Drug Sweep

As many of you know, on Thursday 5 February we invited a team of law enforcement officers in to conduct a search of NCCS using a dog trained to uncover illegal substances. We are pleased to be able to report that while the dog showed interest in a few work stations, there were no illegal drugs discovered on the premises. While this is good news, we are not naive enough to believe that this means that our school is drug free and that none of our students are involved in this activity. We will continue to work in helping staff and students understand the importance of avoiding this type of destructive activity and will continue to implement procedures to eliminate this in our school. On the day before this took place, our staff were trained by county workers in the identification and detection of illegal substances and in effective ways to talk with students whom they suspect are involved in these activities. We had the same session for parents on the night of the search which unfortunately was not well attended. Parents, we need your help in this area. We as school employees have responsibilities to detect and eliminate this type of activity during students’ time at school, but as you all know, this activity takes place outside of the school doors as well. Please be vigilant and be willing to challenge your child if you see activity that would be indicative of illegal substance abuse. As partners we will be able to help our students better avoid the negative spiral that takes place when adolescents get involved in this type of destructive activity.

Cell phones and text messaging

We have been having an ever increasing amount of student use of cell phones during school hours. NCCS has a policy that prohibits students from using cell phones during school hours because of the distracting qualities inherent in their use. Added to this is the increase use of negative communication that takes place between students, at times referred to as cyber-bullying. We are seeing increased activity in this area and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to fulfill our responsibility of maintaining students’ safety while this happens so quickly and easily out of sight of a school employee. Quite often when we take phones away we hear that students want them returned or are in immediate need of their phone in order to keep in touch with parents using the text message component. While we recognize that there are times when parents and students need to communicate with each other during the day, we ask for your help in keeping these to times of actual emergency. When we take phones away and hear that we are depriving students of their need to communicate with parents, we let them know that they are free to use the school phones for this purpose at a time when it is not disruptive to the educational process. We need to be able to curtail cell phone use during school hours as it is our responsibility to maintain a safe and undisrupted educational setting. Please help us by refraining from text messaging your child during school hours and letting them know that they should follow school procedures to contact parents during the day.

New Century Presents "Into the Woods" - Spring Musical

NEW CENTURY CHARTER SCHOOL ANNOUNCES IT’S
SIXTH ANNUAL THEATRE PRODUCTION
“Into the Woods”
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
and book by James Lapine

The students of New Century Charter School in Hutchinson, MN are presenting the musical “Into the Woods” at the Maplewood Academy Auditorium on Thursday, February 26th and Saturday, February 28th at 7:00 PM, and Sunday, March 1st at 2:00 PM.
“Into the Woods”, produced and directed by Sheila Hendricks & Terry Kempfert is starring 35 local 7th – 12th grade students. Inspired by Bruno Bettelheim's 1976 book, The Uses of Enchantment, the musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from the stories of Little Red Ridinghood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, tied together by a more original story involving a Baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, most likely taken from the original story of Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm. It also includes references to several other well-known tales.
Production of this sixth-annual theatrical experience for the school will not only challenge students’ drama and musical skills but also incorporate many additional roles in the design and creation of sets, costumes, props, lighting, sound, and additional tasks involved in producing a musical of this type.
Doors will open at 6:15 PM on performance nights and 1:15 PM on Sunday. Location is changed this year and all performances will be held at the Maplewood Academy, 700 Main St. N. in Hutchinson, MN. Tickets are available beginning February 9th at New Century Charter School, 1000 5th Ave SE. For more information please call the school at 234-3660.

Finance Award

New Century Charter School was recently awarded the Minnesota Department of Education Finance Award once again. This is given in recognition of having achieved excellence in financial oversight of the school's public funding. The criteria include a positive fund balance, responding to all state mandated reports in a timely manner, publicly reporting all financial statements and procedures in place that provide for responsible oversight of the school's finances. The NCCS board of directors deserves recognition for their commitment to responsible spending of public funds in the operation of the school.

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!!