Weekly News
5/23/2016
* Head’s Note
* Mathleague
As you may have heard last week, several of our students in grades 3-6 participated in the Mathleague competition on May 15. Crossroads students did incredibly well, placing first in the state and earning seven of the top ten scores in New Hampshire.
But an even more impressive accomplishment was the fact that Crossroads earned the top score out of nearly 1,000 schools across the country for Mathleague’s team competition. And earlier this year, Crossroads had the highest score in New Hampshire for the Mathcounts team competition. While other schools also support their hardworking and talented math students, our math teams needed to collaborate well to earn their impressive scores. Crossroads students have taken advantage of many opportunities to practice and cultivate these skills, both in their classes and during math club on Tuesday afternoons. In these contexts, our math team coaches Alison Gorman, Wayne Chin, and Daryl DeFord deserve enormous credit and thanks for their work as teachers and mentors.
Schools and workplaces are putting an even higher value on cultivating such abilities to work in teams, and for good reason. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected and interdependent, the ability to connect productively with others is more important than ever. So whether a student is trying to solve a problem with a classmate or one day is serving as a member of a virtual lab to discover a new treatment for a disease, it is our hope that students rise to both the intellectual and the social challenge to advance these conversations in meaningful ways.
With the great foundation for this kind of thinking our students have developed, it is exciting to consider just how many ways these important lessons will be applied here and in the future.
—Yours truly, Brad
Follow me on Twitter @CrossroadsHead
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* Head’s Note: Mathleague
* Virtues for this Month: Forgiveness, Graciousness, and Humility
* Note from the Board
* Crossroads Annual Fund
* Admissions Office News
* Parent Association News
– Lunch Program (week A)
– Cedar Circle Plant Sale Thank you
– Room Parents needed form’16-’17 School Year
* School News
– Science Department Plant Sale (5/23)
– Graduation and Move-Up
– Summer Camps
– Classroom Clips
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* Virtues for this Month
* May: Forgiveness, Graciousness, and Humility
Forgiveness is having enough heart to let go of hurt.
Graciousness is acting kindly, courteously, and making another feel special.
Humility is knowing that I am definitely not perfect.
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*Note From The Board
As the school year hurtles to a close, I am gratified to look back on 2015-16 as an inflection point in Crossroads Academy’s history. We had a smooth and seamless transition last year from our retiring head, Jean Behnke, to Brad Choyt. In Brad’s first year, Crossroads passed its NEASC accreditation with flying colors, implemented a variety of new academic initiatives in music, foreign language, and coding, established a summer program that will bring over 200 enrollments. We are delighted with Brad’s leadership and advancement of the school’s mission, and we look forward to supporting him in the years to come.
This year also marks my last year as President of the Board of Trustees. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the school as President over the last three years. I want to thank all of my fellow trustees for their dedicated service to the school and to recognize in particular three trustees—Kate Harrison, Jolin Salazar-Kish, and Margaret Mulley—who will be finishing their time on the board. All three have worked tirelessly on behalf of Crossroads in many different capacities, and we owe them a debt of gratitude (and welcome their continued involvement in the Crossroads community).
I am also pleased to report that two new board members—Lorna Brittan-Smith and Mary Jo Turk—will be joining the Board of Trustees for the upcoming school year and to announce the slate of officers who will lead the board beginning on July 1. I know the board and our school will benefit from their strong commitment and the diverse mix of talents they bring:
President – Posie Taylor
Vice President – David Hoffer
Treasurer – Blake Darcy
Secretary – Laurel Mackin
The board has worked hard this year to communicate more regularly with the Parent Association, faculty, and the entire Crossroads community about its activities and role in overseeing the school’s mission. We welcome your input on the strategic matters that occupy the board’s attention as well as on ways that we can better communicate with you. As always, thank you for your support of our wonderful school.
Sean Gorman
President, Board of Trustees
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* Crossroads Annual Fund
Our match is on the line! We are so grateful to all who have supported our Crossroads Annual Fund honoring our amazing faculty. To date, eighty-five percent of families have given to the Annual Fund this year. As the end of the year festivities begin, please don’t forget to donate by clicking HERE and help us collect every bit of the match. Your gift makes a difference and thank you!
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* Admissions Office News
Greetings from the Admissions Office! It’s been a fun and busy admissions season this spring, and our enrollment numbers are looking good for next fall. There will be new students in almost every class! But, we would love your help building a bigger kindergarten class for next year.
Do you know any four- or five-year-old children who would thrive in our Crossroads program? Perhaps you know a child this age who is naturally curious about everything, loves books and new information, builds elaborate LEGO creations, and is joyfully engaged with the world, and you’ve thought, “This kid would love Crossroads!”
Our program engages students from day one of kindergarten and builds from there! Please help spread the word that we still have spots available for next year’s kindergarten class. Thank you for helping to build the future of Crossroads!
Reminder…
The New Parent Welcome will be held on Wednesday, June 8. If you can, please join us in the library from 8:30-9:30 am for a time to meet and greet new families. This will be an informal gathering for new families to meet members of the administration, Board, Parent Association…and you. Let me know if you can make it!
Have a wonderful week! —Warmly, Marilyn
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* Parent Association News
* Lunch Program
This week follows the “Week A” menu. Please be sure you are following the correct week. In addition, please consider sending in a set of silverware for your child to keep in his/her cubby; we are trying to avoid the waste of disposable silverware.
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* Cedar Circle Plant Sale
Thank you very much to Julie Leonard and Robin Kloos for organizing the Cedar Circle Plant sale fundraiser this year. And thank you to everyone who participated!
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* Room Parents for the 2016-2017 School Year
Thank you very much to everyone who has signed up to be a room parent this year. We are happy to report that we have at least one room parent signed up for every class except next year’s eighth grade. In addition, we still need a second room parent in grades K, 1, 4, and 7.
If you would like to serve as a room parent next year for (any) of your child(ren)’s class(es), please sign up here or let your current classroom parent know. Please feel free to contact Supreet Bauer with any questions.
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* School News
* Science Department Plant Sale begins today, Monday, May 23
A variety of vegetables/fruits and flowers are for sale, including:
Tomatoes (sauce, grape, and large for slicing)
Basil
Parsley
Begonias
Bee balm
Some unusual dahlias
Elephant ear (decorative)
Lemon verbena (great for summer tea) perennial, if brought in before the frost Artichoke (grows quite large and produces 506 good-sized artichokes by the end of summer)
We will also have lady’s slippers for sale beginning May 25th!!!
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* Graduation and Move-Up
Although it is difficult to believe, graduation and Move-Up are just around the corner. This year both events are being held on the same day.
Move-Up will begin promptly at 8:15 am, Tuesday morning, June 14
The dress requirements for the Lower School students and Middle School students for Move-Up are as follows:
Boys: Dress shirt and pants or shorts
Girls: Skirts or dressy pants with a nice top, or dresses
The graduation ceremony will begin promptly at 4:00 pm at the Bancroft Center on Tuesday, June 14. Dismissal for eighth graders will be immediately following the Move-Up Ceremony. They should return to Crossroads for graduation no later than 3:45 pm.
All sixth and seventh grade Middle School students will be part of the musical presentation during the graduation ceremony. They should all plan to be in attendance. Dismissal for sixth and seventh graders will also be at noon that day. They should also return to Crossroads for the graduation ceremony no later than 3:45 pm. Middle School students should be picked up immediately following the ceremony at 5:00 pm.
The dress requirements for the graduates are as follows:
Boys: Dress shirt, khaki colored pants, navy blazer, and tie
Girls: Dresses (preferably not strapless) or dressy pants and a nice blouse
The dress requirements for the remainder of the Middle School students are as follows:
Boys: Light-colored dress shirt and tan pants, tie optional
Girls: Pastel-colored blouses and skirts or dresses or dressy pants
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* Summer is Almost Here…Please Join Us for a Great Summer at Crossroads!
Signs of spring have us looking forward to summer! Any given week this summer, we can expect to see kids exploring the stream, scaling the climbing wall, conducting scientific research, or producing art in the outdoors. We have nearly 200 total enrollments and at least ten different programs will be offered. Though many programs are full, we still have spaces available in late July and August and in select programs in June. If you haven’t enrolled yet, join us! A full calendar and links to register are available here. Any questions? Contact Clare Smith, Summer Program Coordinator at summer@crossroadsacademy. org.
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* Classroom Clips
Classroom Clips is a weekly space for students and teachers to share their writing with the Crossroads community. Today’s entries are poems inspired by Robert Frost and written by four seventh grade students: Marian Zens, Reilly Uiterwyk, Dylan Kotlowitz, and Miriam Viazmenski. The poems were recently published in The Voice, a publication of the Young Writers Project. Please click here to read their poems.
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