Important Parent Reminders
Please call the attendance
line at 328-4703 if your
child will be absent from school. Leave
your child’s name, teacher’s name, date, and the reason for the absence. All
attendance calls are forwarded to your student’s homeroom teacher. If you do not notify the office, the absence
will not be unexcused. Also, if your
child will be late or is returning to school after an appointment, please
walk your student into the office and sign them in.
Nondiscrimination Statement
School District 11 is committed to a policy
of nondiscrimination in relation to race, creed, color, sex (gender), ancestry,
sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age and/or disability.
Discrimination and/or harassment based on the aforementioned areas will not be
tolerated and must be brought to the immediate attention of the school
principal or D11 nondiscrimination compliance coordinator: Marvin R. Adams,
Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and
Ombudservices, 1115 N. El Paso Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, Phone: 520-2271,
FAX: 520-2442, EMAIL: adamsmr@d11.org
Lost and Found
Parents, please remember to check the Lost & Found whenever you are
in the building for items that may belong to your children. By checking on a regular basis we may be able
to keep our Lost & Found closet from overflowing. Remember that items left in the Lost &
Found after the last day of school will be given to a local charity.
Please Let Us Know!
If your child will NOT be attending
Steele next year (current K - 4th grades only), please stop by the
school office to withdraw your student(s).
This information will assist us in determining whether or not we are
able to grant new permits, and to make class lists for next school year. You may call, 328-4700, or stop by the office
any time between now and the end of the school year.
Kindergarten Registration in Dist. 11
Kindergarten
registration for school year 2006-2007 began on April 25th
for children residing inside Steele
School boundaries. If you have a friend or neighbor who has not
yet registered for Kindergarten, please share this information with them. Children must be five years of age on or before October 1, 2008,
to enroll in kindergarten and six years of age by the same date to enroll in grade
one, unless previous public school attendance can be verified. A
student enrolling in a D-11 school for the first time needs to submit a birth
certificate, Social Security card, up-to-date immunization record, and proof of
residency at the time of enrollment
Parents of 5th Grade Students
If you have been notified by a middle school that
your child’s permit has been approved for next school year, please let
the office know which school they will be attending as soon as possible. The middle schools need to have next year’s 6th
graders future tracked to their buildings in order to create next year’s class
schedules. If we do not here from you,
your child will remain future tracked to their “home” school and their records
will be sent to that building at the end of this school year.
All 5th grade
students who will be entering Middle School in the Fall are required to obtain
a Tdap immunization.
This is a new requirement for
all 6th grade students. Proof of the immunization is to be given to
the school, before the first day of school, in order to receive a schedule of
classes.
5th Grade Field Trip to Estes Park
Just
a reminder; all paperwork and fees for the 5th Grade field trip to Estes Park
(May 12th – May 14th), are due to Mrs. Martinez or Mrs.
Gaeta by Monday, May 5th.
K-8 Summer School 2008
The K-8 2008 Summer Program is a reading,
writing, and math intervention program designed for students who are not at
grade level. This summer, Steele
Elementary will be hosting Summer School from:
July 7 – August 1, 2008
Elementary School times will
be 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon
Middle School times will be 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
·
Registration
forms are available at your child’s school beginning April 7, 2008.
·
Please
fill out, attach payment, and return to your child’s school no later than May 22, 2008.
·
Registrations
received without payment will be wait-listed and placed, upon receipt of fees.
·
Registrations
received after the May 22 deadline will be wait-listed and placed IF space is
available on July 7.
Scholastic Book Fair
Once again Steele is
sponsoring the Scholastic Book Fair from Monday,
April 28th, to Friday, May 2nd. More information will be sent home with your
child listing all the book fair activities. Lots of great books will be available for
purchase. Visa, Master Card, Discover,
personal checks, and, of course, cash will be accepted. Please remember to enter the Book Fair
through the outside door on Espanola Street.
End of Year Picnic
The
annual end-of-year all-school picnic will be held at Monument Valley Park on Thursday,
May 22nd. All students will walk from school to the park at
approximately 11:00 am, and will leave the park at approximately 1:30 pm, to
return to Steele. Students need to bring
a sack lunch, a drink, a hat and sunscreen.
The students will play games and eat lunch in the park. Look for permission slips to come home
soon. Families are welcome to
attend. If parents want to sign their
students out before 2:30, teachers will have sign-out sheets at the park.
Building Advisory Accountability Committee (BAAC)
HELP
WANTED!!!
Are you interested in becoming apart of
a working team of parents, teachers and community members at Steele? We need people, willing to spend a small
amount of time during the school year, to serve on the Building Advisory
Accountability Committee (BAAC) for the upcoming school year (2008-2009).
If you are committed to improving the
quality of Steele, we need you! Please
contact Mrs. Barnes @ 328.4700 or Dana Keys @ 471.4752 for more information.
Dana Keys
BAAC
Chairperson
Skate City Summer Cards
Once
again, we are selling Skate City summer membership cards. The cost is $3.00 per card and allows the
cardholder to skate for just $1.00 per session throughout the summer and on Saturdays
and Sundays during the month of September.
The cards are now available in the office. See the flyer attached
to this newsletter for more details.
King Soopers/Safeway Certificates
King
Soopers and Safeway grocery gift cards are available in the office. Cards may be purchased at face value and
Steele earns five percent of the total sales.
Buying and using these cards is a great way to help our school at no
additional cost to you. Purchases may be
made anytime during the school day.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this on-going Steele Fundraiser!
Box Tops for Education
Collecting
box tops is an easy way to earn cash for our school at no additional cost to
you. Please continue to send in your box
tops; a collection bag is located in the hallway next to the office. Thank-you again, to Christine Brett, for
managing our Box Tops for Education program this year. Also, thanks all of the families who
contributed box tops to Steele School.
Because of your diligence, our school earned $397.10 during this past
year, and we have a good start for next year.
Every box top helps, and we are looking forward to collecting
even more next school year!
Target’s “Take Charge of Education Program”
Remember
that when you use your Target® Visa® or Target® Card (REDcard), Steele will receive
a percentage of the amount of each purchase in the form of a cash donation from
Target through the Take Charge of Education® program. It's
easy. Just visit target.com/tcoe, or
call 1-800-316-6142 to designate our school.
Our School ID# is 37273. Don’t have a REDcard? It’s easy to apply. Just pop into any Target store to apply in
person or go to Target.com/apply and apply instantly online. So if you're going
to Target anyway, please consider using your Target® Visa® or Target®
Card. Big thanks to those who are
already doing their part to make a great school even better.
·
Grandparents,
alumni, neighbors and friends are all welcome to participate in this program.
·
Check out
Target.com/tcoe to find out how much money our school has already received.
Office Depot 5% Back to Schools Program
Help our school get credit for
FREE SUPPLIES!
Our school will get credits equal to 5% of the
qualifying purchases to use for free supplies.
You can credit the school
throughout the year!
When you shop at Office Depot,
remember to give our school ID# every time
you make a purchase.
Steele’s ID# is 70017263. If you have any questions, please go to www.school.com and click on the 5% Back to
Schools Program link, call 877-567-5287, or visit your local Office Depot
store.
Art Strokes
Congratulations to the
following Steele students whose artwork was recognized as exemplar work
depicting the Elements of Art, in the 46th Annual Young People’s Art
Exhibition at the Imagination Celebration Place in the Citadel Mall on Tuesday,
April 8, 2008, at 5:00 pm.
Rene Carter 4th-Graber Exemplar in Value
Emma
Brownlee 5th-Martinez Exemplar in Line
Loretta Ramirez,
Art Specialist
Hunt/Whittier/Steele Elementary
¡Las noticias de español!
Back in February we had a guest speaker from Spain. Señor Del Río came to visit his daughter,
Amaya, and he graciously shared with the students about life in Spain. We learned about the geography, food,
culture, and a little about King Juan Carlos.
Kindergarten students have been studying the farm and are making books
about the animals that live there. First
graders created Oso Pardo (Brown Bear) books. I hope they have shared their books with
you. They are now learning the days of
the week. The second graders created
monsters and wrote about them. You can
see them hanging in the hallway. Now we
are learning about our families. Third
through fifth graders are getting ready for an exam over countries, transportation,
and numbers.
We will be studying Cinco de Mayo, the day the Mexican town of Puebla
drove out the French. For a treat, I am
going to bring in nopal (cactus) and agua de jamaica (hibiscus punch) for
students to taste. If your child has
food allergies, please advise them about trying these new foods. On Wednesday, May 7th at 2:00 pm,
the Ribbons of Color, a dance troupe from Skyway Elementary, will perform
Mexican Dances to help us celebrate Cinco de Mayo. You are welcome to come and watch. ~¡Gracias!
From Our School Psychologist
Interested in Charitable Offerings from Our Community?
Throughout the year, a number of charitable organizations (Operation
School Bell, Holy Apostles’ Brown Bag & Giving Tree Social Ministries, our
own USW, and others) make offers to support families facing hardship. The schools are occasionally contacted
regarding offerings such as children’s clothing, school supplies, holiday gifts
&/or food, and more. If you are
interested in getting information about these offers, please call Lori Sampson,
School Psychologist, at 328-4738. A
confidential list will be kept and you will be contacted as opportunities
arise.
Earth Day a Great Success!
Thanks to the hard work,
dedication, and creativity of an army of volunteers, Steele students were
treated to a fabulous day of learning about caring for the Earth and by
extension, themselves. I would like to
particularly thank our team leaders Lori DiPasquale, Perrin Cunningham, Ana
Zook, Stephanie Rahill, Gretchen Whitworth (if anyone has questions about
composting she says to give her a shout), and Sally Broomfield. Each of them spent many hours preparing for
their activities and it really showed.
Ana and her volunteers deserve special mention for covering the school
in 1800 plastic bags and filling the hallways with informative posters. Elizabeth Janney also deserves mention for
supporting me in developing the day, helping out with many tasks, and being our
liason with the staff. I would also like
to thank Anne Hatch for organizing the potluck, Laszlo Palos for making our
wonderful trash sculpture S.E.T.H. (Steele Elementary Trash Human), and Eric
Murphy for designing the wonderful map the children and staff used to navigate
their way around the school. Thank you
also to our corporate sponsors who donated supplies and resources: Bestway Disposal, Waste Management, The Good
Earth, Rick’s Garden Center, and Whole Foods.
The Chico Bags flew off the shelf at the sale after school, as did the
posters and herbs. We have sent out an
order form to see how much interest there is in buying more. We’ll keep you posted about that. I am unable to personally mention all the
many other people who contributed their time, but you know who you are, and I
am so appreciative that we have so many generous and talented parents at
Steele. Thank you also to our wonderful
staff who were so flexible, allowing us to invade the classrooms and take over
the school for the day. We really
appreciate your support! It’s safe to
say that everyone who attended learned something new. The children have been buzzing about what
they can do to make our planet cleaner and greener. That was one of our main goals for the day
and I think we can be proud that we succeeded!
THANKS! Jill McCormick
PTA/USW News
The last PTA meeting was held on Wednesday April 9th. We received an update on the following:
1.
CARNIVAL: Becky Heck, Mary
Beth Cipoletti and Vic Bridgman continue to be innovative this year - we will
have "HUMAN FOOSBALL!" The date
of the carnival is May 16th
- don't miss it!
2.
EARTH DAY: "Water OOMPaaahh, we need water.OOMPaaahh". It's days like Earth Day that just make my
heart soar. Thanks to everyone who took
so much time to participate in this educational and community building event. Special thanks to Jill McCormick who wasn't
really planning on being the master mind behind this day, but pulled it off
beautifully!
3.
PLAYGROUND: Deb VanOrden
is still working hard on the coordination and implementation of the playground
plan. We met with D-11 last week and are
working to get the swings installed before the last day of school - its going
to be tight. The good news is that D-11 appreciated everything on the plans
and stated that there were no "show-stoppers."
4.
YOU HAVE A NEW
VP! Debby VanOrden has agreed to be Steele's new
VP. Ray Kent will be the President. Thank you, Thank you and good luck.
5.
VOLUNTEER OF
THE YEAR AWARD: The volunteer of the year award went to Dana
Long this year. Dana was presented with
a gift certificate and flowers and will have her name on the plaque near the
tree as you walk into Steele. Dana has
been proactive in so many areas at Steele. Thank you again, for all that you've done! You will be missed!
The next PTA meeting is May 14th
at 2:45. Childcare is available,
(thank you Cindy and Jessica Johnson!).
Have a terrific and safe summer!
Thanks,
Shelley Jensen
PTA President
Music Notes
Band Dress Rehearsal – Both Beginning and Intermediate Bands need to attend
our dress rehearsal on Thursday, May 15th
in the gym from 7:00-8:00 pm. Please
arrive between 6:40-6:50 in order to tune and be in place so rehearsal can
begin promptly at 7:00 pm.
Steele Stars School Assembly - Steele Bands, Orchestras and “Rising Stars” Choir will
present their final concert for the school on Friday, May 16th at
8:15-9:15 a.m. in the gym. Band
& orchestra students should bring their instrument, folder, and music when
they report to the Band and Orchestra
room at 7:30 a.m. in order to tune and warm-up.
Steele Stars Final School Concert – Steele Bands & Orchestras and “Rising Stars” Choir
will present their final concert for their parents, friends and the community
on Monday, May 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the gym. Students should arrive at 6:30 p.m. and
report to their music rooms for tuning, warming-up and final reminders. Band/Orchestra students who earned awards in
the Solo & Ensemble Festival should also wear their medal(s) with pride to
this concert!
Steele Community Band Volunteers – Volunteers from the Steele community who would like to
complete the band’s instrumentation and perform in this final concert are
invited to attend the Thursday, May 15th rehearsal at Steele in the
gym from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Music folders
will be sent to you as soon as I receive your volunteer form (attached). If you can perform Friday, May 16th
at 8:15 a.m. you are welcome but it is understood that you may still be in
school or at work. Thank you for being
so willing to share your time and talents with the Steele Stars! If you have any questions, please contact me
at 328-4755! See you soon and have a
great end of the 2007-2008 school year!
