Cougar Connect | March 21

Coming soon to Arno…

March 21

MTSS district 4:00

March 22

5th Grade Camp Begins- Steve @camp all day

SIP meeting 3:45

March 23

Steve @APHS for mock interviews 10:45

5th grade camp

District Art Spring Show

PTSA Council meeting 6:30

March 24

Author Assembly per schedule

Guest reading @Schultz 10:00

Guest reading @ Liedel 10:30

Guest reading @Martinchick 11:00

5th grade camp

Kindergarten spring celebration 1:30

March 25

No School- Spring Break Begins

March 25-April 3 Spring Break- No School

Have a Happy Easter and Restful Break!

I wish you all a happy Easter and hope that we can all rest and recharge our batteries for the end run. If you do anything special over break, be sure to send me some pics and I’ll post them in the staff blog! Thank you for being a caring and collaborative staff, it has been my pleasure to be part of the team this year!

Tech News

Two big tech items on the horizon:

All teacher desktop computers will be replaced over the summer this year. It will continue to be a desktop for every teacher, with Windows 7 remaining as the OS
Our entire computer lab will be replaced with Google Chromeboxes. You will have all of the same features as a PC, with a mouse, key board, projector access, etc. Since we are mainly internet based on our current machines, this should be a nice upgrade. This will take place as soon as they are able to start the project. No closures are planned at this point.

MiStar DNA Data Input Training

This is an update to K-3 teachers for our April 14th training on the new data system for data entry of your next DRA scores.

Grades 1 & 3 8:30-10:10

Grade K & 2 10:15-11:50

Second Grade- it looks like we will run your lunch from 11:55-12:35. I’ll know more when we get close

Please bring a copy of your January results so we have numbers to practice with.

District School of Choice Program FYI

We ask that you help us by sharing this information with friends and/or family members who may be interested in having their children become a part of the Allen Park Public Schools Family.

Allen Park Public Schools

Limited Schools of Choice Program for 2016-17

The Allen Park Public School District has established a successful Schools of Choice Program for the past several years and the Board of Education has approved continuation of the program for the 2016-17 school year for Kindergarten through 8^th Grade. (Requests for specific elementary schools cannot be guaranteed)

Applications are available beginning Monday, April 4 at the Riley Education Center, 9601 Vine. Completed applications will be accepted beginning Monday, April 18 through Friday, May 6, 2016 from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. weekdays in the Pupil Accounting Office at the Riley Education Center. Completed applications must be presented in person to ensure that all information is complete. A random draw selection will be held on May 11 at 9:00 a.m. at the Riley Education Center. The draw will determine numerical selection for acceptance of candidates.

For more information about the Schools of Choice Program, please visit our website at apps.k12.mi.us or call (313) 827-2105.

School Improvement Update

The district team met Tuesday and heard from our own teachers and Mike Darga about their experiences serving on an external review team. The work is ahead is challenging, but I am confident we will get this done together and move forward as a collaborative team.

Sarah, Megan, and Carrie are constructing a google doc that they will share with you soon detailing all of the evidence that we will need from the staff to give the team a good picture of who we are. Please be aware that the external review team, made up of 5 members, will visit every classroom in the building for an average 20 minute time period. During this time, they will be using a tool called Eliot, which they will use for your classroom observation. It’s not necessarily a critique on the staff, but a focus on student learning.

During this time, we have set up a weebly to start uploading evidence that we will receive from you. We will soon meet as a staff and it is my sincere hope when we set up this important update meeting that we will have all staff present. This should happen sometime late spring.

At this point, be on the lookout for info regarding evidence needed from the SIP team. The SIP team has expanded and we have now welcomed Megan aboard. Megan’s role in PBIS has now been turned over to Katie Jensen.

In addition to all of the QAR fun, we have also managed to complete most docs for the SIP leading up to the larger plan. We will also be meeting with the data team in April to finalize the SIP data analysis and provide final guidance on the plan.

Board of Ed Meeting

Monday’s Board meeting featured all of the elementary buildings presenting on our current status of the SIP plan and associated data. Sarah, Megan, Melissa, and students Gerry Klos and Kaylee Daniels joined us for the Arno presentation. I wanted to thank everyone for all their hard work and dedication to make learning the best it can be at Arno. Great job team!

The other agenda item for the night was the adoption Singapore Math as the new new math series (not curriculum) for the elementary schools. More information will be shared this Friday at our PD.

BIG thanks to Jeanine Haskin and Renee Guyot for all of their hard work and dedication to the process of selecting a new series. We appreciate your effort and thank you for what this means to our kids in the future!

SIP Board Presentation March 2016

Spirit Wear Online Fundraiser

It’s back by popular demand- Arno Spirit sale kickoff is this Monday, March 14. Awesome news- if you purchase from 3/14-3/28, you will get free shipping so be sure to order your spirit wear now! The site link is below, I am also adding it to the right side bar so you can go on anytime (even past this sale) and order Arno wear.

http://arnospiritwear.com/