Audit

At the December NCCS board meeting, the CPA from Larson-Allen presented the 2008 audit. He praised the NCCS board for their strong financial oversight which took the projected fund balance from approximately 62,000 at the end of 2007 to 92,000 at the end of 2008. This was done with much attention to spending and constant monitoring of the approved budget. He also commented on the projected spending being well within the recommended ratio of amount budgeted to amount spent. This was all done within the context of moving from projected deficit spending in October 2007 to increasing the fund balance by June 2008. 

Teachers Licensed

There has been much bad press about charter schools recently. It seems that some charter schools have taken it upon themselves to determine which state rules and statutes to follow. A recent report by KSTP has unearthed many charter schools around the state that are operating with unlicensed teachers. We at NCCS are following state statutes on teacher licensure, and all of our teachers either are fully licensed for their subjects or have received the appropriate variance or special permission from the Board of Teaching to be in the classroom.

E-term Next Week

Our Fall e-term experience runs from November 17 - 21. Students may choose from over 30 seminars - half day or full day to enrich their learning experience. Options include Recreational Skating, Paper Crafts, T-Zone Recycled t-shirts, Furry Frenzy knitting, Doodles v.2 (art), Hybrid Craft Projects, Wall Mural painting, Dancin' through the Decades, Basketball & Fitness fun, Fleece Hat-making, A Healthier You, Exploring the Twilight Zone, Environmental Science, Statistics, Tickets, Please - Humphry Bogart Seminar, Odds n Ends Construction, and Milton Bradley 101.

Our students look forward to these week-long experiences 3 times per year - they learn skills and concepts not found in everyday school work. Instructors enjoy the variety as well. Stop by and see all that's going on - you may learn something new!!

We're Here!

Greetings everyone!

We are getting settled into our new school! It's good to be here. The advisory space keeps 'morphing' a bit, but the kids seem to know where to go and are settling into their studies. Please watch for information coming about our upcoming events.

We will be hosting a community Open House on Thursday, October 2nd from 4:30 - 8 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 6 PM. Please stop by!

Help needed to complete our move

Greetings Family and Friends!

The semi showed up at NCCS on Tuesday and was almost filled by night's end. Now we need your help to move the remaining goods! Please gather friends, family, all the pickups and trailers you can find, and report to New Century on Friday, August 1st at 8:00 AM. We will be moving items all day so come when you can.

We will then need all hands on deck on Monday, August 4 to unload the semi. Please report to the new school at 1000 5th Avenue SE.

The school looks great - plenty roomy with big windows and fresh paint, carpet and tile! It will be exciting to see the kids adapt to their new home.

Thank you so much to all that have helped to this point - and to Laurie McCleskey for taking charge as our moving coordinator!

Moving to the New School

Our new school on 5th Avenue is very close to being ready for occupancy. We are planning to move the weekend of August 1 -3. We will need every able-bodied person within range to help us with this monumental task!

If you are willing, able, and possibly have a large vehicle - please contact Laurie McCleskey at 320-864-3231 (mccleskey@embarqmail.com) to volunteer your services!

Our present school is packed up and ready to go! It looks like a bit of a war zone, with everything in boxes, torn apart, and littering the hallways - a little bit like the "forgotten toy", but we are grateful for this place we have called home for the last 6 years - it has served us well.

We look forward to co-habiting with our Montessori friends - we will be sharing the new school with this K - 6 group. It will provide friendship and great opportunities to share resources and give our students ways to collaborate.

Stay tuned - and don't forget to volunteer!

The new school

Work is coming along quickly now that the weather is cooperating. The concrete has been poured on the NCCS side and the inside stud walls are going up. The electricians arrive soon and then the sheet-rockers. To be present when the workers are going about their business gives one the sense of progress being made, as there is a constant flutter of activity and noise. The rooms look like they will be a nice size and the windows in the classrooms, albeit small, will be a nice addition. It seems as if there are many decisions to be made, and now that they are working quickly, these quite often need to be made before another worker arrives. It is truly an exciting time for NCCS as we anticipate this move.

Senior Projects

We had our first round of senior presentations on Tuesday evening. There was great variety as seen in presentations on theatre, small business building, animal rights, dairy farming, rock bands and more. This is truly the essence of our project based curriculum where students have the opportunity to explore in depth something which has grabbed and captivated them in their school career. There was also evidence of significant preparation among all of the presenters. This is another tribute to the students who took this charge seriously and came ready with a capstone project. This is the first full year of implementation of senior projects, and the faculty has been taking copious notes in order to implement changes that will make these even stronger in years to come.

National Honor Society Induction Ceremony

New Century Charter School held its fourth National Honor Society Induction Ceremony on Thursday, 24 April. Previous inductees took responsibility for the ceremony. Talia Peipmeier was inducted into this national organization which as as its core service, leadership, scholarship and character. All students must meet an initial requirement of a 3.25 overall GPA. All who meet that requirement are invited to apply. At this time they must present evidence of having demonstrated high moral character, providing service to others and providing leadership within and outside of the school. Congratulations to Talia.

Exracurricular Agreement with 423 agreed to for another year

At the April board meeting, the New Century board of directors agreed to enter into the same agreement with district 423 to provide extracurricular activities for NCCS students for the 08-09 school year. It was difficult decision with much conflicting testimony during the month or so of gathering information. The end result recognizes a sense that these types of activities are good for students and have been a part of NCCS since the beginning, and therefore should continue at least for the upcoming year. There was also a consensus that a year from now there should be in place a program that develop an extracurricular program that is unique to NCCS.

annual meeting

NCCS had its annual meeting on Thursday, 17 April. There were many people in attendance as it came at the end of our rescheduled open house. There were many student displays on projects that gave visitors and families a good sense of what NCCS is all about. Jim Bobier and Chris Kraft were elected to the board and we look forward to their positive contributions on behalf of students at NCCS.

Old Man Winter Wins Again

We had a delightful evening planned - displays, entertainment, tours, refreshments - all the makings of a perfect Open House - and Old Man Winter intercepted and threw us a curve. Anyway - we have rescheduled our New Century Open House for next week - Thursday, April 17th from 5 PM - 7 PM. All of the same activities will be anticipated.

To all the families that did come out in the storm - thank you! I hope we gave you a taste of what our school is all about, but please come again- this time there will be more students, staff, and goodies. Let us show you the whole deal.

Terry Kempfert
Student & Family Services

Student of the Month-February

Brittany Schultz has been chosen as the February Elks Student of the Month at New Century Charter School. Brittany is a senior and has just arrived at New Century this year. She has rapidly gained notoriety as a student who knows how to explore her interests and create quality projects. She walks the hallways with a smile on her face and greets all students and staff alike with her infectiously positive attitude. Brittany is performing her service learning at the Southwest Minnesota Initiative offices. We have received rave reviews on her work there. Congratulations Brittany for serving as such a positive role model and for embodying the concept of project based learning at New Century Charter School.

Honk

New Century Charter School just completed a run of its spring musical, Honk. Over 40 students involved in either the performance or stage crew putting on 8 total performance for students and the public have made this one of the big events of the year. Creating positive activities in which all students can get involved and try something new is what NCCS is all about, and Honk is yet the latest example of opportunities for New Century Students.

E-term excitement

One of the hallmarks of New Century Charter school is referred to as e-term.(Exploratory term). It is a recognition that a week of in depth hands on activities is an effective way to awaken excitement and increase learning opportunities for students. We just finished one week of e-term and to walk through the building and see the excitement is, well, exciting. Students were designing and creating camping equipment to be tested in a future spring e-term, creating digital scrapbooks which required learning a significant amount about software programs, learning about submarines from local experts, learning a variety of ballroom dances which seconded as an incredible exercise program, tours to other charter schools in the state and photography. This has become an incredible opportunity for instructors to demonstrate areas of interest that they have and to excite students about all of the possibilities that life has to offer.

Probability and Statistics

Tuesday evening of this last week saw a number of students and parents enter the building to see student project presentations on the use of probability and statistics, a class that Diane Ehr teaches. Students needed to study the theoretical aspect of these concepts and apply them to some real life situation in which we see probability applied. For example we saw black jack, children's games, adult games and others. The students then had to develop tables and charts which showed how the activity itself supported the theoretical. Students chose some interesting projects and learned some interesting things, such as: It is no wonder that Las Vegas is thriving: it offers the possibility of immediate wealth and the probability that the house will always come out on top. Both sides have something.

Students of the Month

Every month we award a senior the "Elks student of the month" award. The person is recognized at out weekly town meeting in addition to having a letter sent home to inform parents. The award winner also receives a savings bond from the local Elks club and is invited to a banquet at the end of the year. January's award winner is senior Chris Doughty. Chris has been a student at NCCS for 12 1/2 years and can frequently be seen out in the hallways helping someone. He was chosen to participate in the Hutchinson Area Leadership Institute this year and has represented the school very well. Congratulations from all of the staff at NCCS.

Accountability

The word accountability is one that appears virtually everywhere in this day and age. It seems that everybody wants to hold someone accountable for his/her actions. In an of itself this is certainly not a bad thing to want to do. At times in education we wonder about the amount of time and resources put into demonstrating accountability. That being said, NCCS is now in the process of demonstrating accountability to Hamline Graduate School of Education, our sponsor. We are in the process of requesting a 3 year renewal of sponsorship. We have spent quite a bit of time with folks from Hamline in addition to independent contractors whom they have hired take a look at us. These reports can be viewed on our website. They see NCCS as a good place where good things are happening, and being done in fiscally and educationally sound ways. We will be finishing this process in the next month or so as the board redirects goals for the next three years.

The political season begins

Not only are we in the midst of a presidential political season that appears to be generating a lot of interest, but the Minnesota legislature goes into session on Tuesday as well. The legislative session has all of the components of an interesting session: a rather large projected budget shortfall, the state moving into or already in a recession, a governor whose attentions are at least temporarily focused on the national presidential scene, and both Republicans and Democrats alike firing opening salvos that at least give the appearance of having sme of the same acrimony that we have seen as of late. NCCS students were able to talk with Ron Shimanski, R-18A, who visited the school on Friday the 8th of February. He talked about his political journey and then delved into some of the upcoming issues: hold the line on taxes, ask educators to use the money they have been given wisely, and make the climate friendly to business. Students were pleasantely surprised to find that Representative Shimanksi is a strong supporter of charter schools. He answered questions from the students, and talked after the session of how impressed he was with the level of questions from students: They wanted to know about state support for education in general and charter schools specifically, and most of their questions stayed focused on education. We will be getting a group of students together to attend the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools lobby day in March. We believe that it is important for students to know that they are part of the political process, and that what happends in St. Paul during the legislative session has a direct impact on our daily lives.

Mixed Blood Theatre

NCCS students had a tremendous opportunity on Tuesday. Due to a generous grant from the Hutchinson Foundation, Mixed Blood Theatre from Minneapolis brought one of their multicultural performances to New Century. The performance was entitled Black Eagle, and was based on the life of Dr. Ronald McNair, an African American astronaut who was on board the Challenger space shuttle that exploded 73 seconds into its flight on Jan 28 1986. The play consisted of recounting the day of the Challenger explosion, preparing to launch. He responded to questions posed by students at an elementary school, and in responding, told his story of coming from a segregated town in South Carolina to go on and graduate with a PhD in physics from the MTI. His inspiration was his mother and a high school principal who told him to never quit. He persevered in spite of many setbacks, and went on to become one of a select group of astronauts.
NCCS students were fortunate to have had this experience of professional theatre right here in the building. This is one of many ways that the faculty and staff of NCCS go to great lengths to bring to students a variety of learning experiences.

Lock-In

On Friday night a total of 68 students attended a lock-in at New Century Charter School. This was a student initiated activity designed to provide students a safe and fun place to be on a weekend evening, in addition to building more of a sense of community among NCCS students. NCCS students also invited guests. Thanks to all of the adult chaperones who made this event such a positive way for NCCS students to spend an evening.

Testing Season

Testing season is upon us - As sure as the NBA finals arrive in June, the Superbowl in February and the swallows return to Capistrano in February, the spring testing season in Minnesota schools will arrive. New Century participates in all of the state mandated testing in addition to computerized assessments that allow us to track academic progress. There are two types of state mandates testing: NCLB tests which are used for determining Adequate Yearly Progress, and the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments/GRAD assessments which must be passed in order to graduate. We are transitioning into a time when these assessments will become one, but we are not there yet. New this year will be a state mandated assessment in Science, added to the required tests in Math and Reading. All of this means that the month of April will be a busy one for assessments. In spite of the fact that not all of us like all of these assessments, we need to remember that they are 'high stakes', meaning that some significant decisions ride on their outcomes, not the least of which is high school graduation for students and our being able to demonstrate that we are doing what we said we would. We need to encourage students to take these seriously so that the results can be an actual reflection of where we are, which will determine decisions on where we need to go.

Share your Talents

So many times we are willing to help out when a special request comes our way. It might be a long lost talent, skill, or interest that we once shared. It might just be the need to be needed. Whatever it is, it feels good when we reach out and share with others.

Those of us working with students sometimes forget how many people there are out there that would like to help us out when the need arises. The problem is, we don't always think to ask.

This message is to bring those two entities together. We need willing volunteers to work with our students in various ways - and both parties will benefit from the experience. Here is a short list of upcoming events and needs that our school has for able-bodied volunteers -

• Help provide e-term transportation
• Work with our Tech Crew for the play - supervision, creative ideas, building props
  
• Videotaping presentation and our upcoming Musical
• Allow a student to job-shadow with you
• Do a career presentation for our kids
• Lead a Book Circle - materials provided
• Organize the college materials that come to us - publish important dates
• Donate Juice Boxes/snacks for test days

Call us at 234-3660 or send an e-mail to info@newcenturycharter.com for more information.

We hope to see MORE of you!

Positive Happenings

I recently sent out a request for positive happenings around NCCS. I will be interviewed on the radio this Friday and wanted some staff input. What a response! All of the events and activities reminded me of the tremendous place NCCS is. Student driven activities such as lock ins and fundraisers; Senior projects which allow seniors an opportunity to present a capstone presentation; Service learning which provides students the essential opportunity to serve others; a wonderful musical offered every year; many student activities such as math league, student counsel, prom, yearbook; E-term which allows students to explore areas of interest which are not typically present during the traditional school day; a policy governance school board made up of dedicated board members; the 7/8 grade advisory with two talented advisors; students having a safe place to be all day every day.
We have a lot going for us here at NCCS.

David Walsh

I had the opportunity to go to a talk by David Walsh, world recognized expert in adolescent brain behavior and the impact of the media on adolescents. His organization, Media Wise, researches this topic and provides information to parents, teachers and policy makers. His findings provide all of us with valuable insight as to how adolescents operate in this fast-paced electronically stimulated world of today. He also has developed some ideas on how we as parents and teachers could be doing some things which might be detrimental in the long run. One finding that has some significant implications for us in schools is this: A long term study has demonstrated that individual discipline has twice as much impact on student achievement as does intelligence. So while we work hard on content knowledge in order to demonstrate competence, could students be better served by focusing more on developing skills which lead to self-discipline? We are New Century strive for a balance in these areas. While we know that academic performance is important, we also are aware of the fact the the character of the student, which is able to be molded by what we do and how we interact with students, is extremely important to the overall development of students.

New Century Drama presents "Honk!"

New Century Charter School Drama department is working hard to present the broadway hit "Honk!" to our audiences on March 6 - 9, 2008. It is our annual theatre performance and we have over 40 kids involved in the production.

"Honk!" is the story of the Ugly Duckling. Written by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (dubbed “The brightest hopes for the future of the British musical” by The London Daily Telegraph), “Honk!” is the story of Ugly, whose odd, gawky looks instantly incite prejudice from his family and neighbors. Separated from the farm and pursued by a hungry Cat, Ugly must find his way home. Along his rollicking and harrowing journey he not only discovers his true beauty and glorious destiny, but also finds love and acceptance in all its forms.

Witty and hilarious, but also deeply moving, “Honk!” will delight our audience to equal amounts of laughter and tears. Its charm, humor and message of tolerance is perfect for a family audience… and every audience.

Veteran Producers Sheila Hendricks and Terry Kempfert join together to both produce and direct the show this year. Dede Hard is our singing coach, and Nancy Massman our choreographer. Students are busy rehearsing lines and songs, building the stage and props and gathering costumes. Production dates are March 6, 7, and 8 at 7:00 PM and March 9 at 4:00 PM.

Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students and will be available at the school and at Cash Wise starting February 11th.

A New Wave of Communications!

Welcome everyone!

In the spirit of "keeping up with the kids" we are launching a blog for New Century Charter School. Subscribing to this tool will give you all the latest and greatest news from our school! We will be posting upcoming events, updates and school happenings here. Please send us your comments and let us know how we are doing - your input is important to us!

Happy January - stay warm!