Author: Marsh Family (Dell)

The Shooting STAR

Sarasota Academy of the Arts

October 26, 2015

2015 - 2016, Volume 3, Issue 10

Principal’s Corner

Here we are at the last week of October, the last week of the 1st quarter for grades, and the last week of Daylight Savings Time! There will be no school on Friday, 10/30 because it is a professional day for teachers. Monday, 10/26 is the last day of the quarter. Teachers are now entering grades into Gradebook and you should be able to see the quarter grades the first week of November. As you may recall, the district is moving away from paper copies of the report cards. This semester you will be able to see an "official" report card through the parent portal but you will also receive a paper copy. We'll send that home later in November. You also have the ability to download and print a copy of the report card from your own computer or tablet. Second semester -if the timeline stays the same - you will not receive a paper copy unless you notify us that you need one. We also will work from the survey responses to parent access to the internet at home to generate a list of which families need the paper copy. If your child was a student at SAA last year, you should receive by mail a copy of the student scores on the FSA for English (reading) and math. You will not see a score of 1 to 5 this year. Rather, you will see a percentile indicating how your child compares to all other students at the same grade level throughout Florida. For example if you see a 74 on the column, your child scored better than 74% of the Florida students at the same grade level on that particular test in spring, 2015. Students not enrolled at SAA last year should receive a copy of the scores directly from the last school they attended. This Thursday about 30 of the middle schoolers will be heading to Georgia for the fall trip. The kindergarten through fifth graders will have their Halloween parade and activities that day as well. Middle schoolers will not be wearing costumes to school but will have some special activities along with their regular classes. The middle schoolers will have a fall dance on the evening of November 6. Please check with the homeroom teacher or teacher website for more information. A note about school lunches...Students order their lunches in the morning and we must call in the amount needed by 9:00. When students arrive late and do not order, we sometimes run out of food. Because we don't want anyone going hungry, we have to send a porter back to McIntosh to get more food. This means a delay for those children. Salads must be ordered the day before so the staff at McIntosh has time to prepare them. If a student orders a salad, he/she must take it the next day. Please talk with your children if they are regular lunch-purchasers so the lunch times will go more smoothly with everyone getting to eat what they want in a timely manner. The extra items require money in the account. If a student is on free or reduced lunch, they are charged for the extras. Thanks! Congratulations to the Advanced Chorus group. Their audition tape was accepted by Disney World so they will be performing there in December.
If you think of the Advanced Chorus as a constellation of stars, we should also recognize some individual stars in our SAA nebula...Tatum B (horsemanship - national winner), Roxy M (art - Artsonia finalist ) Bridget M (theater - selected for national tour of Annie), Joey W (music - debuted as lead guitar and lead singer at Aces in Bradenton). We have some amazingly talented artists and musicians here as well as some outstanding athletes. Let me know if your "star" should be recognized next month. Once again, please check the calendar for events and student agenda books and teacher websites for assignments. And please continue to encourage your child to read 20 minutes per night, to share the vocabulary of the week, and to work in the i-Ready program. Have a great week! Cecilia Blankenship, Principal
Attendance Counts! Art Contest Winners
This is a contest to promote the importance of attending school everyday. One winner from each grade will be chosen regionally and will win an ipad! SAA did the promotional commercial for this contest! Congratulations to these SAA artists. They each won a new sketchbook and their art will now compete within the County. Good luck to them all!
Kinder: Willow Robinson, 1st: Roxy McGuire, 2nd: Kate Curulla, 3rd: Ethan Blackwell, 4th: Isabel Sprouse, 5th: Rachael Gagne, 6th: Riley Bejar, 7th: Sofia Pomponio-Walters

Upcoming Dates:
Monday - 10/26/15 - Garden Club Meeting at 4:15pm - Boys & Girls Basketball Practice at Fruitville Park 4:15pm - 5:30pm Tuesday - 10/27/15 - Boys & Girls Basketball Practice at Fruitville Park 4:15pm - 5:30pm - Run Club @ 4:20pm Wednesday - 10/28/15 - Boys & Girls Basketball Practice at Fruitville Park 4:15pm - 5:30pm - Advanced Chorus Tap 4:15pm - 5:15pm Thursday - 10/29/15 - Leave for Whitewater Rafting / Fall Trip - Run Club @ 4:20pm Friday - 10/30/15 - NO SCHOOL - Professional Day Monday - 11/2/15 - SAA Board Meeting- 8:00am - Student Council Meeting @ 4:00pm - Boys & Girls Basketball Practice at Fruitville Park 4:15pm - 5:30pm
Thursday - 10/22/15 - 4/5 Science Field Trip - Run Club @ 4:20pm

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2015 - 2016
Volume 3, Issue 10
October 26, 2015

Caps to Table Bottle Cap Drive
SAA is collecting plastic bottle caps that will be turned into a picnic table. Basically this is how it works . . . There is a recycling plant in Englewood that keeps track of how many pounds we've turned in. We get 20 cents per pound. We can then use the tab we collect to purchase a "cap" table from them. They use the plastic to melt down into a picnic table. It encourages the kids to recycle and they get to see the fruits of their labor. We need around 3500 lbs I believe. This will go on all year. If it's successful, we'll do it as a continuous drive. We can definitely use more than one new picnic table. Please help us by saving any screw-on bottle caps. They can be turned in to your child's homeroom teacher. ALL caps must be screw-on caps. Snap-on caps cannot be used. We are looking for bottled drink caps, condiment bottle caps, kaundry soap caps, medicine bottle caps. milk caps, screw-on coffee can, peanut butter lids, shampoo bottle caps and many more… Be sure to RINSE CAPS WELL! Contact Mrs. Howard to request a box for collection at work.
lhoward@sarasotaacademyofthearts.com
Tuesday - October 13th
The book fair is open on October 13th from 8 AM to 6 PM. Thank you to all the volunteers that signed up to help, because of you, all the slots are filled! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Be sure to stop at the office a few minutes before your scheduled time to obtain a visitor's pass before heading to the Book Fair.

Sarasota Academy of the Arts

THE Shooting Star

Student Council will be selling pies. Want to save $$$ on field trips??? It will go into the general field trip fund for the end of the year field trips in order to reduce the costs for buses of ALL SAA students. SAA students are raising money for field trips! Help by ordering and sharing Der Dutchman pies and cookies. They’ll be here just in time for the holidays!! Sale is from Oct. 16 thru Nov. 4