April 15, 2004
Volume 17, No. 7
Certificates will be available in the front parking lot during morning drop off on Friday, April 16th, 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Thanks for supporting Summit!
In addition to CSAP, Summit administers a scaled-down version of the CTBS/Terra Nova test each spring to help us determine growth in Math Computation and Language Mechanics from year to year. This spring, the tests will be given during the week of April 26th on Monday and Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning, for about an hour each day. Please try to schedule appointments or other obligations around these times to avoid having students miss class for make-up sessions.
The Summit spring musical, Guys and Dolls, will be presented on April 16th and 17th at Southern Hills Middle School, 1500 Knox Drive in Boulder. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. and the musical starts at 7:30. You may purchase tickets - $5 each - at Summit before school and during lunch through the 16th. Tickets will be available at the door, but seats are limited - buy your tickets today!
Fairview has an event lasting through 8:00 p.m. on Friday, so you may want to allocate a few extra minutes for parking at the musical. There will likely be parking available on the front side of Fairview (south) and the streets around Southern Hills.
-- Ashley O'Connor, Board Member
As you make summer plans, please keep in mind the following dates: School starts on August 23rd for new students; all new and returning students have a full day of classes on August 24th. The district follows a different schedule and does not start quite as early. Summit's charter mandates that we have school 180 days per year which is more days than the district requires.
Summit sends a big thank you to Lydia Pottoff for her donation of a refrigerator for our staff lunchroom and to Allen Hayes for helping with the move. We really appreciate having a refrigerator again! Also, thanks to the Hauptmans for their kind donation of a large set of coffee mugs for the staff lunchroom!
As the end of another successful school year approaches, it is a wonderful time to think about honoring a Summit volunteer, staff member, or student. Donating a book to the Summit library in honor of a special person provides a lasting reminder of your appreciation as well as benefiting our school. Please email me at cathy.woods@bvsd.12.co.us if you would like a copy of our wish list.
We're looking for donations of travel guides from around the world. Several class assignments involve planning trips in many countries, and we would like to provide access to travel guides in the library. They don't have to be brand-new, but shouldn't be more than five years old.
We can always use donations of comic strip books (such as Garfield, Zits, Far Side, etc.) Students really enjoy these books, but they wear out quickly!
-- Cathy Woods, Librarian
We are less than $6,000 away from our Tools for Learning goal of $100,000! If your family has yet to contribute, please consider joining with the 193 currently enrolled and 18 alumni families who have participated in this vital campaign. At present, we have a participation rate of 71 percent…however, we are REALLY HOPING for 100 percent participation by the end of our fiscal year on June 30th. Often, organizations that offer matching grants look carefully at the percentage of participation when considering gifts, so please give in any amount you can to help us reach this important participation goal. Thanks to these people who have donated during April:
*IMPORTANT: We have received one credit card donation on which we are unable to read the donor's name. If you made a credit card donation in early or mid-March and your name does not appear on the above list, PLEASE CALL Dolly Dean at 303-473-9600 so that we may acknowledge your donation.
-- Dolly Dean, Chair
A Program to Promote Dialogue Between Barents and Their Teens: Rachael Kessler, Leader - April 22nd - 7:00 p.m., Platt Middle School Auditorium - 6096 Baseline Road
When our teenagers are given the opportunity to express their yearnings for meaning and connection, great wisdom and beauty emerges. How can we support our children in having these opportunities? What are the deeper causes of such troubling behaviors in our teenagers as substance abuse, depression and suicide, eating disorders, academic apathy, hazing and self destructive sexual activities? How can families talk with each other about their search, their discoveries and their frustrations in nurturing their inner lives?
The leader, Rachael Kessler, is an international speaker and author. She will use rich visuals and heart-warming stories from teens around our nation to provide a vision of hope and healing for our adolescents today. Please RSVP to Laura Hay @lhay33@yahoo.com
This lecture is jointly sponsored by Platt Middle School and Manhattan School for the Arts and funded by a Foundation for Boulder Valley Schools Connect Grant
Registration is underway! Don't delay! Forms for students, staff, families and friends are available in the entryway boxes at Summit or from Mrs. Blakemore. Summit students and staff need to use the yellow forms. You receive a discount as well as a goodie bag. All others must use the white forms. All forms can be turned in to Mrs. Blakemore. Let's win the participation award for the 4th consecutive year!
Important Dates: Monday, April 26th - Mrs. Blakemore's Brownie Bash. All students who have their registration forms and fees turned in by Thursday, April 22nd may attend the Brownie Bash in Room 6 during lunch. I bake, you eat. Get the forms in today!
May 3rd - 7th: Summit's official registration week. If you want to get your bib number and goodie bag here at school, this is the last chance. Forms cannot be turned into Mrs. Blakemore after May 7th. Bibs and goodie bags will be distributed at Summit the following week.
Training: We are in the 7th week of training and everyone is getting very fit! You can still join in on any Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday after school. There are lots of different routes and speeds. Don't be shy…get fit! Thanks again to my volunteer coaches: Mary Copeland, Walraven Kettlelapper and Jennifer Fawcett. If you have questions, see Mrs. Blakemore.
Run for Free: Would you like to run the Bolder Boulder for free? Become a snack packer. Sign up to pack snacks on Saturday, May 29, from 8:00 - noon and you'll get your entry free. See Mrs. Blakemore for details. Don't delay and lose the chance.
-- Wendy Blakemore
Level 1 Spanish classes had quite a day on Tuesday, April 13th and Level 2 the next day. Our Field Trips took us to Longmont Packing, a large Mexican supermarket in Westminster that offers everything from fruits to meats to prepared fare such as tamales, salsas and tortillas to bakery items. They also have quite a selection of household items used in typical Mexican families. From there we headed off to the Museum of Nature and Science to see the exhibit on Macchu Picchu. After visually exploring this ancient lost culture and actively practicing excavation, we went to El Noa Noa Restaurant to practice our Spanish and savor the culinary delights. We returned to Summit fulfilled in many ways! Many thanks to our volunteers: Cathy Reisfield, Toni Ozeroff, Margaret Sparks, Lyne Cahn, Frances Hartogh, Delyn Drake, and Penny Hannagan.
Thank you as well to the Allison Johnson family for bringing books back from Mexico to add to our classroom library.
-- Wendy Blakemore and Polly Doyle
Spanish Club is teaming up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to sponsor the wish of a Hispanic child with a life-threatening disease in Boulder Valley. A "wish" generally costs about $4,500. How can YOU help?! Be an active or passive participant in these activities:
We have some leads on matching donations from the community, so the more we earn, the more gets doubled to make one very happy child!
Denver Art Museum Visit … On April 27th, we are heading to the Denver Art Museum to see the exhibition of Spanish Colonial art called "Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life, 1521-1821." It is the largest exhibit of its kind ever displayed outside of Mexico.
Carnival … May 7th, from 3:15 - 5:00 p.m., Spanish Club will sponsor the 2nd annual carnival in the multipurpose room and outside. Last year's Carnival was a huge success and we expect everyone to have a fabulous time this year as well. Join us for arcade-type games, enter raffles to throw a pie in the face of your favorite (or least favorite!) teacher, savor the delicious food and drink and join in Tug-o-Wars and Sack Races. ALL PROCEEDS GO TO FUND THE WISH OF THE MAKE-A-WISH CHILD WE HAVE 'ADOPTED.' Entry is $1and games vary from 10 cents - 50 cents.
Adopt-a-Road … Sunday, May 16th, we will doing our Adopt-a-Road semi-annual trash clean-up. Join in the fun. We clean 51st St. from Jay Rd. to the entrance to the Reservoir. Clean-up followed by ice cream. Meet at 1:00 p.m.
Foundation Fundraiser … Club members will again be volunteering at the annual fundraiser for the Foundation for Boulder Valley Schools on June 5th. This is the organization that funds classroom mini-grants, technology grants, students-at-risk grants, and honors Impact Award winners in education.
The St. Patrick's Day Piñata Raffle raised $150. Funds were donated to Clinica Campesina, a health-care clinic that serves a large Hispanic population.
Mrs. Blakemore and Ms. Doyle will host an informational meeting at lunch on Thursday, May 6th , in Room 6. All interested students and their parents are invited! Chaperones include Mrs. Blakemore and her husband, Ms. Doyle and local guides.
This amazing ad-venture trip includes a 5-day homestay and service/community projects with our families and our group in a small village on a high plain south of Quito. We'll also visit Quito and Otavalo (famous for its marketplace). Then we fly off to the Galapagos Islands. Working with the National Park on preservation and impact control projects, we will help keep the future in balance while also hiking to volcanic rims, snorkeling in reefs and seeing wildlife by boat with naturalist guides. If you need information before May 6th, contact Ms. Doyle at 303-545-2202 or home@soltoursinfo.com.