Latest News from the Principal

March 2008

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

One of the great things about being in the School of IDEAS is the spirit and energy that our students bring to classes on a daily basis. A positive school culture and climate is essential if we want all of our students to do well in our learning environment. In the last two months we have had several visitors to our small school and all have commented on how comfortable and welcome they felt in our building.

While I believe we do have a positive school culture at IDEAS, there are things we need to work on, as a school, to make our learning environment one where all students and staff feel comfortable, respected, and accepted. This letter will highlight one area needed for climate improvement as well as recap some of the events that have happened at IDEAS during the past month.

Proper Use of Cell Phones and Text Messaging: Cell phones are a wonderful invention. If texting (and phone calling) is managed and kept under control, it can have many positive results. If used inappropriately, however, it becomes a distraction to the learning environment, cuts down on meaningful face-to-face communication with others, and is very damaging to students if negative messages are sent to each other. At North, our school-wide policy is that cell phones must be turned off in class or the teacher may take the phone and turn it into the office for the remainder of the day. As you can imagine, because students have become so attached to their phone, being without the cell even for a few hours causes students to feel a great deal of anxiety. Please remind your students of cell phone etiquette which includes giving priority to face-to-face communication, sending positive and supportive messages to each other, and keeping the phone off during class time unless the teacher has given permission to use it. I would like to challenge our students to end all negative text messaging and use the invention for positive and supportive communication.

Below is a recap of some of the events that have happened in IDEAS within the last month as well as upcoming events:

• In early February IDEAS held a Community Appreciation night where we honored students, business and community partners, and a parent volunteer, Chris Ashburn, for their dedication and service to North Eugene and the School of IDEAS. We are very grateful for their support.

• On February 27 the North campus hosted a parent/student Small Schools preview night. The event was very well attended and our incoming eighth grade population filled out school choice forms indicating which small school they hope to attend at North Eugene High.

• On March 4th IDEAS will sponsor our first “Junior Night” which will be devoted to helping our junior students prepare for college and “next steps” after high school.

· Curriculum planning has been finalized for students in IDEAS. Forecasting for classes will be completed before Spring Break. Students will soon begin bringing home forecast sheets for parents/guardians to sign.

As always, we appreciate your fine support and willingness to contribute to our school.