Back row from left: Max Hoffmeister, Alex Anderson, Jocelyn He, Thomas Felt. Front row from left: Rania Nasif, Gabby Larson, Hope Mahon.

SPASH Announces Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists

Six SPASH seniors have been named Semi-Finalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Competition (NMSC); Alex Anderson, Thomas Felt, Jocelyn He, Max Hoffmeister, Gabby Larson and Hope Mahon. These academically talented students have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

Students are eligible based on the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) which serves as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, including the highest scoring entrants in each state.

“We are proud to recognize and celebrate the academic accomplishments of these students,” stated Jon Vollendorf, Stevens Point Senior High principal. “We have had students recognized in the past, however, this is the largest group to qualify for this recognition in recent memory.”

Rania Nasif has been named a National Merit Commended Student, one of approximately 34,000 students nationwide. Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2018 competition.

“These young men and women have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for the NMSC. “These students represent a valuable national resource. Recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role that their schools play in academic development is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation”.

National Merit Scholarship winners of 2018 will be announced beginning in April and concluding in July.

HOMECOMING 2017

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

"A Night at the Cinema"

Monday, September 25

Dress Up Day – Tie Dye Day

Mr. SPASH tickets will be sold from 7:30 – 3:00 in the South Office

Class Window decorating contest 3:00 - 8:00 PM 

  Seniors:  Athletic Director window in south commons, Juniors:  North Office Window, and Sophomores:  Counseling Office Window

Tuesday, September 26

Dress Up Day – Hawaiian  Day

Mr. SPASH tickets will be sold from 7:30 – 3:00 in the South Office

Wednesday, September 27

 Dress Up Day  -  USA Patriotic Day

Mr. SPASH tickets will be sold from 7:30 – 3:00 in the South Office

4:30 - 6:00 PM: Spaghetti Dinner in South Commons:  Fall sports athletes & coaches, fall play cast & crew, and custodians admitted free,

otherwise $3/person

Mr. SPASH Contest at 7:00 PM in the fieldhouse.  The doors will open at 6:30 PM.

Admission:  $3.00 in advance; $5.00 at the door (exceptional prizes). 

Thursday, September 28

Dress Up Day – Pink Day (support the SPASH Dig Pink Volleyball Cancer Fundraiser)

Friday, September  29

Dress Up Day – Panther Pride Friday: Everyone wears red & black! 

12:15 PM:  Parade will start exactly at 12:15 from Washington School. 

1:00 PM:    Start of Pep Fest at Goerke Stadium

7:00 PM:  Homecoming Football Game - SPASH vs. DC Everest

Saturday, September 30

Homecoming Dance

7:30 PM to 11:30 PM - Semi-Formal Dance in Fieldhouse

Refreshments served in South Commons.    

Hello, SPAPSD parents and guardians! As the new school year gets under way, it’s important for you to be comfortable with both your role in the educational process and the tools you have at your disposal.

There is an ongoing debate about what constitutes the ideal balance of parent involvement, but decades of research have revealed three distinct patterns:

• Children with involved parents have fewer behavior issues and better social skills
• Children whose parents have high aspirations/expectations achieve at a higher rate
• Consistent school-to-home communication is associated with significant improvements in dropout rates and assessment scores

The numbers don’t lie. If you stay involved enough to know what’s going on and you support the instructional goals of teachers, you can have a measurable impact on your child’s academic success.

Collaboration is key – use Family Access to work with teachers toward a common goal.

All of which brings us to the topic of Family Access. We’ve been busy here at Skyward building a library of resources to help you enjoy a better experience every time you log in. Visit skyward.com/parents to access nearly a dozen Power-Up videos and get answers to our most frequently asked questions.

You’ll uncover some hidden gems in our Parent Toolkit, such as how to save events to your personal calendar, how to adjust the email and push notifications you receive, and how you can use Skyward to communicate more effectively with teachers, coaches, and anyone else involved in your child’s education.

Yes, you can get important events out of Skyward and into your personal calendar.

If you haven’t already, I would urge you to download our mobile app for more convenient access. Just go to your app store of choice and search for “Skyward.” We’re the one with the white arches in our logo.

Mobile Access is always a popular option.

One of the most important things you can do at this stage in the year is work with your child’s teachers to define some baseline expectations. By determining the answers to these key questions, you can save yourself some frustration down the road:

• How far in advance will teachers be posting future assignments?
• How many days will teachers need to post grades in Family Access after an assignment or test has been completed?
• How often will teachers be using Family Access to communicate, and what will be included in those communications?
• Are your child’s teachers on the same page about your preferred method of communication (Family Access, email, phone call, etc…)?

Anyone can learn how to use Skyward. The key to making that knowledge matter is learning what to do with the information you find there. Get proactive. Sit down with your child and look at Skyward together. Use what you see to prepare for what’s coming next, celebrate successes, and create a plan for any areas of concern.

The start of a new school year is always a whirlwind, but it can set the tone for everything that follows. Here’s to an exciting, stress-free, and memorable year for everyone.

John Jennings is the digital and social media manager at Skyward, a Ben Franklin Junior High alum, and a 2016 elective teacher at Point of Discovery.  

Looking for more? Check out this Parent Portal Playbook Video with more tips and tricks. 

Final reading minutes are in, and we are excited to share that across the elementary programs students read 390,396 minutes -- enough miles to travel more than 15 times around the earth!

We had a great visit at ‘Madison’ Summer School this week. This program had to be relocated to P.J. Jacobs Junior High for the summer following storm damage in June. Staff pulled together to ensure that students had what they needed by bringing over supplies, furniture, materials...and a LOT of books!

P.J. Jacobs has a wonderful library, but it is not stocked with elementary level reading materials. A huge thank you to Ms. Vlcko for making sure students had appropriate and engaging material throughout the program.

With all that reading, Madison Summer School second grade students had no problem traveling around the world (twice!) for the Mile-A-Minute reading challenge and enjoyed ‘visiting’ other countries as their reading minutes progressed them forward.

Today is the last day of summer school and we wish you a safe, relaxing and rejuvenating August.

Week 6 Newsletters 

Madison Elementary 

Jefferson Elementary

McKinley Elementary

The 2017-18 school year begins Tuesday, September 5, 2017 (2017-18 School Year Calendar | School Supply Lists | Back to School Nights)

Students at Kennedy "Fly" Around the World

We continued our summer school visits this week and headed to Kennedy Elementary. Week 5 of summer school highlighted Asia for students as they continued learning about other cultures across the globe within the "Mile a Minute" reading challenge.

Students had a special visit from Five Rings Martial Arts who, after carefully reviewing safety and when to defend ourselves and when not to, students were taught basic drills and tenants of disciple necessary for success within Taekwondo.

Students also learned about fireworks, where they come from and how they are made, 

and we sat in on a paper folding lesson where students could follow the steps to make their very own origami!

There is only one week left of summer school and we can't wait to stop by and visit "Madison" Summer School that has been taking place at P.J. Jacobs after storm damage earlier in the summer.

We had a great fourth week of summer school and this week visited Jefferson Elementary School, serving over 300 students 4K-4th during the six-week program. Students shared what they've been learning so far and how their "Mile a Minute" reading is adding up to learning around the world.

Kindergarten students have been enjoying Tuesday S.T.E.M lessons with activities that focus on science, technology, engineering and math.

Week 4 focused on problem solving and working together to building a bridge that could span a gap between two table using only playdough and popsicle sticks.

Classes also continue to focus on their Mile a Minute reading journey and tracking their reading minutes in school and at home to keep traveling around the world.

First graders visited the Stevens Point Fire Department as part of their journey to 'Build a Better World"' and learned about how people in our community protect and serve us each day.

Jefferson students have been doing a great job reading at school and at home - they have already read enough minutes to get them around the world...TWICE! Congratulations to students, staff and family on your hard work!

Learn more about what Jefferson students and staff were up to during week 4 in their newsletter.

We had a great second week of summer school across the district.  This week, we visited McKinley Elementary School, serving over 400 students 4K - 4th during the six-week program.  Students were eager to share what they’ve been learning in their classrooms and how their summer school experience is going so far.

We visited students working on drawings of the water cycle,

Focusing on sorting ‘like’ sounds,

And spent time with a classroom during a readers theater lesson.

While in their groups, students worked on reading with expression by gathering clues from punctuation and what was happening in the story. “You can’t always tell just from the punctuation,” one student shared. “You have to pay attention to the story too.” Their teacher also shared that parents can help practice reading at home over the summer and encouraged focusing on fluency and comprehension over speed.

For more summer school week two highlights, view our summer school newsletters (not available for all sites or programs).

Friendly reminder - No Summer School on the 4th of July.

Have a safe and fun holiday weekend.

As I greeted the excited and promising faces of graduating students in the SPASH Fieldhouse, I could not help but think about their journey to that stage. From kindergarten drop off, to junior high growth and senior high success. Congratulations to our parents of seniors from  SPASH, Charles Fernandez Center and Project Search. As they continue on their path, may they find much success and happiness. 

Thank you for your contributions, volunteer hours, support at home and in the classroom. We are more successful when we work together on behalf of our students and our community.

I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank our dedicated teachers and staff members for the work they do each day on behalf of our students and community. Thank you for the dedication, care, and energy you bring to work each day.

We look forward to seeing our returning students at the start of the 2017-18 school year, and we are excited for our summer school programming to begin! Over the summer, I encourage you to read with your younger children and please encourage your older children to spend time with a good book. You may have heard the term 'summer slide' associated with the loss in learning that can occur for students between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. This gap can widen as students don't have access to educational opportunities in the same way they do when school is in session. The greatest thing you can do to lessen this gap and avoid summer slide for your student is to tap into opportunities for your students to read over summer break.  

While students have a break after the last day of school, June 7, we will be busy providing summer programming, preparing learning environments for their return, delivering and receiving professional development and working with our school board as we move forward with our five year strategic plan. The school board will be discussing goals developed as a result of the strategic plan at their June meeting and I look forward to sharing more after the strategic plan has been adopted by the Board.

My sincere wishes to you and your family for a safe, fun and restful summer.

Gratefully,

Craig Gerlach, Ed.S. 
Superintendent

(Photo: Bob Mosier)

Summer in the Stevens Point Area is a special time of the year. We enjoy long bike rides on the Green Circle Trail, the rope swing at Iverson Park, paddling the backwaters, the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings and time spent with family, friends and our community. We look forward to seeing our returning students at the start of the 2017-18 school year, and as we prepare to kick-off summer, we encourage you to read with your younger students and please encourage your older students to spend time with a good book. 

You may have heard the term 'Summer Slide' associated with the loss in learning that can occur for students between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. This gap can widen as students don't have access to educational opportunities in the same way they do when school is in session. The greatest thing you can do to lessen this gap and avoid summer slide for your student is to tap into opportunities to read over summer break.

Just as the Stevens Point Area offers us a wonderful summer experience, it also offers us many summer educational opportunities. Our educational summer programming will begin June 19 and we are excited for the students who will be joining us. The Portage County Public Library offers programming during the summer as does the Boys and Girls Club of Portage County. If you're looking for books that will come to you, check out the Book Cycle program through Central Wisconsin Reading Council, which makes stops in several Stevens Point neighborhoods.

Don’t forget, your students still have access to many of the resources we provide during the year. Resources vary by building, so head to your school’s library page for resources including Scholastic Freedom Flix, Scholastic True Flix, Scholastic BookFlix, K-5 QuickStart Collection, Mackin E-books , Overdrive, Tumble Books, Epic and more.  

Thank you for your contributions, volunteer hours, support at home and in the classroom. We are more successful when we work together on behalf of our students and our community. 

If you're headed to Hoover Avenue today, bring your quarters. Students will be selling lemonade throughout the day to support childhood cancer research and awareness. Alex's Lemonade Stand is a non-profit organization whose mission, in part, is to empower children to help make a difference for children with cancer. Students were inspired to get involved when cancer touched the lives of a former Plover-Whiting student. Listen to Hanna tell Brianna's story below.