Unami Parent Council

The purpose of Unami’s Parent Council is for parents to share their ideas and voice their concerns.  Principal David Bolton and Assistant Principal Cheryll Dougherty preside over the meetings, with visits from Unami staff and district personnel.  Parents are able to keep in tune with what’s going on in the school and the district, and help determine expenditures. 

 For Info on the Unami Parent Council contact the Unami office.

Next Meeting:

The next Parent Council meeting will be May 16th, 2008 from 9:00 until 10:30 am in the library.

Minutes from Previous Meetings:

September            October            November         December           January

February                March               April                    May

Minutes from previous years:         2006-2007      2005-2006        2004-2005        2003-2004        2002-2003

The Unami Parent Council meeting was held on Friday, April 18^th, in the Library with approximately 12 attendees.

The main topic was about the use of the Video Editing Stations. Mr. Bolton provided background information on the grants that supplied 6 stations to Unami. 5 Students from Emerald team presented their 30-second public service announcement for their Earth Day project. They demonstrated and discussed how the Video presentation station technology is being used in the classrooms and how easy the tools / components are to use.  In addition, two additional teacher presentations – one by the Emerald Team teachers and one by Mrs. Sime - and Ms. Dougherty provided additional videos and discussions.

Ms. Dougherty’s video was on the Relay for Life – it will be at Tohickon Middle School on Saturday, May 17^th, from 12:00 noon until 10 pm. Unami’s set-up / registration arrival time is 9:30am. Some hints and information about parking, the chaperones meeting, and what types of canopies are allowed was provided. Also, information was provided about the fundraising and when money is due for student / team credit – May 13^th. Unami has almost 600 of the 930 total students registered for the event.

Relay info is available from Unami’s home page link at http://www.cbsd.org/unami/CLUBS/student_council/RELAY.htm

Reports:

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council – The main topics covered using technology in the schools. Several websites that offer free products were discussed, including

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx - can hear and see art; can email the story board; a teacher can use in class and email your child’s story home for you to see; can speak and record.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net – use for audio recording

http://earth.google.com and http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=44.023938~-99.71&style=h&lvl=4&tilt=-89.875918865193&dir=0&alt=7689462.6842358 are cool for viewing the world

http://www.safarimontage.com for making video clips and audio files

http://camstudio.org

http://www.cellsalive.com great science studying pix

Information about the Random Student Drug Testing presentation to be held at Lenape on May 7^th at 7 pm was given and parents are encouraged to attend. Information has been sent home to parents of middle and high school students on this presentation and there is a link on the district website.

Agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm.

·         The Treasurer’s Report summary was available on the back of the agenda. After deducting the $750 set aside for the Teacher Appreciation Lunch and after all appropriated items will be paid, there should be a balance of approximately $3750 to complete the school year.

·         The Parent Advisory Meeting Minutes are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami.

General Discussions / Questions

Mr. Bolton reported that the auditorium is going to be modernized beginning in July. New flooring, seats, coloring and lighting are planned – everything except the stage and the rear section will be improved. The work should be completed by December.

There will be a planned evacuation drill to CB West on May 2^nd. The email phone chain will not be in place but a message will be added to the phone system.

Help for bringing in additions (soda and desserts) to the teacher appreciation luncheon were asked for and received.

Mr. Bolton reported on the question from last month - students will receive their detailed rubric scores for the 9^th grade Assessment – an additional mentor meeting is being planned.

Mrs. Dougherty asked for help on June 13 @11:00 am to decorate for the Freshman Day and Dance. Please email her if you can help.

Mrs. Dougherty discussed the problem of the brevity of the shorts on some students. Students are asked to change if the inseams are less than 5-inches, or parents will be called to bring other attire.

Important Dates:

            April 28 – May 9^th – 8^th grade PSSA Science

            May 6 – May 8^th – Spring Arts Festival – 7:00 pm

            May 17^th – Relay for Life- 12:00 to 10:00pm at Tohickon Middle School

Other Dates-to-Know are listed on the agenda and these are also in the Unami calendar at http://www.cbsd.org/unami/main/calendars.htm

The meeting was adjourned.  

Next Meeting is May 16, 2008 from 9:00 – 10:30am in the Library.

The Unami Parent Council meeting was held on Friday, March 14^th, in the Library with approximately 20 attendees.

Reports:

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council – The main topics affected elementary schools. The Parent Portal was discussed. Help is available through email. Eventually E-Notes will be connected to Parent Portal. Student accounts are available starting in 9^th grade and are separate from parent accounts. Please complete / update your email if you have not already done so.

PSSA scores showed CBSD to be the highest scoring district in the county and the 4^th highest in the state.

Agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm.

·         Mr. Bolton summarized the Treasurer’s Report – The summary was available on the back of the agenda. Some uniforms have been purchased with others being ordered. The components for the portable computer classroom station have arrived – and Mr. Bolton is hopeful to see it operational in the 4^th marking period.

·         The Parent Advisory Meeting Minutes are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami.

Mr. Bolton presented a DVD on Relay for Life and talked about the CB middle schools involvement. In 2004 – the first year – there were 12 survivors and 700 students who took part in Relay with 400 luminaries and $74,000 raised. Last year in 2007, 2018 students and 134 survivors participated with 4021 luminaries and $178,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society. In both 2006 & 2007, CB was recognized by the ACS as their largest middle or high school fundraiser. 

The main presentation was one of a Middle School Assessment team presenting their take-a-stand topic. After the excellent presentation, a discussion of several topics occurred; how this year’s Middle School Assessment process was perceived compared to other years; for parents of new 7^th and 8^th grade students this was the first mention of Assessment and a summary of what the parameters are and a timeline was reviewed.

Mr. Bolton is going to investigate if the parents will receive the rubric scores for the Assessment – these would be helpful for students in future presentations and senior project to know what strengths and weaknesses exist.

A Request for Funds of $750 for the teacher appreciation luncheon was approved and seconded. The luncheon will be Wednesday, May 7, during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Important Dates:

            March 19^th – Parent Conferences 7:30am – 3:30pm

            May 17^th – Relay for Life- 12:00 to 10:00pm at Tohickon Middle School

Other Dates-to-Know are listed on the agenda and these are also in the Unami calendar at http://www.cbsd.org/unami/main/calendars.htm

The meeting was adjourned.

The Unami Parent Council meeting was held on Friday, February 8^th, in the Library with approximately 20 attendees.

Reports:

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council – The main topics of the last meeting were a SODEXHO presentation similar to the one given at Unami in the fall. Updates from the food discussion – there is no deep fat frying in the elementary schools and fries are the only foods at the secondary schools & soon the fries will be baked at all schools. Fries are now only served on Tuesdays and Thursdays and are not served with pizza. A salad bar is being piloted in Unami. No soda is available in any of the schools.

A very lively discussion regarding the Code of Conduct occurred. If a student pleads no contest or is guilty out of school time and off property, should the student be permitted to participate in sports and activities.

Also there will be no field trips further than an hour for elementary school children. High school and middle school trips are at the discretion of the principals and policies.

There were lock-down drills at the 3 high schools and this was discussed at the Advisory Council meeting with an updated discussion by Mr. Bolton on Unami school safety and practices during a drill or in the event of an emergency.

Agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm.

·         Ms. Cheryl Walker summarized the Treasurer’s Report – After all of the expenses planned are met, there is a balance of approximately $14,319. Some uniforms have been purchased with others being ordered.

·         The Parent Advisory Meeting Minutes are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami.

The main topic of the meeting was a presentation on Internet Safety by Mr. Jonathan Boyle who teaches Computer Technology courses at Unami and is the Dean of Students. Mr. Boyle presented parts of a Federal Presentation on Internet Safety. This is similar to last year’s presentation from iSafe - See http://www.isafe.org/.

Discussed also was a program – Missing – piloted at Unami in the fall and now to be part of the computer class curriculum for seventh grade at all middle schools. Missing is an interactive program that enables the students to search for clues as they move through the 6 stages / chapters to identify misuse of the Internet in providing personal information to strangers and creating harmful situations.  The chapters encourage the students to “think outside the box” when planning to post any information so personal information can be protected. Mr. Boyle comments that as often as the students hear how easy it is for people to prey on students, they still don’t get that they could be the targets and providing personal information in chat rooms or IMs with unknowns is dangerous.  

Mr. Boyle answered questions and he provided a “test” to see if the parents were up-to-date on Internet lingo. In addition, Mr. Boyle constantly updates the course material presented within the classroom, but it changes so quickly. Parents are the best safeguard to their student’s home computer usage and one of the best defenses against misuse is to keep the computer out of a bedroom and in an open family area. There was a discussion of what types of information should not be used for IM names or posted to sites like MySpace. He also provided website names, Internet safety product names – some of which are free, and government available publications – for example, see http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm. Look for the top 50 phrases / acronyms parents should know at http://netlingo.com/.

Mr. Bolton provided an update on the South Transcript Letter regarding the question of the honors courses listed in that letter – the letter only applies to the current 12^th grade class.

Mr. Bolton then discussed a Request for Funds for $10000 to purchase a portable computer classroom station - it would consist of 30 wireless laptops, the carts and hubs needed. A sample cart was available to view in the library and information on how the teachers use the carts was provided. This request was approved and seconded.

A Request for Funds of $1200 was for a program to be held next year on preventing bullying. Mrs. Dougherty gave a summary of her experience of the program, “Bystander”, at another middle school. This prompted a major discussion on the affects of bullying by older students of 7^th graders. Mrs. Dougherty took several suggestions of situations and areas to look into. This request was approved and seconded.

Important Dates:

            February 22^nd – 7^th / 8^th grade Charity dance – 7:30-9:45 pm

            March 4^th – 6^th grade parents’ night – 7 pm

            March 5, 6, 11 & 12 – Middle School Assessment presentations – 3 to 6 pm

April 8^th – CB Cares presents an Internet Safety program targeted for both parents and students at CB West at 7 pm.

Other Dates-to-Know are listed on the agenda and these are also in the Unami calendar at http://www.cbsd.org/unami/main/calendars.htm

The meeting was adjourned.

The 4^th Unami Parent Council meeting of 2007-2008 was held on Friday, January 18^th, in the Library with approximately 20 attendees.

Reports:

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council – there was no meeting in December.  Agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm.

·         Ms. Cheryl Walker summarized the Treasurer’s Report – After all of the expenses planned are met, there is a balance of approximately $14,319. New this month is a summary of receipts and expenses available with the meeting agendas.

·         The Parent Advisory Meeting Minutes are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami.

The Librarian, Mrs. Holly Kilpatrick, presented valuable information on the Unami Library and the online Resource data bases and search tools available to the students. Generally available Internet search engines are not highly reliable for student projects and can return websites that at the least may not be applicable or worse, inappropriate. The subscription online databases provided to the students access relevant reference books, magazines, newspapers, and other resource materials. She demonstrated how to logon and use some of the search engines and highlighted evaluation mechanisms for the resulting sources, where they were available. Students have been informed on how-to and can access this material from home via the following link: http://www.cbsd.org/unami/library. She also demonstrated the Noodle Bib tool that helps student organize and cite their reference materials.

Mrs. Kilpatrick also announced that in the next school year, 2008-2009, author Rick Riordan will visit Unami. He is the author of the Percy Jackson series of books. More information will be available closer to the event date.

Program Planning Information – Mrs. Lisa Corr informally answered questions and supplied dates for the program planning process. Ninth grade was completing entry of their requested courses by January 25^th with reviews to occur during February. Eighth grade was beginning the process and the parents’ night was January 24^th. Seventh grade will start when eighth is finished. She explained the level of choices for the 7^th and 8^th grade students. Mrs. Corr asked for input on the process – especially the 9^th to 10^th communications and meetings. Several parents provided her with inputs and she thanked them for the valuable contributions.

Parent Portal Information – beginning with the next marking period start, January 28^th, teacher grade book information will be available to parents through the parent portal. The district has developed guidelines for teacher postings and parents will now have visibility throughout a marking period. In 2008-2009, interim progress reports (IPRs) will only be available on-line unless requested.

Parents should review information for their students and verify the emergency email address listed. If there is no emergency email address, it is easy enough to add one or if changes are required, the email address can be changed by a parent.  Directions are under the parent resources tab on the district web site. 

Emergency Plans – Mr. Bolton gave an update about the emergency plans that are in place for Unami covering everything from an environmental accident to an intruder on campus. Each year, there are drills covering one or more of these plans.

Mrs. Dougherty invited all to attend the Milton Creagh parent presentation to be held on January 29^th at Lenape at 7pm. Mr. Creagh is a powerful motivational speaker addressing issues of making positive choices and drug and alcohol avoidance. He will speak to the 7^th & 8^th grades on Wednesday, January 30^th.

Mrs. Dougherty thanked those who volunteered to help for the Relay for Life – kickoffs will be in early March. Relay will start at noon instead of 10 am.

Some short discussions on based on parent questions and possible topics for future meetings concluded the meeting.

Important Dates:

            January 25 – end of marking period; ½ day of school.

            February 6 – report cards sent home

Other Dates-to-Know are listed on the agenda and these are also in the Unami calendar at http://www.cbsd.org/unami/main/calendars.htm

The meeting was adjourned.

Unami Parent Council meeting was held on Friday, November 9^th, in the Library.  

Reports:

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council – there was no meeting in November.  Agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm.

·         Ms. Cheryl Walker  summarized the Treasurer’s Report – After all of the expenses are paid for the magazine drive including the money that will be used to pay for the prizes and go to the teams, there is a balance of approximately $19,900. 

·         The Parent Advisory Meeting Minutes are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami.

Mr. Bolton read Thank You notes from Mr. Scott Fisher, athletic director, for the allocation of funds to improving the uniforms students wear in participation of 23 sports and color guard; Mr. Mike Daly, 9^th grade football coach, for the allocation of funds to improving the uniforms, and Ms. Beth Mattern, 9^th grade dance marathon coordinator, for the allocation of funds to support the dance marathon.

Middle School Assessment – Ms. Lisa Canfield and Ms. Janet Kueny reviewed the plans and timelines for the Middle School Assessment. The time frame is different this year – it is starting earlier and there are delineated goals for each month from November through March when the presentations will occur. Unami E-notes contains information for the Middle School Assessment. Soon the timeline/calendar and contact information will be posted.

            Students will choose their group and topic before the Thanksgiving holiday break. There will be research time in classes after the holiday break to gather background information and to create a debatable research question. Full scale research and weekly sessions with teams and mentors will occur. It is expected that additional time outside of school will be required and the library will be open additional hours after school on some days to facilitate research. There are benchmarks and parent sign-offs along the way. The formal presentations of the assessments are scheduled for March.

            Students are assessed individually by the mentors on Information processing, time management and collaboration. They are judged during the presentations on content analysis and the presentation. The grade assigned is Advanced, Proficient, Basic or Below Basic.

Request for Funds

Mr. Bolton requested $6000 to complete the Presentation Stations planned last year. He explained the components required to ensure that all teachers who are actively requesting a station would be able to receive them. The request was approved and seconded.

Parent Help Needed

• Mrs. Dougherty recruited help for the Beautification committee.
• Mrs. Dougherty recruited help for the Relay for Life – she would like one or two volunteers per grade to be the point of contact who may in turn recruit help to make the collections and data entry easier. Relay will start at noon instead of 10 am. Due to some unexpected incidents (with parents not students), a security agency will be used instead of parent and teacher volunteers.
• Mrs. Dougherty recruited help for the Unami Wear sale – forms were to come home before the Thanksgiving break. Help is required on the day of distribution which will be before the winter holiday break. If you would like the Unami Wear item to be a gift, notify the office.
• The Librarian recruited help for the Book Fair to be held from December 17^th through 21^st.

Several parents signed up to help with these activities.

Important Dates:

            Wednesday, November 15^th, 2007 7 pm – MBIT open-house and tour of new facility    

Thursday, January 3^rd,2008, 7 pm – Program Planning for 9^th Grade parents

Thursday, January 10^th, 2008 6:30 pm – CB South Curriculum Fair for parents and students

November 16^th – Report Cards distributed

November 19, 20 - Conferences

Other Dates-to-Know are listed on the agenda and these are also in the Unami calendar at http://www.cbsd.org/unami/main/calendars.htm

The meeting was adjourned.

The second Unami Parent Council meeting was held on Friday, October 19^th, in the Library, with over 20 people attending.  

Two student members of Unami’s Helping Hands organization gave an overview of the upcoming blood drive needs and goals. The Blood drive will be held November 2^nd, from 12-6 pm. Donors can sign up via www.cbsd.org/unami/CLUBS/soup_kitchen/Blood_Drive_main.HTM and additional information about giving blood can be found on-line at www.pleasegiveblood.org.

Mr. Bolton introduced Mr. Chad Rockovits, the General Manager for SODEXHO services in Central Bucks School District. Mr. Rockovits gave a short presentation on the CB food service program, nutrition goals, and the challenges to meet the regulations and guidelines and still provide menus that appeal to students. Lunches are designed to meet certain minimum RDAs in protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C as established by the US government. He related CBs progress towards meeting national, nutritional guidelines for each of the next few school years and compared how CB is doing. In many cases, CB is already exceeding the standards; e.g., 0 Trans fats are used in CB menu items. Mr. Rockovits also provided some information on the numbers of students who buy lunch or snacks each day, how many times a year the food service is audited and by what different organizations. The school menus can be found on http://www.cbsd.org/lunch.htm and he can be reached through the website via email.

Reports:

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council held its first meeting to determine topics to review during this year. If you have questions on the topics for a meeting, contact Lauri Komita. Agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm.

·         Cheryl Walker provided the Treasurer’s Report. Over $39,000 was achieved in sales from the magazine drive. After all the magazine drive expenses – cost of magazines, prizes, gifts to teams, etc. – are paid, it is expected there will be approximately $29,000 available for this year.

·         The Parent Council Meeting Minutes are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami.

Cheryll Dougherty thanked all the parent volunteers for their help in the successful Magazine Drive. The Deal no Deal assembly will be held next week.

Mr. Bolton reviewed the PSSA scores – the CB district was 4^th out of 501 school districts in Pennsylvania. Unami did very well with 7^th grade (this year’s 8^th graders) combined reading and math scores placing the school 24^th out of 871 (top 3%); 8^th grade (this year’s 9^th graders) combined reading and math scores placing the school 19^th (top 3%); and 8^th grade Writing placing the school 7^th (top 1%) in the state. The scores for 8^th grade reading were exceptional and the math had a slight dip. All five CB middle schools placed in the top 11 for the 8^th grade Writing assessments.

Discussion Topics

The Unami sign was destroyed on a recent weekend. The sign had been a former student’s Eagle Scout project. The District plans to have the sign recreated as nearly as possible and replaced.

It is strongly discouraged that parents drop-off students at evening and high school sporting events. These should be viewed as family events and parental supervision is desirable.

Request for Funds  

The following requests for funds were discussed, then approved and seconded.

Dance Marathon – $1000 is requested to cover costs for the marathon so that all money the 9^th grade students raise goes to the charity chosen.

Student of the Quarter – $450 is requested for an end of the year luncheon to recognize the students chosen during the year.

Student Planners - $4000 is requested to cover the costs of next year’s planners.

Note – generally, under these recurring yearly requests, the Musical would appear. However, High School Musical did so well last year that no funding was requested for A Christmas Carol.

Mr. Bolton presented information and a proposal for updating the school’s Sports Uniforms. Mr. Bolton polled the Athletic Director and the coordinators for the sports teams to assess the condition of their uniforms. Generally, uniforms are bought for the varsity and the older uniforms handed to the JV; or, purchased for 9^th grade, then handed down to 8^th, which are handed to 7^th for sports with 3 teams. He then identified the needs by sports team or activity. For this year, $4000 was requested from Parent Council to address some immediate needs of teams. Together with Colorguard fundraising ($2000), the athletics budget ($1800), and school supplied budget ($1500), this would give $9300 to purchase a number of the uniforms identified in the proposal. Parent Council approved and seconded $4000 for sports uniforms as identified in the proposal.

In addition, Mr. Bolton proposed an ongoing uniform fund to be used by teams on a rotating basis. Roughly, each team would be addressed on a 6-year rotating basis. This would be funded by $1000 each from parent council and Unami. This proposal was also approved and seconded.

Volunteer Opportunities

If you take pictures of away athletics / events and will share your pictures, please contact dmmiller@cbsd.org or kciotola@cbsd.org.

If you can chaperone a dance, please contact  Mrs. Dougherty if you did not put your name on the sign-up sheet.

MANNA Pie in the Sky program brochures will be coming home shortly. MANNA provides meals for AIDS/HIV, cancer, and other seriously ill patients in and around Philadelphia. This is an opportunity to purchase an apple, pecan, pumpkin or sweet potato pie for $25 and Strike It Rich for $35.

Notes / Questions / Concerns

9^th Grade has approximately 60 more students than the 7^th & 8^th grades do.

Status of the Health Fair – Mrs. Houpert is looking into offering some form of the fair to all students.

Unami TV should go live in early November.

Career Day – the 9^th grade rotated through 5 mini-talks by business / industry and military representatives. Sessions included medical, small business owners, the Michener Museum and the arts, lawyer and military and chemistry and satellite technology.

At the end of the meeting, some upcoming Dates-to-Know were reviewed. These are also listed on the Unami calendar.

Report Cards will be distributed on November 16^th and Conferences will be on November 19^th and 20^th.

Please note the PSSA dates and do not plan to have your student be absent on those days.

Next meeting will be November 9^th, 2007 from 9:00 until 10:30 am.

The meeting was adjourned.

September

Over 30 people attended the first meeting of the 2007-2008 Unami Parent Council held on Friday, September 14, 2007, in the Library. Principal David Bolton welcomed everyone and he then introduced the following representatives who gave a brief summary of the responsibilities.

·         The Superintendent’s Advisory Council meets with Dr. Laws on the first Wednesday of most school year months to discuss topics of interest for all the CB schools. Lauri Komita will be Unami’s representatives this year with Laina Tasch and Golda Steier as the alternates. All agendas and meeting minutes are available at http://www.cbsd.org/about/parentadvisory/index.htm. If you have questions or topics you would like brought to the attention of the council, contact Lauri.

·         A Treasurer’s Report is presented each month showing the status of fund expenditures and profits from the various fund raisers.  Cheryl Walker will provide Unami’s Treasurer’s report this year. Currently there is a balance of $17,661. Mr. Bolton had expected to have only about $9000; however, money did not need to be used for the presentation stations as they were funded from other monies and an unknown balance existed at the publisher of the planners.

·         The Parent Council Meeting Minutes are a summary of the meetings and are posted on the Unami web site – see http://www.cbsd.org/unami. Karen Fein will record meeting minutes.

Principal Bolton introduced Ms. Kimberly Cambra, the Executive Director, and Ms. Barbara Gross, the Outreach Coordinator of the CB Cares organization.  Ms. Cambra spoke about the organizations purpose, and foundations in the 40 Assets and provided a list of upcoming community dates. She provided news about the organization going green, Parent Connections / information can be found on Channel 27 and the newly updated website will be available in October. Ms. Gross spoke about the Backpack Newsflash - a monthly newsletter detailing the current and upcoming activities and is sent home from school but is also available on-line. There is a parent rap session that meets monthly. Also discussed were the Boomerang Awards, now in their 4^th year, that honors role models of the monthly 40 Assets. Parents, students, teachers, and community members can make nominations – which are due by the 20^th of each month. Additional information is available with details on-line at www.cbhct.org.

Mr. Bolton reviewed the Unami Building goals, including the Unami Vision Statement. And, he spoke of his theme for the year, “Expect Great Things”.  For each of the goals, he highlighted recent accomplishments and plans for the coming year.

·         Unami’s Vision Statement – In pursuit of academic excellence, Unami Middle School will keep the student as the center of learning. We will educate the “whole student”. We will celebrate success and recognize individual differences. Respect is the key to our community.

·         Unami’s Goals 2007-2008:

1.        Provide in-depth training to support district initiatives.

·         Curriculum work

·         Reading and Writing in the content areas. Literacy is the key to academics.

·         Rigor, Relevance and Relationships (RRR)

·         Technology

2.        Help students to understand and practice the concept of respect.

·         Be it, Own it, Live it.

·         First Friday Forum – model from CB South

·         Unami  - a giving community – opportunities will be available to help with local community service on a monthly basis

·         Peer mediation – 20 trained students with a refresher course planned for early October.

·         Team Activities.

3.        Promote the emotional, physical, and social well-being of Unami’s staff.

4.        Along with academic success we will promote emotional, physical, and social well-being of our students. Every member of Unami’s community should feel:

·         They are known

·         They have value

·         They are supported.

Unami News

There is no late bus this year, per the district announcement. Please get students promptly after activities.

Parents should have received their letters about accessing the Parent Portal, which will contain grades, immunization records and assessment scores. Mr. Bolton gave a quick demonstration of the web-based portal. Parents can view student and school information. Additional information will be accessible in January. If you have a technical difficulty with the portal, do not call Unami. Contact the portal number / email provided.

An overview of the PSSA scores was provided. Individual score reports will be mailed on October 9th. PSSA scores are available on the Parents Portal.

Congratulations to Ms. Stacy Caldwell, 8^th grade science teacher, who is a 2008 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist. Mr. Bolton spoke about the process for being nominated and the extra work a teacher must do to qualify.

The Magazine Drive is underway with kickoff assemblies on September 14th. Assistant Principal Cheryll Dougherty explained the drive and the turn-in dates. Ms. Dougherty asked for assistance on the three drop off days and several parents did volunteer to help.

The Unami Wear Sale – help is needed on the “try-on days” when students can look at the available items – a hooded sweatshirt, long sleeve T-shirt, a modestly priced jacket (under $40) and regular T-shirts – and  to sort and distribute the items when they come in.

Clubs – will run on Friday’s in October and November during Resource ~ 2-2:30 pm. If a parent has the time and a special interest for a club, contact Mrs. Dougherty.

Mr. Bolton indicated that Dates to Know were included as part of the agenda and they also can be found on the Unami web site. Some of interest:

·         Back To School Nights

o        7^th Grade – Tuesday, September 18.

o        8^th & 9^th Grade – Wednesday, Sept. 19.

·         7^th Grade Welcome Dance – Friday, September 28^th 3-5:30 pm

·         Picture re-takes – October 9^th

·         8^th/9^th Grade Welcome Back dance – October 12^th, 7:30-9:45 pm

·         9^th Grade career Day – October 17^th

·         Parent Conferences – November 19^th & 20^th, 12:30-8:00 pm

·         School Musical – “A Christmas Carol”, December 7^th and 8^th

·         PSSA dates – Please avoid scheduling appointments or vacations for the following times:

o        February 11-22, 2008 – 8^th grade Writing

o        March 31-April 11, 2008 – 7^th / 8^th grade Reading & Math

o        April 28-May 9, 2008 – 8^th grade Science

Mr. Bolton thanked everyone for coming and asked that anyone he had not met should stop and introduce themselves.

The next meeting will be at 9 am on Friday, October 19^th, 2007.

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