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The new calendar is now posted on our website
and is also available on the credenza in the front office.
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Welcome to ISM's weekly newsletter for the week June 6 - 10,
2005. Please note that the ISM news brief is now distributed to
ISM families primarily via email, unless otherwise requested,
thereby saving time and money. We appreciate your continued diligence
in accessing the information contained in this document. To request
hardcopy notification, please contact editor Lisa Griffin Burns
at lburns@ismonterey.org
or call at 583-2165.
Held for the first time at the Manzanita campus and as a more scaled back version of prior years' events, yesterday's International Festival was well-received by the ISM community and staff organizers were pleased with the day's attendance and financial outcome. As Hilary Clinton reminds us, it "takes a village" to raise a child and yesterday's event apparently appealed to our extended ISM community, to include existing parents and students, incoming families, waiting list members, and neighbors of our Manzanita campus. As this event transitioned this year from an ISM Foundation event to one spearheaded by staff, our primary goal was to host a community-building event that brought "our village" together to enjoy good company, fun, entertainment, and, an ISM must, food. A heartfelt thank you to all of you who gave the better part of your Sunday to contribute to this event; your efforts, together with nearly the entire ISM staff, helped us to achieve our meaningful goal. Before expenses, the International Festival raised nearly $4000 and funded our recent expenditure of seven portable booths, which will be used for future outdoor events, are incredibly easy to setup and breakdown, and require minimal storage space. A special thank you again to Curly's Barbecue for donating all the tasty chicken in the Tandoori chicken meals, to Sam and Laura Alladeen of Del Rey Carwash for donating $500 in support of Festival food purchases, and to Cynthia Duvall for outfitting the cake walk with 15 purchased cakes. Thank you so much! Super volunteers, please also take a moment to record your generous hours of volunteering in the volunteer binder in the admin office.
For the second consecutive week, ISM Parent, Richard Herbert, and his wife, Laura Dippold, served as event photographers yesterday, marvelously capturing all aspects of this annual special event. In an incredibly timely fashion, they have made available more than 400 photos of the festival, to include all student drama and performance pieces, Taekwondo, Taiko drumming, carnival booth activities, face and henna painting, and Glen Baker's Jazz Band to culminate the day's fun. We invite you to peruse their work online at:
http://fathomsdeep.com/2005ISM_International_Festival/. As mentioned last week, anyone interested in purchasing full size images can email Richard Herbert at richardherbert@fathomsdeep.com. Please indicate specific image(s) "by file name" and as time permits, he will try to accommodate orders for either CDs or actual prints.
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In a sure sign that the school year is concluding, class lists for the 2005 - 06 coming academic year are being published today. The determination of a student's placement took into consideration multiple factors, to include teacher recommendations, parent requests, and gender and skill set considerations to create -- as best a possible -- balanced classroom environments. Both existing and newly placed students have been assigned to individual instructors, keeping in mind our growth of two classes per grade for Kindergarten through Grade 4, Grades 5 through 7, and a new Grade 8. Executive Director Chrissie Jahn will be forwarding the class lists per email to the respective grades and by mid-morning tomorrow, please feel free to access the mobile notification board located outside the library room door for a hard copy version. These lists represent the starting lineup for the 2005-06 academic year and as always, staff will utilize the first six weeks as an assessment period to be assured each student is well placed.
Please note that we will produce one more news brief this coming Monday, June 13th in order to give you the opportunity to become more familiar with our 2005 - 06 staff additions. We will provide brief bios on each new staff member to give you just a taste of the talent that will be joining us next year.
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ISM's P.E. instructor and program will be moving to center stage on the last day of school during our amazingly fun year-end event, Field Day! A multitude of movement, balance, team, and water events are planned, following the Talent Show earlier in the morning. As some of our activities do include water play, children are encouraged to wear their bathing suits with shorts and t-shirts overtop and sneakers and socks to participate safely. At the conclusion of the day, children will be changing into dry clothes, so please send an extra change of clothes and shoes, a towel for drying off, and a bag for the wet clothing with your child on Friday, June 10th.
Approximately 5-6 volunteers are still needed to help staff this event. If you are considering helping, ask someone who has assisted in the past and they will probably tell you it is one of the most fun for which to volunteer. So, what are you waiting for? Contact P.E. instructor Julie Livingston at jlivingston@ismonterey.org or fill out the bottom of the flyer distributed today in your child's folder. If you cannot volunteer your time, perhaps you have one of the following items about the house which are still needed: 1 KIDDIE swimming pool, 4 long garden hoses, a checkers game or just the checkers (no guarantee these will be returned), donated old pillowcases, and two 2-headed t-shirts and/or a seamstress to sew the t-shirts. Contact Julie per above if you can help with any of these items. We'll see you there!
In addition to Field Day being held on the last day of school, Friday, June 10th, we will also be debuting our first-ever student talent show in the morning during an all-school assembly beginning at 9:05 a.m. Incredibly, over 50+ students - representing 30 acts -- will share their musical (instruments, song, and dance), athletic (gymnastics, karate, jump rope, and yo-yo), and entertainment (comedy and magic) talents. All grades are taking part and the event was the brainchild of our Student Government President, Jordan Kausin. As mentioned above, following the talent show, Field Day will kick into high gear under the direction of Miss Livingston.
In a departure from previous years, we have chosen the Schoolpop Supply & Earn program as the vendor for our school supply kits per grade for the coming 2005-06 school year. We will be forwarding our packets from Schoolpop to each student today, which details the program. Here's a brief overview: working together with admin staff, Schoolpop has made available school supply kits - per ISM teacher requests - which can be ordered per a hard-copy order form (available in your packet) or online at http://www.schoolpopsupplies.com. The kits are pre-packaged (prices vary per grade) and are delivered to your home during the summer, based on order received by Friday, July 15th. ISM benefits by earning a 10 percent contribution from Schoolpop based on each student who participates. We appreciated that the program was convenient, eliminating the need to shop store to store for items, products are high quality, name-brand items offered at or below retail prices, and online ordering and door-to-door delivery is guaranteed.
Here's what you do if ordering from the Parent packet: Read the Parent brochure, complete the order form (one per child), being sure to mark the correct kit number, include payment*, seal order form and payment in Parent Envelope, and return the envelope to the admin office by Thursday, June 30th or after July 1st until Friday, July 15th, mail to: Kathy Robinson, Schoolpop, 3885 Crestwood Parkway, Suite #550, Duluth, GA 30096. *[Payment is to "Schoolpop" and Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards are also accepted.]
For online ordering, contact the website listed above and order desired supply kits by Friday, July 15th. ALL ORDERS RECEIVED PRIOR TO THE MID-JULY DEADLINE WILL BE FREE OF SHIPPING CHARGES!
For further information, contact Business Administrator Lisa Griffin Burns at lburns@ismonterey.org.
Kudos, kudos, kudos to Mr. Landrum and his 6th grade shining science stars! Our first ever Science Expo was a very worthwhile event, which enabled the 6th graders to display their science projects and honestly be assessed by a panel of judges, many of whom have science backgrounds. ISM students from other grades also had a chance to view the displays and emerged rather "jazzed" by what they had seen. Thank you to all who contributed to the success of this event, and especially to our "inquiring 6th graders" who made us proud
Mr. D, ISM's Art and Music instructor, kindly asks that students (and parents) pick up their abstract, self-portrait sculptures by this Friday, June 3rd no later than 3:30 p.m. All the remaining sculptures will be in the library on top of the bookshelves, in readiment for pick-up. [Note: The library will be used for the English Tea Room during for the International Festival and additional space is needed.] We are still considering the possibility later in the Fall of securing an art show venue and may ask some students to contribute their sculpture and essays for such a show. More to follow if that eventuality occurs.
Just a gentle reminder to students and their parents to please turn in all checked-out library books in readiment for the close of the school year. Key library volunteers will try to notify students / parents of overdue books and collect them prior to the end of school on June 10th; however, we are making individual students accountable to return library items. Thank you for your consideration!
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