AM Announcements: January 07

AM Announcements
January 07, 2010

1. Today is Day 81.

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: December 17
Job Site meeting - 9:00-10:00 - Reichert and Powell

Friday: December 18
No items at this tiime

4. Upcoming Calendar Items:
a. 01/11 - Interim reports go home
b. 01/12 - Staff meeting
c. 01/15-01/22 - EOQ Testing
d. 01/18 - No School - Martin Luther King Holiday
e. 01/25 - No School - RS Day for staff

5. CERTL applications are available from Ms. Rhodes. This summer camp for K-5 students works with math and science in a problem-based approach. The camp is free for all students. If you have students who would truly benefit from exposure to this kind of program, please consider discussing this with their parents. The parents must fill out an application and it must include a written teacher recommendation letter. The application deadline is February 18.

6. The protocol for outdoor Physical Education/Recess has been that temperatures between 32 degrees and 90 degrees are usually "safe" for Physical Education instruction or recess for elementary students. This cold snap has windchills at unusually low temperatures. Outdoor instruction needs to be decided using discretion, and temperatures AND windchill need to be regarded in that decision. Please let me know if there are questions. - Nancy Hoover - PE Program Manager, WSFCS

7. The forecast for today includes a chance of rain and snow showers with the snow coming after 4:00 PM. The latest forecast from the Weather Bureau is for an accumulation on up to 1/2 inch overnight. Please note item 10 below as it relates to school opening on a delay and the times staff members are to arrive.
 
8. Books for the African Book Project can be dropped off in the front lobby. Please encourage your students to participate.

9. Please usae the form you received via e-mail to comment on the first draft of the new essential standards for English/Language Arts, Social Studies, and Foreign Languages. Teacher feedback on these standards is a critical component of the curriculum review and revision process. DPI wants to know what you think..

The attached link is for English/Language Arts and Social Studies standards. English/Language Arts feedback forms may be emailed to jhcostello@wsfcs.k12.nc.us or sent to the Administrative Center through courier. Social studies feedback forms may be emailed to pgrant@wsfcs.k12.nc.us or sent to the Administrative Center through courier. The forms must be received by February 5.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/phase2/

Leslie Baldwin will contact the foreign language teachers directly regarding the review and feedback.

10. The following concern was brought to TAC and this is the response from Panthea Briles, Dr. Martin's Executive Assistant.

CONCERN: I have concerns regarding how school delays impact staff arrival to their designated schools. . . .How is it unsafe for our students and bus drivers to be on the road, but safe for teachers, administrators, assistants, etc. who drive into work?

RESPONSE: The decision to delay school is made for a number of reasons - but paramount in this decision is the safety of students waiting at the bus stop - if there is some black ice for example, a car can lose control and hit a student on the side of the road. Student drivers have little or no experience looking out for black ice. Adults have more experience driving in these weather conditions. A school faculty and principal can decide to delay staff arrival on delayed school opening days, but the staff will still need to work 7 hours and 45 minutes and administrators and other employees shall work 8 hours. A staff could delay opening one hour on a two-hour-delay day and stay one hour later. The Board's Administrative Regulation 4115.1, Teacher Work Schedule, establishes the 7 hour 45 minute work day which requires time be made up when staff arrival is delayed.

Please refer to the Board's Administrative Regulation 4151.7 that applies when schools are closed due to inclement weather.

Comment: We have always said that the workday at Speas remains the same when there is a delay. The caveat is that no one should attempt to come to school if they believe it to be unsafe. They should delay their arrival in the interest of safety. They are expected, however, to stay later in order to get in the full work day of 7 hours 45 min. for certified staff and 8 hours for classiffied staff.

11. We want to thank Ms. Dagenbach and Ms. Laney for setting up an exhibit of Speas student artwork at the Reynolda Manor Public Library. Please drop by and take a look. It's free! Remind your children. They would love to see their creations hanging in a public space.

12. I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!
Tom Lehrer (1928 - )

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855)

If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had.
I. F. Stone (1907 - 1989)

Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.
David Sedaris, interview in Louisville Courier-Journal, June 5, 2005