warrior’s world upcoming...
TRANSCRIPT
Warrior’s World From the Chief
Dear Parents and Guardians-
Happy New Year to you all, we hope that you had a wonderful Christmas break. As
much as I enjoyed the break from the daily grind, I am happy to be back in a regular
routine, but it sure was hard waking up this morning. J
During the break, I hope that you had some restful time to relax with family and
friends in spite of such a busy time of the year. I think the tragedy in Connecticut cer-
tainly made me pause to think about the blessings here at Abita Springs Middle
School, as well as in my own family. It has also made us think of the safety of our own
children and students. Just a few weeks ago, Sandy Hook was a quiet little town that I
would bet most of us never heard of. And now, we mourn the loss of precious lives,
along with the families.
That being said, please do not be offended when we ask for your driver’s license.
Please know that the rules we put in place, such as asking parents to come to the of-
fice first before anywhere else on the campus and asking that you never go directly to
a classroom without checking in first, are not meant to upset you, but rather to keep
all of our students safe each day. Do not be alarmed when you see a sheriff deputy’s
car here, as they are walking through our school making sure things are safe and
sound. We have a huge job here, just as you do at home, and we could not do our job
without your constant support. For this, we thank each of you.
It may be a great time to review with your child the classroom and school rules, as
well as the behavior expectations for Positive Behavior Support. Also, please review
the handbook concerning our policy for tardiness and absences. Attendance is crucial
to your child’s progress.
May your new year be filled with happiness, health and many wonderful opportuni-
ties. Stay safe, and keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Donna Forrest and Rhonda Meyers
January 2013
Upcoming Events
January 8th
4th Grade Field Trip
FHS Theater
January 10th
PTA Meeting 6pm
LEAP Parent Night
January 16th
1st Semester Awards
9am, ASES Gym
January 21st
Martin Luther King,
Jr Day– No School
January 25th
1st Semester Posi-
tive Behavior Re-ward
January 29th
LA Philharmonic
Orchestra Trip to FBC
January 31st
Free Dress for
Perfect Attendance
Abita Springs Middle School PT
A
72079 Maple St., Abita Springs, LA 70420 985-892-2070
Working Together As One
PTA President’s Message
Warrior’s World
Page 2
WOW!!!!! Half the year gone already.... it’s hard to believe. I would like to welcome all the faculty, staff, and students back to school this new year. I hope all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. At the end of last school year the incoming board met and really set the bar high for the present school year. We have ex-ceeded our goals in almost every category because of hard work, great faculty/staff, and wonderful parents and kids. Coach Bill Walsh, while at Stanford University, told me “ Anyone can coach if they had all the talent, but it’s those who are successful with no talent that are the great coaches.” Here at ASMS, I must say; we have all the talent! We ended the year on December 20th, with our Christmas dinner for the faculty and staff, and if you couldn’t make it, or haven’t heard, it was a huge success. I would like to thank all who were there for all the hard work they put in. If you ask anyone who was there, we really had lots of fun doing the dinner and serving the faculty and staff. FRET NOT if you missed it because we have two huge events planned for the second half of the year, AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! We will be putting on the first annual Spring Fair in March 2013 and are going to need tons of people to help with it. The second event will be teacher appreciation week, and we look forward to hav-ing your help with that event as well. Our membership drive is still on; we are in need of corporate memberships, Dad memberships and Grandpar-ent memberships as well as a total number increase to get to 100%. THAT IS OUR GOAL!! A major academic event is fast on the horizon. LEAP and iLEAP is right around the corner so everyone really needs to help their child/children get ready for the test so that they can perform to their highest potential. This is a very important test so we really should not slack off at all. Our full PTA meeting is Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 6:00pm in the gymnasium. It will come before a LEAP TEST briefing by our Administration. It is a very important meeting so I hope to see everyone there. Dan Curtis ASMS PTA President
Abita Springs Push Mow Parade Saturday, February 2, 2013
2013 Theme: “We’re Not Mandeville” • Parade Rolls at 11 a.m. • Begins and Ends at the Abita Springs Trailhead • Free Party with live music at the trailhead following the parade. • Food and drinks available from vendors.
This Mardi Gras parade is produced by the Town of Abita Springs and bene-fits the Abita Springs Trailhead Museum. The king of this year’s parade is Abita Springs Citizen of the Year, Bryan Gowland. This year’s honorary krewe captain is Mandeville Mayor Donald Villere. The krewe of Push Mow was founded by Abita Springs’ artists. The organization takes pride in their origi-nal themes, floats, marching groups, and costumes. Registration information is available on parade’s official website, www.pushmow.com
There are many ways that you can get information about what is happening at the school and with the PTA.
The first is to call or email one of the Board members.
President Dan Curtis [email protected] 985-373-2971
Vice President Jeff Ruth [email protected] 985-966-5315
Secretary Jill Barringer [email protected] 985-892-2070
Treasurer Janet Dufrene [email protected] 985-966-7371
We also have a link on the school’s website at http://abitaspringsmiddle.stpsb.org/. We have boxes in the of-
fice at school where you can drop off items for us to pick up. The PTA has gone technical and now has a Face-
book page at https://www.facebook.com/AbitaSpringsMiddleSchoolPta. Just “like” our page and you will get
updates directly to your news feed as they are posted. This is also a great way for you to give us suggestions,
feedback and questions. Please do not post student or teacher specific information on this site. Those ques-
tions should be sent to the teacher or administrators. Finally, we have an email address for the PTA at
[email protected]. We welcome your feedback and questions .
PTA Gets Technical
We are having an amazing year so far in the financial department. You guys have all been so amazing in help-
ing us to reach our financial goals and we couldn’t do it without you. We received our first Box Tops for Educa-
tion check over the holidays and it was for $2200! We will be scheduling our next BTFE contest for February
so start saving up your box tops now. We also have over $600 in Community Coffee labels that will be sent in
this month. We are working on scheduling our next family spirit night at a local restaurant. These nights are so
important because the money from these nights gets disbursed directly to the teachers. PTA doesn’t keep any
of this money. The teachers use this money to buy supplies for their classrooms. We were able to disburse 4
checks of $50 each at the last PTA meeting from the funds received from our Raising Cane’s Family Night. The
teachers who received checks were Coach Alford, Mrs. Barringer, Mrs. Brownlee and Mrs. Young-Bridges. We
are hoping to have an even better turn out at our next night.
We are planning some fundraising/community events for the Spring. Our hopes are that any money we earn
over and above our budgeted funds can be used to make some improvements around the school. We are con-
sidering several projects including new sod and sprinklers for the playground and lighting for the parking lot/
circle. Our campus is VERY dark at night and we think lighting in the circle will make the campus more useful
when there are night time events. We will provide more details as we get them.
Thank you again for all of your support. As always, our books are open to the public. If anyone is interested in
inspecting our books please contact me at [email protected] and I will make an appointment to let you look
through our checks and deposits.
Sincerely,
Janet Dufrene, Treasurer
Financial Footnotes
Page 3
Membership Levels
Parent/Dad: $5.00
Grandparent: $5.00
Student: $5.00
Corporate: $25
The Mission of the Parent Teacher Association®
PTA® serves as:
• A powerful voice for all children, • A relevant resource for families and communities, and • A strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child.
We only have until March 1st to achieve our membership goals. We have been doing an amazing job
with your help but we need a little more help. The most dire area is in Dad memberships. Dad’s are
such a vital part of the PTA at ASMS and yet we have only 68 dads who have purchased their mem-
bership. That is HALF as many dads as we have moms. We are very proud of the strong male role
models and presence we have on our campus and we believe that these males are a major part of
why our children do so well. We only need 31 more Dad memberships to reach the goal set for us by
the state of 100. We would love to see as many dads join as we have moms. Our total mom member-
ship number is 117. Our ultimate goal is to show the community, our kids, our administration that
the dads of our community are as involved if not more involved than the moms. Please consider
purchasing a membership for the dad in your family. If you already have you can also purchase a
sponsored membership for other dads who might not be able to do it. They are only $5.
We have been having a contest for all of the teachers in the school for 100% membership in their
classrooms. If a teacher reaches 100% their classroom will get a reward. We have several teachers
who have already gotten to that number. Those teachers include:
Mrs. Hernandez, Mrs. Barringer, Mrs., Endermann and Mrs. Stewart.
We also have several teachers that are within 10 memberships of reaching their goal:
Mrs. Bond (5), Mrs. Spitznagel (5), and Mrs. Blades (2)
Please consider helping these teachers reach their goal. We have many, many more teachers that fall
between the 10-15 memberships needed range. If your child’s teacher is not listed above please con-
sider purchasing a membership for your family. Thank you for your help.
Membership G0als
Unit Goal: 490 LA Goal: 225 Dads: 100 Grandparents:50 Corporate Sponsors:20
Unit Actual: 380 Students: 69 Dads:68 Grandparents:54 Corporate Sponsors:10
www.pta.org
Members Only
Page 4
Over the Christmas Holidays we had our students works from the Re-
flections Contest move on to the District level of judging. We sent on
30 entries from some very talented students in the photography, lit-
erature and visual arts categories. Of these entries we had 2 students
who had their works recognized at the District Level. The students are
as follows:
Alexa Theriot Award of Merit Photography
Max Barbier Award of Excellence Photography
Alexa will be recognized at the District PTA Children’s Award Banquet
later this year with a certificate and a trophy. Max will also be recog-
nized at the banquet and his work will be forwarded on to be judged
at the State Level of the competition. Both students and their families
and teachers will be invited to attend the District Banquet. We are very proud of all of the students who sub-
mitted entries for this contest. We have over 1/4 of our students do some sort of entry for Reflections. All of
the works were amazing and we thank the teachers, students and families for supporting this program. We will
announce the results of the State level of judging as soon as we get them. Thank you again!!
Cultural Arts
Page 5
Safety Poster Contest The following students participated in the Safety Poster Contest and had their posters chosen to move on to
the District Level of judging”
Hailey Morvant, Jennifer Nuccio, Carli Cintron, Cameron Kastner, Maelin Crum, Alanna Watt, Gregory Ol-
sen, Cali Carroll, Alexis Gratia and Jon Chauviere.
We will notify students and parents when we get the results of the judging at the District Level.
Thank you so much to Mrs. Hernandez and Mrs. Barringer for assigning the safety posters to their students.
This not only helped provide extra support to the students in what the rules of the school are but also why
those rules are in place and how they keep us safe. We are very proud of these students and look forward to
seeing them represent us at the next level.
Safety Rules
in Our Schools
The Friends Of Rachel Club is working very hard on creating a positive atmosphere on campus by starting up a
website for students, faculty, staff, and parents to use to promote kindness. On this website, you will be able to
post positive comments about people on campus. All comments will be monitored by F.O.R./B1 teacher
representatives before they are posted. The club is also filming videos to raise student awareness of how to
spread kindness and compassion around campus. These videos will be shown on broadcast in conjunction
with B1 anti-bullying videos.
B1's goal for January is "Planting seeds of Kindness for a Better Tomorrow." Each homeroom will be planting
seeds around campus and labeling their "garden" with a creative sign. Peer Meditation is in full swing on cam-
pus!
All peer mediators have been trained thoroughly and have been meditating solutions to conflicts on campus.
New peer mediation forms have been delivered to teachers. Students should see teachers and ask for these
forms as needed.
As always,
Take a Stand and Lend a Hand!!!
B1 “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand”
“It gets better. It seems hard, you know, I think being different is always gonna be a tough climb. There's always gonna be people that are scared of it. But at the end of the day you give those bullies, those people, that are so ignorant, if you give them the power to affect you, you're letting them win. And they don't deserve that. What you're doing by being yourself is you're keeping it real, and you're being really brave.”
― Adam Lambert
Page 6
4-H Summer Camp registration begins Monday, January 7th. Call the 4-H office
at 985-875-2635 if you want a chance to go. Space is limited so call soon! The
camp is scheduled for July 8-12, 2013 and is going to be fun and educational.
Don’t forget to keep working on your books. The new books will arrive by Friday,
January 11th if you already turned yours in. We have a meeting, Tuesday, January
8th at 2:30pm.
Cookbook sales will continue on the last Tuesday of every month at lunch for $1
each. The recipes included are from the 4-H members’ kitchens and all money
earned will go toward 4-H events for the year. We have already earned $30 on
our cookbook sales! Thank you to all who participated!
4-H
Fourth graders Katie Lambert (L) and Elissa Young (R), both in Ms. Damare's class at Abita Springs
Middle School are pictured with their award-winning drawings submitted for the Americanism Contest
sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The winning students received certificates and monetary
awards from the Ladies Auxiliary of the VFW.
TERRIFIC TURKEYS from Ms. Damare's class:
Derricka Wallace, Mitchell Martin, Ernest Helmer, Angel Hadlow, and Cayden Anderson
ASMS Spirit Cart Spirit Cart sales have started and the kids are loving it! Spirit Cart opens during lunch every Tuesday unless
weather prohibits it. We have been very busy and have been trying different things in order to allow all children
a chance to purchase something. We may limit the number of items a child can purchase at one time and ask
them to get back in line so that others will have a chance before the bell rings. There is a limited amount of time
for the kids to shop so we don’t want to miss out on anyone. Please bear with us as we give them a shopping ex-
perience while also teaching patience and respect for others. Thank you for your support. Please let us know if
you are interested in helping out by working the Spirit Cart with us.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------———-
ASMS Spirit Items Order Form
School Year 2012-2013
Parent's name:__________________________________ Phone # ____________________
Child's name:_________________________________________
(If you have more than one child at ASMS, please put the name of the child to whom you wish the order to be
delivered.)
Homeroom teacher: ____________________________________Grade (circle): 4th 5th 6th
Please return completed orders with payment to your child's homeroom or the school office in an envelope marked "Spirit Cart." Orders will be delivered to your child's homeroom on
Tuesdays by the Spirit Cart volunteers.
_____________FOR STAFF USE ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE._____________
Cash Amt __________ OR Check Amt __________/Date_______________/Number__________
Item Description Quan-
tity
Price Total
ASMS shoelaces, pair navy w/white "ASMS", 36"
(5-6 pairs of holes)
X 2.00 =
ASMS logo keychain white/navy, vinyl w/metal ring, logo &
phone #
X 0.75 =
ASMS logo pencil
bag
clear/white, vinyl with zipper and binder
holes
X 1.00 =
ASMS logo sticker clear/white, 4" round
(not reversed/not a window cling)
X 1.00 =
ASMS lanyard navy w/white "ASMS" X 1.00 =
ASMS pencil navy/silver X 0.25 =
Total (Enclose payment with order. Make checks payable to ASMS PTA.) =
Corporate Sponsors
Amazing Views of the Smokies
1455 E. Parkway Gatlinburg, TN 37738
(865)436-3613
Northshore Auto & Truck Accessories
1856 Collins Blvd.
Covington, LA 70433
(985) 898-2211
Clayton Charbonnet, DDS Louisiana Orthodontic Specialists
61 Park Place Drive Covington, LA 70433
(985)867-3636
Dependable Siding Inc.
Mark Hosch, Owner
985-966-0628
New Construction, Repairs & Addi-tions
Vinyl Siding, Windows, Patio Covers, Gutters & Hardie Siding
Northshore Tire Repair & Service LLC
1990 Highway 190 West
Slidell, LA 70460
985-645-8747
Dale Wicker Construction
70204 8th Street Covington, LA 70433
(985)373-5862
(985)809-0818
Authentic Exterminating Inc.
P.O. Box 9102 Mandeville, LA 70470
(985)674-0634 (985)264-3776
Pest & Termite Service
Creative Arts of St. Tammany
70326 Highway 59
Abita Springs, LA 70420
(985) 590-3645
“Theater For Children by children
performed at The Swan”
www.dramaandmusic.com
Smoothie King
1600 N Highway 190 70456 Highway 21
Covington, LA 70433
(985)809-9722 (985)875-7793 www.smoothieking.com
Corporate Sponsors
Tutor Me Online Professional Tutoring Service
Martha Schubert, M.Ed. www.tutormeonline.org
Helping Your Child Succeed Is Our Number One Priority
Cafeteria Menu
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
1
No School
2
No School
3 Grits & French Toast
Chicken Quesadilla
French Fries
Salsa
Fruit
4 Pancakes
Pigs In A Blanket
Baked Beans
Carrot Sticks
Fruit Choice
7 Muffins
Shepherd's Pie
Green Beans
Fruit Choice
Roll
8 Beignets
Chicken Taco
Refried Beans
Salsa & Cheese
Fruit Choice
9 Ham Biscuits
Chicken Tenders
Macaroni & Cheese
Black Beans & Fruit
Texas Toast
10 Cinnamon Roll
Hamburger w Bun
French Fries
Lettuce
Fruit Choice
11 Breakfast Pizza
Chicken Fettuccini
Celery Sticks
Fruit Choice
Texas Toast
14 Cinnamon Roll
Spaghetti w Meat Sauce
Green Beans
Fruit Salad
Bread Sticks
15 Ham Biscuits
Chicken Nuggets
Potatoes w Gravy
Broccoli & Fruit
Texas Toast
16 Beignets
Ham & Cheese Sandwich
Baked Beans
Cole Slaw & Fruit
Brownie
17 Ham & Cheese Wrap
Fried Chicken
Rice w Gravy
Carrots & Fruit
Texas Toast
18 Grits & French Toast
Pizza
Corn
Fruit Choice
21
No School
MLK Day
22 Waffles
Chicken Taco
Corn
Salsa & Cheese
Fruit Choice
23 Beignets
Catfish
Baked Potato
Broccoli & Fruit
Texas Toast
24 Cinnamon Roll
Chicken Tenders
Macaroni & Cheese
Broccoli & Fruit
Texas Toast
25 Ham Biscuits
Hamburger w bun
Sweet Potato Fries
Lettuce
Fruit Choice
28 Cinnamon Roll
Chicken Poppers
Rice w Gravy
Broccoli & Fruit
Texas Toast
29 Ham Biscuits
Pigs In A Blanket
Baked beans
Carrot Sticks
Fruit Choice
30 Beignets
Chicken Quesadilla
French Fries
Salsa
Fruit
31 Ham & Cheese Wrap
Spaghetti w Meat Sauce
Green Beans
Fruit Salad
Bread Sticks