Dear Community School Parents and Caregivers, It is
with deep sorrow and extreme regret that we announce that Tom Farrell,
husband of Connie Farrell, was killed yesterday. As you know, Connie is
our administrative assistant and is “the hub” of our school. Join
us in remembering Connie and her family in your thoughts and prayers.
Life is a fragile and precious gift. It can be taken away so suddenly.
Sincerely, Holly Hirst, Director Michi Hines,
School Administrator
C.S. & CHS
Students Leave on Bolivian Exchange Program
Monday
Feb. 11
6:15 p.m.
Board of
Trustees Meeting
Wednesday
Feb. 13
12:15-12:45
p.m.
Pizza Day
(12:05-12:45 for Middle School) – Parents Welcome
No pizza day
for Seminar students.
Monday
Feb. 18
School
Closed for Presidents’ Day
Wednesday
Feb. 20
12:15-12:45
p.m.
Lunch-A-Month
(12:05-12:45 for Middle School) – Parents Welcome
(cheeseburger, BBQ chips, brownie, lemonade)
Wednesday
Feb. 27
12:15-12:45
p.m.
Pizza Day
(12:05-12:45 for Middle School) – Parents Welcome
No pizza day
for Seminar students.
Wednesday
March 5
12:15-12:45
p.m.
Lunch-A-Month
(12:05-12:45 for Middle School) – Parents Welcome
(hot dog,
potato chips, popsicle, lemonade)
Thursday
March 6
7:00 p.m.
Preschool &
Kindergarten Information Session
For current
and prospective families. Watch for more information.
Notes from the School Administrator (Michi)
IMPORTANT information will be mailed to all Community School
parents and caregivers about our NEW Medication Policy. Please
review the NEW Medication Policy and familiarize yourself with
the changes effective, Friday, February 1, 2008. If you have any
questions regarding the NEW Medication Policy, please contact
me.
CHS Fat
Tuesday Celebration
Next Week!
Feb. 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets: $10 each
New: Free childcare onsite.
Get ready to
celebrate! Community High School is hosting its annual Fat
Tuesday fundraiser on February 5 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the
Jefferson Center's Fitzpatrick Hall. Come and indulge in
decadent desserts and savory appetizers, enjoy wine and beer
from the cash bar, groove to the sounds of Blue Mule, shop at
the silent auction and art sale, and maybe even have your
fortune told. Free childcare is available onsite. Tickets are
available in the C.S. office for $10 each. Don't miss it! This
event is Community High School’s major fundraiser of the year.
Come out and support our partner school.
Attention
All Middle School Students: Middle School Auditions on Feb. 7
From
3:30-5:00 p.m.
This year for
Arts Festival, under the joint leadership of Kim M and Lisa, we
will present the musical “Tom Sawyer.” There are nineteen
speaking parts, along with extras as school kids, townspeople
and newsboys. Auditions for the speaking parts will be held
Thursday, February 7, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Please mark your
calendar! See Kim or Lisa for more information. Students going
to Bolivia will be able to participate, as we will begin
rehearsals in April.
Group Flute
and Trumpet Lessons
Available at
C.S.
We are very
excited to be offering group flute and trumpet lessons for upper
elementary and middle school students at Community School! This
eight-week session begins February 15th and runs from 3:45 to
4:30 pm. The cost is $80.00 for the eight classes, and students
are responsible for securing a flute or trumpet, either by
borrowing or renting. A brochure will go home next week, but if
you have questions, contact Kim Mucha at
.
These classes will be filled on a first come, first served basis, so sign
up soon.
************************
Alumni
Update
************************
Congratulations
to Jon (Caleb) C. on his recent nomination to the U.S. Air Force
Academy. Caleb, a senior at William Fleming High School, is in
the International Baccalaureate program and the aviation
program. He participated in the Air Force ROTC for three years
and was selected as one of 500 out of 113,000 ROTC members to
attend the Air Force Honors Camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
during his sophomore year. The Roanoke Star Sentinel featured
Caleb in their January 18 issue. Caleb attended Community School
for 5 years (Seminar Class of 2004).
Middle School Students Refurbish Computers for
Hollins Manor
Service Learning
Lelia’s Middle
School Friday Group (Adeyla, Alex P., Austin, Kyle & Logan)
spent the last quarter refurbishing old computers which will be
donated to Hollins Manor. They learned how to format the hard
drives and install the operating system and all updates. They
also located, downloaded and installed open-source software for
the new owners to use. During the downtime (while software and
updates installed), they were introduced to a program called
"Scratch," which is a kid's programming environment from M.I.T.
C.S. Student
Art Work on Display
Please make a point to see both
of these exceptional exhibits.
1)Ten middle school students’
collages featuring Adinkra symbols from the Asanti People of
Ghana will be on display during the month of February in the
Roanoke City Main Library downtown.
2)“The Many Faces of Winter” – Paper-mâché
masks and poetry created by The Geezers (Emilie’s class) will be
displayed in the window of Barnes & Noble (Valley View) from
January 26 through February 9.
Information
on the Virginia Prepaid Education Program
Information on
the Virginia Prepaid Education Program (529 College Savings
Plans) is available in the C.S. office on the shelf just inside
the main door.
C.S.
Director Assessment and Evaluation
The Board of
Trustees is required to do a thorough review of the school's
Director each year. The primary goal of this evaluation is to
help improve the quality of education at Community School by
assessing the Director's performance and providing feedback. It
is also a method of fostering communication among the Director,
teachers, students, parents, and the school board. Over the next
several weeks, questionnaires will be available to all community
members, primarily via e-mail. If you do not receive a
questionnaire but would like to participate, please e-mail me at
ramstutz@ntelos.net or call me. Please take the time to help us
in this evaluation process by completing this questionnaire and
know that your responses will be completely confidential. Thank
you for your support of Community School! Richard D. Amstutz,
CS Board of Trustees.
Financial
Aid Applications for 2008-2009
Financial aid applications for 2008-09 will be
available on January 31. We will mail a financial aid
application to all families receiving tuition assistance this
year. If you are not receiving tuition assistance this year,
but would like to apply to receive assistance for 2008-09, you
can pick up an application in the main office. For questions
about tuition assistance, please see Michi.
Reminder
If you are saving Campbell’s Soup labels to
donate to C.S., please remember to send the bar code. The
company is no longer accepting only label fronts. Thank you!
POP Puppy
Love Food Drive
The middle school POP group (People of Peace) is
conducting a Puppy Love Food Drive to benefit the Roanoke Valley
SPCA. They are asking for donations of food or treats for the
dogs and cats at the SPCA. Please send your donations to the
school and place them in the box outside the office door by
Friday, February 14.
C.S. Returned Check Policy
Community School
has enrolled in a new free service through our bank to help us
recapture any returned checks. Any check that has been returned
will no longer be processed by the business office, but will be
handled by FARS. If you have any questions, contact Sue at
CHS Marginal Arts Festival
Free arts events
from February 1 through February 4.
Local bands,
video and sound works performances, poetry readings and
discussions, film, photography, and power tool drag racing.
The
Marginal Arts Festival is a series of free events planned by
Community High School, to take place during the first five days
of February, whose goal is to raise public awareness of the wide
variety of art medias, genres and communities rarely seen in
Roanoke. As an educational institution, we believe that the arts
are valuable to society when they instill in us a sense of
wonder, challenge our perceptions, help us ask good questions,
teach us the value of empathy, compel us to be active and
participatory in our community and to acknowledge our
brotherhood with the people of all nations. Much of the best
contemporary art of our times does an excellent job in
fulfilling these goals in media that is often overlooked
locally. The Festival will take place at the Dumas Center for
African American Culture.
Friday will
be a celebration of local music from about 6:00 p.m. till 10:00
p.m. Bands that will play include The Wading Girl, T.W.O.
Frantic Recovery, and the CHS High School Band, with a
possibility of others.
Saturday
will be devoted to video performance and sound works (which are
very strange things, but considered "cool" by those who know)
which build to a highlight reading and performance by Hollins
professor T.J. Anderson and OSU curator of Avant writing John
Bennett. Their discussion on contemporary performance poetry
will be moderated by Les Epstein.
Sunday will
focus on short narrative and documentary films that explore the
theme of marginalization in society. Some of the films are
produced locally by professional film makers and by high school
and college students, while others have a Roanoke Valley
connection such as the Australian award winning â?oVanishedâ?ť
short film that was directed by Nathan Ross. The doors of the
Dumas open at noon on Sunday, and the films will show until the
audience succumbs to the commercial lure of the Super Bowl.
On Monday,
an exhibition of outsider photos by Angela Singer (curated by
her granddaughter Ashley Maynor, a Graduate film student at
Temple University) and an extensive exhibition of museum quality
international mail art collected by Jim Leftwich will be the
highlights. Both exhibits and a wild sounding power tool drag
racing event will take place at the old H.L. Lawson warehouse on
East Campbell. Power tool drag racing is an international
activity with thousands of die-hard devotees. The basic idea is
that a power tool, like a circular saw, can be fitted with
skateboard wheels or attached to a Tonka truck in such a way as
the tool will generate the momentum needed to whisk the device
down a twelve-inch wide plywood trough about a distance of
twenty feet. Many devices are decorated or transformed into
kinetic sculptures with added embellishments like Barbie doll
heads and stuffed animals. More information on this activity is
available at http://powertooldragraces.com/.
The
Festival culminates on Tuesday with the CHS Fat Tuesday
Celebration in Fitzpatrick Hall at the Jefferson Center.
For further
information and documentation of the events visit http://roanokemarginalartsfestival.blogspot.com/
.
