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In This Issue
· District News
·
A World of Choices
·
General Information
·
Opportunities
·
Awards and Honors
· Student News
· Total immersion
·
Join us for lunch!
·
Nite Club
·
Marketplace madness
·
Writing is on the wall
·
An original
·
One of 47 in the nation
·
The first in the land
·
Golden key
·
Activities updates
·
Activities updates
· School Board News
·
School Board Recognition ceremony
videos
·
School Board policy to review
·
Upcoming meetings
· Matoska International IB Celebration
Breakfast
7:30-9 a.m. on Feb. 1
Matoska International IB World
School
[information]
· WBLAHS Sno Daze events
Feb. 7-12
White Bear Lake
Area High School
· School Board Regular recognition ceremony & meeting
6:15 p.m. ceremony
7 p.m. meeting
Feb. 14
District Center
· Parent Advisory Council (PAC) meeting - SPED
6:30-8 p.m. on Feb. 7-12
District Center
· WBLAHS Sno Daze events
Feb. 7-12
White Bear Lake Area High School
· ALC New Students events
Feb. 22 – Orientation
Feb. 28 – First
Day
Area Learning
Center
· Parent Leaders Forum meeting
Feb. 24*
District Center
*Rescheduled from Feb. 17
Find the complete
Activity Calendar listing here.
· LISTEN FOR IT: District
leaders and students are featured in an MPR
AIRS: 9 a.m., Jan. 31 Midmorning with Kerri Miller, MPR
[website]
· White Bear Lake student stumbles
upon source she’d never have found on Web for history project
Pioneer Press
[article]
· Warm tones – Central Middle School band concert
White Bear Press
[video]
· Friends help 4-year-old
remember slain family
KARE 11
[article]
· Bears sports updates
White Bear Press
[girls hockey article]
[wrestling article]
[boys swim team article]
Archives
· July 31, 2009
· August 28, 2009
· September 25, 2009
· October 30, 2009
· November 30, 2009
· December 23, 2009
· January 29, 2010
· February 26, 2010
· March 26, 2010
· April 30, 2010
· May 28, 2010
· June 25, 2010
· July 30, 2010
· August 27, 2010
· September 24, 2010
· October 29, 2010
· November 29, 2010
· December 22, 2010
e-Newsletter Published
By
Office of
Communications
4855 Bloom Avenue
White Bear Lake, MN
55110
Tel:
651-407-7695
Fax: 651-407-7566
www.whitebear.k12.mn.us
Please contact Marisa Vette
(651-407-7695) to submit information for inclusion in publications.
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A World of Choices
As cars
and buses fly from the parking lot, animated students flow to theater and
gym for after school activities. Lights dim in hallways as the energy
management system turndown lighting outside quiet classrooms.
But from
one classroom, a weary voice is heard. “If one more person asks me where I
am going to college next year, I’m afraid I will scream!”
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Ah, the life of a high school senior. They fondly recall ancient days, of
learning to read, or using every colored marker in one marvelous drawing. How
quickly they have come to this: a senior year of challenging classes, high expectations,
and now decisions about the future.
Students today do face an astounding range of choices. According to the
National Center for Education Statistics, there are 4400 colleges and
universities in the U.S. that grant an associate’s degree or higher.
Do I want to go to a large school or a small school? More than half of our nation’s
students are enrolled in universities with enrollment of 10,000 or greater.
By comparison, 40% of our nation's schools enroll fewer than 1,000 students,
but only 4% of all students attend small schools.
Whew! Enough of statistics. How can we help our seniors make good choices—one
that’s best for each student? Is the
timing best to start college now? How can I afford college? Should I enter
military service? How can I find employment?
The past two years we have strengthened our advisory program at both of our
high school campuses, enhanced our information sessions for student and
parents, and helped students navigate the challenges of preparing for and
applying to college through an on-line program called Navience.
In addition to this support, many students have told us
that key counsel and advice comes from teachers and staff members who work
with them every day.
These mentors know what high school seniors need most: adults who care about
them and really listen to them. Faced with such a big decision about the
future, the world seems like a very big place.
So, when you see a high school senior at school, in your
neighborhood, or even in your home, resist the temptation to ask the dreaded
question. Remember, they just want us to care and listen.
Dr. Michael Lovett
Superintendent
General Information
DID YOU KNOW?
Find other District facts here.
2-year School Calendar proposed
A proposed
2-year calendar for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years was presented to the
White Bear Lake Area School Board on January 24. The Board will take action
on the calendar at the February 14 meeting. See the proposed calendar here.
Bear
Prize! The 30th person to email Jody Reber
with the correct check-in process employees should use when visiting District Center from 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (a
process that has been updated with the building's new security protocols)
will receive a Bear Prize!
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Annual Report mailed to community
members
The 2009-10
Annual Report, found here, recently was mailed to all
community members living in the White Bear Lake Area Schools district
boundary. The report is based on the Annual
Report on Curriculum, Instruction and Student Achievement, required by
Minnesota Statutes
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The
publication was sent out to all carrier routes in the district. A bulk
mailing was used to send to second family households living outside the district.
Because the District boundaries do not align with mail carrier routes, some
households just outside the district received the publication as well. The
savings we reaped in using the less expensive carrier route mailing process
did save the District money overall, however.
School
Closing Alerts
Find
information on the District’s school closing alert system here.
Strategic
Planning
Community members, students, parents and District staff members are invited
to participate in the strategic planning process, helping us to write the
next chapter of "our story." Find information here.
Parent
Resources information
·
PACER Minnesota
Parent Center – Find
information here.
·
Stepping Up Moving Forward community event – Find
information here.
·
Special Education: What Do I Need to Know – Find a
video presentation here.
·
Kids Matter Parent Messages – Find information here. Find a Spanish version here.
·
ADD/ADHD information – Find information here.
Opportunities
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Cold Weather SpiritWear!
Keep this
in mind during the cold weather season - SpiritWear,
YouthWear, SpiritGear
and gift cards are available for purchase at the District’s online store.
Click here to visit the store today!
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Support
WBLAS students
·
32nd Annual Night Club event – White
Bear Lake Area High School jazz ensembles will perform music from the
40s to the present on Saturday, February 5 at WBLAHS – South Campus.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6 p.m., and dancing will
take place from 7:30-10:30 p.m. Find additional information here.
·
Treasure Island – Attend the White Bear Lake Area High School Theater's
production of "Treasure Island" with performances at 7 p.m.
on Feb. 17-19 and a matinee at 2 p.m. on Feb. 19. Performances take
place at the North Campus Theater. Tickets are $9 for adults and $7
for students and seniors. Find additional information here.
·
Angel Dash – Mark your calendar! White Bear Lake Area High
School Student Council will sponsor a 5K Angel Dash race on the morning of
April 9th. Proceeds will go to funding the White Bear Lake Area
Educational Foundation’s Angel Fund. Look for additional information coming
out shortly.
·
Dine, Donate… and Dance! – The White Bear Lake Area
Educational Foundation’s 2011 fundraiser will take place on the evening of
April 2 at Dellwood Hills Golf Club. John Evans,
Dan Perry and their band will be entertaining our guests for a night of
fantastic food, fundraising and fun. Find additional information here.
·
3rd Annual Scrapbooking
Fundraiser – The White Bear Lake Area Schools Early Childhood
PTO is sponsoring a fun-filled day of scrapbooking
and relaxation from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 5 at Garnet Lodge (4923 Stewart Avenue, White Bear Lake). Find additional
information here.
·
Coaches vs. Cancer – The girls and boys basketball
programs are hosting a Coaches vs.
Cancer fundraiser in early February. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to show
support, as well as purchase t-shirts and luminaries that will be lighted on
the way out of the game to honor and remember loved ones. The event will take
place at the girls’ home games on Tuesday, Feb. 1 and at the boys’ home game
on Friday, Feb. 4. Games are held at White Bear Lake Area
High School - South
Campus gymnasium. Game times: JV- 4:30 p.m.
B-Squad: 5:45 p.m. and Varsity: 7:15 p.m.
Awards and Honors
·
“Suessical Jr.” middle school musical grant – Connie Hamilton recently was notified
that Twin Citiies Opera Guild, Inc. authorized a
grant of $1,500 to be used for the Middle School Players musical "Seussical Jr." in April. Students from Sunrise Park
and Central Middle Schools will collaborate on the
production.
·
2011 J. Stanley and Doris Hill Legacy Award – Nominations are currently being
accepted for the J. Stanley and Doris Hill Legacy Award. The award was
jointly created by the Century College Foundation, the Mahtomedi Area
Educational Foundation and the White Bear Lake Area Educational Foundation to
honor an area resident who emulates outstanding volunteer spirit. Nomination
deadline is February 25, 2011. Find information here.
Please
contact Marisa Vette (651-407-7695) to submit District News, General Information
or Opportunities for inclusion in future publications.
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Total immersion
White Bear students in grades 6-12 will participate in a
field trip to the acclaimed Concordia Language Villages (CLV) later this
spring.
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German
Department has arranged a field trip for a very modest cost of $30 per
student, made possible because of CLV’s newly
opened site at the Forest in Stillwater
(formerly Wilder
Forest).
The day will be a German language immersion experience for students, with
camp-style programming provided by CLV staff. Students will use the language
skills they have learned in our classrooms, will expand their communication
through immersion, and will simply have fun – taking pleasure in their
accomplishments.
White Bear Lake
Area Schools in unique in its vast world language offerings. Students have
the option to enroll in Spanish, French or German in all grades 6 through 12,
with American Sign Language also available at the high school. The program is the most comprehensive of the
secondary world language programs in the area.
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Join us for lunch!
Family-owned Donatelli's
Restaurant is opening their business and allowing Willow fifth graders to take over their
daily operations - everything from serving customers to preparing the
meals.
Students are "applying" for positions, writing resumes and cover
letters, and participating in formal interviews with Donatelli’s
staff members who will find a perfect fit “job” for each of the students.
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Key life skills are being learned throughout the project. Eye
contact, shaking hands, manners, posture, smiling, thinking on their feet,
using professional language, and wearing proper interview attire are just a
few of the many skills that go along with this project.
Mark your calendars and join us for lunch to see the kids
in action on the following days and times:
- 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on February 15
- 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on February 22
- 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on March 1
- 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on March 8th.
Donatelli’s is located at 2692 County Road E in White Bear Lake.
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Nite Club
White Bear Lake Area
High School is proud to present
what many band alumni consider the musical highlight of the school year –
the 32nd Annual Nite Club event will take place
on Saturday, February 5 at White
Bear Lake Area High School - South Campus. Doors
open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner is at 6 p.m. and dancing is 7:30-10:30 p.m.
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Guests will enjoy a catered, served Italian dinner followed by musical
entertainment provided by the North & South Campus Jazz Ensembles. Enjoy
classics like “In The Mood,” “American Patrol” and “String of Pearls” and
contemporary favorites like “Copacabana,” “What is Hip” and “September.”
Special Guest Performer Andrew Classen,
Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Studies at Drake University,
will provide a clinic for the students as well as perform with them
throughout the evening. Platinum level sponsors for the evening are Hillcrest Animal Hospital
and Polar Chevrolet Mazda.
New this year will be a silent auction, made possible by
the tremendous support from local businesses for this event. Guests are
invited to place bids on one or more items the night of the event.
Ticket information:
Dinner by advance purchase only. Tickets sales end
Wednesday, February 2.
$18 for adults & non-performing students
$16 for Seniors age 62 & over or children 12 and
under.
$5 dance-only tickets available at the door beginning at 7
pm.
Tickets can be reserved with Sue Wennen
at 651-271-3336 or swennen@comcast.net.
A poster
for the event can be found here.
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Writing is on the wall
The
White Bear Lake Area Schools Youth Development program offered an inaugural
Junior Author's Association opportunity at the White Bear Lake Library this
winter.
Twenty
students, who were nominated by schools and principals, wrote and published
books during the experience. Business donations provided art supplies and
fun prizes for the young authors.
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The group,
which recently wrapped up its activity, had an expanded audience during
its last meeting. Students were joined by parents, grandparents, and
high school Ambassador members. Others will also be able to admire the
students’ work, as the books will be displayed in the White Bear Lake
Library Showcase.
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Congratulations grads!
Congratulations
to mid-year White Bear Lake Area Learning Center graduates!
The
ALC gymnasium was filled last night with proud family members
and District officials as 26 young men and women turned the corner
from students to graduates.
Before
the diplomas were doled out, guests learned a bit about each graduate
from the students’ advisors. This tradition at ALC has a long
history. |
Another
graduation ceremony tradition is that of inviting ALC alumni back as
honored speakers. Melissa Daugherty and Beau Hengtgen, graduates of
2003, offered the new grads words of advice and encouragement, attesting
to successes to be found after high school.
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An original
White Bear Lake Area
High School – North Campus tenth grader
Jessica Bougie recently stumbled across a very
valuable resource. While working on
her History Day Research Project and she found a book on Korea at a church book sale in White Bear Lake.
Inside the book she found a wealth of primary source material, including a
unique letter and many articles by the author.
As stated by her teacher Joe Christensen, “In all my
years of teaching this is the best example of a student finding their own
primary source!”
Jessica’s great find will be available to others very soon,
as her primary source materials will be handed over to the History Museum.
Find more on Jessica’s story in the White Bear Press and Pioneer Press.
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Photo courtesy of Press Publications
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One of 47 in the nation
A student representing Lincoln School
recently won highest honors in this year’s WordMasters
Challenge - a national competition entered by approximately 220,000
students annually, which consists of three separate meets held at intervals
during the school year.
Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the Challenge, fourth grader
Ben Kroll earned a perfect score in the year’s first meet, which took place
in December. In the entire country only 47 fourth graders achieved at this
level.
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Others at
the school who also achieved outstanding results in the meet included fourth
graders Clay Ansley, Ethan Staruck.
Ian Shepler and Olivia Schwintek.
The students were coached in preparation for the Challenge by Julie Kelly.
The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in
critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a
set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then
challenges them to use those works to complete analogies expressing various
kinds of logical relationships. Working to solve the Challenge analogies
helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically.
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The first in the land
Central Middle
School 7th grade student, Drew Rassett’s
Peace Poster was the winner in three of the five steps in the Lions International
Peace Poster Contest.
Drew first won his Central Middle School Contest and the
White Bear Lions Contest. He then went on to win the Lions 5M6 District
Contest, which is comprised of 44 Lions Clubs that represent about 40 communities
within a radius of 100 miles in the area.
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After
winning at the 5M6 Level contest, Drew won a plaque, had his poster mounted
and laminated and received a $100 check.
Lions International chooses a new theme every year. This year the theme was, “Vision of Peace.”
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Golden key
White Bear Lake Area
High School student artists recently were recognized
in the Minnesota Scholastic Art competition.
In a
competition with 1279 individual artwork entries and 168 portfolio entries,
WBLAHS students Miles McParland, Anna Monin, and Lauren Souza were among the 268 students who
received Honorable Mentions.
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Kairee Feig’s recognition was even more rare, as she received one of the prestigious Gold Key
Awards. Only 137 other students received this honor. Kairee’s
piece will be exhibited at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and will
continue to the national competition.
The
2010-2011 Minnesota Scholastic Art Exhibition is open to the public daily
from January 22, 2011 to February 13, 2011 in MCAD Gallery's Concourse
Gallery.
Activities Updates
The White Bear
Lake Area High School Speech Team
took 1st Place
in the 'small school' division at the recent Chanhassen Speech Tournament.
Ellen Ahlness received 1st Place in Novice Discussion, Sima Bazooband won 4th Place in
Varsity Storytelling, Alex Berlin took 1st Place in Novice Extemporaneous
Reading and Julie Berrisford earned 4th Place in
Novice Drama. The Boys Basketball team
is currently 9 – 5 overall and are 6 - 2 in the Suburban East Conference,
which is good enough for 3rd place.
The Bears will complete the first round of conference play on Friday,
January 28th at Mounds View. Find additional basketball updates here. The Boys Swim & Dive team won their first dual meet, against Columbia Heights, this
week. They will host a meet against Shakopee at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, Feb. 1
at the White Bear Lake
Area Schools
YMCA Aquatic
Center. The Cheer
Team won first place in their division at the Totino
Grace competition that took place in early January. They also took home the
overall grand champion trophy with the highest score overall. WBLAHS Girls Gymnastics finished 5th in Division I with team total of 132.3 in
the MGGOA. Junior Kellie Dougherty was our top individual finisher with an
All-Around competition win and a seasonal best All-Around score of 37.2.
Dougherty also took the top spot on the awards stand with a 1st place on the
Uneven Bars, 2nd place on the floor exercise and 4th on the Balance Beam.
White
Bear Lake Area High School Athletics schedules can be found here.
A comprehensive District Activities schedule can be found here.
Please
contact Marisa Vette (651-407-7695) to submit Student News for inclusion
in future publications.
School Board Recognition Ceremony
Before the January
10, 2011, Board meeting, the White Bear Lake Area School Board recognized
following students who represented the District at the state level:
·
All-State Band members
·
All-State Choir members
Videos
of recognition ceremonies that took place in November, December and January
are available here.
School
Board policies
The White
Bear Lake Area School Board had a first reading of new policy 541, Tutoring
of Students. The policy will clarify when and how parents can arrange
for private tutoring through the school district. This policy will also
provide guidance for teachers who support students outside of school
hours. The policy will be placed on the February 14, 2011 School Board
meeting agenda or a subsequent meeting as an operational item for action.
Find a copy of the School Board Policy 541, Tutoring of Students
here. Please
contact Assistant Superintendent David Law (x7567) or Community Services
& Recreation Director Dave Guenther (x7509) with questions or
input regarding the policy.
Principals
recently communicated with guardians parents the District's new student
attendance policy, which goes into effect on January 31st and contains
several changes and clarifications. Those who have questions about this
policy after reviewing the information that was shared are asked to
contact their building principal. Find a copy of the School Board
Policy 503, Student Attendance here.
Upcoming meetings
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Date
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Type
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Time
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Location
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Monday, February 14
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Regular
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7 p.m.
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District
Center
Community Room 112
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Monday, February 28
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Work-Study
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5:30 p.m.
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District
Center
Room 201
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Monday, March 7**
The 1st week in March because Spring Break is the second
week.
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Regular
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7 p.m.
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District
Center
Community Room 112
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Monday, March 28
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Work-Study
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5:30 p.m.
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District
Center
Room 201
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Regular School Board meetings are re-broadcast on Cable Channel 20 in the local
viewing area the week of a regular business meeting as follows:
- Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and 11
p.m.
- Thursdays at 10 a.m.
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