SOUTHEAST MIDDLE SCHOOL
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011
1. The last day of the quarter is Thursday, October 27. October 28 is a reserved school day, so staff members may take annual leave if they wish. October 31 is a protected central office day, so certified staff are required to work and may not take an annual leave day. Building hours are 7:00am-4:00pm on both days. We will post a spreadsheet in the workroom on Monday for certified staff to indicate their plans for October 28.
2. On October 31, most of you will be in the first session of the Common Core training. I am sending you a separate email with details on this. The School Board just voted in the deployment plan, which will also be forwarded to you.
3. The cafeteria has a new system for students who accumulate a large negative balance on their accounts. If a student goes over the limit ($15.00), then we will give them one week to pay it off. If not paid, the student will go on a voucher meal in the cafeteria until it is paid off. Debbie Miller, Cafeteria Manager, will give the homebase teacher a voucher slip for that particular student. So far this year we have 12 students on this plan. We are still ironing out the details for teacher notification, so we will continue to communicate with you during this process.
4. There will be a brief staff meeting on October 24. We must present the process for SAT referrals to staff members. This is an important topic that we must give you information on. This is the only topic on the agenda, so the meeting will be extremely brief. It will begin at 2:15 in the Media Center.
5. The PTSA fundraiser kickoff will take place on Friday, November 4. We will have grade level assemblies during encore blocks. More details will be handed out closer to that date. In addition, fundraiser information will be sent out in Wednesday folders on October 26.
6. The School Board just approved a new policy regarding grant writing. This will affect most of you, since you are all such wonderful grant writers! I will forward the new policy to you for your review. There are new guidelines whenever you apply for a grant. Please be sure to follow the new policy.
7. ISS Notification - When a student is assigned a full-day ISS or OSS session, you will be notified via email by the appropriate administrator. This will be your signal to send work to ISS for the student to complete while serving their time. If OSS, the parent has the option of requesting work for their child, which we must honor. You will be notified of this as well.
8. Tutoring - will begin during the first week of November (Wednesday and Thursday). All staff will receive the details regarding the tutoring, including student groups, general information, schedules, and requirements. We are making this process as simple as possible. Deb Neal will be getting with groups of teachers in the next few days to write some tutoring lessons for all teachers. Staff members will have all information in their hands the week prior to the second quarter so that there is time to plan and notify students.
9. John Downs recently sent an email regarding when quarter grades are due - Friday, October 28, at 12:00pm. Please be sure to follow all directions from his email. Normal procedures apply.
10. Please be sure that you are posting your grades once a week to avoid any issues from parents. Also, be sure to post them to Parent Assist. I will be completing a check on any assignments not posted. I will notify those teachers individually to make those corrections.
11. The School Improvement Team meeting was held this past Monday. Several items were discussed (see the SIT blog for details or contact your grade level rep). Your representatives should be speaking to you about an idea to stop or decrease the number of paper progress reports that we send home. The SIT team will discuss this topic again after they have had a chance to talk with all of you to bring ideas to the table.
Happy Birthday!
Mara-Lea Coston - Oct. 3
Andy Suttles - Oct. 14
Tonia Maxcy - Oct. 14
Blanca Oliver - Oct. 16
Nancy Holmes - Oct. 16
John Watson - Oct. 24
Shasta Lowther - Oct. 25
Bill Martin - Oct. 26
Teresa Hilbun - Oct. 29
Events: Events are now posted on the online calendar. Staff are expected to check the online staff calendar regularly for upcoming meetings, etc.
