Author: Marsh Family (Dell)

The Shooting STAR

Sarasota Academy of the Arts

August 29, 2016

2016 - 2017, Volume 4, Issue 2

Principal’s Corner

We are off to a good start here at SAA! Our enrollment stands at 231 students which is nine over our goal of 222 for this year. Thank you for entrusting your students to us. We are looking forward to a great year, full of learning with them. As I walk through the classrooms, it is encouraging to see students on task and engaged in their activities, even as they are learning classroom procedures and the personalities of all of their teachers. I hope you have been able to meet everyone working with your children. We have a number of new staff members this year. Let me introduce one ...Mrs. Lopez has joined us in first grade. She comes to us with a wealth of experience in Pasco, Lee, and Sarasota school systems. Her classroom is alive with activity throughout the day with students sometimes working individually and many times in small groups. The first grade classroom has a set of 18 laptops (shared with second grade) that Mrs. Lopez will use for i-Ready and student research on social studies and science topics as well as for reading and math resources. I look forward to visiting the classroom and watching these students grow as they work with their new teacher. You'll meet another new teacher next week. Friday we celebrated those who completed their summer reading project with a visit from the White pony Ice Cream truck. We had over 3/4 of the students able to participate. A number of the elementary students also earned ducks for their work in i-Ready over the summer. Congratulations to all of these students and their parents for investing the time in lessening the effect of the "summer slide." We are proud to announce that we earned the Five Star Award for 2015-16. "Five Star schools must show evidence of exemplary community involvement, a vital component of student success. To qualify for the award, schools must meet 100 percent of the criteria in four categories: business partnerships, family involvement, student community service, and school advisory councils. Five Star schools also must have earned a grade of “C” or above for the 2015-16 school year." SAA is one of 19 schools in the district to receive the award this year. Thank you to the parent volunteers, business partners, students and faculty who made this possible. Thank you especially to Kelly Marsh who collected the documentation and put our Five Star book together.
Have a great week! Cecilia Blankenship, Principal
Volunteer Registration and Information
This is your friendly reminder to reactivate, or register your Volunteer account. in order to volunteer at SAA, you must be an approved member of Volunteers Count (formerly known as PALS). If you were an SAA volunteer last year, all you have to do is come into the office and reactivate your account in the main office or at any district school. If you are new to SAA or Sarasota county, and you have never registered through the system, you will need to register as a volunteer. If you are reactivating, approval should be fairly quick, however if you are a new volunteer, it could take up to two weeks to get approval. Also, please note that if you intend to go on any out of county field trips, you will not only need your Level I approval, but you will also need to obtain your Level II approval and that requires fingerprinting. It could take up to a month to obtain the Level II approval so don't delay. Information went home in your packets so please take time to look it over and if you have any questions, please contact Kelly Marsh at kmarsh@sarasotaacademyofthearts.com

Upcoming Dates:
Be sure to check the SAA Calendar on the school website frequently as that has the most current information!
Tuesday - 8/30/16 - Volleyball practice at 4:15pm Wednesday - 8/31/16 - Volleyball practice at 4:15pm Thursday - 9/1/16 - 4:00pm- SAA Volleyball @ Imagine School of North Manatee (Student athletes leave school at 3:15) Friday - 9/2/16 - Spirit Day
Monday - 9/5/16 - Labor Day (No School) Tuesday - 9/6/16 4:00pm - SAA Volleyball @ Manatee Charter School Wednesday - 9/7/16 - Volleyball practice at 4:15pm Thursday - 9/8/16 - Volleyball practice at 4:15pm Friday - 9/9/16 - Spirit Day

Page 2

2016 - 2017
Volume 4, Issue 2
August 29, 2016

Kudos!

A huge "Thank You" goes out to Marci Toomey, parent to Sage Scrimale, for all her help and support of the SAA Volleyball program. She will be assisting Coach Swilley with the team this year. Marci was a former Division II Volleyball player and has putting the Girls Volleyball team through the ringer with drill after drill. She also did a go fund me page and raised $577.50 to buy the team new jerseys and shorts. Along with her husband they have donated a dozen volleyballs and a volleyball cart. The girls are learning a lot from her while having fun! We can't thank her enough for what she has done in just one week!

Sarasota Academy of the Arts

THE Shooting Star

Need Information?

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Do you have questions about where to go to get information? Most of the important information is available on the school website, but if you need more information, please contact Donna Scofield, SAA's Parent Liaison. She is more than happy to direct you to the right place/person. She can be reached most days in the main office.

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SAA Magnets

Available for sale for $10. Show your SAA pride . . . stop in the office anytime and pick one up!