February News You Can Use!

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

February is the month to celebrate Black History and while I usually try to include a variety of voices in our celebration of great African-Americans (for he certainly is not the only one), I find MLK’s voice to be one that teaches important lessons that are still so relevant today.  This particular quote ties in with an interesting discussion I had with parents during Tea Time with Toni this past Friday.

The January Tea Time with Toni topic was Digital Citizenship. Those in attendance had the opportunity to see and discuss how social media can influence the unattended and affect the futures of the unguided.  We talked about how important it is, as parents, to guide our children as they begin to make their own marks in digital society and to monitor them as they take in all that is offered on the world-wide web. As we develop our technology program at Community, our first goal is to educate our students on how to navigate the internet safely and to think critically about information that is presented as fact.

I know this is a topic of high interest among the Community parents and will be offering it again in the near future. Meanwhile, here are a few useful links that can help identify “fake news”:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2AdkNH-kWA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCsp31lSQ2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOPwF6EZpxU 

SWEETHEARTS FAMILY DANCE

Don't forget to get your tickets to the event of the year!!! The Sweethearts Family Dance is THIS Friday, February 7th from 5pm - 8pm. 

Go to FRESHSCHOOLS to purchase admission and tickets, sign up to volunteer, and register for after-school care.

See the flyers at the end of this blog!

PRIMETIME AFTER-SCHOOL ENRICHMENT CLASSES

Coach Mike and Prime Time Sports founder, Peter Straus, are working to get after-school enrichment classes started. They would like me to survey families again on the classes they would like. If interested in having your child participate in after-school enrichment or of you have any questions, please take this after-school enrichment survey ASAP.  Please only respond if you are sure that your child will be able to participate. Complete a separate form for each child. If you have any questions, please email Coach Mike at mike.stallings@primetimesportscamp.com.      Thank you!!

CPR AND FIRST AID CERTIFICATED STAFF

This past Tuesday, all staff were invited to participate in CPR and First Aid Training. Most of us used

the opportunity to update our CPR and First Aid certifications for another 2 and 3 years, respectively. We reviewed how to administer CPR, how to control bleeding, how to care for victims with burns, punctures, nose-bleeds, concussions, severed digits and limbs, and much more. Though it was a serious training, the staff made it fun and our trainer was a great sport! And what's even better is that I know our students are in great (CPR/First Aid Certificated) hands with CMCS Staff!!

ATTENDANCE UPDATE

By now, you may be familiar with our attendance goals to keep our chronic absence rate below 7% and our attendance rate above 72%. In addition, we are striving to improve our attendance rates by 5% over last year. So  . . . how did we do for the month of December??

Our chronic absence rate for December was 6.3% which met our goal of under 7%, but we exceeded last year's rate by 2.8%.

Our attendance rate for December was 76.2% which met our goal for above 72%, but we fell below last year's rate by -5.7%.

ATTENDANCE COUNTS.  Please schedule medical appointments and family vacations for those times when school is not in session. Remember to send a note with a valid excuse upon your child's return after any absence. Valid excuses include illness, emergency medical appointments, funeral for an immediate family member, or religious observations with prior approval from the principal.

 SWEETHEARTS FAMILY DANCE FLYERS:

See you at the Dance!!

Toni