FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT’S DESK

It is certainly not my intention coming into Sunburst to change a bunch of things, and I promise to be very cautious about ever saying, “this is the way we did it in _____”.  BUT, the advantage to having worked in two other school districts and being around so many other systems is that I have the opportunity to see what others do and I get to ask them about what works.  One thing that I AM going to do right away is try to improve communication across the buildings in the district and in information that gets out to you.  And by ‘you’, I mean all patrons of the district, not just the parents.

The plan is to send copies of a monthly newsletter to all of the box-holders in Sunburst and Kevin and send the newsletter everyone in the Sweetgrass area who wants to receive it.  We are not going to mail it to all box-holders in Sweetgrass as the majority of them are our friends to the north that probably don’t care what is going on in Sunburst Schools—BUT, if they do want the newsletter, all they need to do is ask, and we will put them on the list.

Some things to look for in the newsletter will be a combined elementary and high school activity calendar.  Many of you have children in both buildings, so it would be nice to have all of their events on one piece of paper.  There will also be updates from staff members, student organizations, and information from me and Mr. Nau in your monthly newsletter.

PAPERWORK
Parents, on Wednesday, August 25th, your child came home with quite a few different forms that need to be filled out and returned to the school.  We realize this is a significant undertaking and appreciate your time and effort in getting these returned to the school as soon as possible.  We certainly don’t enjoy all of the paperwork either, but it is a necessary evil.  One very important item that I want you to look for is the Student/Parent/School Compact which I would like everyone to review with their children.

ABSENCES
Parents—the public school is responsible for all of the enrolled students, and we are required to have contact with a parent or guardian if a student is not in attendance.  If your child is ill, please call the school as soon as you can in the morning so that the secretaries don’t end up having to call you.  If you have planned absences such as doctor appointments or anything else that you know of ahead of time, we ask that you send a note or call beforehand so that your child can get their assignments before they leave.  Thank you for your assistance.

BUS ROUTES & ACTIVITY BUSES
Parents, please remind your children that riding the bus is a privilege and that inappropriate behavior or doing anything that is distracting to the bus driver will result in this privilege being revoked.  Also, due to the unpredictable nature of the weather in rural Montana, please be sure your children are properly dressed when riding the route buses or to other activities.  Also, if you are on a bus route and for some reason your child(ren) will not be riding the bus on a particular day, please call Vince at the bus barn at 937-2321 and he will radio the driver to let them know.

FREE/REDUCED BREAKFAST/LUNCH
On August 25th you should have received information regarding free or reduced breakfast and lunches.  If you might qualify, please fill out this information and return it to the school.  Even if you qualify, you don’t have to accept the free or reduced lunch prices if you don’t want to.   Many different federal programs (including Title I and e-rate) are funded based on the free and reduced lunch percentage of the school district.  E-rate is a federal program where we receive discounted services for phone and Internet service.  The more students who qualify for free/reduced lunch, the higher discount we get.  Remember that we treat all such information with the highest level of confidentiality.

ATHLETIC SCHEDULES
Be sure to look elsewhere in this mailing for the tentative athletic schedules.  As always, these schedules are somewhat volatile, so be sure to read your monthly bulletins to see if there are changes.  Also keep an eye out for the weekly bulletins for any updates.  One immediate change is that Heart Butte will NOT be playing varsity volleyball, but we are going to try to schedule some JV contests with them—we also now have the opportunity to pick up a couple of additional varsity contests to make up for these two lost matches.

SENIOR CITIZEN ATHLETIC PASSES
As a Northern C Athletic Division, all of the schools have agreed to honor senior citizen passes from other schools.  So if you would like to avoid the hassle of being questioned about your age or wondering if the school has a different age interpretation, just contact Val in the high school office and she will get a pass printed for you.

COACHES
Many of you who have interacted with me before this year know I am very supportive of interscholastic athletic competitions.  I want to extend my appreciation to all of the dedicated teachers and community members who will serve as coaches and advisors during the 2010-11 school year.  They all put in a great number of hours outside of the school day to do a good job.  Please remember that if you have any concerns with any of our school programs, not just athletics, that you follow the board established chain of command.  This requires that you first share your concern with the teacher/coach/advisor and meet with them informally.  If you don’t have any resolution at this level, then you may ask for a meeting with the appropriate administrator.  If you still don’t have a resolution, you may meet with the district superintendent.  And if there is still a concern, your issues may be appealed to the Board of Trustees through the Superintendent.  For more information, please see Board Policy 1400.

SPEECH & DRAMA
At the board meeting held on August 6th, the trustees approved adding the MHSA activity “Speech & Drama” to the programs offered at NTCHS.  With our phenomenal drama program that already does such a great job in-house, it will be nice to be able to offer this additional activity.  The season runs from late October through the end of January with meets in the area for this coming year in Shelby, Cut Bank, Conrad, Simms, and Malta.  At this point, we do not have a coach assigned, so if you are interested, please contact me at your earliest convenience.

SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS
At the regular board meeting in August, a discussion was held about if we should leave the board meetings on the third Wednesday of the month or if we should consider moving it to another day.  Jeanne and I are opposed to having it during the second week of the month as the bills are not usually all in the office yet, so we were looking at the third Tuesday of the month.  The rationale for the move is that we do not allow any school events involving students to take place on Wednesday nights, so why do we meet as a board on Wednesdays?  If you have an opinion one way or the other, please call the school or email me at timtharp@northerntel.net.