August 30, 2001
Volume 12, No. 2
Please note revised date! Summit's Back To School Night for parents will be held on Thursday, September 6, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. A brief opening session in the multipurpose room will be followed by informative meetings with teachers in the classrooms. The program is tightly scheduled, so please arrive by 6:20 PM to receive information for the sessions for the remainder of the evening. We look forward to seeing you there.
All Summit students will be treated to a celebration of the German tradition Oktoberfest during lunchtime on Friday, September 21! This day is a BVSD inservice day at other schools, so there won't be cafeteria hot lunch served that day. See below for more Oktoberfest details.
All regular Summit Board meetings are public meetings and we invite members of our community to attend at any time. During the first semester, regular Board meetings will be held on September 10 and 24, October 8 and 22, November 5 and 19, December 3 and 17, and January 7 and 22. Meetings begin at 7:00 PM and are held in Summit's library unless otherwise noted.
The new school year is up and running and we're off to a great start! I have been so impressed with the students here at Summit. They are friendly, courteous and clearly determined to work hard and do well with their studies. I hope everyone has enjoyed the opening days of school and I look forward to a great year.
I would like to thank the parent volunteers who have been so instrumental in getting the school in shape. From serving food to painting and cleaning to moving furniture to putting together information packets to helping with scheduling, their help has been invaluable. We could not be the great school we are without parents helping with so many important tasks.
You have probably noticed the improvements being made to Table Mesa Road between Broadway and Moorhead Avenue. This project is estimated to last 4 months (gulp!). During construction, traffic will be reduced to two lanes, one in each direction. Side street access to Table Mesa will be limited during construction. The project will include street repairs and improvements to existing bicycle, pedestrian and transit facilities, such as additional pedestrian crossings and traffic signals and creation of on-street bike lanes. (For more information call 303-441-3266.) It sounds like the end result is going to be very nice but in the meantime it is pretty messy out there. Due to the construction, please allow more time in the mornings and afternoons when dropping off and picking up your children. Remember: Safety always comes first.
Due to the high volume of schedule change requests made during the first few weeks of school, we ask that you do not call or visit the counseling office to request a schedule change. Instead, please make your request in writing, be sure a parent signs it, and submit it to the office staff. If there is a problem with granting your request, Ms. Bartley, the counselor, will get back to you or your student. Otherwise, your student's new printed schedule with the requested change will be delivered to your student at school. Core course change requests will be processed first, and elective course change requests last. Due to scheduling conflicts and the need to balance class sizes and teacher loads, schedule change requests cannot always be granted. We thank you for your patience while waiting for the schedule change requests to be processed.
Mr. Finell, Summit's new principal, was born and raised in southern California. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science. He did his graduate work in education at the University of Southern California and at Hebrew Union College, both in Los Angeles. Mr. Finell earned a Master of Science in Education with a focus on Curriculum Design and Instruction from USC and a Master of Arts in Education from Hebrew Union College. Prior to joining Summit's staff Mr. Finell had been the principal at three independent schools, located in California and in Colorado, over the past 20 years. He also has experience as Chief Operating Officer of a media relations company in Denver. He moved to Colorado from California in 1994 with his wife, Dorey, and their three boys - Arieh, Etan, and Benjamin.
Ms. Dornbush is a Colorado native, graduating from George Washington High School in Denver where she took classes in the IB program and from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She started at CU as a kinesiology major but soon switched to humanities and fine arts. Her primary area of emphasis in her art studies was photography, but she also studied ceramics, drawing, painting, and sculpture. In addition, she has a special interest in graphic design using sophisticated computer-based techniques. While growing up, Ms. Dornbush was a competitive ski racer, played soccer, swam, played tennis, and was a varsity volleyball player. She taught swim lessons for six years and coached ski racing as well as competitive snowboarding for five years. She welcomes the opportunity to teach both Art and P.E. at Summit, as both interests are integral parts of who she is. She is enjoying the Summit community and looks forward to meeting her students' families.
Ms. Elmoudden grew up in Morocco where she completed the International Baccalaureate program and was accepted to University of Lille in France. After spending a year studying Biology and Chemistry, she transferred to the U.S. where she continued her studies in Computer Science and Telecommunications. Prior to joining Summit, Ms. Elmoudden worked as a consultant and a trainer in the IT and Telecommunications industries. She gained experience in call center, e-CRM, e-commerce, web development, technology and business management, with a recent focus on e-learning management and web delivery training. Her consulting jobs enabled her to live in different states as well as in various countries: Australia, England, Mexico, Canada, Scotland, Costa Rica, and France. Ms. Elmoudden is married to Huascar Ascarrunz and is the proud mother of a baby boy named Mayta. With the birth of her son, Ms. Elmoudden decided to quit the consulting life and focus on her family. To Ms. Elmoudden, working at Summit presents an opportunity to combine her interest in technology/programming with her love for children. In her spare time Ms. Elmoudden volunteers in the Boulder Mental Health Center and enjoys Boulder's outdoors with her husband and son.
In her autobiography, My Life Story, written at age 12, Ms. Kolanowski aspired to be either a nuclear physicist or a fashion designer. She did not then recognize that the union of the cosmic and the cosmetic is (of course) poetry and for years she wandered Pennsylvania's valleys in search of enlightenment. Not until she enrolled in a creative writing workshop at Carnegie Mellon University did she realize that the poems she had been writing could mean something. She dropped calculus, avoided all seminars on artificial intelligence, won two awards for her poetry, edited Carnegie Mellon's literary journal, and was named an Academic All-American in cross country.
The particulars of Ms. Kolanowski's life after college are somewhat unclear, but it is known that: (1) she moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Antitrust Division; (2) she was a reliable, though not always agile, member of the Justice Department's softball team; and (3) she developed an unnatural fear of law school, which led her to apply to graduate programs in English. In 1996, Ms. Kolanowski moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she spent mornings drinking coffee and writing poetry, afternoons studying Latin, and evenings congregating with others of like ilk. While at the University of Michigan she won the Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry, given to a graduate student whose poetry emphasizes the "new, the unusual, and the radical" -- words Ms. Kolanowski finds a bit limiting. To support her café-latte habit, she began teaching writing courses and soon discovered that she loved teaching more than coffee.
After receiving her MFA in 1998, she returned to her native Pennsylvania and taught composition and literature at King's College, Marywood University, and the University of Scranton while continuing to work on her writing. In 2000, she had poems published in CutBank and Spinning Jenny. Ms. Kolanowski recently moved to Colorado, where she's enjoying the spruce and aspen of Nederland along with her persnickety Gordon setter, Tess.
Mr. Liebowitz earned his B.A. in English from Columbia University in 1999. A voracious reader throughout his life, he focused on 19th century American literature and Shakespearean drama in school. For the past year he worked as an instructional designer, developing curricula for nurses and other health care professionals. He bounced between Washington, D.C., and Brussels, Belgium, when he was growing up, which gave him a unique perspective on societal interactions from being a part of two different cultures. He also enjoyed the unique role of both insider and outsider in each country. Mr. Liebowitz is also an avid runner. He placed third in the USATF New England Championships and has run a mile in 4:06. Mr. Liebowitz is excited to start his teaching career at Summit and he hopes to learn as much from his students as they will learn from him.
Mr. Walpole grew up in the mountains west of Denver where he developed a love of Western American history and wildlife. After completing a B.A. at Adams State College in southern Colorado, he headed north to Wyoming to work on a Master's Degree in 19th Century Western American History. Awarded an internship at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, he spent the summer of 1997 researching the basis of his now published thesis and worked part time as a wildlife photographer in and around Yellowstone National Park. Mr. Walpole has taught students ranging from pre-school to college and most recently moved from Bennett High School to work at Summit. In March 2001, Adams State College established the Kyle V. Walpole Scholarship Endowment to provide financial assistance to other students who demonstrate academic excellence in their studies. Boulder provides a perfect location where Mr. Walpole will continue to pursue his hobbies of hiking and rock climbing. Along with his hearing dog Max, he is looking forward to an exciting teaching experience at Summit!
Charlotte Gray, a British poet, once wrote, "The organized soul has one book beside the bed. The glutton sleeps with a New York skyline lurching an inch from the bed." Throughout her life, from her early years in Stuttgart, Arkansas, during her college years at Rhodes College in Memphis, and during the years she spent in Baltimore in graduate school and as a librarian at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Ms. Woods always had a stack of books like a New York skyline next to her bed. She says, "I love to read!" That's one reason why she is excited about being Summit's librarian. She also enjoys teaching other people how to find the information they need, and is looking forward to working with Summit's students. The other activity that she really enjoys is painting. She especially likes to paint landscapes from places she has traveled and beautiful flowers that she has seen. Ms. Woods now lives in Boulder with her husband, two children (both are Summit students), a Boston terrier, a Siamese cat, and lots of books!
All World History students have taken home the sequence of units for their 6th grade year, with classroom policies and procedures on the back. We hope this document escaped backpack death, and that you have received it by now. The incoming class of pixies looks wonderful to us, and we are beginning our work with great enthusiasm!
As you are reading this, pixies will be experiencing an elegant cruise which deteriorates into a lifeboat experience leading to several perilous days stranded on a desert island. Their coping skills, survival skills and cooperative experiences will be windows into the reasons why we have laws and government at all. Dinner conversation may change at your house! We look forward to seeing you at Back to School night, where duplicate copies of the document mentioned above will be available. We join with you in gratitude for wonderful young people as they set sail for high seas at Summit!!
The Summit community is pleased to welcome two German teaching interns to our school who are completing their education as language instructors. They are Anita Schnell and Maria Lindner, and they will be visiting for about a month. Anita and Maria will be volunteering to assist our faculty in a variety of classes and observing our instructional methods as they prepare for eventual positions student teaching somewhere abroad for an entire year. They will be staying with Summit host families during their visit, as well. Other Summit families that may wish to include Anita and Maria in activities are encouraged to invite them over for dinner or a weekend outing, so as to make their stay with us even more rewarding. If your family is interested in such a visit with one or both of them, call Joan Jacus at (303) 499-3013.
On the subject of our German interns, we would like to give them a big send off with an all-school Oktoberfest lunch! To make this happen, we need some volunteer families to help organize the event. We'll also need a tent or shade tent for the court yard, extra benches and tables, grills, etc. Please contact Tony Striffler at Summit or Debbie Feyh at 303-543-8646 if you would like to help.
On August 28, 2001, Matanya Horowitz, an 8th grader at Summit, was awarded the Eagle Rank, the highest rank in Boy Scouting. For his Eagle project, Matanya created and taught a community-based class in conversational Hebrew. He has earned more than 25 merit badges and attended a Junior Leadership Conference in Wyoming this summer. Matanya is a member of Boy Scout Troop 72, as are several current Summit students (and Summit graduates).
All of us associated with Troop 72 are very proud of Matanya and impressed with his accomplishments, especially for earning the Eagle Rank before reaching high school!
-- Ernie Eason, Scoutmaster, Troop 72
The Showers To Go! project, the brainchild of Summit's own Julia Hansford, has been a tremendous success. This project, inspired last year by a discussion in Ms. Kapsak's World History class of how much money it takes for a homeless person to maintain personal grooming, was featured in the Summer 2001 issue of the newsletter of the Outreach United Resource Center in Longmont. Ms. Kapsak helped Julia create this project to collect grooming items such as shampoo, soap, shavers, combs and brushes, toothpaste, tissues and lotion. Packed in cloth bags, 92 of these grooming kits were donated to the O.U.R. Center. To Julia and her classmates who helped -- thanks for your caring and compassion!
We are very fortunate that Sally Benjamin and Risa Heywood have agreed to co-chair Summit's Parent Volunteer Connection (PVC) for the 2001-02 school year. Thank you and congratulations to these dedicated parent volunteers! They both know Summit well and are ready to coordinate the matching of needs for volunteer help with the time and skills many of you have already offered. Which now brings us to ...
Thank you to all of the families who have already returned their volunteer surveys. If you haven't yet completed your survey to indicate how you are able to provide volunteer support this year, please return it to the Summit office as soon as possible. We are using volunteers in many capacities already and will find a way to make good use of your volunteer skills. If you need another copy of the form, please stop by the office to pick one up.
Most elective classes at Summit are attended every other day. Each day is designated as an "A" or a "B" day. An "A" day is always followed by a "B" day on the next day classes are held, even if there are weekend or vacation days in between.
Our wonderful parents have done it again! Through another incredible team effort, many small and large projects were completed this summer to make the school ready for students this fall. The accomplishments include:
Wow! Thanks to all of our fabulous volunteers :-) !!
We stopped, but did we finish? There are still some big projects on the horizon. The new portable needs steps off the landing. The front of the school will have a hard-surface walkway under the eaves to the gym and from the lunchroom to the picnic tables. An outside privacy wall will be built for the girl's locker room. The multi-purpose room two-tone wall needs filling and painting. The gravel next to the basketball court still spills onto the court; to alleviate this problem a different retaining wall needs to be devised. Be watching for the next work party dates.
Our dream of an outside courtyard of picnic tables has remained just that, a dream. We had hoped to expand the lunchroom eating spaces outside but have had only one picnic table donated so far. We are checking prices for purchase of more tables so students can enjoy a beautiful Colorado lunch break outside. Contact Debbie Feyh (543-8646) if you would like to help with the work on any of these projects.
The district was busy this summer giving some TLC to our facility. The outdoor basketball courts were resealed, additional gravel and a retaining wall were added. Both portables and steps were painted. A new drainage system was created between the building and the portables to prevent winter ice buildup. The falling ceiling tiles in the multi-purpose room were removed to reveal a beautiful wood ceiling. The electrical wiring on the new ceiling was reworked to make it safe. Deb Mercer and Rosa, our terrific custodial staff, worked many hours on cleaning to get the school off to a bright new start. It is a huge job for only 1.5 time staff to cover and they have both done a fine job with the cleaning and in-house maintenance.
We appreciate the district projects to keep our facility safe and beautiful for our public school students at Summit! Please pass on your thanks to the district and our local staff.
Our new Art teacher, Ms. Dornbush, is in need of an oversized paper cutter for use in preparing materials for her students. If you happen to have a LARGE paper cutter that you can donate, please contact Ms. Dornbush at Summit by calling the Summit office at 303-499-9511. Thank you!
You and your students are now seeing for yourselves the fine results of the recent hiring season that has brought excellent new teachers to the Summit faculty.
This critically important part of our responsibility as a charter school simply could not happen without the extraordinary efforts and dedication of the parents and staff members who serve on the Hiring Committee. We observed and interviewed more than a dozen prospective candidates for the positions now filled and sorted through many times that number in applications, inquiries, e-mails, etc.
This year's hiring committee was incredible, and each and every member deserves recognition when you talk with them. Risa Heywood went above and beyond in her stellar capacity as Hiring Committee Co-Chair! Many, many thanks to Anne Horlbeck and Cathy Woods who worked tirelessly as a team to recruit student volunteers for the demonstration classes -- perhaps the most demanding assignment of all! Shelly Hendrick, Mindy Logan, and Kathy Reims conducted reference checks on all interviewees.
Last but not least, the parents and teachers who gave of their time to observe and interview candidates made it all possible - Sally Benjamin, Ron Goldfarb, Terry Grupp, Risa Heywood, Lori Jones, Tom Mahowald, Ann McCormick, Ashley O'Connor, Linda Parkhill, Betsy Phelan, Amanda Avallone, Sam Havens, Cheryle Kapsak, Patrick McGarrity, and Sharon Sikora. THANK YOU ALL!
The number of current Summit students and graduates who helped with our teacher hiring process during the spring and summer is absolutely phenomenal -- more than 70! We are very fortunate to have students who are interested in making an important contribution for themselves and their fellow students by participating in teacher candidate demonstration classes. We believe you'll be as impressed as we are to read through this list! Names of students who helped with more than one demonstration class are indicated with an asterisk. The Summit Hiring Committee extends very special thanks and our sincere appreciation to:
Hannah Alpert*, Daniel Beylkin*, Emma Benjamin*, Jessi Boulet, Devin Brandt*, Lisa Brownstone, Laura D'Ippolito*, Michelle D'Ippolito*, Thomas Davids, Alan DeGrand, Erin Dotson, Race Engbar, Nathan Ertz*, Rachel Ertz*, Joy Fest, Lukas Feyh, Markus Feyh*, Allison Filderman*, Ali Fuhrman, Mia Fuhrman, Tanya Goldhaber*, Anna Goldhammer, Sarah Goldstein*, Julia Hansford, Deborah Harrington*, Katia Heinzman, Amanda Heywood*, Rebecca Heywood*, Elise Hogue*, Brittany Horlbeck*, Will Horlbeck*, Morgan Horton*, Cassie Houtz, Michael Huffman*, Matt Inman, Ruth Jacobs, Sydney Jacus, Michelle Jakaitis, Carrie Jones, Lauren Kelley*, Matt Ketellapper, Christine Klatman, Abby Lewis*, Annie Lewis, Kyle Loftus, Maegan Luce, Mark Mahowald*, Nora McDaniel*, Starin McKeen, Anna Meiners*, Matt Metzger, D.C. Mungo*, Eric Pahlke, Andrea Parkhill*, Geoff Parkhill*, Colin Peterson, Maureen Reynolds, Paul Reynolds*, Alana Riksheim, Meghan Robertie, Nick Schwartz, Betsy Smartt, Caitlin Smith*, Tim Smith, Michelle Sparks, Jesse Thurston, Josh Volkman*, Madison Walker, Sarah Walker, Tracy Wilson, Alex Woods*, and Emily Woods*.
Summit's 2001 yearbook, The Hall, is in the final stages of preparation for printing. A fall distribution date allows activities all the way through graduation to be included. We will let students know just as soon as the books are available. Last year's yearbook staff will contact 2001 graduates to make arrangements to distribute their yearbooks at an after-school reunion get together.
There is a very easy way to support Summit's ongoing fundraiser -- by purchasing grocery certificates! They are available in $25 increments and can be used at Safeway and King Soopers as well as at other local grocery stores. These grocery certificates are available for purchase by stopping by the office or by calling Joan Jacus at 303-499-3013. For those of you who shop at Albertson's, give Joan a call for information about the Albertson's "Community Partner" program. Just scan your Community Partner card each time you make a purchase at Albertsons, and a percentage of that purchase price comes directly to Summit. Thanks for supporting Summit as you feed your family!
Due to a shortage of food service staff, we aren't yet able to offer hot lunch service to our Summit students. If you are interested in applying for a daily, part-time position to make sure our students have this option for lunch, please call BVSD Food Services at 303-447-1010.
To save on both paper and the cost of postage, we would like to deliver electronically as many copies of the Summit News as possible. Please send an e-mail message to Tom Mahowald at <tmahowald@idc.com> if you prefer to receive future issues of Summit News by e-mail.
Families and students are reminded that there is a convenient RTD bus stop on Table Mesa Drive, just a block north of Summit. Special reduced rate twelve-month RTD passes for students are available at a cost of $62.50 for the year by contacting RTD at 303-299-6464. A new pass is mailed directly to the student each month, and the program extends through the summer months as well.
To take a look at back issues of Summit News as well as a wide variety of information about Summit and links to other charter school and education information, refer to Summit's website via the new, improved, easier website address: <http://www.summitmiddleschool.org>
This is an exciting and practical class designed for students in grades 6-12 gain success in school by learning life-long study skills. Materials provide immediate help with learning styles, time management and organizational skills, note taking, test taking, and memory skills. Make a real difference in your learning! Parents are highly encouraged to attend (free) with students. All classes are at Fairview High at 7:00-8:30 pm. Cost is $130 per student. Call Gloria Frender 303-530-3195 to register. Session 1 - 9/12, 9/26, 10/3, 10/10, 10/24; Session 2 - 9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9. 10/23; Session 3 - 10/25. 11/1, 11/8, 11/15, 11/29.
The best things in life,
Aren't things!