december 2011 newsletter.pub
Transcription
december 2011 newsletter.pub
December 2011 752-0300 Michael Kaufman, Principal First Semester Exam Schedule First semester exams are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, January 18, 19, and 20, 2012. Wednesday, January 18th full day of school Exam hours - 3rd and 6th Thursday, January 19th half day of school Students released at 10:38 a.m. Exam hours - 1st and 2nd Friday, January 20th half day of school Students released at 10:38 a.m. Exam hours - 4th and 5th First Semester Attendance Appeals If your student has been absent more than 10 days in any one class, they must appeal their absences for the hour(s) they are over. Forms will be available in the main office at both the high school and at RETC beginning Wednesday, December 14, 2011 to January 6, 2012. Completed forms must be returned to the main office by Friday, January 6, with all the appropriate documentation attached. If you have any questions, please contact the high school office at 586-752-0300. Student Discount Sports Passes Available... Save money all winter long and attend all the home sport contests here at RHS. For only $20 you can watch 30 girls basketball games, 30 boys basketball games, 7 swim meets, 8 hockey games and 2 wrestling meets. Pick up your DISCOUNT sport pass in the athletic office. School Closing Information In addition to our Instant Alert System that notifies parents of school closings, we are listing the television and radio stations which you can tune in to during snow or ice storms to check to see if Romeo Schools are in session for that day. * WWJ—950 AM * Q95.5—FM * Channel 4 * WJR—760 AM * Channel 2 * Channel 7 Rarely does this happen but in the event school is cancelled during the day, please discuss with your child where he/she should go when school is dismissed early. Interpretación en español disponible poniéndose en contacto con Celia Ciecko (586) 281-1732 Spanish interpretation available by contacting Celia Ciecko at (586) 281-1732. 1 Romeo High School Key Club Caught Being Good... Is a program that offers staff an opportunity to reward students for "doing the right thing". The positive recognition could be anything from helping clean up a science lab without being asked or turning in found money. We are proud of our students that make the right choices and want to recognize them. Adam Nelson Brad Reckling Abigail Vecore Taylor Dutcher Wyatt Bevins Lyndsey Houser Ben Winn Karly Rapp Victoria Flores Carina Sanchez Shawn Hillis Chandler Zawadzki Katie Race Claire Romine Michael Grifka Hey, Skiers & Snowboarders! Join the RHS Ski & Snowboard Club on our weekly trips to Pine Knob Ski Resort! We have ski excursions planned for the following Thursdays: Dec. 8, Dec. 15, Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 19, Jan. 26, Feb. 2 and Feb. 9. Bus transportation to and from Pine Knob is available each week. Pick up your payment coupons for this season’s trips in the Main Office, the Athletic Office, or see Mrs. Kowalke in Room 610 or Mr. Robertson in Room 302. Payment is due at the end of the day on Tuesday to reserve your spot for each Thursday’s trip. Don’t miss out – think snow!! Last month RHS Key Club attended the Fall Rally in Frankenmuth with about 300 other Michigan Key Club members. It was a lot of fun! We all learned a lot about how to be better Key Club Members (and how fun it is to be one!), and it was a fantastic learning experience! We also participated in a March of Dimes Walk and raised over $2000! Members had the chance to make Medical Dolls, learn about fundraising for Leukemia and Lymphoma, and many other service ideas. And of course we had a delicious chicken dinner. This month the Key Club is having a toy drive. Toys will be delivered to needy elementary children at a Christmas party. The toys are due for packing by the 15th. We are collecting Barbies, Hot Wheels and stuffed animals; we are also collecting hats and mittens for the children. Anyone planning to attend this Friday night’s basketball game at RHS on December 9th, may bring a toy to be donated to the toy drive instead of paying admission to the game! Help Key Club provide a Merry Christmas to the needy children. Some of our other upcoming events include: Kiwanis Christmas Breakfast on December 7th from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., Kiwanis is meeting with us for a breakfast feast to celebrate the upcoming holidays with preschool children at Croswell Senior Center: We’re playing Bingo again and making a Christmas craft with the seniors at the Romeo Nursing Center! This will take place Thursday, December 8th Serve-a-Thon: We’re participating in an all-day event with other Michigan Key Clubs and Circle K groups at the University of Michigan! This will be on Saturday, January 21st District Convention (DCON): All Key Club members in the Michigan district are meeting at the Radisson Hotel in Kalamazoo for a weekend of workshops, service projects, elections and (of course) fun! This will take place from March 9th to March 11th. 2 “PROFICIENCY” ON STATE – REQUIRED TESTS HAS A NEW DEFINITION Romeo Community Schools is taking a proactive approach to communicating with parents and the community concerning scoring changes to the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) and Michigan Merit Exam (MME) tests this year. Each year, our students along with all other Michigan public school students in grades 3-9 are required to take the MEAP and eleventh graders are required to take the MME. If you haven’t already, you will soon begin hearing news reports about new cutoff scores, or “cut scores” that the Michigan State Board of Education recently adopted for these tests. Rather than rely on the news media, we encourage parents to use Romeo Community Schools and the Michigan Department of Education for the most accurate and current information. So, what are cut scores and why has the Michigan State Board of Education changed them? MEAP and MME cut scores separate test takers into various categories, such as advanced, proficient, partially proficient and not proficient. Michigan’s previous cut scores for these state tests were set at a very basic level. Raising the cut scores will give Michigan parents and students a much better sense of whether they are adequately prepared for the next step in their education and a future career in a global economy. The new cut scores represent a significantly higher standard for student achievement and are intended to more accurately reflect a student’s progress toward college and career readiness. On some tests, students previously could have answered as few as 40 percent of the questions correctly to be considered proficient. Under the new scoring system, students will have to correctly answer a much higher percentage of questions. Michigan is one of only three states in the nation (along with New York and Tennessee) to move to this top tier level of test scoring. Like school districts across the state, Romeo Community Schools’ MEAP and MME proficiency results are expected to decline when publicly released next spring. While we anticipate an initial drop in the number of students reported as “proficient,” we are confident this change will be temporary due to ongoing school improvement efforts and student support. If a student is reported as “not proficient,” it does not mean that he or she isn't gaining academic skills or knowledge expected for his or her grade level. It means that on the day of the test, this student was not yet proficient on the material being tested. Many students may require additional help and/or time to master these skills. Actually, by the time parents and the school receive the MEAP/MME results from the state, many students identified as “not proficient” will have closed the gap. The MEAP and MME tests are only two of several measures used in our district throughout the year to insure that students are making academic progress. We maintain high standards for our students and their test scores are consistently among the highest in the state. We anticipate this trend will continue even with the new cut scores. We will be examining our curriculum to respond to this more challenging level of test scoring. In addition, our staff will focus our professional development efforts on enhancing our abilities to rise to the challenge presented to these recent changes. Undoubtedly, parents will have many questions about the scoring changes. We will continue to provide information through a variety of communication channels such as newsletters, email, our website, parent-teacher conferences, and more. For more information, contact your school principal or visit the Michigan Department of Education web site at http://1.usa.gov/statetests. 3 Teen Intervene Alcohol and Other Drugs – Macomb Family Services Prevention Department Teen Intervene is an evidencedevidenced-based prevention program for teens before or shortly after their first experience with alcohol and other drugs. The program consists of two group sessions with a Prevention Specialist in which the teens are guided to look at the pros and cons of use and, if necessary, determine willingness to change, set goals towards reducing/eliminating their use, and acquiring skills to help achieve these goals. Immediately following the second session, another meeting aims to include a parent/ guardian whenever possible. The purpose of this session is to encourage parenting behaviors that promote healthy lifestyles in their youth. Upcoming Group Sessions: (Choose One Option) First Option: December 8, 2011 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. AND December 15, 2011 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. (Last 30 minutes is a parent session) Second Option: January 17, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. AND January 24, 2011 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. (Last 30 minutes is a parent session) PHONE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED 586--752To Register, please contact: Jynil Schneider, Prevention Director, 586 752-9696 x. 210 Classes are held at: Macomb Family Services Romeo office, 124 West Gates, 48065 The fee for the class is $25.00 (cash or check to Macomb Family Services) Fee can be reduced or waived if it would keep teen from participating. Federal and State funding has been provided through Macomb County Community Mental Health/Office of Substance Abuse to support project costs. Support has also been provided through United Way Community Services and private donations. Recipients of substance abuse prevention services have rights protected by State and Federal law and public rules. For information, visit or call an MFS Recipient Rights Advisor at (586) 226-3440 4 RHS FINANCIAL AID NIGHT Who: Junior & Senior Parents What: Financial Aid Information Presentation Where: RHS Auditorium When: Wednesday, January 4th @ 7:00 p.m. Why: To learn more information about the financial aid process The RHS Counseling office invites you to learn up-todate information on applying for financial aid, including the FAFSA online. A local Financial Aid representative will present information and answer your questions. Hope to see you there! RHS Counseling Office 5 Stephen Henderson: Help get young minds into books Read. Turn off the television, and read. Put down the video games, and read. Stop fussing with your sister, and read. My mother used to say all those things to me. Now I say them to my son and my daughter. For me, reading was an escape, a teleport to worlds filled with adventure or intrigue or fantasy, places far flung from my home in Detroit. But my mother had to open up those possibilities for me, by filling the house with books and pushing me toward them. Eventually, it was what I wanted to do. With my own kids, the cycle repeats. It's hard to imagine how that would work, though, in homes with no books, for families who have no books. But in metro Detroit, this is often the situation. Which is why the Free Press, every year around the holidays, asks the region to give the Gift of Reading for needy families. Give books to kids and they will forever own the stories, imagination and ideas in them. And they'll grow to be parents who give that gift to their own kids. The importance of that cycle has never been clearer. Last month, the Free Press and several other local institutions launched Reading Works, aimed at making 80% of metro area adults functionally literate by 2020. Right now, in Detroit, 47% of the adult population (the workforce) can't read beyond a sixth-grade level. Statewide, the number is one in three. It's a perfect complement to Gift of Reading, which intercedes in the problem on the other end, when children are just beginning to crack open the wonders of pages and bindings. The goal this year, like last, is ambitious: Collect around 37,000 books, including 25,000 that will be distributed to every child in early education in the Detroit Public Schools. It sounds big, but it requires only the smallest gesture. Buy a book. Drop it at one of our collection centers. And we'll make it a gift that inspires and delights. And educates. We need to get more kids to turn off the televisions, put down the video games, and read. So many need books to do it. With your help, Gift of Reading can get them started. Stephen Henderson is editorial page editor for the Free Press and the host of "American Black Journal," which airs at 1 p.m. on Sundays on Detroit Public Television. Contact Henderson at shenderson600@freepress.com , or at 313-222-6659. NON-DISCRIMINATON AND ACCESS TO EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC REGARDING NON-DISCRIMINATORY POLICY In compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, and Title II of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990, it is the policy of the Romeo Community School District that no person shall, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, gender, disability, age, height, weight, genetics or marital status be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination during any program, activity, service, or in employment . Any employee or member of the community of Romeo Community Schools, believing to be discriminated against should contact the Executive Director of Human Resources and Operations, 316 North Main Street, Romeo, Michigan 48065, 586-281-1429. Inquiries related to discrimination on the basis of “student” disability should be directed to: Director of Special Services, 175 Croswell, Romeo, Michigan 48065, 586-752-0212. 6 7 8 9 10 DECEMBER 8 9 14 14 15 20 Student of the Month Breakfast, RETC Progress reports Professional Learning Communities (PLC) early dismissal Choral concert, 7:00 p.m. Band concert, 7:00 p.m. Winter recess begins end of day JANUARY 4 4 9 11 12 16 19, 20 20 25 27, 28 26 31 School resumes PTO Meeting, 9:15 a.m., lecture room Board meeting, RETC, 7:30 p.m. Professional Learning Communities (PLC) early dismissal Student of the Month Breakfast, RETC Professional Development Day – no school Exams, Students a.m. only, records p.m. End of semester Professional Learning Communities (PLC) early dismissal School House Rock Live, 7:00 p.m. Educational Exploration, RHS, 7:00 p.m. CTE Open House, 6:00-8:30 p.m., RETC Romeo Senior High School 11091 West 32 Mile Road Romeo, MI 48065 Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Romeo, Michigan 48065 Permit #71 BOARD OF EDUCATION Sara Murray, President Anita Banach, Vice President Joseph A. Fortuna, Secretary Ed Sosnoski, Treasurer Terry Davis, Trustee Michael Stobak, Trustee Jennifer White, Trustee RHS ADMINISTRATION Mr. Michael Kaufman .......................... Principal Mrs. Melissa Arendts .............Assistant Principal Mr. Dan Stevens.....................Assistant Principal Mrs. Natalie Davis..................Assistant Principal Mr. Greg Brynaert................ Activities Director 11