February 15, 2017

Upcoming Events 

March 8th @ 6:30 pm: Parent Meeting for all Washington DC Students in Swift House kiva

March 10th: Swift House sponsors the WCS School Dance. Funds are shared among all teams for field trips. Sign-up here if you are able to chaperone. And thank you in advance!

March 25th: Swift Sponsors Fun Night (Washington DC Fundraiser). Sign-up form will be sent out soon.

CODER CAMP FOR GIRLS VERMONT TECH

Williston Campus July 17 – 21 (days - 8:30 am – 4:30 pm)

 Coder Camp for Girls (brand new day camp) - Geared for rising 8th- 10th grade girls (13-16 years) to bring their creativity and translate that into an active software coding environment; experience developing a program of their own design, have fun with SCRATCH, a friendly robust program designed by MIT plus others. Campers build leadership skills through team building activities, harness big ideas, gain essential programming skills, hear and learn from faculty and industry professionals, take field trips to local businesses, make new friends and have loads of fun -all at a very affordable price of $275 (plus some scholarships available) Contact: Elissa Lee (802)288-8915 Email: elee@vtc.vsc.edu http://www.vtc.edu/academics/high-school-students/camps/coder-camp-girls

Basket Raffle

Falconer Visit

We were so fortunate to have Tarim Kennedy, a Middlebury College student, come and visit our My Side of the Mountain literature group. Tarim brought his red tailed hawk named Zeru (Basque word for night). Swift students were able to ask Tarim questions (a literature group assignment!) and some brave ones even got the hawk to land on their arms. Some of the students now want to become falconers!

Puppy Visit....
We were also lucky enough to have the Medici's new puppy come by for a visit recently.  She was very, very popular.

Curriculum Updates

• Student-led literature groups are wrapping up this week. We will be sending out the sign-up for our new literature groups this week.

• 5/6 Science: Students have been modeling the sun/moon/earth relationship to explain the changes in the night sky.  For example: why do we see different constellations in different seasons?  Why can't we look at our star (the sun) while we can stare at the other stars?

• 7/8 Science: Students have also been creating models of the sun/moon/earth relationship to explain eclipses, seasons, and moon phases.  They can now explain why a lunar eclipse occurs during a full moon but why not every full moon is eclipsed!

FAPAC February 2017 Meeting Highlights Information

To:  Swift House Parents
From:  Shelly Masson, FAPAC Representative

cc:  House Teachers and Teaching Assistant

The FAP Advisory Council held its monthly meeting on February 9th.  FAP is Williston's equivalent of a parent-teacher organization.  We meet each month, our meetings our open to all, and you will receive an email like this every month with highlights of the meeting and a link to the FAP website for the full minutes.  Check the full minutes in a PDF format by clicking here.  Due to a technical difficulty there is not video recording for this month’s meeting.

You can now follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@FAP_Williston)!

Below are the meeting highlights: 

FAP Annual Fund

We are accepting online donations for the Annual Fund until the end of February.  Cash and check donations are still welcome after the end of the month.  Alternative online donation sites are currently being researched.  The link to donate to the Annual Fund can be found here. 

Upcoming Events
Big Basket Raffle: March 25^th @ WCS
Fliers are going out to teachers on February 13^th and the baskets will be in classrooms on Feb. 17th in both schools.  We have a list of around 250 businesses that we reach out to and have about 60 businesses committed so far, including Disney Tickets for the silent auction.  Reminder to all that this is an Adult Only event.  The Swift House will be hosting a Fun Night that children in grades k – 4 can attend during the event. 

Williston Runs for Education: May 20^th 
This year is the 5^th Anniversary for this event!  Eighth grader, Sophia Cross, will work on this even for her 8^th Grade Project.  We are excited and grateful that Long Trail Veterinary Center is returning as Presenting Sponsor and Champlain Orthodontics is coming back as Fun Run sponsor. 

Administrative Report

Penguin Plunge – The Penguin Plunge team raised over $11,000 this year.  A special thanks to Sam Beatson for being willing to dye his hair pink if they raised $7000.  Then he also took pies in the face in support of fundraising efforts.  CVU had over 150 plungers and raised over $51,000.

Renovation Project – Tom Barden has been hired as the owner's project manager working with ReArch working as the construction firm.  We are looking at a very aggressive timeline for completion of the project in 16 months, starting in June of this year.  The construction firm has expressed interest in communicating with parents and use this as a learning project for students.

Safety Team Update – The WSD Safety team is partnering with Emergency Management and Homeland Security.  They are going to come in and plan and facilitate a realistic crisis scenario.  Parents were reminded to read the School Bell about what to expect as a parent in the case of a real emergency. 

Please contact me at if you have feedback or questions on FAP.  Thanks.

Shelly