Miner Minutes
Weekly Updates for Concord Middle School Staff
Welcome to Miner Minutes!
Miner Staff: At the end of each week, this newsletter will be sent to you simply to ensure that communication is consistent about Concord Middle School priorities, calendars, events, and just "stuff." All staff are expected to read this information each week. I wanted to start this as soon as possible so we can all get into the habit, even though I know summer email checking is sporadic. Summer newsletters will be more brief (or I will attempt to keep them that way).
Administrative Structures
I wanted to share with you that our administrative team for Concord Middle will be made up of two Assistant Principals and a Dean of Students of whom all will have varying yet equal responsibilities in instruction and school management. We will no longer have an "AP-I" and just an "AP." The reason for this is due to the fact that Assistant Principals are truly aspiring principals, and therefore their responsibilities need to reflect the comprehensive nature of a school. Also, the Dean of Students will have the same responsibilities as an AP, but it will simply be a ten month teacher position. We hope to have names to go with all of these positions after the July 13 CCS Board meeting. We really appreciate those staff members who were able to participate in our committee interview processes this week!
Kids taking a brain break!
Ballin'
Looks almost like Luke Keuchly...
Open Teaching Positions and Interview Process
As of now, we have multiple math, ELA, science, and EC positions. Chat with your friends! The best way to get awesome teachers for our students is through one of YOU! This is going to be a great year, and we want to ensure we are fully staffed with the very best for our Miners! We will be interviewing like crazy next week. We would love for you to participate in the interviews if you are interested. Please simply email Mr. Lord if you are available. We will try to ask math teachers to sit in on math interviews, ELA for ELA, etc.
CKH Professional Development!!
Please remember that our Capturing Kids' Hearts professional development is August 10-12. Days 1 and 2 are 8am-4pm and day 3 is 8am-1pm. The training will not take place at CMS as we want to choose a location to "get away" some. The location will be in Concord, though (sorry, Jamaica was just too pricy this year!!). Any certified staff that attend will receive a daily stipend of 100$. Soon, you will receive an email asking for your commitment to the training so we can get a final count. A few of you have kindly asked if there will be a makeup training due to prior obligations. If this is the case, we completely understand, and we will try to get you into another training next summer. This training is especially meaningful when we get to experience it as a full staff together. We hope you can make arrangements to attend!
Getting ready for kids!
Work in progress
Look at that shine! It looks like Mr. Mabry's head.
Introductions with that "New Principal"
Thank you to those of you who signed up to have our face to face introductions! They have been so enjoyable! I will set up even more of these available times as we have had such great response. Stay tuned to your email for these details.
School Summer Work
Often teachers will ask what kind of work takes place at school in the summer. Well, sometimes it's just eating bonbons and playing basketball in the gym. But MOST of the time (99.9999%), your administrative team is planning, planning, and planning. At this point, we are working hard to fill all open positions. We are reading resumes and recruiting and scheduling and communicating to get the best staff in NC. In the meantime, we have a teacher handbook to create, as well as updating the student handbook and discussing policy changes (if needed). As soon as PowerSchool is "back," we will begin looking at all students on each team and ensure that teams are as balanced as possible in regards to student performance histories and ethnicities. Our custodial staff is working REALLY hard on removing old wax from all floors and making them look shiny and new! The 8th grade hallway already looks completely different. Ms. McKenzie and several staff members are active in summer camps for middle school students, so many of our classrooms are still hustling and bustling with teenage energy! Our clerical staff is ordering instructional supplies (thank you, fiscal year turnover!) and updating calendars and phone lists and giving out report cards. This is just in the beginning of July... stay tuned for more updates. We always enjoy seeing your faces, too!
Our wonderful ladies that run the school!
Uh oh!
Who needs a selfie stick when you have Mr. Lord?
Planning Ahead - Mark your calendars!
Remember that CCS offers professional development opportunities on August 3-4 in which teachers can receive CEUs and comp time. Also, the Summer Tech Camp is on August 5-6! The CCS website has more information.
Beginning of year staff workdays:
Monday, August 17: Capped (CCS Convocation at 1pm - more info to come)
Tuesday, August 18: District professional development; district capped
Wednesday, August 19: Staff need to arrive by 11am since all staff are required to be at Open House, which is from 4-6pm.
Thursday, August 20: Capped
Friday, August 21: Not capped
(A more detailed calendar for workdays will come by the beginning of August).
For future Miner Minutes
We will add Staff "Care and Concern" notes as needed. If babies are born, fun vacations, celebrations, or even some of those more difficult pieces of news to share (deaths in family, etc), please let me know directly, and I will add these in. Also, you can see our photo opportunities are not as plentiful in the summer. So if you have fun family photos on vacations or adventures or just crazy selfies, please also send those to me, and I can include them in our newsletter so you can see what all of you are up to this summer!