Celtic Courier: Week of March 23- March 27, 2015

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

The start of 4th quarter!  We hope you have had a terrific break with your families, whether you traveled far or did a stay-cation.  It is hard to believe that 4th quarter is here.  Many Jerome families I ran into over break always seem to ask about the school year "winding down."  I always answer that this time of year for a high school educator only "winds up."  It is the start of spring sports and all of the senior activities.  Throw in winter banquets, AP, IB, and PARCC testing and it is a busy time.

Boys BB Team crowned District Champs for first time in school history and on to the Sweet 16!

Over break our Boys BB team made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time, losing to Northland.  Our choir traveled to Austria and were featured in a short segment on Good Morning America on a chance meeting in Salzburg.  Wow!

Congrats also to our Science Olympiad teams who competed over break with a team qualifying for the States!  Thanks Barb Hilligoss for providing this opportunity for our students.

A couple of Jerome family members  suffered a loss in their families.  Bob Scott's mother passed away and Dun Zhang's father passed away.  Dun will be out all week as she travels back to China for the funeral.  Please keep Bob and Dun in your thoughts and prayers.

We are very grateful that Lori and her family traveled to Scottsdale and enjoyed spring training, hiking and beautiful scenery.  Much thanks to the entire Social Studies department, especially Pat Murphy, Ben Steele, and Ron Bookmyer for helping with Lori's classes, and to the Jerome staff for being a wonderful family to the Davis family. We are all on Team Davis!

The Davis family enjoying spring break in Arizona!

We have not yet had a staffing meeting with Central Office and so we do not yet know what courses we are offering or our staffing for next year yet.  We have met with some of our chairs on the departmental numbers and will continue to do so.  As soon as we get staffing information, we will let you know.  It looks as though we may have eight portable classrooms behind Jerome next year, though we have not yet confirmed those with Central Office.  We anticipate having close to 1600 students next year.  Again, once we have more information we will let you know.

This week:

Monday-- Grades due at the end of the day on Monday-- by midnight Monday night.

Tuesday--  George will be printing grade cards.  Please do very limited grade changes by Tuesday morning.  Every grade change after that necessitates a new report card being printed.  Thanks, in advance, for helping George by submitting accurate and complete grades.

Dodgeball preliminary tourney after school at 6 PM Tuesday.  Thanks to Lacey and Kelly for their hard work with Student Council who sponsors Dodgeball.

Wednesday-- Working Wednesday Collaboration time and bell schedule.  Please help remind students as we have not had Working Wednesday in a while.  Please focus on the 4 PLC questions and district goals of learning targets, assessment and differentiation (incorporated in 4 questions).

Thursday: Please remind your students of Dodgeball assembly on Friday and to bring money to donate at assembly.

Friday: Adjusted bell schedule for Dodgeball Finals. Afternoon 30-min assembly bell schedule.  We also need to raise money for the wonderful causes the District has designated to receive support.  Please bring $1 to wear blue jeans, $1 to wear a hat, and $1 to wear a T-shirt on Friday.  All goes to support our staff team's entry fee and to support the District Dodgeball causes.

Report cards distributed in Homeroom.

High School Dodgeball Finals event at Scioto will start about 8 PM.  Elementaries and middle schools go first.

Looking ahead:

April 1: Working Wednesday

April 2: Department Chair Meeting 7:15 in media center.  Please send items for the agenda.

April 3: No School; Conference Comp Day

April 6: Visitors from Hong Kong facilitated by Battelle for Kids will be here from about noon-2:30 PM

April 6- April 10: Campaign week for student elections

April 8: Staff Meeting

April 10: IB TOK day

April 13: Election Assembly; adjusted bell schedule for 30-min election speech assembly in PM

April 14: Celebration of Excellence;  Thanks Ashley Finneran and Heather Kearnes!

April 14: Election in Homeroom

April 15: Working Wednesday

April 16: District's Family Night

April 17: Last PAC meeting for this year

April 21: Pre-administration for AP testing in the AM.

April 22: Working Wed

April 23: Take your Child to Work today: School-age children welcome!

April 24: International Day during all three lunch periods!

April 29: Working Wednesday

April 30:  Important Senior Meetings Periods 1-3 by alphabet. All seniors mandated to attend.  A-G Period 1; H-N Period 2 and O-Z Period 3.

Have a terrific week!  It will be great to see all of you tomorrow!

Cathy