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PARENT NEWSLETTER - February 2002

Parent-student-teacher conferences set for Feb. 27-28

Parent-student-teacher conferences will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 27, and Thursday, Feb. 28 to review student progress in classes and progress towards graduation. On Feb. 27, students will be dismissed from school at noon, with conferences running from 1 - 8 p.m. with a scheduled dinner break. There is no school on Feb. 28 but conferences will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a scheduled lunch and dinner break. There is also no school on Friday, March 1.

Enrichment and Remediation (ER) teachers are will be contacting parents over the next few weeks to schedule conferences. Additionally, Community Schoolhouse student progress reports will be mailed to parents by Feb. 15.

Staff Development Day - Feb. 22

There will be no school on Friday, Feb. 22 due to an all-day staff development activity off campus.

Kauss, Brouwer join Board of Directors 

The Community Schoolhouse Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment of Barbara Kauss and Travis Brouwer to the Board at its December meeting. 

Kauss has been employed at the Salem Housing Authority for six and half years. She is certified as a Public Housing Manager and a Housing Counselor. Barbara recently accepted this position after serving as the Authority’s Housing Grants Coordinator for more than five years. Barbara has two children attending schools in the Salem-Keizer School District. Her daughter attends The Community Schoolhouse as a freshman.

Brouwer works as a field representative for Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, who represents Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley. Travis works on a variety of policy and legislative issues, including environmental issues, energy policy, law enforcement and criminal justice, and agriculture. He has worked for Congresswoman Hooley since his graduation from Willamette University in 1999. Travis and his wife Jessica, a social worker, live in Salem.

The Community Schoolhouse Board manages the affairs of the school. The Board’s primary responsibilities are to set policy for the school, to elevate the school’s profile within the community, and to help raise funds for the school.

Service learning update

Students of The Community Schoolhouse participated in two service learning projects to assist local families in need this past holiday season.

The school "adopted" two families through the Salvation Army’s Adopt-A-Family holiday assistance program. A Holiday Giving Tree was set up at the school and students selected individual gift ideas for members of the adopted families. Other students contributed cash donations for food purchases. Overall, more than 60 new gifts and assorted food items were distributed to the two families on Dec. 19th.

"I’m impressed with how our students responded to this opportunity to reach out to those in need," said Heather Burns, Community Classroom teacher. "Our student ‘community’ saw this as a personal way of brightening the holiday season for those less-fortunate in the Salem-Keizer local community."

Additionally, Community Schoolhouse students organized a food drive for the Marion Polk Food Share. The drive collected over 650 pounds of food to help feed local families in need of food assistance.

"The downtown location of our school is based on the philosophy that the community should serve as a classroom, and that includes the area of service learning" said Burns. "These types of student activities, which are ongoing, foster citizenship skills and a sense of civic pride and responsibility."

Teaching blocks update

Science & Society

Since coming back to school after winter term, students in the 9th & 10th grade Science & Society blocks have been focusing on the time period of 1900-1918 and America Abroad, as well as World War I. Students have completed time lines, lessons, and thematic outcomes ranging from books or reviews on the time period to famous court case studies to even a full scale World War I exhibit (thanks to Patrick Minden and Nate Rochester).

We are now starting a unit on infectious diseases called The Killers Among Us, beginning with the Influenza outbreak of 1918 which claimed 30 million lives worldwide, and ending with a look at the new face of infectious diseases. Students will gain knowledge of pathogenic agents, disease transmission, the immune system and how it work, vaccines, antibiotics and, finally, how humankind is influencing the environment and creating the new killer viruses and super-strains of bacteria.

All thematic outcome contracts and assignments for Science and Society can be found on our website at: www.communityschoolhouse.org/WinterTerm.2002.scienceandsociety.assignments.htm

Coming up next in February and March: The Roaring 20’s and the Great Depression for 20th Century Studies, and an introduction to Chemistry in Integrated Science.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (503) 763-8968 or email us at andrew@communityschoolhouse.org and molly@communityschoolhouse.org

The juniors at The Community Schoolhouse are moving forward on the contracts for U.S. History and Chemistry.

In History this term, students are focusing on the 1960’s with three different contracts: Civil Rights, Protest & Change, and the Vietnam War. All thematic contracts are found on the U.S. History Contract website at: www.communityschoolhouse.org/us.history.contracts.htm

In Chemistry, we are finishing up the general Chemistry requirements with some labs, yes, labs! We now have a few real lab supplies and equipment to fulfill the laboratory requirement for the Chemistry credit. Students are focusing on identifying substances by testing their physical and chemical properties, types and rates of chemical reactions, and the precision and accuracy of scientific measurements. The Chemistry contract and assignments can be found on the Chemistry website at: www.communityschoolhouse.org/chemistry.contract.htm

· Pre-Algebra is completing a thematic module on Cartoon Animation. The concepts covered around that are Symmetry, Rotations, Rotational Symmetry, Translations, Reduction and Dilation, Decimal Multiplication and Division, Fraction Multiplication and Division, and object transformations in the coordinate plane.

 

· Advanced Algebra just completed a chapter on functions – Linear, Quadratic, Absolute Value, and Square Root. Projects for the class include analyzing a failed experiment using function transformations and generating video graphics using Boolean expressions.

· Algebra class has just begun its study of linear equations. We are exploring how these equations can be used to model things like the salary of a job, calories burned during a workout, a car’s average rate of speed or the wind chill factor.

 

· The B Group Geometry class is just beginning work on a section involving polygon properties. We will investigate angle and side relationships for shapes with many sides but most of the time be focused on quadrilaterals.

 

· The Junior Geometry Class has finished its work on our house projects and has moved back into some construction geometry. We are using constructions to look at some properties of angles, lines and triangles in the plane.

¡Saludos a todos! Greetings to all! Martha Torres here. It is with great joy that I write this for I am once again back at work with our students after my leave of absence. I missed each and every one and am thankful to be back. As with any return from an absence, the students and I have found ourselves with a tremendous amount of work to accomplish, and what better way of getting things done than jumping right in.

The Spanish 1 students have begun to work on building their vocabulary and have learned to complete introductions, greet others and obtain/state information of where one is from. Throughout this term, they will continue to learn more vocabulary, which will assist them in learning the grammar and the culture. Soon, your child will be able to describe themselves and others and use Spanish to identify family members. So, don’t be surprised if one day they mamá/papá.

Students in Spanish 2, 3 and Native Speakers 1 & 2 have started again and will also be studying vocabulary, grammar and culture. The upper level students of Spanish will also continue to use Spanish literature as part of the curriculum.

All of our students are being given the opportunity to create a short story, which will be shared with students from Grant Elementary on March 1st. The option is out there for students to use their Spanish on this project, which is a possibility for everyone if they do not limit themselves by not attempting it. ¡Hasta luego! Until next time!

The Freshman and Sophomore English blocks are finding out about themselves through autobiographical writing. To ensure student work has zip and energy, we are looking at describing abstract art work and comparing it with real photography. The focus on creativity and vivid description continues with our approach to Read Across America Day on March 1st. On that day, we anticipate returning to Grant Elementary School and reading to assorted classes of first- and second-graders. Students are even now designing their own stories with "crazy creatures," which can be put into a student-made book to share with the elementary students. An emphasis on Speech will be the next thing on our list.

Juniors are digging into the novel Grapes of Wrath after developing a base understanding of author John Steinbeck, The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl. Students are working on understanding the characters in this novel.

School faces potential budget cuts next year

The state budget deficit, totaling approximately $830 million for the 2001-03 biennium, will affect all state-funded programs. The Governor’s revised budget includes a $304.2 million reduction in K-12 revenue. For Salem-Keizer Public Schools, the impact is approximately $23 million; however, the final budget will be determined by the Legislature when they meet in special session in February.

The budget deficit’s impact on The Community Schoolhouse will be significant, although the amount is undetermined. As a public charter school, The Community Schoolhouse receives funding through a state school fund formula based on the district’s enrollment (known as Average Daily Membership - ADM). The formula sets an average dollar amount per student – an amount that will be reduced by the state budget deficit.

Under its arrangement with Salem-Keizer School District, The Community Schoolhouse receives 95% of the ADM funds for its students. Salem-Keizer School District receives the additional 5 percent of the state funds.

With this reduced budget, The Community Schoolhouse must pay for its operating costs and for support services normally provided to other public schools. This includes all payroll costs, building lease payments, instructional materials, insurances, student transportation (monthly city bus passes), and janitorial and maintenance services. Add to this the high start-up expenses for any new school and the costs of providing a quality program to a high needs student population: a low student-to-teacher ratio, experienced fully-licensed teachers, an engaging curriculum, extensive technology resources, and a growing list of business partnerships.

It’s also important to note that approximately 25% of The Community Schoolhouse’s annual budget must be generated through fundraising and in-kind contributions in order to maintain the school’s current level of services. Last year, more than $200,000 in financial and in-kind contributions were generated for the school.

The Community Schoolhouse is seeking additional fundraising revenues to help offset possible reductions in staffing and instructional programs for the 2002-03 school year. It is our sincere hope that the school can maintain its current instructional programs and staffing levels, but significant cuts may need to be made.

We will keep you informed throughout the difficult budget process and continue to ask your support in any way possible.

Inclement weather policy/school delay schedule

The Community Schoolhouse will follow, when appropriate, all Salem-Keizer School District delays and school closures due to snow, inclement weather, or emergency situations. For a complete description of the district’s inclement weather and school closure policy, please visit the district Web site at: www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/schools/closure.html.

Volunteers needed

The Community Schoolhouse is still in need of volunteers in a variety of instructional and support areas. Please contact Jessica Pembroke, instructional assistant, by phone at 503-763-8958, or by email at: jess@communityschoolhouse.org if you or anyone you know is interested in volunteering at the school. 

contact: school@communityschoolhouse.org