

I am still rounding up volunteers to help with the new preschool playground on Saturday, September 29th. They will be working two shifts, a morning shift and an afternoon shift. I still need volunteers for both shifts. This is a great way to get some volunteer hours on a SATURDAY without leaving work! Please let me know as soon as possible if you can give a hand.

I am also looking for a volunteer to help with picture make-up day next Wednesday, September 26th. This would involve going to classrooms and bringing students up to the Gym starting at 10:00 until 12:00. Please let me know if you can help this day.

Thanks for continuing to support our school and students! Remember, ONE person makes a difference!

Anne Belfrage
belfragea@academycharter.org
Volunteer Coordinator

Please click the following link to read the most current, important information from the PTO.

ACS PTO NEWS

ORIGINAL WORKS IS BACK WITH MORE NEW PRODUCTS!!!!

This great program is back and just in time for the holidays! Mrs. Huskins has our students working on a special project in art class which Original Works will use to create beautiful full color products. These products include magnets, mugs, journals, night lights, aprons, pot holders, shirts and much more. New items this fall are coasters, a message board and a fabric flying disk! Posters and samples will be on display shortly. Information about the program and how to order these products will be in the October 5th Friday Folders. Orders will be due on October 10th to ensure we receive them in time for the holidays.

This is a great opportunity to purchase one-of-a-kind gifts for family members and friends as well as help raise money for the art department. All proceeds from this fundraiser go directly to the art department to replenish art supplies, fund special classes and more. If you have any questions about this program, please do not hesitate to call Mrs. Huskins or Cindy Hazlehurst (303-688-9134). Thank you for your support!

Wheel Chair Needed

We would like to have a wheel chair available here in our clinic for injured students or staff members. If you know of anyone that might have a used wheel chair that they would be willing to donate, or we could purchase, please let us know.

Anne Belfrage
Office Manager
belfragea@academycharter.org

Saturday, November 3rd, Douglas County School District is sponsoring a Community Night with the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche will be playing the Vancouver Canucks at 8:00 p.m. at the Pepsi Center. Tickets are available in the school office for $20.00 each (normally a $25-$38.00 ticket). Let’s support the Douglas County Educational Foundation by enjoying an exciting hockey game!

Do you have unused children’s books in your home?

We need them!

Please Bring Books to School October 1-5

What: Please join our school, Mayor John Hickenlooper and The Fund for Colorado’s Future to participate in Spread the Word, a student-to-student and family-to-family book exchange designed to boost literacy among disadvantaged children by providing them with much needed reading material.

Why: Children cannot learn to read if they have nothing to read. Studies show that low-income children often have little or no access to reading material at home. Ownership of books is a critical factor in every child’s intellectual development. Other children, however, are fortunate enough to have a large collection of books. As they grow out of one age range of books, they often sit unread in bookshelves. Spread the Word encourages children with books they no longer read to give them to children without access to books. This book exchange promotes charity, giving and literacy among all children.

How: During the week of October 1-5, bring in your gently used books and drop them off at the collection box located in your school. (Please do not donate coloring books, text books or adult books.)

Two schools will receive a $1000 library grant!

Thank you for participating in Spread the Word!

The Fund for Colorado’s Future • 475 Seventeenth Street, Suite 1040 • Denver, CO 80202
Tel. 303-860-0160 • Fax 303-860-0170

• Flu Shot $23
• Flu Mist $30
• Pneumococcal Shot $42

• Age Policy: Must be 4 years or older to receive a flu shot. A parent or legal guardian must be present.

• Insurance: No cost for those covered by the following insurance plans: Medicare Part B or Railroad Medicare Part B (when your primary insurance plan), Humana Gold Choice PFFS, Rocky Mountain Health Plans or Secure Horizons. Insurance card must be presented. Other insurances may be accepted.

• Age Policy: Must be 18 years or older to receive a pneumonia shot.

• Insurance: If Medicare Part B or Railroad Medicare Part B is your primary insurance, ask the nurse if you are eligible for a pneumococcal shot at no cost when insurance card is presented.

• Age Policy: FluMist is available to healthy individuals ages 5 - 49 years who are not pregnant. (Lower age restrictions subject to change pending FDA approval.)