THS Community Newsletter

September 9, 2008

Dear THS Community,

I would like to thank each and every one of you for an absolutely great opening to the 2008-2009 school year. On Sept. 2, students poured into our halls excited for another great year of learning at THS. This year promises to be one of the most exciting, most memorable, and most important in our school’s history. As we embark on the path to the delivery of a 21st century education at THS, we will be asking more of our students than ever before…but the payoffs will be worth it!

In less than a month, students will be engaged in our first Intensive Study Period session. This two week period will see Telluride High School students riding high in the San Juan mountains learning about “wilderness and survival” in an alpine setting; traveling to Moab to investigate how businesses are capitalizing on the connection between “mind and body”; working with local world-class chefs to explore the “art and science of cuisine”; digging in Crow Canyon in an effort to discover the secrets of the ancient Puebloan people through “southwestern archaeology”; and exploring the power of “protest and social change” through an interactive study of film, music, art, and literature. These unique, interactive, hands-on experiences promise to raise our students’ appreciation and love for learning to new levels.

I am going to take this opportunity to remind you of a few housekeeping issues that are important to the effective administration of our building and the success of our programs:

· Attendance – please remember to communicate directly with the office if your student is absent from school. Your student can either bring in an excuse note to Candice at the front desk, or you can call Candice at 728-4377. Also, should your student need an early dismissal, please notify Candice by note or phone call in advance of your student’s departure.
· Students in AP Classes – please remember that when your student enrolls in an AP class, your family will be asked to help shoulder the added costs associated with these college level courses. Look for bills to help cover the costs of the AP books and test fees.
· Cost of lunch – as rising gas prices affect all of us, the costs of producing lunches for our students has also increased. Thus, students are being asked to pay $3 for hot lunches this year.
· Student Activity Fee – In order to help offset the costs associated with the new Intensive Study Period program, we are asking all students to contribute $100 in a student activity fee. We are accepting these checks now, but would like all of them to be paid no later than September 29, 2008, a week prior to the first ISP.
In addition to the new academic programs being implemented this year, THS has embraced the value of teaching the “affective skills and attributes” each of our students will need to experience success in a 21st century workplace. During the first week of instruction, we focused intensely on the THS model of the “6 P’s”, which include the virtues of Politeness, Punctuality, Preparedness, actively Participating, having a Positive Mental Attitude, and Perseverance. In order to reinforce our belief that these 6 P’s are extremely important life skills that must be practiced and valued, our teachers will be assessing our students’ progress towards mastery of these skills and attributes every reporting period. Our students’ performance in demonstrating these expectations will be included in their final grade, and thus will have an impact on their overall grade point averages. Please take a minute to review the 6P’s handout (enclosed) and our expectations for student behavior and engagement.

I am looking for parent representatives to serve on the High School Accountability committee. Our first meeting of the school year will be held on Tuesday, September 16th from 3:30-5:00 PM. If you are interested, please contact me and I’ll put you on the distribution list.

If you have any questions or concerns about anything you find in this packet or anything else that is going on in the life of your THS student, please don’t hesitate to contact me either by email at acarter@telluride.k12.co.us or by phone at 369-1211.

I hope that the beginning of this school year has been as positive an experience for your family as it has been for mine. I wish you all the best of luck for a great 2008-2009 school year.

And, oh yeah….GO MINERS!

Best regards,

Alex Carter, Principal