AM Announcements- March 11

AM Announcements
March 11, 2010

1. Today is Day 119.

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: March 11
Book Fair
Elementary Principals' meeting - 7:15-12:00 - Reichert off-campus

Friday: March 12
Book Fair

4. Upcoming Calendar Items:
a. 03/15 - Interim Reports go home
b. 03/16 - Technology Staff Development
c. 03/22-26 - Third Quarter testing
d. 03/23 - Student Council Talent Show
e. 03/26 - Box Tops for Education collected
f. 03/26 - Dollar Dress Down Day
g. 03/30 - Spring Break begins

5. Open enrollment for Health Insurcance coverage will impact ALL employees this year. They are automatically moving everyone down to 70/30 coverage from 80/20, so all employees who wish to maintain their 80/20 levels of coverage will HAVE to complete the open enrollment form. Since folks are starting to receive their packets in the mail, Human Resources is getting LOTS of questions. Here are answers to the three most common:

1) You MUST WAIT until March 15th to complete the open enrollment process. Open enrollment will run from March 15 to April 9, so everyone will need to electronically enroll between these dates.

2) You MUST complete the enrollment process electronically. There will be NO PAPER FORMS. We will have the link prominently displayed on the home page during the open enrollment period. Since this will require everyone to register and create a user name and password, we will be hosting some help sessions in the admin center IRC for those who need assistance with the process. The first will be next Monday, March 15th from 4:00 - 6:00 PM. The second will be on April 5th -- same time and place. These will be drop in sessions, so employees don't need to be there promptly at 4:-00.

3) FOR TOBACCO USERS: The only way to be eligible for 80/20 coverage is if you sign an electronic attestation that you and your covered spouse/dependents either don't use tobacco, or are participating in a tobacco cessation plan. There are some detailed rules and potentially large penalties for tobacco users associated with this, so we are hosting information sessions for any employees who use tobacco or who have a covered family members that uses tobacco. These sessions are this week -- Thursday and Friday, March 11 and 12, from 5:00 - 6:00 PM in the admin center auditorium.

6. News from Student Council:
a. The Speas American Idol Talent Show would love to have staff participation. Please notfiy Mr. Cokley, Ms. Mincer, or Mrs. Fletcher if you would like to participate.

b. Please encourage your students to attend the show. The admission cost is a $1.00. There will be a hotdog and hamburger dinner before the show.

7. There are boxes in the front lobby for donations of cereal to Crisis Control Ministry. We will be collecting full unopened boxes throughout the month.

8. I will be off-campus this morning at Elementary Principals' meeting from 7:15-12:00. If you need office assistance, please contact Ms. Powell.

9. Tonight I will be attending the Operation Lamb Banquet sponsored by the Knight of Columbus at Holty Family Catholic Church. They will be presenting grants to schools with at-risk populations who have submitted grant applications. We submitted one for additional AR tests to enable us to close the gap between AR books in the media center and tets available on the computer. I will let you know the amount in the morning. This opportunity was brought to us by Barbara Bryant in the cafeteria and her husband Jerry.

10. Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
Kin Hubbard (1868 - 1930)