April 20, 2001
Volume 11, No. 7
The next regular Board meetings will be on April 30, May 14, June 4 and June 18, 2001, all at 7 PM in the Summit Library.
The Hiring Committee had its first meeting on April 19. So, the process of recruiting candidates, reviewing resumes and applications, observing teaching demonstrations, conducting interviews, and making hiring recommendations to the Summit Board has begun for this hiring "season".
We've had excellent response to the call for volunteers to help with hiring. However, there's always room for more and plenty of tasks to go around! If you are interested in participating on the hiring committee, please call Barbry Hogue at 303-665-3798.
More than 50 parents, teachers and staff attended the Summit Annual Community Meeting on Wednesday, April 18. Following introductions of board and faculty members, Dr. Sharon Sikora recited a litany of the honors achieved by Summit students in a wide range of disciplines over the course of the current school year. More than three dozen of our students have been recognized for academic excellence - as usual!
Tom Mahowald, who has volunteered to coordinate fundraising for Summit, gave a refreshing analysis of need and return on investment, pointing out that there is absolutely NO administrative load on the funds raised by Summit via Tools for Learning. Every penny goes directly to respond to real needs.
The many Summit volunteers - parents, staff and faculty - were then briefly recognized, with a special round of applause for Julie Dotson, our inimitable Parent Volunteer Connection chair who leads by example.
Jim Cederberg then summarized the history of Summit's charter contract and the charter renewal process. After reviewing the numerous unacceptable provisions of the contract offered Summit: decreased funding, site restrictions and uncertainty, continued enrollment cap, interference in Summit's course offerings, and more - he then gave an overview of Summit's appeal to the State Board of Education. "We are not going to sell out our school," he said. The appeal was filed on April 12, and Cederberg suggested that as many families as possible attend the appeal hearing.
Hunter McDaniel then explained Amendment 23, which underlies the State Education Fund. He described this as "a whole new pool of funding for our schools." Charter schools, like Summit, which have construction projects planned, will receive $312 per pupil for this purpose next year.
Finally, Barbry Hogue explained the nature and importance of the recent BVSD redistricting and the upcoming board elections. Julie Phillips, Jean Bonelli and Stan Garnett are all up for reelection. Candidates must live within the district they represent. Consult the map at school.
The questions during open discussion were perceptive and demonstrated genuine concern for the school. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Parents and music students, the school year is quickly coming to an end. Please mark these dates on your calendar.
Jazz Bands 1, 2, and 3 will be performing their last concert on Wednesday, May 16, in the multi-purpose room at Summit.
Select Strings and Orchestra will perform on Thursday, May 17, at the Academy, a retirement community located at 970 Aurora Avenue. The entrance is on the 10th Street side. Maps to the Academy will be coming home along with student trip permission slips in May.
Choir, Starlight and Silver Rain will do their last performance of the school year on Thursday, May 24, also at the Academy.
All performances will begin at 7 PM. We will be recording these concerts. Please plan on attending!
Summit's Music Department would like to express its deepest thanks for allocations from Tools for Learning for the new cellos bought for the school and the Artist Jazz Studio Deagan Vibraphone (valued at $4,000; purchased for $1,500!!). Thank you, Summit Board and Summit parents and community, for your generous support for the best music program in Colorado (in spite of BVSD's refusal to allow us to even build an auditorium!).
Summit 6th graders will be firing off their catapults on April 26 as part of their study of the Early Middle Ages. This is the Third Annual Summit Catapult Competition. Parents are invited to observe and duck!
We have two winners this week! Both Becky Olstad and Dawn White-O'Connor guessed correctly that, none other than ...
Ms. Hanckel - beat her entire sixth-grade class and most of the high school she went to in Mexico, at arm-wrestling. She is also an Australian citizen.
How do you like that? Girls rule! ... and don't even think about talking back to Ms. Hanckel.
Becky and Dawn can head to Ms. Mesinger at the office to get a free certificate to the school store.
This week's question is …
... Guess which member of our staff suffered through THIS embarrassing moment?!? Just before starting the first semester of college, he/she was getting out of his/her car near campus when along came an older man on a motorscooter. The motorscooter collided with the open door of the car and sent its rider flying, to end up sprawled on the pavement nearby. The college student was quick to point out to the motorscooter rider that the collision was clearly and entirely his fault. Now, imagine the student's dismay upon walking into her/his first college class to find the professor was … Mr. Motorscooter! … whereupon this future Summit staffer slunk out of the classroom and promptly dropped the class!
We should all be glad that Summit students aren't driving yet! E-mail your guess about who this young college student turned out to be to <tomwhiteoc@earthlink.net> and win your treat at the school store!
Five Summit students: Robert Glissman, Katherine Herman, Thatcher Heumann, Clark Patton, and Tovë Smith, were among the students who represented Boulder Valley School District at the State Science Fair held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins April 12-15.
Robert Glissman placed 3rd in the Engineering category and received a special award from the National Renewable Energy Center of $100 and a certificate. Katherine Herman received an Honorable Mention in Environmental Sciences and received a special award from the American Meteorology Society and a $50 Barnes & Noble gift certificate. Thatcher Heumann placed 2nd in Earth and Space Science and received three special awards: a $50 Barnes & Noble gift certificate from the American Meteorological Society, a Colorado Geologic Survey award of $75 and a plaque, and $100 and a plaque from the National Geophysical Data Center. Clark Patton placed first in Environmental Sciences and received a special award from the Rocky Mountain Water Environment Society of a $100 savings bond and a certificate. He also was awarded the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge, which includes a nomination for the national competition.
Robert, Thatcher, and Clark represented 3 of the 5 total prize winners from Boulder Valley School District in the Junior Division. Dr. Sikora accompanied the students to support them during the judging day and at the awards ceremony. Our principal, Ms. Grove, cheered on the troops at the awards ceremony. Congratulations for these incredible achievements! And congratulations to all the Summit students who participated in Science Fair!
On Tuesday, May 31 from 7-9 PM. come celebrate student achievements in science. Enjoy an evening of hands-on, interactive science, hosted by Summit 8th graders. Technology purchased with the S.H.I.N.E. grant from the Toshiba Foundation will be used. Parents of 8th grade students are especially encouraged to attend, and all parents are invited. More details about this evening will follow in a future newsletter issue.
Students and parents, Student Council is sponsoring a school dance on Friday, May 4. The theme for the dance is "Spring Fling" and it will take place from 3:15 PM to 5 PM in the multipurpose room. There will be a live DJ. Pizza, candy, other foods, and soda will be for sale. Admission is $2.00. Thank you, Student Council, for organizing this dance!
Chaperones are needed for the "Spring Fling". Please call Student Council Mom Roxy Walker 303-938-8962 as soon as possible to let her know if you can "spring" forward for this volunteer opportunity.
Tickets for Bye Bye Birdie will be on sale the week of May 7. We will be selling them every morning 7:55-8:10, during lunch and at 3:00 -3:30. We will accept cash or checks. Sorry, no credit cards. Tickets also will be sold at the door, the night of the show.
Just a reminder -- Bye Bye Birdie will be performed at Boulder High School Saturday, May 12 and Friday, May 18, at 7PM both dates. We hope to see you there!
At Summit, accommodations to meet the needs of gifted and talented students are built into the curriculum and course offerings at all levels. While gifted and talented students may be identified for district reporting purposes, programming for the needs of the gifted is available to all students who can benefit from it, with individual concerns addressed on an "as needed" basis. Summit offers ability grouping and opportunities for acceleration, a broad range of enrichment activities and programs, and compaction and differentiation of the curriculum for students who desire or need it. Counseling groups and mentoring for social-emotional needs are also available.
If you would like to know more about gifted and talented education at Summit, please call Ms. Bartley in the counseling office. Also, copies of the Summit gifted and talented education policy are available in the office.
The Boulder Valley School District has issued a handbook for the parents of gifted and talented students. Copies of the handbook are available in the Summit office, or online at http://bvsd.k12.co.us/tag/tag.html. The publication offers information on giftedness and gifted education, as well as a friendly, common sense approach to supporting gifted students in the home, school, and community.
Prospective students and families interested in Summit are invited to join a Summit tour at 8:10 AM on May 8. The tour will last approximately 45 minutes. At the end of the 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.
Have you filled out your entry form for the Bolder Boulder yet? Not yet you say? Uh, ohh ... Ms. Blakemore wants to talk to you, in Spanish or English, or both. In either language, the message will be the same. She is kind but firm on this one. She wants to get a BIG, as in GRANDE, contingent from Summit to participate in this fun event. You don't have to be a runner. You can even have bad knees and be fairly out of shape. You can bring something to read if you find the idea of traveling 6 miles by foot kind of boring. You can walk, jog, skip, take breaks, whatever. You just have to sign up on the entry form, which can be found outside the office on the table in the hall, and do it!
So be part of the Summit contingent in this year's Memorial Day Bolder Boulder 10k run (or walk) on May 28. It's fun, and it will make Ms. Blakemore muy feliz!
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. For more information, call the Rec Center at 303-413-7260 or go to www.fnl-nites.com.
Spring-clean your home or office to help teachers, students and nonprofits in Boulder County.
DONORS: Drop off your reusable items from 11AM to 1 PM on April 22. Items must be clean and in good working condition. You will receive a tax-deductible receipt.
Items needed ~ file folders, copy paper, office supplies, calculators, adding machines, plastic storage boxes, chairs, white boards, bulletin boards, floor lamps, small refrigerators, TVs, VCRs, art supplies, tape recorders, kitchen appliances, clipboards, stools, 2-drawer file cabinets, fabric, gardening materials, microwave ovens, rolling carts, children's books, dictionaries, bookcases, any bilingual materials, and more!
Items not needed (because we already have enough to give away) ~ computers, hanging file folders, note cards, mouse pads, 3-ring binders, modems, science lab materials, and children toys.
VOLUNTEERS: Volunteers needed from 9 AM to 6PM on Sunday, April 22. We need as many enthusiastic, hard working, fun people as possible to help unload the trailer, arrange donation,s and assist educators picking up items. Food, drink, and (hopefully) sunscreen will be provided.
EDUCATORS: Celebrate Earth Day and the generosity of our community donors! Come and get it!! Sunday April 22, 2001, at Roche Colorado, 2075 North 55th Street, Boulder, from 1-5 PM.
No early birds, no kidding. We cannot hold items so please be prepared with your own transportation. Thank you.
QUESTIONS: Please contact The Adopt A School Program and EXTRAs! for education at 303-823-9460, or catherine@adoptaschoolprogram.com
This event is brought to you by the Adopt A School Program and EXTRAs! for education, Western Disposal Services, and Roche Colorado.
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.
No poetry this time, just the simple facts. A recent study reported in JAMA (the Journal of Amazing Medical hAppenings) has shown that purchasing grocery certificates reduces the risk of cancer and many other ailments in parents who purchase them. It makes sense if you think about it. So think about it and then actually go and purchase some of them and you will see how great they make you feel!
And once again, to make it even easier to discover how wonderful (and healthy) 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 healthy 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, who can attest to the benefits of buying grocery certificates, will make arrangements to get grocery certificates to you. Thanks for supporting Summit with this ongoing fundraiser.
This could be the ultimate universal student comment!!
"I need to see Mrs. Bartley about this class ... my grade! ... my behavior!"
Please send other humorous, and printable, material that you've heard around the school to: tomwhiteoc@earthlink.net.
A first grade teacher gave her class the first half of some common proverbs and asked the students to fill in the last part. Enjoy!
If you are not receiving your newsletter via e-mail and wish to, or if you would like the newsletter sent to a different or an additional electronic address, simply send a message to marthagorman@att.net. Electronic distribution is fast, easy and saves postage and trees. What a deal!
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
The next deadline for submissions to Summit News is April 30. Articles may be sent to Tom White-O'Connor at tomwhiteoc@earthlink.net or left in Tom's file folder in the Summit office.
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/univ_school/summit/
If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day, how come nothing in the store is free yet?
Call 303-938-9090
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