The last several school years have been different but rewarding at New Dimensions and throughout the world of education. Our students have been able to experience an inviting educational environment where outstanding teachers are providing first class instruction day in and day out and working to develop a “new” normal for education.

The last few years have taught us many lessons. As a staff, we realize even more that education is a collaborative effort between school and home. Never before have we needed and appreciated the support that our parents have provided. Words can’t express how much we appreciate the understanding and an extra measure of grace as we work to meet the needs of all of our students. We have also learned that there is more to educating children than textbook fact alone.

The faculty and staff at New Dimensions have been phenomenal as they have worked tirelessly to meet the needs of each of our students. We are constantly adapting to better meet the needs of our families. From working to close the learning loss gaps to our teachers developing a variety of instructional strategies, we are continually getting better.

At New Dimensions, we have a lot to be thankful for as we enter the holiday season. Our school is very thankful for the wonderful students that we serve, along with their families. We are also thankful for a supportive and active board that provides direction and encouragement. I am personally thankful for a hard-working and competent staff that I get to work with every day. To provide our school community the opportunity to give thanks for all our blessings, New Dimensions will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday from Wednesday, November 23 to Friday, November 25.

One of our top priorities for the 2022–2023 school year is to provide additional support to help our students close the instructional gap that has occurred over the time we have been dealing with the pandemic. There are a number of key elements that we have put in place to provide assistance to our students. These include:

• A School Nurse contracted through UNC Blue Ridge

• Additional Training in Reading and Math Strategies

• The Warrior Before and After-School Program through the YMCA

• A Daily Intervention Program called Warrior Time

• Academic Clubs and Activities

• Additional Counseling Opportunities for Our Students

• Tutoring Through the Burke Augustine Literacy Project

• Reduced Class Size (1 to 16) in Grades K-5 and (1-22) in Middle School

We encourage our community to closely follow our students’ academic progress and work with our teachers to help ensure that all of our students stay on track academically. Working together as a team, we can improve not only how well our students are performing individually, but how our school is performing as a whole.

Helping us obtain this success has taken many community supporters who have donated food, silent auction items and other means of support for our students and staff. We can’t meet the needs of our students without the help of many community partners.

There is nothing more important to our faculty and staff than ensuring that our students are ready for the next step in their academic career. We look forward to working with our entire community to make sure our students are on track for success in a safe and secure environment.

Sincerely,

David Burleson

Director

Please watch the video below for helpful information regarding upcoming parent/teacher conferences.

New Dimensions' students have been active in their PE classes and on the athletic field during their first couple of months of the school year. In PE classes, students have been staying active with plenty of exercise and have had a lot of opportunities to get outside to enjoy the nice weather with walks on the school nature trail, use of our ropes course, and to play active PE games on our NDS athletic field. In the middle school PE classes, there have also been opportunities for our students to experience some fun activities outside of our school campus. In our Adventure Education PE class and Personal Fitness PE class, students were able to take field trips to both the "Big Foot Climbing Gym" and to "Food Matters" here in Morganton.

On the athletic field our little league outdoor soccer has had a lot of our youngsters come out to play. We have had a total of eight teams participating this Fall with a total of around 90 players. We have 2 teams from 5-6 year olds; 3 teams from 7-8 year olds; and 3 teams from 9-10 years old; and 2 teams from 11-13 years old. All of these teams have put a lot of hard work and time into their practices and games. Our teams have seen a lot of success on the soccer field as well with learning more of the game; improvement during practices; and even winning a lot of games. At the time of this writing, we have one of our 7-8 yr old team that has done well enough to get into the playoffs for the County Recreation Soccer Tournament. The little league 7-8 yr old Team 2 will play as the #4 seed in the County Recreation playoffs on Tuesday, November 1 at Simpson Field in Glen Alpine at 6:45 p.m. We are waiting for our older groups to play their remaining regular season games to see if they might make the playoffs too. We want to wish Team 2 and any other Warrior teams the best of luck in their remaining games. We would especially like to thank all of the volunteer coaches and parents who have been able to help lead our youngsters out on the soccer fields at practices and games.

At the middle school level, both of our co-ed outdoor soccer teams were very successful this season as they competed well and won many games. Both teams went to the playoffs as the two best teams in the conference. After playing some exciting first round playoffs both New Dimensions team 1 and team 2 went to the championship game to play against one another. After it was all said and done, the New Dimensions team 2 came out victorious and were crowned champions for this soccer season. Congratulations to both of our soccer teams as they played well and had a great season. Our girl's and boy's cross country team have gotten off to a great start this Fall as they have dominated their season thus far. In every meet our teams have been seen finishing their races strong and have won every time out. On October 21, both our girl's and boy's teams won the very first ever New Dimensions Invitational meet competing against 4 other schools. We are very proud of all of our middle school athletes.

Little league basketball sign ups were passed out in October to interested students. Teams are now being put together. If your child has signed up to play then you should be contacted soon to find out what team they will play on along with when and where they will practice. We may still be looking for some head and assistant coaches. If you are able to help please contact Coach Brooks as soon as possible at 813-215-4879. Basketball games for little league should start in early December.

Middle school basketball is set to start soon. Basketball forms have been passed out to the middle schoolers and tryouts for both the girl's and boy's teams will be soon. The plan is to have tryouts at the Morganton Recreation Center downtown Morganton on Friday, November 18, Monday, November 21, and Tuesday, November 22. For those students trying out for middle school basketball, they will be bussed over to the Morganton Recreation Center and will be there from 3:30-5:00 p.m. Students trying out should be picked up inside the recreation center at 5:00 p.m. Regular practices for those students that make the teams should start the week after we get back from Thanksgiving break. If you have any questions pertaining to basketball please contact Coach Brooks through email at mbrooks@ndschool.org or text him at 813-215-4879.

The cheerleading club has seen many cheerleaders come out this year. They have been working hard and can be heard cheering their hearts out inside and outside the school during their practices. Our Warrior cheerleaders will be able to cheer for our upcoming basketball season for both our middle school and little league basketball teams. We want to thank Mrs. Higdon, Mrs. Stroupe, and Miss Burnette for leading these cheerleaders!!

The archery club has also been busy with many 4th-8th grade students participating. The club members have been able to experience our new indoor range to learn about safety and shooting. Our archery club will finish the week of November 14-18. After this week, there may be tryouts for our competition team for the 4th-5th graders. the middle school grades beginning the week after Thanksgiving. There will be a $1 dress down day on Friday, November 4 that will go specifically for raising money for our archery program. Please wear your camo or earthy colors to school on this special day. If you would like to donate any money to help further our archery program please contact Coach Brooks. We continue to look forward to a great year for our archery program!

Don’t forget to get your school and athletic apparel items. Another round of NDS apparel flyers should be coming out in November in order to get your orders ready before Christmas break.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns with PE classes or athletics. I look forward to working with your children and getting to know you and your families!

Thank you,

Coach Brooks

Our first Warrior Watch of the school year can be viewed here and will be aired on Compass Cable and posted on our website at ndschool.org throughout November.

The latest video highlights our information about testing scores from the previous school year and how NDS students compare with others throughout the region and state.

On Tuesday, November 8, Jostens will be back on campus for School Picture Day retakes. Students who were absent on the original picture day or those parents/guardians who have requested a retake are already scheduled for his or her picture that day. Those students may choose their attire as long as it is within the normal dress down day guidelines. After picture day, you can view, purchase and pay for your student's photos online at jostenspix.com using the event code: FE113822.

This year, NDS will once again use the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s online testing platform to hold our classroom spelling bees via an online spelling test.

The first step to spelling bee participation for your child is registering for the online testing

platform by visiting https://online-test.spellingbee.com. Once students are registered, they will receive the spelling bee words to study.

The student from each classroom with the highest score will move on to compete at the

grade-level bee. The student from each grade level with the highest score will move on to

compete at the school-level bee. Our grade-level and school-level competition will be

administered via in-person spelling bees. The date for our school-level spelling bee will be sometime between the end of January and the beginning of February. Our school champion will then move on to represent New Dimensions School in the next level of the district bee and the Carolina Panthers Regional Spelling Bee presented by Bank of America. Those competitions may include online tests in lieu of in-person spelling bee events.

Please email Mrs. Teresa Higdon (thigdon@ndschool.org) should you have any questions.

Find Scripps Spelling Bee on Facebook to access study resources:

https://www.facebook.com/scrippsnationalspellingbee/

NDS Cheerleaders are selling $10 Domino's cards. Each card allows for 10 buy one get one free pizzas. Please email Mrs. Teresa Higdon at thigdon@ndschool.org to purchase. Thank you in advance for your support!

The Middle School Drama Class will be attending the play "Cinderella" at The Green room on Nov. 30. Parents and guardians should return permission forms as soon as possible.

The upcoming NDS Christmas programs will take place as follows:

• Monday, December 12 - Kindergarten - 5th grade students
  Location: CoMMA
  Times: 5:30 p.m. for K-2nd and 7:30 for 3rd-5th
• Thursday, December 15 - Middle school band and chorus concerts
  Location: Catawba Valley Baptist Church
  Time: 6:30 p.m.
  

Ticket sales: (ONLY needed for K-5 parents attending CoMMA)

• November 28: tickets are live on CoMMA website (https://www.commaonline.org/comma/page/tickets) or purchased in person at the box office (401 S College Street, Morganton NC 28655 )
  
  

Tickets can ONLY be purchased online, by phone, or directly from the CoMMA Box Office. For Handicap or other special seating needs, please call 800-939-7469.

Box Office Hours are Monday - Friday 12 PM - 5PM, except major holidays.

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 form below. 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:

11/1/22 - 11/11/22 with projected deliver on 11/22/22

11/28/22 - 12/02/22 with projected deliver on 12/15/22

01/02/23 - 01/13/23 with projected deliver on 1/27/23

1/30/23 - 2/10/23 with projected deliver on 2/24/23

2/27/23 - 3/10/23 with projected deliver on 3/31/23

3/20/23 - 3/31/23 with projected deliver on 4/06/23

4/17/23 - 4/28/23 with projected deliver on 5/12/23

• Tuesday, November 1 - NO SCHOOL

• Wednesday, November 2 - NO SCHOOL; Parent/Teacher Conferences (PTC)

• Thursday, November 3 - $1 Dress Down Day for Operation Christmas Child shoebox shipping

• Friday, November 4 - $1 Archery Club Camo Dress Down Day

• Sunday, November 6 - Daylight Savings Time Ends

• Monday, November 7 - 5 cans Dress Down Day for Glen Alpine Food Pantry

• Tuesday, November 8 - Retake/Make up Picture Day; 4th Grade field trip

• Wednesday, November 9 - Warrior Wednesday

• Thursday, November 10 - Armed Services Dress Down Day (red, white and blue or shirts representing military branch); 2nd grade field trip

• Friday, November 11 - NO SCHOOL (Veteran’s Day)

• Monday, November 14 - Apples with Admin - 4 p.m.

• Wednesday, November 16 - 50th day of school celebration - '50s style dress down or Warrior Wednesday attire

• Thursday, November 17 - $2 Icee Day; Board meeting

• Friday, November 18 - $1 Brighter House Dress Down Day

• Monday, November 21 - Friday, November 28 Lunch order window open for food service 12/05 - 12/15

• Wednesday, November 23 - Friday, November 25 - NO SCHOOL (Thanksgiving Break)

• Wednesday, November 30 - Drama Class Field Trip

• Thursday, December 1 - EARLY RELEASE 11:45 a.m.

• Friday, December 2 - Progress Reports

Email: klookadoo@ndschool.org
Website: ndschool.org
Location: 550 Lenoir Rd, Morganton, NC, USA
Phone: 828.437.5753
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ndschool.org