Dear ACS Families and Friends,

Wednesday evening, our Kindergarteners, 1st graders, and 2nd graders performed in our annual Winter Program. The students and teachers worked hard to create a wonderful program and that was evident last night. The staff and I would like to especially thank Laura Douglas for helping the children learn sign language for the “Peace on Earth” song! Many of you probably didn’t realize the talent the teachers had when they also sang. The kids were adorable and did a great job! I am sure many of you took some great photos of this event. I can’t wait to see the 3rd-5th grade performance next Wednesday.

Next week looks to be fun with all of the Winter parties. The parties will be on Thursday; please review your child’s classroom teachers’ web-pages or newsletters for details.

On Monday evening, the Governing Board met and made decisions regarding the pink and blue sweatshirts. The following decisions were made which are effective for this school year only:

• Both the pink and blue sweatshirts can be worn everyday of the week.
• The blue or pink t-shirts may be worn on Fridays for school spirit.

Currently the staff and I are working on the calendar for next school year 2008/2009. From reviewing the parent survey, we have decided to align our calendar with the DCSD conventional calendar. We are not exactly the same but the bigger breaks such as Fall, Winter, and Spring breaks will remain the same as DCSD. Some of our teacher in-service and work days will change and we are ensuring our hours meet state guidelines. I will discuss the calendar at SAC meetings. If you would like to have some input, please attend the next SAC meeting in January.

As always we want to thank you for your support of ACS. And a special thanks to all of the room parents who are helping organizing the fun events next week!

Sincerely,

Yvette Brown
Academy Charter School Dean
browny@academycharter.org

Important Dates

• December 13 Vision/Hearing Screening
• December 13 PTO Meeting 6pm-7pm
• December 19 Winter Program 3rd-5th grade 6pm-7pm
• December 20 Dress Down Day and Winter Classroom Parties
• Dec. 21-Jan.6 Winter Break
• January 7 1st day back to school after break

CSAP

Below you will find the link to the released CSAP items from 2004!
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/documents/csap/released_items/2004CSAPRelItems-AnchorsWeb.pdf

3rd/4th grade Math
Study the prices of the four toys below.
Picture of a truck $4.25
Picture of a bear $3.75
Picture of paints $2.25
Picture of a ball $3.50

Part A: Which three prices total $10.00. In the space below show your work.
Part B: What is the total price of all 4 toys? In the space below, show your work and write your answer on the line.

Core Knowledge Information

Does the Core Knowledge curriculum, which specifies what is to be taught at each grade level, take away the creative freedom of teachers?

Teachers in Core Knowledge schools report that making the commitment to teach a shared body of specific knowledge is not confining but liberating. With guidance as to what needs to be taught, teachers are free to think about how best to teach the material. They can fashion a variety of creative lessons and teaching approaches. They can collaborate by sharing ideas and resources. They can bring their own personal knowledge, enthusiasm, and interests into teaching the curriculum topics.

Dear Families and Friends of ACS,

I hope you have been able to attend the various holiday programs we have had in the past few weeks. We have so many talented and dedicated students and teachers!

New Math Teacher for 7th and 8th grade:
Our new math teacher for grades 7th and 8th will join us next week on Tuesday, December 18th. Her name is Lauren Gallagher and we are very excited to have her join the ACS staff. Please click on the link to read more about Mrs. Gallagher in her introductory letter!

Finalizing Spanish Position:
Dean Brown, Mrs. Greer and I have spent last week and this week interviewing Spanish candidates for our 7th and 8th grade position that will be opening up soon. We are still in the finalization stages of selecting our teacher and as soon as we have a name for the community, we will let you know!

Changes to the Middle School Discipline Policy:
The middle school teachers, along with Dean Brown and I have been discussing our current middle school discipline policy. As you know one of the changes we made was to have detentions occur after school on Tuesday and Thursdays. Another change we will be incorporating when we return from Winter Break, is the elimination of the current method of name on the board, check (PSP), and second check (discipline referral slip to the Dean). Please click on the link to access the new ACS Behavior Management Policy. This only applies to our middle school students and teachers who teach students in grades 6-8. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or any of the middle school teachers.

Late and Missing Work:
I’d like to clarify for you the policy on late and missing work received from our middle school students. Students will receive ½ credit for this work. Please be aware that teachers will not be grading this work the day it is received, but more than likely it will be later in the week after they have graded current assignments. So although the student has turned the work in, it isn’t “actively” a part of their grade until it is graded.

Also, with the use of the Parent Portal, you may see that the grade that was reported to you on Thursday or Friday many look different come Monday morning. Many teachers will grade papers received on Thursday or Friday over the weekend. Our eligibility for sports is based on the grade that was current as of Noon on Friday. This is the grade that determines if a student may participate in the next week’s sporting event, not the grade that is current in IC when you look there. I hope this clarifies this for you!

IC News:
Missing assignments on the report page in infinite campus will include 1st quarter assignments as well as 2nd quarter assignments. Our second quarter started on 10-29-07, so please disregard any assignments prior to this date as teachers cannot take any assignments from 1st quarter. I hope this helps to clarify any confusion this may have caused!

Here are a few of the activities that are happening for the rest of 2007 as well as some important events scheduled for January!

• Middle school students will be receiving their new elective sheets early next week. We will be having several new electives as well as bringing back a few that were so popular from first quarter.
• Our next Virtue Assembly will be held on Wednesday, December 19th, at 8:50 in the cafeteria for elementary students and at 2:50 in the Gym for Middle school students. Please join us as we celebrate our Core Virtue of “Giving” for this month!
• Our Middle School grade level coordinators need help in planning goodies for our Middle school holiday parties which will be held next week. If you can assist in any way, please contact the following grade level coordinators and let them know how you can help! 6th grade: Christie Fuller, 303-814-9279; 7th grade: Tracy Belk, 303-681-2685; 8th grade: Barbara Ireland, 303-660-4881. These parties will be held on Thursday, December 20th, from 2:30-3:25.
• Parents of 8th graders: We will be having representatives from DCHS and CVHS here the week of January 7th to speak to the 8th graders who are planning on attending these high schools next year. At this time they will receive their registration packets as well as course descriptions. Castle View High School will be meeting with students at 2:45 on January 8th. They are planning a parent information meeting on January 10th as well. Please be sure to attend this night if your student is planning on attending CVHS next year! Douglas County High School will be meeting with students at 2:45 on January 10th. We have not heard when their information night will be. When we do, we’ll let you all know!

Thank you as always for your support of ACS, our students, and staff!

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

PTO NEWSLETTER - December PTO Newsletter

Castle Rock Care Center Gifts

Once again the office is sponsoring gifts for the residents of the Castle Rock Care Center. We have holiday cut-outs by the office window with names and desired gifts for you to choose. This is a great way to model giving for your children! Please bring the wrapped gifts back to the office with the cutout tag taped to the package. We will deliver the gifts to the nursing home on Friday, December 21st. We would love to have you help us out with this project! If you have questions, please give us a call.

Anne Belfrage
Office Manager
belfragea@academycharter.org

Operations – watch for the new royal blue and white flag that will be raised (on the flagpole with the U.S. flag) to indicate when no carpool will take place, due to inclement weather or for other reasons.

Strategic Planning - between 25 and 35 parents attended the Middle School Information Night, including non-ACS parents from the community. It was a good turnout and ACS will most likely do this again next year. The committee will meet again in January – teacher benefits and retention are on the agenda.

Communications – we are currently creating an article to send to our local paper about the benefits of ACS and charter schools. We also hope to hear from our parents about what is great at ACS, and would like to share those comments with others through the newsletter and possibly in the newspaper article too. Names will not be published without permission. Please email cdfheikes@msn.com with your observations. The next committee meeting will be in January.

Policy – the board voted to change to the by-laws regarding the elimination of the Academic Committee. The new School Advisory Council (SAC) basically replaces this committee. A GB member will serve on the SAC as a liaison, in a non-voting capacity.