Rice Middle School eNews
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
PISD Bond Proposal
On May 7, 2016, Plano ISD voters will decide on a $481 million bond proposal to fund initiatives recommended by the Plano ISD Facilities and Technology Task Force. Appointed in August, 2015 by the Plano ISD Board of Trustees, the task force included citizens, business leaders, teachers, principals and parents. The task force reviewed enrollment trends and projections, established construction and renovation needs, validated costs and sought input from fellow community members. After five months of study, debate and public input, the task force made final recommendations to school trustees which are included in this bond proposal. If approved, the bond initiative will provide funding toward eight major project areas with no increase to the tax rate and will impact all Plano ISD campuses through district-wide security updates, renovations and facility upgrades, as well as technology improvements. Find out more, including specific project allocations, at www.pisd.edu/2016bond. You may send questions to askpisd@pisd.edu.
For a list of Frequently Asked Questions - along with their answers - in both English and Spanish, please access one of the following links:
- Frequently Asked Questions (English): http://www.pisd.edu/news/bond.programs/2016bond/FAQ.shtml
- Frequently Asked Questions (Spanish): http://www.pisd.edu/news/bond.programs/2016bond/documents/FAQ_Spanish.pdf
Table of Contents
1. And the Collin County Spelling Bee Champion is....
2. Rice's MATHCOUNTS Teams Wins 1st Place at the Regional Competition!
3. District Science Fair Results
4. Congratulations to Emily Ren!
5. Please Join Us for the Spring Play!
6. Revised 2016-17 District Instructional Calendar
7. PTA News
8. AVID Applications Due this Friday, February 19th!
9. NJHS News: Parents of 7th Graders!
10. News from Nurse: Parents of 6th Graders
11. News from the Nurse: Zika Virus
12. Yearbook News
13. Scholarship opportunities for PISD's CenterStage Summer Camp!
14. Speech and Debate Classes at Rice
15. Join the Rice Cheerleading Squad!
16. Donations Still Needed for Rice's New Makerspace!
1. And the Collin County Spelling Bee Champion is....
Congratulations to Nairit Sarkar, 6th grade, who won the Collin County Spelling Bee on Wednesday, February 3. Nairit spelled his heart out for hours and prevailed to become the two time champion of the Collin County Spelling Bee. Nairit now moves onto the Dallas Morning News Regional Spelling Bee which will be held on March 26. We are proud of you Nairit. Good luck at regionals!
2. Rice's MATHCOUNTS Teams Wins 1st Place at the Regional Competition!
Congratulations to the Rice Mathcounts team members: Brandon Wang, Nicholas Zhong, Luke Liu, Angela Yi, Jonathan Li, Rithvik Ganesh, Nairit Sarkar, Andrew Zhang, Lillian Ye, and Maxwell Wu. The team of Brandon, Nicholas, Luke, and Angela will be going on to the state competition, Rithvik and Nairit will compete as individuals.
We are so proud of you all!
3. District Science Fair Results
Congratulations to our twenty-five 7th & 8th grade students who represented Rice at the Plano ISD District Science Fair yesterday! There were over 200 projects in this challenging competition from every middle school in Plano.
Honorable Mention
Nihar Annam
Karthik Iyer
Pranav Nathan
Anika Shah
Eric Zhang
3rd Place
Brandon Wang
2nd Place
Yingjie Wang
the team of MIshal Syed and Yasmin Rahmatian
1st Place
Manasi Gummaraju
Anthony Mellone
Andrei Spiride
Khushi Thakkar
Anna Theodore
NIcholas Zhong
the team of Humza Salim and Yousuf Ahmad
the team of Arshia Elahi and Sathvik Vemparala
the team of Yash Garg and Nabil Sikora.
The Grand Prize winner of the entire 7th-8th grade Plano ISD middle school competition was the team of Yash Garg and Nabil Sikora in the Mathematics Category.
Congratulations to all our Rice District Fair competitors who also will progress to the Region 10--Dallas Science and Engineering Fair on the State Fair Grounds Feb. 27.
4. Congratulations to Emily Ren!
Emily Ren's artwork was selected by the Texas Art Educators Association to be shown in the State Capitol Youth Art Month exhibit.
To view her beautiful artwork, please click on the link below:
5. Please Join Us for the Spring Play!
Rice Middle School Theatre presents School Daze February 26th at 7PM in the Rice Cafeteria. Tickets are $5.00 General Admission and free for anyone with a PISD badge. Tickets will be for sale at the box office one hour before the performance. You can also catch School Daze when Rice performs at the One Act Play Festival on Saturday, February 27th at Vines High School at 11:00AM.
6. Revised 2016-17 District Instructional Calendar
The 2016-17 district instructional calendar adopted at the February 2 school board meeting has been revised to reflect a new date for spring break, March 6-10. In the district eNews that you received on Friday, February 5, a later date was indicated. The district wanted to promptly notify you of this change so that you can be sure to update your calendars.
7. PTA News
A. World Arts Family Night
Attention Rice Families!
Our PTA is sponsoring a World Fine Arts Family Night on Monday, February 29th at 6:00 PM in the Rice cafeteria.
Do stop by to enjoy this fun event during the Open House.
Mark your calendars now for the Leap Day evening! More details will follow next month.
*If you would like to volunteer or help out with Henna art, please contact:
Sona Kasargod
Rice PTA Cultural Diversity Program Chair
Email: sonadileep@yahoo.co.uk
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B. PTA Board Openings 2016-2017*
*President
*1st VP of Membership
*3rd VP of Ways & Means
*4th VP of Volunteers
*Secretary
*Treasurer
*Parliamentarian
*Communications
*For more information on any of these contact Shannon DeWolf at president@ricepta.org
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C. Attention 8th Grade Students and Parents!
Celebrate your final year at Rice with an end-of-year 8th grade party at the Heritage Farmstead Museum on Friday, May 20th, from 7-9 PM. Plans are already underway, and we are currently looking for someone to create a video to highlight the past three years at Rice. If video creation is your thing and you would like to help out, please contact either Bethany Ulteig (gulteig@sbcglobal.net) or Cristi Dyer (cristi.dyer@pisd.edu). We will need lots of additional volunteers to make this event fun for our students. Please be on the lookout for announcements in the coming weeks with more information regarding 8th Grade Celebration.
8. AVID Applications Due this Friday, February 19th!
Is your student interested in AVID for the 2016-2017 school year? Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) is a year long elective that teaches study skills, provides in class tutorials, encourages leadership and community service, and requires students to participate in courses of rigor. AVID applications are currently available in the counselors' office and from Mrs. Dyer, our AVID Coordinator (room 804). The deadline to apply for AVID is this Friday, February 19th, and interviews will take place next week on the 23rd, 24th and 25th. Please contact Mrs. Dyer with questions.
9. NJHS News: Parents of 7th Graders!
Parents of 7th graders, please encourage your student to check the NJHS Bulletin Board to see if they are invited to make an application for membership in NJHS. Student ID’s are posted for those that qualify.
Please direct questions to Mr. Mullins or Mr. Weger.
10. News from the Nurse--Attention Parents of 6th Graders
Please click on the link below to view important information from Nurse Yang, regarding immunization requirements students who will be 7th graders in 2016-2017.
11. News from the Nurse: Zika Virus
12. Scholarship opportunities for PISD's CenterStage Summer Camp!
Are you an 8th grader and plan to take a theatre or tech theatre class at Jasper next year? Jasper Theatre and Jasper Theatre Boosters are providing full and partial scholarships to PISD's CenterStage Summer Camp. Please see Mrs. Petropoulos in room 731 for more information and to apply.
13. Speech and Debate Classes at Rice
Interested in taking a speech class at Rice next year? Click on the following link to get information on speech classes and access the applications for debate and tournament prep
14. Yearbook News
15. Join the Rice Cheerleading Squad!
If you are a 7th grader interested or want to know more about what Rice Cheer is all about, please attend the student interest meeting Wednesday, February 24 at 3:45pm in Ms. Hughes room 813. We will have current cheerleaders present to tell you what they love doing. Parent meeting with be held Monday, February 29 at 5:30pm in the Rice Library. The parent meeting is mandatory for all cheerleaders wanting to join. If you have any questions contact the cheerleading sponsors Mrs. Epley nicole.epley@pisd.edu or Ms. Hughes ashley.hughes@pisd.edu.