Chagrin Falls PTO

Each month the presenting staff member for the high school report also gives information to the PTO on the events within their department.  This month’s report from David King highlights the Art Department 7-12.  Because the list of award winners at Chagrin was long, I decided it deserved its own post. 

Art Department News

Maggie Robinson won TWO American Vision Awards (best four pieces in the show) and the Sue Wall Award (best painting) at a recent art show -- here is her award-winning work "Popcorn Shop".

• The Middle school is hosting an Art Forum to be held on March 17^th, St. Patrick’s Day.  This is an event that will include the Chagrin Valley Middle School Conference.  An artist or group of artists will come in and work with the students in a workshop format.  There will be two workshops for each participant that day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

High School Photography News:

This year’s 1st semester photography students had a very exciting field trip to the Rotunda building downtown Cleveland which has been abandoned for years. Photos of this experience will be on the CF website soon.

Past 2 years 2nd semester Photography has participated in the community summer art show called “CLICK” put on by the Chagrin Falls Library. Students have received several of the top awards.

Paige Cameron was offered a $40,000-64,000 scholarship to the CIA as a sophomore! This is her award-winning work "Self-Portrait".

High School Computer Graphics News:

Recently 8 of my students participated in the “Cleveland Rock-Off” design competition. We are still waiting to get our results back.

Last year my students participated in a design competition put on by the Chagrin Valley Rec. for a new logo design. Eric Seegot created the winning design.

Misc. High School Art News

2010-2011 we will be running a Digital Photography Course pilot.

Digital Academy has been an excellent experience and I am learning and practicing on show casing student work on the Web.

The site is not complete but is coming along nicely…look for it in the future.

The AP classes are taking a field trip to see the Scholastics show and a tour of the Cleveland Institute of Art studios.

(Find out more about the show.)

Complete List of Art Show Award Winners More »

The Gurney School report was presented by Kim Tressler.

• Thank you so much for all the volunteer help with holiday parties prior to winter break and with hanging our spirit banners for Gurney Night!  Also, thank you to the parent volunteers who helped us run the second round of H1N1 vaccinations so smoothly!
• Spirit Week and Gurney Night were both a great success!  The students (and many teachers)really enjoyed the fun apparel associated with Spirit Week such as Crazy Hat Day and Silly Slippers Day.  We ended the week with a great pep assembly run by Mr. Howell and the Girls Varsity Basketball Team along with Mrs. Pelsozy and the Varsity Cheerleaders.  We learned some new cheers and did some whole school relay races!  Saturday night Gurney students and their families cheered on Mr. Howell and the girls to a victory over the Orange Lions!
• Kindergarten Registration will be held February 27^th at Gurney from 8am-1pm.  Notice of this will be on the website, in the local papers, and sent to local daycares/preschools.  Kindergarten Kick-Off Night is March 18^th at Gurney but we are changing the start time from 7pm to 6pm and that will be repeated in all hand-outs at registration.  Next year’s kindergarten options are the same as this year.  Half Day Kindergarten is available (am/pm) and Full Day Kindergarten is tuition based.  Full Day Kindergarten is $2500 with a required $200 deposit by May 7^th to hold a spot on a Full Day roster.  More »

Intermediate School –Mike Wujnovich

• IS Night at the Basketball Game

Friday, February 5, will be Intermediate School night at the boys basketball game. Student council will be helping to promote the event.  Ms. Shoenfelt will have a group of fifth and sixth grade band students to play the National Anthem.  There will half time activities for students as well.

• Early Release Day

This month we studied Understanding by Design.  This is something we work on every other month and now have finished going though the main points in the book.  Teachers had time to work on a unit using the UbD design template.

• Progress Book

It is our hope that all parents will use Progress Book as an aid in communication about assignments, homework and student grades.  Please take the time to look at Progress Book on a regular basis.  If you have any questions, please contact your teacher or Mr. Murphy.

• Family Movie Night

Friday, March 5, will be the Family Movie night at the Intermediate School Auditorium.  This is a change from went originally home with students on the first day of school.  Student council will be picking the movie and organizing the event.  It is a lot of fun and we hope to see you there.

• Fox 8 “Cool School”

Thank you to all the parents who helped us win the Fox 8 “Cool School” Award.  It was a lot of fun spending a couple of days voting and having Fox 8 come to visit our school.  If you have not seen the broadcast, you can view it on the Fox 8 web page (or see it above!)

• Conferences

Spring conferences will be in February 22 and 24.  More »

The Middle School report was presented by Debi Gebler.

• We started the year off right with the middle school annual Lock-In.  Middle school students spent the night at the school on January 8.  They started the evening with a dance until 10:30.  After that, students were divided into teams to play “glow in the dark” basketball, beach volleyball, and Pictionary.  The evening ended with movies and a little sleep for some.  We made close to $4000 for our Principal’s fund. This money will be used to purchase materials/speakers for our student development days and to secure a visiting author for next school year. We would like to thank the parent volunteers who made the night long event possible. They were: Judy McCuaig, Gi Gi Lewis, Scott Skiljan, Jeff Berlin, Steve Thompson, Lori Bryant, Becky Borden and Debbie Axelrod. The Alumni donated the tee shirts for the event and the kids loved them!!  Thank you CFHS Alumni Association!
• Congratulations to Alex Distaulo and Judah Calder.  Alex is our spelling bee winner this year and Judah is our runner-up.  Alex will go on to compete in a regional competition in March.  Congratulations to Kate Agan who is our Geography Bee winner this year.  She will go on to take a regional exam and hopefully qualify for state competition.
• The middle school students are still raising money for pediatric cancer research through the Kick-It program.  Thus far, the students have raised over $3000.  Our weekly kickball games have become something the kids look forward to.  Mr. Q even plans to get over to give the kids a cheer since he was the person who started the Chagrin Falls kickball tradition.
• At the start of the semester, we started our Paw Pack program.  Paw Pack cards are given to a male and female student in both 7^th and 8^th grade each week.  Students earn the reward by having a strong work ethic, being kind to their peers, showing respect for adults, and using appropriate language.  Once given the cards, these students get to be first in the lunch line and receive discounts tickets to school dances.  They will also get discounts from Einstein’s Bagels, Yours Truly, and The Popcorn Shop.  Our first students to be given the honor are Will Czerr, Anna Kang, Nate Diedrich, and Hannah Loomis.  A big thank you goes out to our PTO reps who helped organize this program!!
• We hosted our first student development day on Tuesday, January 19.  Our specific focus for the day was More »

The High School report was presented by Dave King.

• School closing or delays due to inclement weather conditions:  The superintendent decides when to close school; thought and consideration is always exercised when the safety of students and staff are in question.  The local television networks are notified (ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) who then notify their radio station affiliates.  Closing or school delay announcements are usually made during the 5:00 a.m. broadcasts. Several networks also have the ability to send you an automated text message when they receive the closing notification.  In the event you have questions regarding the cancellation of athletic events, check the website (www.chagrinschools.org) or contact the AD Office direct line 247-2890 or 247-2072 xt. 4447.
• Surrogate Parents Needed – Districts are required to provide surrogate parents for students with disabilities who are in foster placements.  We no longer have a certified Surrogate Parent in our district and would like to recruit some parents for training.  We typically do not have many children who require this service; however, we need to be prepared in the event that a surrogate parent is needed.  Training sessions are free and are offered the first Wednesday of every month in Valley View.  If you would like more information regarding this rewarding service, please contact Dr. Christine A. Jackson, Director of Pupil Services, at 440.247.4564 or Christine.Jackson@chagrinschools.org.
• College Goal Sunday 2010:  Sunday, February 14, 2010, has been determined to be “College Goal Sunday”.  This is a financial aid workshop.  The Ohio Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators sponsors this workshop.  This free workshop attempts to More »

Board of Education Report – Liz O’Neil

• Next year’s school calendar will be approved at the February meeting (2/1 Work Session; 2/16 Regular Meeting)
• The area churches have requested that the schools be sensitive to scheduling activities on Sunday mornings, as it hinders the student from attending services. This request will be addressed by the policy committee.

Administrative Report – Rachel Jones

• Feb 12^th is an In Service day: The focus will be technology. There will be 2 main sessions for the teachers in which they will hear presenters on specific topics and then have time to collaborate with colleagues to develop lessons, activities etc on what they have just learned. For each session, teachers will sign up for a presentation from a menu of topics such as wikis, mimios, digital storytelling, podcasting, student response systems and much more.
• Datawerks is a new database the district has purchased to house all of our K-12 assessment data on students. Testingwerks-a K-12 Data Warehouse for Student Testing was developed for school districts that perform a variety of diagnostic tests from a variety of sources and want to view and analyze all the results together. Testingwerks is a depository where districts can import or enter scores ranging from locally developed common assessments, state tests, diagnostic tests, national tests, and national standardized tests. With Testingwerks, your teachers, counselors, administrators, and special education teachers can now see all tests in one location and begin to develop comprehensive intervention plans.
• Kindergarten offerings next year are the same as they were this year. We have one more year of this and then More »