CCS Newsletter
August 31, 2018
ADMINISTRATION UPDATE
Dear CCS Friends and Families,
We are delighted to be sharing the highlights of our first few days of school with you. The rooms, halls and playgrounds of CCS have been alive with excitement during the first three days of school this week. We have welcomed several new families to CCS, including welcoming our newest Little Champs - our Kindergartners! Some highlights from the first three days include:
All students arriving happy and excited to start the year!
Team Omega (Grades 7 & 8) traveled to the UVM Ropes Course on Thursday and Friday. Teachers and UVM leaders alike declared them “the best group they’ve ever had.” Great job, team Omega!
Mr. Holcomb, Mr. DiNicola and Mr. Zach have taken over leadership of our lunch and recess environments. They are demonstrating and supporting great routines for a happy and healthy mid-day at CCS!
Our custodial and maintenance team did an amazing job with many projects over the summer. We all returned to a beautiful school with several new updates.
Each classroom has been getting to know one another, rekindling and forming relationships. It was especially heartwarming to see students connecting with smiles, hugs and high-fives all through the day on Wednesday.
We look forward to meeting more families over the next couple weeks, including at our Back to School Open House & PTO Potluck on Thursday, September 13th from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. There will be more details coming your way via next week’s newsletter and classroom communications.
We wish everyone a wonderful long weekend!
Warm Regards,
Stephanie, Jen and Cassandra
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
Monday, September 3rd
NO SCHOOL - Labor Day
Tuesday, September 4th
Early Release, 1:55pm
Friday, September 7th
Fire Safety Day
Tuesday, September 11th
Early Release, 1:55pm
Wednesday, September 12th
Vision Eye Screening (more information to follow)
Thursday, September 13th
Fall Open House & Potluck Picnic (see below for details)
Friday, September 14th
Fire Safety Day
Tuesday, September 18th
Early Release, 1:55pm
CVSD School Board Meeting, CVU Rm 160, 6:00pm
Thursday, September 19th
NO SCHOOL - Yom Kippur
Tuesday, September 25th
Early Release, 1:55pm
Wednesday, September 26th
Picture Day! (order forms and flyers to be available soon)
Friday, September 28th
Dance! MPR, grades 6-8, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
PLEASE RETURN THOSE CCS OFFICE FORMS
- Student Information Sheet (SIS Form)
- Video/Photo Exception Form (only if you do NOT want your child's picture or video displayed)
- Driver Responsibility Form (we must have a new form on file each year ) - this form is used in CONJUNCTION with the Volunteer/Chaperone form. Call Cindy LaWare at 425-2771 for more information.
- Athletics Forms
If you have any questions about any of these forms, please call the CCS office at 425-2771.
BUSES AND DISMISSAL PROCESS
This year, CCS has joined the CVSD transportation system. We appreciate the patience of all families as we continue to pin down specific stops and times. We anticipate that this will be getting better each day and settled into a consistent routine by the week of September 10th. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Naomi Strada, Assistant to the Principals, at 425-6600.
Afternoon dismissal is a very busy time! We send envelopes with student notes back to classrooms at 2:40 p.m. Please follow our request for no plan changes in student dismissals after 2:30 p.m. to ensure that we can guarantee that children go where they are supposed to! All families are asked to communicate changes in plans to teachers AND Cindy LaWare at the Front Office.
We would also like to remind families of of pick-up locations at the end of the day. If you are picking up your student, please indicate whether you are picking up at the west Library Side of the building (new clarifying language from the "cafeteria side" in the past as student now exit out through the library) or the east Flagpole side of the building. Your student should only go to the cafeteria if they are participating in the Part 2 Afterschool Program.
PBIS
Our school-wide expectations are: Take Care of Ourselves, Take Care of Others, and Take Care of This Place!
Our school will continue to encourage positive student behavior and support local organizations through our PBIS program. At the end of last year, our PBIS “Be the Change” efforts added up to a donation of $207.29 to the Chittenden County Humane Society (that was 20,729 pennies given to students for demonstrating positive behaviors!). To learn more about PBIS please review our PBIS Brochure. Click HERE for an activity that you can do with child(ren) to help them learn our school-wide expectations.
WELCOME TANYA VYHOVSKY (AND LAIKA)
Tanya is new to our school this year to provide support to some students individually and our whole school community. Tanya is a social worker acting in the role of Schools Services Clinician. Tanya completed her masters at the University of Vermont and brings a wealth of experience in navigating systems and supporting children and families. Tanya hopes to build resiliency in our school, make connections and build great relationships through the year. Tanya will have some weekly lunch bunch groups, run targeted resilience and skills building groups as well as support individual students and families. Tanya also works with a Certified Therapy Dog, Laika to provide animal assisted therapeutic work as well as some great stress relief! Tanya is really looking forward to getting to know the CCS community. If you have questions for Tanya or ways you feel like she might be able to support your family don’t hesitate to reach out!
MUSIC NEWS
Welcome back! We look forward to an amazing year of musical growth and opportunities for our CCS musicians!
Beginning Band info. (attention grade 5 parents): In the Spring of 2017, all incoming 5th grade students completed an “instrument choice survey” where they indicated the instrument they would like to study this year. You will receive communication (phone call or email) confirming your choice within the first week of school. If your child already has an instrument, please be sure it is in good working order. You may obtain an instrument however you would like but we do work with two outstanding companies that visit CCS regularly. They are Ellis Music, www.ellismusic.com and Advance Music www.advancemusicvt.com. If you choose to rent from one of these businesses, please visit the appropriate website and fill out the rental agreement. If renting from Ellis Music, there will be an instrument pick up night on Monday, September 10 at 7 PM in the band room. Please plan attending this short and exciting evening to receive the instrument and instructional book. If renting from Advance Music, please be sure to order The Standard of Excellence book I for the instrument of choice. The Advance instruments will be delivered to Andy Smith and distributed at their first lesson. Please place all orders before Friday, September 6 to guarantee your timely delivery.
Please contact Andy Smith at (802) 425 - 6653 or asmith@cvsdvt.org with any questions.
Thank you!
ATHLETICS NEWS
Hi All,
We hope your family has had a wonderful start to the school year.
Now that the sports seasons have begun, we are finding that the numbers for both girls and boys soccer are lower than in the past. We hope that there will be some new players who will show up tonight after school for a try-out and even next week at practice. We would like to put out an appeal for anyone who is on the fence about trying out for soccer to contact Mike Hulvey at mhulvey@cvsdvt.org . We are looking forward to a great fall season of sports at CCS.
I hope to hear from you.
WELCOME CCS FAMILIES
The CCS Parent Teacher Organization Board is excited to welcome you to kick-off another great year of providing enriching programming and involvement for you and your children.
This year’s board members are as follows:
Carol Blanshine---President
Jessica Lucia---Vice President/Treasurer
Jen Novak---Secretary/Communications
Planning to provide many great opportunities has begun, and we will have more information for you soon. Everyone is encouraged to get involved however you can. Many hands make light work! J The Board takes care of all of the administrative work, but parents are needed to organize and help out to make our events happen. Our first immediate need is for someone to coordinate the Staff/Teacher Appreciation Lunches. This involves setting up the signup form and emailing it out to the parents. Please take this quick volunteer survey to let us know how you would like to be involved in this or any other activity, and how to get in contact with you: Here is the form
We look forward to seeing you all at our Community Picnic Potluck, Thursday, September 13th (Open House 5-6:30, BBQ 6-7:30pm). Please feel free to email us at any time throughout the year with any questions or ideas at ccspto@cvsdvt.org.
Sincerely,
Your PTO Board
PTO FALL COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE AND PICNIC POTLUCK
SEPTEMBER LUNCH MENU
CHARLOTTE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Check out our website.