SOUTHEAST MIDDLE SCHOOL
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010
1. Please welcome back Chris Hancock. We are glad to see you back in the office!
2. Please keep Sharon Pitt's husband, Ted, in your thoughts. He recently underwent surgery. He should be home by the end of the week.
3. Collette Holbert continues to recover from her surgery. We wish her a speedy recovery! Lisa Turner forwarded her address to you earlier in the week for those of you who wish to contact her.
4. Betsy Smith had her knee surgery yesterday. Please wish her a speedy recovery!
5. Thanks to our Student Council and Mrs. Murray for the goodies. They are responsible for the candy to the staff to celebrate American Education Week. Enjoy!
6. Lillian Thompson will be retiring at the end of December. We will celebrate her accomplishment on Monday, December 13, at 2:15 in the Media Center. More details will follow.
7. Please remember that you each have one hour of leave prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. You may take it on Monday or Tuesday afternoon.
8. Jeff Nichols has sent out several emails regarding upcoming Nettrekker training as well as future trainings where you can earn CEU technology credits. Please take advantage of this opportunity, especially if you need some credits!
9. Please be sure to update your grades in NCWISE at least every two weeks minimum - this is the requirement. We have had many parent contacts earlier this week where no grades had been posted for them to check their child's progress.
10. Deb Neal has an opportunity for any teachers who wish to participate in some staff development (with CEU credits) related to minimizing the achievement gap and raising the bar for African-American students. It concentrates on motivating them and giving them opportunities for success. She will be giving you some information on this in case you are interested.
11. Mrs. Cole sent an earlier email regarding hand sanitizers. According to the health inspector, hand sanitizers need to be stored in a closet or cabinet. Please be sure to take care of this in your classroom so that we do not receive a fine when they come to inspect.
12. The winter concerts are around the corner. If you have already worked one of the PTSA socials at the beginning of the year, you are not required to work a winter concert. For those of you who did not, you will need to sign up for one of them. I will send out a separate email to those who need to sign up. Concert dates and times:
Monday, December 6 - Chorus concert at Glenn HS (5:30 - 7:30pm)
Tuesday, December 7 - Orchestra concert at SEMS (5:30 - 7:30pm)
Thursday, December 9 - Band concert at SEMS (5:30 - 7:30pm)
Sign-up sheets will be posted on Friday at 2:10pm.
13. Some of our students have been "smoking Smarties." For those of you who have not heard that term, some kids are taking packs of Smarties candies, crushing the candy, opening the wrapper and inhaling the candy. Then they immediately blow it out, so it looks like smoke. This is a trend that started a few years ago and has trickled into our school. The possible health hazard that this could present is that a student could inhale the wrapper itself or could get the candy dust/pieces lodged in their throat or nose. If you see any students trying to do this, please ask them to stop. Just possessing or eating the candy is not a violation, but if they repeatedly are trying to inhale this and you have already intervened, please let us know. We can intervene at that point. However, if you see a student trying to snort this directly into their nose, an administrator needs to know that when it happens. We just don't want to see kids taking this farther.
14. I did attend the MS principals' scheduling meeting on Tuesday. First, I must state that no scheduling decisions were made for next year. This session ended up being a working session for all of us to develop many different scheduling options. As a group, we did develop a list of priorities that we wish to preserve in our schedule, including teaming, amt. of planning time, common planning time, purity of 6th grade classes, and flexibility for each school. Mrs. Montague-Davis was able to walk away with lots of data for Dr. Martin to consider regarding each scheduling option. It is important to note that something/someone will end up suffering no matter what scheduling option the system goes with. This is going to be quite a difficult process. The system is hoping to make some decisions in December. Know that I will continue to keep you posted on the situation.
15. We just received information from the Finance Department regarding personal leave time. In the past, staff were not charged for taking their first personal day of the school year - you could take it without penalty. According to Finance, the General Assembly overturned that and no longer allow that to take place, which means that you will be charged for any personal day that you take. We apologize for any confusion on the matter. The Finance Dept. has apologized as well for not letting the schools know this important information.
16. Winter weather is just around the corner. It is time to review the inclement weather plan in case we have a delay. The delay schedule is posted under Teacher Resources on the website. If we do have a delay, you will be given a schedule that morning so that you know what encore classes your students will need to report to and the times that they need to report. The blocks of core time can be scheduled as the team sees fit. I hope that this provides a more flexible schedule for everyone and gives each group a short break.
17. Don't forget to review the online calendar regularly!
Happy Birthday!
Prudence Brooks 11/10
Sun Kim 11/10
Janie Murray 11/11
Jennifer Hairston 11/14
Meg Speziale 11/16
Brad Rhymes 11/17
Lisa Turner 11/17
Collette Holbert 11/20
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