March 2023 NDS Notice

Spring is just a few weeks away and with the beginning of spring comes many school related activities at New Dimensions. Spring also signals preparation for the end of a school year and laying a foundation for the next year.

As we plan to successfully end this school year and lay the foundation of a successful 2023-2024, a major point of emphasis will be on how to continue to provide engaging lessons in reading and math to prepare our students for their next school year. To provide additional support for our current and incoming students, New Dimensions offers a schoolwide Title 1 reading program, a comprehensive exceptional children’s program, a tutoring program with the Burke Augustine Literacy Project, an after-school program operated by the YMCA of Catawba County to provide additional help with homework, classwork and tests, and a summer school program for those students needing a little extra time to be prepared for the next school year.

We began our open enrollment period on Monday, January 2 and have already been busy accepting applications and scheduling tours. Our enrollment period ends on Thursday, March 30 at 5 p.m. Applications are posted on our website and are also available to pick up at the school. At the end of the enrollment period, it will be determined if there are more applications than spaces available for each grade. If the number of applicants for a particular grade does not exceed the number of available spaces for that grade level, all students who have applied by the deadline will be accepted. If the number of applicants for a particular grade level exceeds available spaces for that grade level, a lottery system will determine admission eligibility. The lottery will occur on Friday, March 31. Students who are not offered enrollment will be placed on a wait list. After all spaces for a grade level are filled, the lottery will continue until all applying students have been assigned a priority number on the waitlist. The waitlist will not carry into the next school year.

Our school is a free K-8 public charter school, offering a rigorous curriculum through the nationally-acclaimed Core Knowledge and Eureka Math programs, taught by certified, dynamic instructors. Our student to teacher ratio in K-5 is 1:16 and 1:22 in middle school. These numbers allow us to look for opportunities to increase community engagement and academic programming while still providing in-depth instruction for each student.

Through the financial flexibility provided to our school, we are able to offer PE, music, art, STEM, and Spanish to all of our students. We also have an on-campus safety officer, a variety of culture clubs, athletic programs, and opportunities for our students to give back to the community. Our middle school elective offerings this year include courses provided by the North Carolina Virtual Schools program, as well as a catalog of courses taught by our teachers and community agencies, including Pre-BLET, Pre-Health Occupations, Latin Culture, Advance Art Classes, Life Skills, Dance and Creative Writing. These offerings provide our middle school students great preparation for high school.

Spring sports are also now under way. New Dimensions is represented by little league soccer teams competing with our teams in Burke County. Our middle school will be fielding a flag football team. Spring ushers in baseball season at New Dimensions where we will sponsor several little league teams. A big thank you to our athletic director, Michael Brooks and school board member, Chris Beam for their relentless efforts to build our athletic program. We would also like to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to our varsity girls basketball team on winning the Conference Championship.

We are hard at work on the 2023-2024 school calendar. Our draft calendar has our students returning to school on Tuesday, September 5 and the school year ending on Friday, May 23. There will be a two-week break for Christmas and a six day spring break. The board will be voting on this calendar at an upcoming board meeting.

I am proud of our school and the accomplishments of our students and staff. My hope and prayer is to continue the positive progress we have made as we focus on the needs of each student.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Lisa K Ervin Interim Director

We need to know your intentions for the 2023-2024 school year. We are hopeful that all our current students will remain Warriors next year.

As we continue to strive to be one of the best schools in this area, we also need your input on our Parent Survey. Please complete the Letter of Intent and Parent Survey Form to help us determine how we can work together to help each child be successful and to better structure our classrooms.

Please complete the 2023-2024 Letter of Intent and Parent Survey by March 1. Thank you for allowing NDS to be a part of the educational experience for your student(s).

Please be reminded that students should not be signed out after 2:30 p.m. unless it is an emergency. There are afternoon announcements and movement of students to clubs, sports, YMCA, and other classrooms that begin happening after 2:30 p.m. making it difficult to redirect those being signed out. Thank you for your support on this matter.

Our weeklong celebration of Dr. Seuss begins Monday, February 27 and ends on Friday, March 3. The week of celebrations will include the Scholastic Book Fair, special dress days and some guest story readers.

The spring Scholastic Book Fair will be open at NDS during Read Across America Week. The dates are Monday, February 27 - Friday, March 3.

We are in need of volunteers for our spring book fair. If you can volunteer one or more times, please sign up using the link below. Thank You!

Are you interested in volunteering in some capacity with Warrior athletics, or are you interested in a leadership role or serving in some capacity on the New Dimensions Charter School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) or volunteer in another area? If any of those areas interest you, we’ve got a place for you! Please complete one or both of the linked forms below to let us know of your interest.

Thank you for your interest in becoming an active volunteer at NDS!

Congratulations to our 2023 NDS Spelling Bee participants! After 17 rounds, the 2023 NDS Spelling Bee champion was declared - Knox Anthony, 2nd grade!! Our top three winners were as follows:

1st place - Knox Anthony (Grade 2)

2nd place - Erica Burnette (Grade 7)

3rd place - Anderson Church (Grade 4)

Knox progressed on to the regional spelling bee where his adventure ended there in round two. Thank you to all our judges, pronouncer, and participants! We look forward to another exciting year in 2024!

CONGRATULATIONS to the NDS Varsity Girls Basketball Team for winning the conference championship on Friday, February 17. Your exceptional teamwork and dedicated coaches helped take you all the way!

We have another visit planned for author Tonja Smith. She will be on campus talking with students during Warrior Time on Wednesday, March 8. During her visit, she will be promoting her newest book, I Believe I Can.

Students who pre-ordered the new book will have an opportunity to have Tonja autograph the book and get a picture taken with her. If you missed out on the pre-order, you will have another chance to purchase the book at the Scholastic Book Fair (February 27 - March 3), the week before her visit.

Next, we will have round three of selling fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts during our morning carline on Wednesday, March 15, from 7:15 - 8:15 a.m. The cost per dozen will be $10. Those interested in purchasing doughnuts that day will use the 3rd lane to pick up doughnuts and to keep cars flowing as usual.

Finally, middle school students are also selling 16oz Pepsi products. The products will be sold by the case with 24 bottles per case. The cost is $22 per case. Orders are due by March 10, and all orders must be picked up after school on Thursday, March 23.

Spring Uniform Swap to be held March 23 - 24 from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. in the Wilkerson Auditorium. Send items to your student’s homeroom teacher or drop off in front lobby beginning March 1. Three ways to participate:

1. Send in donations of clean and gently used uniforms* to be sold at the swap. Items will be priced $1 - $5 and proceeds will support an upcoming campus beautification day!

2. Send in clean and gently used uniforms to receive swap credit.
   1 item = 1 credit, 1 credit = $1 to shop the swap.
   Credit will only be awarded for donations clearly labeled with your student’s NAME, GRADE, HOMEROOM TEACHER and NUMBER OF ITEMS. Credit will be logged on a card by swap organizers and can be redeemed at checkout.

3. Shop the swap! Anyone can come shop the swap with either cash or swap credit. There will be hundreds of items to update your child’s uniform wardrobe at a great price.

*Uniform donations should meet school uniform guidelines and may include Warrior/NDS athletic apparel. NO donations of leggings, shoes or other non-uniform items.

Please reach out to Taylor Teeple, tteeple@ndschool.org with any questions or to volunteer to help with this event.

New Dimensions Charter School partners with Big Bear Sports to offer you NDS logo apparel and other products. You can order NDS logo items and NDS athletic logo items at any time using the apparel order. Order forms can also be found on the NDS website - https://www.ndschool.org/parent-student-info and/or picked up at the school.

Ordering Window and delivery dates for turning in forms:

01/02/23 - 03/31/23 with projected deliver on 4/06/23

04/03/23 - 04/28/23 with projected deliver on 5/12/23

Monday, February 27- Friday, March 3: Book Fair

Wednesday, March 1: Letters of Intent due; Wacky Wednesday (wear tacky clothes)

Thursday, March 2: PLCs; Travel Thursday (wear a “places” shirt); Special Readers

Friday, March 3: Fox in Socks (funky socks)

Wednesday, March 8: Author Tonja Smith - "I Believe I Can" (Warrior Times)

Friday, March 10: Fatz Spirit Night Middle School Fundraiser

Monday, March 13 - Friday, March 24: Lunch order window open for food service 04.03 - 04.28

Wednesday, March 15: Krispy Kreme Fundraiser @ Morning Drop-off

Thursday, March 16: $2 Icee Day; Dress Down in Green for St. Patrick’s Day; Board meeting

Friday, March 17: NO SCHOOL (Teacher Workday; PTC)

Monday, March 20: End of Grading Period

Thursday, March 23: 5th Grade Wax Museum (8-10 a.m.)

Thursday, March 30: Open Enrollment Ends (5 p.m.)

Friday, March 31: Blue Dress Down for Autism Awareness Day; NDS Lottery 11 a.m.