Open Forum & Announcements:
Fall Dance date has been changed to Oct 23rd!
- Two boys DJing, performers,
- Sign up for volunteer opportunities online at horizonsk8school.org
- chaperoning, ticket sales
- Family friendly costumes, please
- Boulder High Orchestra Europe trip fundraiser: buy wreaths, poinsettias and more. Contact Beth!
- 1st grade trip to the zoo today was a success!
- Celebrating Jane Goodall’s visit – go check out the grove!
- Thanks Julie, John and the McClain family for organizing!
- Thanks to parents for keeping this event a kid-focused event
- Visit Jane’s facebook page – great pics of our kiddos’ experience
K8 Outdoor Ed Share-Out:
Kindergarten:
- explored around the pond
- traditional trip to the Peace Garden and
- eco-cycle came to talk about composting
- Friday to the Boulder County recycle
½
- Gates camp, near Ward
- outdoor exploration and community building
- plan to do something similar next year
¾
- new location this year: Camp Timberline, near Long’s Peak
- fabulous facility, too bad we could only stay one night/two days
- Mud lake w/ naturalists
- less science based, more focused on pushing beyond boundaries
- Gut-check activity: bungee/free-fall
- Friday: stream ecology and Andy Goldsworthy art
- Will plan for similar experience next year: only 1 night away instead of 3
- 1 night gave kids confidence to stay away with ease
- variety of experiences in town
⅚
- pre-trip in classrooms: setting intentions for the week:
- pushing yourself, in and outside of OE
- 4 days at foot of Collegiate Peaks
- intentional mixing of homeroom groups in cabins and in daily activities
- learned manners, responsibility (cleaning up after dinner w/ dishes)
- we’ll return again next year
⅞
- Rainbow Trail again this year
- 5 days 4 nights
- similar types of activities as ⅚ experience
- high-ropes: focuses on teamwork and trust, depending on each other
- low-ropes courses by Advisory
- saw lots new friendships formed, carried over to school
- campfire w/ songs
- kids chose into challenge hikes
- set-up and clean-up for meals
John: some high schools nearby have canceled travel, but not us! This is one of the foundational pieces of our learning communities here. We appreciate your support!
Denise: flickr account of OE pics and more on the website!
Green Team Update
- New: Walk-in-Wednesdays
- One goal is to increase participation in some alternative participation
- back to school night parent ed piece = lots of new and continued registration
- We’re still at the bottom of trip-trackers list… but we’re without busses.
- pilot: park at Rite-Aid, walk in from the anchor (took about 12 minutes)
- ⅞ students to help lead this?
- Where else might we walk in from? What ideas do we have?
- Maps are available
- Conversation about entrance:
- Concerns about procedure:
- 1. Congestion and inconvenience to neighborhood and RTD route
- 2. Potential for collisions or accidents, recent car counts = 75% of Horizons families drop-off/pick-up via private car
- 3. Environmental: in 2012 air-quality tests by CU scientists found higher than ambient/healthy amounts of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide etc.
- particularly dangerous for kids
- linked to academic performance
- Potential solutions:
- close the driveway during drop-off and pick-up, so front becomes pedestrian
- double-doors to courtyard/playground become main entrance
- After Discussion:
- does closing the parking-lot solve the safety issue? or, intensify the congestion to another spot?
- maybe have BVSD busses run from North Boulder and Louisville
- we could become a neighborhood school
- more signage about getting off cell-phones
- if idling is the biggest issue, the focus could be on awareness: turn your car off.
- maybe open the doors 5 minutes earlier? allow students to congregate in the cafeteria?
- maybe bring BVSD security folks here to talk about two entrances (perhaps double-doors by gym? double-doors by Nichole’s room?)
- whatever the solution will require retraining parent community
- maybe return to old-school approach: meet kids outside classroom doors?
- what about the church across the street as a drop-off area?
- they’d likely be resistant us regularly using the parking lot
- what about contacting the city to get the street changed? 4-way stops etc.
- Could we pay for a bus through BVSD?
- maybe ask Council for funding?
- What if we move the bike racks? Replace them on the east or north side of property
- might the city help with studying the issue?
- What are the next steps?
- Green Team will meet between now and the next Council to synthesize our ideas
- Shout-Out of appreciation to Sam for keeping the crosswalk safe!
- Concerns about procedure:
Committee Reports:
- Board Report:
- clarified board jobs and committees
- budget update
- 14-15 fiscal year update from district
- Holding pattern on Elizabeth: long-term leave is up at the end of November
- website = hooray!
- 5-year vision for the school
- next step: Jan. PD day will hold conversation among faculty
- board will arrive at some goals for that body
- council will also contribute to vision process
- Development Committee
- parents are heading-up new fundraising
- Julie Dye will help will Moolah
- auction info coming soon, volunteers needed
- grant-writing opportunities
- grandparent’s day?
- alums?
- paddle-raiser: consider a professional auctioneer
- fresh new ideas! keep ‘em coming! Thanks, Shannon
- Community Group
- monthly events: Coffee Connections (Nov. 6th is next event w/ Andrea talking about governance)
- project meeting: 3rd Thursday of the month (quilt for Elizabeth)
- pizza Friday continues! outside until weather doesn’t cooperate.
- parent night out for 5th-8th grades on Thu 22nd
- speaker series: Nov 9th is Dan Fox: Strengthening Parent-Child Communication from Different Stages
- Summer Camp
- Budget: $259 ahead!
- Mon Nov 9 meeting to start planning
- Thanks Anne
- Diversity Committee:
- Christy Shoemaker attended TOCA, ask her to share-out
- advertise and speak at preschools to encourage members of the broader community to enroll
- learning lunches and A&S teachers as potential representatives of broader community
- more diverse candidate pool
- District Advisory Committee:
- presentation on iReady (K-5 reading assessment), more to come next month when we discuss UIP
- Success Effect’s partnership inventory: a tool to check-in on the relationship between parents and school
- Messenger’s report on 3A: BVSD wants to release extra fiber optic lines