April 6, 2001
Volume 11, No. 6
The count is in and Summit now has four new Board members! Welcome on Board to:
The expertise of these generous individuals, combined with that of continuing board members Jim Cederberg, Hunter McDaniel and Betsy Phelan, will provide Summit with an excellent governing body. Special thanks to Barbry Hogue for running for a second consecutive term.
The regular, public portion of this meeting was relatively brief as most of the evening was spent in executive session for discussion of staff evaluations and contract renewal decisions.
The Board approved an allocation from Tools for Learning of a total of $2,500 for the purchase of cellos for use by students in Orchestra and Select Strings. This will avoid, for these students, the problems associated with carrying large musical instruments to and from school every other day for class.
The Board received a note of appreciation from Valerie Koch for the paid parental leave Summit offered to her with the arrival of her daughter, Sophie.
An updated report on Tools for Learning shows a total of approximately $43,000 in donations to date for this year. Reminder letters will be mailed soon to families that have not yet donated.
The Board began discussions of budget planning for 2001-2002. Estimates of revenue increases are conservative, and assume funding based on current charter contract terms. Individual budget categories were carefully reviewed for possible adjustments. Budget and staff evaluation discussions will continue over the next couple of weeks.
The next regular Board meeting will take place on April 16, 2001, at 7 PM in the Summit library.
Summit will hold its annual Community Meeting on Wednesday, April 18 at 7 PM. Attendance at this year's meeting is particularly important because a number of issues critical to Summit's future will be explained and discussed. A letter will be sent next week to all Summit families providing background information on these issues in preparation for Community Meeting. Please plan to attend!
CTBS Tests will be administered on Tuesday - Friday, April 10-13. Please do not schedule travel or appointments on these days and help your student eat and sleep especially well during this challenging week!
How would YOU like to be involved in selecting your child's teachers? At Summit, you can do just that by volunteering for the Hiring Committee! This very important committee is made up of parents and representative staff members. The committee recruits candidates, reviews resumes and applications, observes teaching demonstrations, conducts candidate interviews, and makes hiring recommendations.
Our enrollment increase means that will need to hire new teachers. Our teachers are the heart and soul of Summit, and we carefully consider the selection of each and every one.
The Hiring Committee will have its first planning meeting shortly after Spring Break, so now is the time to volunteer. If you are interested in this important volunteer committee opportunity, please call Barbry Hogue at 303-665-3798.
Ms. Avallone's classes need copies of A Catcher in the Rye and The Poisonwood Bible for English students to read. Students will be able to return the books later this spring if you would like them back. The English Department would, of course, appreciate donations for future years too! Please contact Ms. Avallone if you have books to share.
Coach Adams will be hold the first informational meeting on Tuesday, April 17 in the Summit library, at 7:00 PM, for his upcoming trip to Kenya and Kilimanjaro. This once in a lifetime adventure will take place around the third week in July 2002. The kids will witness the great migration of the animals, meet Masai tribes, trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro and experience 10 days of breathtaking adventures in beautiful Kenya.
This will be Coach A's fourth trip to Kenya and his 17th visit to a foreign country. The students will enjoy first class amenities on this safe, amazing dream journey.
It's time to spring into action for the spring musical! Summit Middle School's production of Bye Bye Birdie will be performed at Boulder High School on Saturday, May 12, and Friday, May 18. Students are working hard in rehearsals, but we need to support them with:
Thank you for your support!
Thanks to Diana Falloon for proctoring the Spanish exam and to Mary Boulet, Janet Christensen, and Joan Jacus for proctoring the National French exam. Our great appreciation goes to Kathleen Inman for taking on the task of compiling and bundling all the CSAP materials for return to the district.
Our library volunteers are terrific individuals who dedicate their time to keeping the library open longer hours for student use. They should realize how appreciated they are! We are always in need of more parents to volunteer in the library. Please contact Juliane McMurtrey, Summit's librarian, to arrange for a brief overview on how the library functions and the many volunteer tasks you could help with. Call her at Summit or e-mail her at: Juilane_McMurtrey@ceo.cudenver.edu.
We are also in dire need of volunteers to help with lunchtime supervision. Now that the weather is nice, more students are spending their lunch period outside. Lunch is from 11:45 to 12:30 each day, and you will have the benefit of spending this time outside in the sunshine with our vivacious students. Do you have a spare lunch hour to help? Please call Julie Dotson at 303-499-8749 or e-mail her at: julia_dotson@stortek.com. Even a commitment to one day every two weeks would be helpful.
Just ask any one of our hardworking, smiling volunteers who do snack line -- Anne Horlbeck, Irene Reese, Joan Jacus and Mary Carole Smartt -- or our ever popular "pizza ladies" -- Eva Gurne, Debbie Feyh, Pamela Phillips, Lynne Jacobs, Lucy Buckley, Audrey Block, Jenny Evans, and Carol Pahlke, who interact with and feed our ravenous students.
It really is entertaining to watch our students interact with each other at this age. Our presence lets them know we care about them. Although some may not act as though they want a parent hanging around, volunteering really is a great opportunity to stay plugged into their lives!
As you do your spring-cleaning, be sure to consider bringing books you no longer need to The Bookworm used bookstore at Iris and 28th. The credit you receive for the books bought from you can be credited to the Summit account! This is a painless way to help us continue to build our library collection.
And let's give a round of applause to all those students who took part in the bookmark contest. There were some wonderful entries!
Well, nobody guessed that the staff member who:
As a member of an orchestra, played at the Lincoln Center in New York City and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.? And he also played in the MahlerFest VIII at Mackey in Boulder.
was ... Mr. Goldhaber!
Here's this week's question. Which staff member:
Beat his/her entire sixth-grade class and most of the high school he/she went to in Mexico, at arm-wrestling. This person is also an Australian citizen.
Take a guess but certainly do not mess with this strong-armed staff member. Email your guess to tomwhiteoc@earthlink.net and win your treat at the school store!
Congratulations! Caitlin Smith took fourth place at the District level of competition for individual History Day exhibits. This makes her an alternate to compete at the State level. Her project, Charles Hamilton Houston: the Frontier of Equality, describes Houston's role in the Civil Rights Movement, Brown vs. the Board of Education, and Howard University. All of the Summit History Day entries were excellent, reports Ms. Kapsak.
Congratulations to Hildur Boylston, Mara Meaney-Ervin, Alana Riksheim and Madeline Rovira. They designed an innovative approach to reducing air pollution using a tailpipe filter. Their Big Idea qualified them as one of 3 Regional finalists selected by Bayer-NSF (National Science Foundation) this year. They now compete against 30 finalists nationwide. Way to go!
Congratulations to Tovë Smith, who will represent Summit and BVSD at the State Science Fair. Heather and Sean Manley also represented Summit at the District Science Fair. Thank you to all Science Fair participants for your dedication and hard work!
Don't forget to see the artwork of eight talented Summit students who will be showing their artwork in the art exhibition "Earth's Glory" at NCAR Galleries 1 and 2 from April 1 to April 27. The closing reception is from 3:30 to 5 PM on April 27. Participating students are: Carrie Davis, Ruth Jacobs, Elaine Atcheson, Linden Majack, Lara Brown, Katia Heinzman, Lindsay Bailey, Tanya Goldhaber.
A brand-new pair of GAP Cargo Khaki pants (size 14 slim) were lost on March 20 in the boys' locker room at Summit while the boys were getting ready for their volleyball game. Please check to see if you picked these pants up inadvertently. Call Patti and Jason Eckstein at 303-440-7475 if you locate them. Thanks!
Prospective students and families interested in Summit are invited to join a Summit tour at 8:10 AM on April 10 or May 8. Tours last approximately 45 minutes. At the end of each tour, there is time for questions and answers. Also, if you know of families interested in finding out more about Summit, have them call the office at 303-499-9511 to receive a brochure and other Summit information.
Be part of the Summit contingent in this year's Memorial Day Bolder Boulder 10k run (or walk). We want to have a big turnout to represent our school for the Middle School Challenge! Pick up your entry form on the table outside the school office and start jogging!
The Boulder Conservatory Theater, the resident youth theater company at the Dairy, will present the play The Miracle Worker this month. This local theater presentation features student actors from 20 local schools as well as home-schooled performers from the ages of 9 to 17 years. Shows are on April 13-14, 20-21, and 27-28 at 7:30 PM and April 22 at 2;00 PM. Call 303-444-1885 for reservations and information.
The Integrated Teaching & Learning Program at CU is offering a great summer program to help curious 11- to 13-year-olds find out how things work. These programs each cost $85.
Session I: A class just for girls! WHEN: June 18-22, M-F, 9-12 (Friday until 1pm) WHO: 11-13 year-old girls (completed 5th grade)
Session II: For boys and girls! WHEN: July 30-Aug 3, M-F, 9-12 (Friday until 1pm) WHO: 11-13 year olds (must have completed 5th grade)
For information, please contact: ITL Outreach Coordinator Janet Yowell: E-mail: janet.yowell@colorado.edu Phone: 303-492-5230 or 492-7222 Web Site: http://itll.colorado.edu
The North Boulder Recreation Center hosts Friday Night Live, an open house for youth 9 to 14 years old, from 7 to 10:30 PM on Fridays. This week's activites include Name the Game, dance contests, and a hockey tourney. For more information, call the Rec Center at 303-413-7260 or go to www.fnl-nites.com.
Order your copy of the Summit Yearbook today. Bring a check for $20 to the school office. Orders must be in by May 1 to guarantee this price.
To all your woes from head to toes, for hair berets or feeding pets, the answer is ... Grocery Certificates!
And once again, to make it even easier to discover how wonderful grocery certificates really are, we will be selling King Soopers grocery certificates in the Summit parking lot from 2:50 to 3:10 PM Thursday afternoons.
So, bring your money and look for the parent volunteers with the signs. They know the answer to your question: "Grocery Certificates!"
As always, you can also stop by the Summit office to purchase your grocery certificates. If you can't make it to the office, call Joan Jacus at 303-499-3013. Joan will make arrangements to get grocery certificates to you. Thanks for supporting Summit with this ongoing fundraiser.
Thanks to an unnamed faculty member who submitted this week's true life Summit story.
An anonymous teacher reports that two sixth-grade girls were recently playing around in her class. When she told them to keep their hands to themselves, one girl responded immediately with the excuse, "But her arm got caught in my ear!"
There you have it. Talk about giving someone an earful! Students and staff, please continue to send humorous and printable material that you've heard around the school to: tomwhiteoc@earthlink.net.
The next deadline for submissions to Summit News is April 16. Articles may be sent to Tom White-O'Connor at tomwhiteoc@earthlink.net or left in Tom's file folder in the Summit office.
Check out the interesting website created by Summit librarian, Juilane McMurtrey. It is full of useful information and research resources on a wide variety of topics. The website address is: www.bvsd.k12.co.us/schools/summitlibrary/SMSLhome.htm
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/univ_school/summit/
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Call 303-938-9090
Faculty Extensions:
English Department Wed. 3:10 - 4:00, Rms. 107 & 108
Foreign Language Department
Music Department Mon. and Wed. 3:10 - 4:00
Math Department
Science Department Mondays 3:10 - 4:00
Social Studies Department