AM Announcements - February 04

AM Announcements
February 04, 2010

1. Today is Day 97.

2. It is the mission of Speas Elementary School to provide its students with the tools necessary to successfully meet the challenges they will face in a diverse world.

3. Calendar items for this week:

Thursday: February 04
Access Testing for LEP students
Speas Job Site meeting - 9:00-10:00 - Powell and Reichert
Leadership Winston-Salem Education Day Committee - Role Leader walk-through - 4:30-5:30 - Reichert off-campus

Friday: February 05
Access Testing for LEP students

4. Upcoming Calendar Items:

a. 02/08 - Interim Reports go home
b. 02/12 - Pastries for Grandparents
c. 02/15 - No School - Presidents' Day - RS
d. 02/26 - Dollar Dress Down Day
e. 02/26 - Box Tops for Education Due

5. CERTL applications are available from Ms. Rhodes. The application deadline is February 18.

6. Books for the African Book Project can be dropped off in the front lobby. Please encourage your students to participate. You can join them in donating books as well.

7. The Student Council water drive raised 286 gallons. Information on this drive can be found on the bulletin board in the lobby! Great job Student Council, Speas Students and Staff.

8. Review Conferences today: Say - 8:15AM; Larson - 8:50AM; and Falor - 9:30AM. Please bring a spreadsheet indicating the performance of your your students on the assessments that are relative to their grade level. You should also have a listing of the students who received notices of possible retention and what changes you are going to make to address their specific needs. Individuals who missed conferences scheduled Monday - Wednesday should reschedule.

9. Please make sure to make contact with every parents whose child receives a notice of possible retention. You need to schedule a conference with them to review the issues involved and your plan for their child for the addressing the issues. Remember to review all PEP's as well. If you have trouble contacting a parent please get together with Ms. Summey for assistance. If the family is Hispanic, please involve Ms. Uzcatequi and/or Ms. Spaventa as well.

10.  As many of you are aware, Rose Rusch has experienced a setback and reoccurence. She is in need of additional donated leave days to help through the period of chemo and radiation therapy. You can donate Annual Leave only. There is no provision for donating Sick Leave. If you wish to donate Annual Leave to Rose, please see Ms. Higgins for the form.

11. Monday through Wednesday's snow days will be made up on June 09 and 10 and March 29 according to the WS/FCS calendar. If this changes you will be notified.

12. Now that we have entered the third quarter, please remember to update your web page by Friday, February 12.

13. We are approaching the annual State Health Plan enrollment period in March with Blue Cross\Blue Shield. This year will be different from all previous years. ALL WS/FCS employees must do an on-line attestation of their smoking status. Until this is completed ALL COVERAGE WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE DROPPED TO 70/30. Once the attestation is completed, non-smokers will be returned to 80/20. You will be hearing more about this as the enrollment period approaches. Please remember at EVERY employee, no matter what job the perform, must complete the attestation on-line. There is NO paper option.

14. The forecast for overnight is for a wintry mix to begin around 2:00 AM tranisitoning to freezing rain and icing conditions around 12:00 before changing all rain around 2:00 PM. Please listen to the radio or watch TV for any notifications of cancellation or delays. It don't look good pardners!

15. I received a bill yesterday at the Joint Principals' meeting for all the computers that were left on during the month of January. We were fortunate. Our bill is $35. The bill for the entire system was over $19,000. Originally Dr. Martin asked us to pay these bills and the mon ey would go into the Technology budget. Every teacher and/or assistant responsible for the specific computers that were left on was to pay $1.00 for each night the computer was not shut down. Yesterday afternoon Dr. Martin changed his mind. Schools and individuals will not have to pay. Technology is instally a program that will shut off all computers in the system automatically at 8:00 PM every night. This will save the school system several hundered thousand dollars every year in energy costs.

16. Since we are sending report cards home today, we will postpone the Honor Roll assembly until next Friday, February 12 at 1:00 PM to allow parents the opportunity to get off in order to attend. Parents will be notified of the change by flyer and Alert Now message today.

17. Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down.
Russell Baker (1925 - )

An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible.
Alfred A. Knopf

The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887), "Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit", 1887