The Swartz Creek Academy continues to empower the students to be STARS.

Students Taking Academic Responsibility.

Here is our March 2016 Calendar...

• March 2 (Wednesday) = Count Day
  
• March 8 (Tuesday) = Last day of STW Count
  
• March 11 (Friday) = Last day of Trimester 2
  
• March 14 (Monday) = Beginning of Trimester 3
• March 15 (Tuesday) = Early Release
• March 24 (Thursday) 5:15 ACE Meeting (Academy Coalition for Excellence)
• March 25 (Friday) = No School Good Friday
• March 31 (Thursday) = 7:00 PM Senior Student / parent/Guardian Meeting

Every Friday @ 9:30 is our Key Club Leadership Meeting

U=Leadership

L=Leadership

Z=Zeal

A.C.E. Academy Coalition for Excellence

Cultivating Success at the Swartz Creek Academy

Meeting Minutes

February 16, 2016, 5:15 pm, Swartz Creek Academy

Members Present

Richard Thompson, James Thompson, Heide Loney, James Loney, Michelle Brier, Shannon Thompson, Pat Henke, and Sandy Alberto.

Fundraising – Bob Milne Concert

 The Academy Key Club will serve as co-sponsors of a concert featuring ragtime pianist Bob Milne. The event is scheduled for Sunday, February 28, 2016, 3pm at the PAC. Tickets are $10 and available online through the PAC website or at the PAC Box Office.

 Flyers were provided, and have been distributed widely by Key Club students. Mr. T also shared a web link for members to circulate. A facebook event will also be created.

 Key Club members will coordinate refreshments for intermission. Sandy will contact Destinee Mockles, Cooking Club President, to confirm this – and contact Mr. Martin at the PAC to make sure the concession stand is available for our use.

 Key Club members will serve as ushers; students should wear black pants and a white shirt. If for some reason, students do not have the proper attire, Mr. T will let Heidi Loney know and she will help the students get what they need.

 Michelle Brier reported that the silent auction originally planned for the event will now be held as a raffle.

o Tickets will be sold at 3 for $2 or 10 for $5. Sandy Alberto will arrange to have cash on hand to make change as necessary.

o Doors will open at 1:30 pm to facilitate set-up.

 Academy student Amy Alberto will provide pre-concert entertainment.

 Mr. T will provide a brief overview of the Academy and issue a call for volunteers to assist with things such as the Graduation Coach Program.

Facebook Group Page

 Sandy Alberto has a limited number of email addresses for Academy parents. In order to help better disperse information, she suggested creating a Facebook group page for ACE. Members agreed that the page be used for positive promotion only and not tied to any one individual.

Senior Banquet

 Mr. T suggested that the Senior Banquet should be held on Tuesday, June 7 at the Academy. This date coincides with a week of activities related to graduation.

 The Mary Crapo gym will hold a maximum of 110 people. Therefore, seating is limited; invitees will include:

o Graduating seniors and their family (each graduate allowed up to 3 additional tickets; graduates would attend for free, but family tickets would be $10 each).

o Teachers, Academy staff and volunteers, district administration and Board of Education members.

2

Senior Banquet (continued)

 Mr. T reported that Carrie Germain, President of the Board of Education, has expressed interest in assisting with the banquet. Sandy Alberto will contact Carrie and invite her to attend our next meeting.

 A separate, smaller event (cupcakes & punch) would be held for all seniors on another date.

Other

 Parents are encouraged to complete a survey, located online at: (https://fieldtest.pbisassessment.org/Anon/oCyyW2CoWW00). The survey asks questions regarding student learning and the Academy school environment.

 James Thompson reported that a grant proposal was submitted to Steelcase. If awarded, the grant would provide furniture for an active learning classroom at the Academy.

 Mr. T reported that the Swartz Creek Academy was recently nominated for a “Children’s Champion” Award through Genesee County Priority Children.

 Mr. T shared an update about the Adult Education program. Swartz Creek is currently to the only district to provide online education for Adult Education. The cohort of students has grown from 11 to 30. Volunteers are needed to serve as coaches for the Adult Ed students every Wednesday from 6:00-8:00 pm.

 The Academy continues to expand development and enrichment opportunities for its students:

o The Academy will host TeenQuest which instructs and mentors youth and helps them find employment. This program will be held during the school day.

o The Genesee Intermediate School District will provide a cooking course to Academy students on Fridays from 12:30-2:00 pm.

Next Meeting

ACE will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, 5:15 pm at the Academy. The meeting will provide opportunity to debrief from the Milne Concert event and begin planning for the Senior Banquet.

Prepared by:

Sandy Alberto

February 18, 2016

The idea started when we wanted to build a stronger sense of belonging and purpose for our students. During the first week of school we proposed the idea of clubs to the students. They loved the idea and wrote down a potential club idea on a note card. We were able to fill a bulletin board with these notecards.

Clubs started in week 2 of the year on Friday afternoons from 12:30-2:25. The clubs were run by a student that was ready to take charge with one of the ideas that they wrote on a note card. We had clubs all over the building in various rooms monitored by a teacher or staff member.

As the weeks progress we started becoming more organized with these clubs; writing down the names of students in charge and the staff member that was monitoring each club. That did not seem like it was enough. So we created the Students Involvement Committee (SIC, this included all teachers and staff members). The SIC at the SCA was created to ensure better organization of the clubs, created an official college level new organization packet that needed to be filled out by the president of the club, and we restructured the club time to be from 12:30-2:15 so the students could report back to their 5th hour class at the end of the day before dismissal.

The new organization packet was a time taking struggle for some of the clubs; it is a college level process for our high school students. In the packet the president had to name the club, write a proposal for the club, describe the authority of the club and the school, describe membership and what that means for the club, name officers and their roles, state the qualifications needed for a student to be in the club, explain how the officers will be selected, create a list of meetings, and pick an advisor.

The advisor’s role is to be a part of the club (not to run it), answer questions that the club may have, and build a relationship of the club and the school. Any staff member at SCA can be an advisor for the club.

We now have 7 clubs that meet every Friday and 2 that are working on their paperwork. They include the Key Club-through Kiwanis and all of the leadership from the clubs students focus on community service and leadership , Movie Club – they watch movies and write reviews of them and they are working on making video reviews to post online, Sports Club – this club gives the students the opportunity to play basketball and we have started an actual club team with designated practices and players, The Wooden Spoons – this is our cooking club which offers our students the opportunity to learn how to cook and also provide a small snack to our students occasionally, The Student League and the Student Gaming Clubs – offer an opportunity for our students to be involved in role playing games, Finally we have the Study Club – this gives the students the opportunity to continue working on their assignments.

Thank you,

Jim Kelly

SCA Math

Email: rthompson@swcrk.org
Phone: 810-591-4380
Twitter: @RKT_HOPE