Carroll Creek Communicator

Dear CCMPCS Community,

I want to commend all of our families for

the sensitivity and resiliency shown in the

wake of the Connecticut tragedy. We

worked to keep our children’s daily life as

normal as possible, which is one of the

most important things we can do. I appreci-

ate every day, how much our families keep student learning

a primary focus.

The tragedy in Connecticut has forced all of us to pause and

reflect on how life sometimes does not make sense. As we

observed the events of last weekend unfold on the news, it

seems unfathomable that one person can bring about such

utter destruction to our world. In one moment of life we are

inspired by the unselfish or creative ways that people serve

each other, and in the next we are left to wonder how some-

one can commit such acts.

My hope for the CCMPCS community is that we adults take

the time to talk with one another about this senseless act, and

comfort those who have been particularly affected. We must

continue to give our children order and routine and show

them that we are safe. Your children are watching, listening,

and learning from you and count on you to guide them. If

you require some additional support, please visit our web-

site, as many resources have been made available this week

for our community.

This is a time of year when we are reminded of the blessings

in our lives. Regardless of the material things we may or

may not have, in the days ahead we all have the ability to be

grateful for family, friends and the relationships that are im-

portant to us. Tell the people you care about specifically

how and why they make a difference in your life. Better yet,

show them. Take some time this next week and enjoy the

moments with your children. Snuggle up on the couch as a

family with a good book. Smile, laugh, and play. Be sure to

also take some time to breathe, relax, and celebrate every-

thing you are thankful for.

CALENDAR

December 24—January 1 School Closed

January 2 Lottery opens for fall 2013

Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 7:00 pm Governing Council Meeting

Continued on page 3

CCMPCS 7915 Corporate Court, Frederick, MD 21705 http://education.fcps.org/ccmpcs December 20, 2012

Principal’s News

2012 – Year of the CCMPCS Volunteer

A HUGE thank you to all of our volun-teers for your tremendous support, time and energy that made it possible to open and operate CCMPCS this year! A year end wrap-up of many of the things volunteers did for the school in 2012 (I couldn’t possibly list them all – but I’ll include a pretty exhaustive list to give you a snapshot of what a herculean effort this has been by our volunteers in this year alone!):

Building and Maintenance: Toured multiple potential facilities around the county after losing our 2nd location, identified our current school building (our 3rd location), drew the preliminary floor plans for our space, petitioned the Board of Ed to accept the location, pur-sued and gained a temporary zoning change to allow us to have a school in this location, negotiated and signed a lease agreement, worked with contrac-

Continued on page 2

Changes to the CCMPCS Communicator:

At the start of the New Year, our news-letter will be distributed twice a month. The next newsletter will be distributed on January 10th. Thereafter, the newsletter will be issued every two weeks.

tors and architects to completely design the space to code, pursued multiple permits, over-saw construction of our space, managed building contractor, negotiated with property manager, cleaned up after bathroom flooding, fixed aging plumbing, selected paint and flooring, organized and ran volunteer weekend, painted, planted hedges, designed and created an outdoor play space, painted the blacktop, donated and in-stalled a play set, installed safety curbs for play-ground, delivered and spread mulch, built a sandbox, installed benches, built and painted classroom and library shelving and chalkboard borders, installed bulletin boards, cleaned our new space before move-in, accepted deliveries of all furniture and all instructional materials (including unloading and re-loading a tractor trailer of furniture), built most of the classroom tables and shelving units, installed coat hooks, repaired plumbing fixtures (again), and more.

Education and Curriculum: designed the pre-liminary curriculum for the school and the im-mersion program, identified, triple bid, and or-dered every single instructional material, un-packed and inventoried each instructional mate-rial, supported staff in hosting ribbon-cutting ceremony, back-to-school night, and parent edu-cation night, served as photographer for events, supported teachers and instructional assistants as classroom volunteers and room parents, or-ganized and opened school library (open to teachers, soon to open to students), donated books, furniture and instructional materials, helped make instructional materials for class-rooms, selected and set up staff and classroom computers and school network, and more.

Staffing: created job descriptions and posted them for all jobs in the school, hired our principal, supported the principal in hiring the remainder of our staff by reviewing resumes and attending interviews, and more.

Lottery and Enrollment: held information sessions in English and Spanish for prospective families for opening year, posted information in English and Spanish about the 2012-2013 lottery throughout the county online, in stores, in libraries, at events, and more, answered questions from MANY prospective families by e-mail and by phone, created the enrollment registration data-base and lottery software from scratch, translat-ed all electronic lottery programs, ran the 2012-2013 lottery, notified families of acceptance and

wait list status, answered new family questions, held welcome meeting for new families, prepared for and publicized 2013-2014 lottery, planned and hosted tours for prospective families for 2013-2014.

Communications and Outreach: overhauled original website, created and migrated to new website, actively maintain and update website, publicized school lottery throughout the county, hosted information and activity tables at multiple events in the county including preschool fairs, In the Streets, Latino Festival, and more, digitized the logo from Lisa Reed’s original painting, created visual identity package, designed and created school signage, moderated yahoo group, designed school brochures and poster presentation for events, designed and published the school news-letter, ran canned food drive, led Heartly House clothing and toy drive to support families in need, and more.

Budget: Lost (due to national education funding cuts), petitioned to regain, and increased our start-up grant from the MD State Department of Education to $650,000. Planned, submitted doc-umentation for, tracked, and spent the grant money with MMCI staff support. Managed the planning and implementation of a $836k annual budget (ongoing) with CCMPCS staff support.

Fundraising: Planned and hosted/led ice cream social fundraiser, Uno’s dinner, Barnes & Noble book fair, Spiritwear sales, Square 1 art fund-raiser, initiated and publicized no-cost fundrais-ers such as Box Tops for Education, grocery store contributions, and more.

MMCI: CCMPCS parents and friends served as VP, Treasurer, Secretary, Parent Trustees and Friend of Education on the MMCI Board of Trus-tees (BOT) (and six continue to serve), provided design services for the pledge brochure, served on the lottery committee, served on the fund-raising committee and supported the 2012 MMCI annual auction.

Volunteers attended MANY committee, GC, MMCI BOT, FCPS, I.L.T., and S.I.T. meetings and more.

Yowza, yowza, yowza!!!! Whew! I’m ready for a nap – how about you?! You’ve earned a restful winter break, volunteers! We’re looking forward to your essential contributions in 2013!

Signing off with deep gratitude, Janice Kominski, CCMPCS Governing Council Chair

Continued from GC News, page 1

The Governing Council and I want you to know,

that we will be working diligently toward ever

improved safety of our students. We continue

to maintain our priority for child safety and well

-being. It is what we believe to be our most im-

portant job. We pledge to all community mem-

bers and students that we will continue to make

CCMPCS a safe place for everyone, and we ask

that you help us do that as well. School safety

will be a major agenda item for the January 8th

Governing Council meeting. This meeting is

open to our entire community and the members

of the GC and I encourage you to attend.

We have much to be thankful for this week:

I want to especially thank Tracy and

Roberto Johnson for their generous do-

nation of Montessori Supplies. They

have donated more than a classroom

worth of materials for our school!

Thank you for supporting the completion

of our student computer network: Mr.

Adkins and Mr. Steffenson.

Thank you for helping with pick-up and

delivery of donated materials from the

Johnson family: Joe Adkins, Russell and

Janice Kominski, Tibet, Amy Duvall and

her father, Connie Koh, and Randy and

Mary Joy Johnson.

Thank you for helping to inventory new

materials: Kelly Thoms, Janice Kominski,

Kelly McIntosh, Caroline Leibowitz, Michael

Beth Edwards, Jamie Cristali, Andrea

Hearn, and Kristina Nicholas.

MMCI News:

Do you love planning events? We need an event

co-chair from CCMPCS to help plan the annual

MMCI Silent Auction in the spring of 2013. If

interested, please contact Joi Vogin at jvogin@

gmail.com.

Continued from Principal’s News, page 1 Upcoming Events:

Mid-Term progress reports will be sent

home on December 20, 2012. These reports

will only go home to the parents of students

who have shown little progress or regres-

sion in any area of the Montessori curricu-

lum

CCMPCS will be closed December 24th-

January 1st for Winter Break

CCMPCS will reopen January 2, 2013

We will hold an emergency GC meeting to

discuss plans for the Primary Grades Im-

provement Task Force. This meeting will be

held on January 3rd at 7:00pm at CCMPCS.

This meeting is open to the community.

The next GC meeting will be on January 8,

2013 at 7:00pm at CCMPCS

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration,

“From Vision to Action” at TJ High School

will occur on January 15, 2013 (Snow Date:

January 22, 2013).

The second quarter ends on January 18,

2013.

January 23rd-Professional Development-No

School for students

I wish our community a wonderful holiday season.

It is well deserved! Enjoy your winter break

with friends, family, and loved ones.

Happy Holidays,

Giuseppe Di Monte Principal Carroll Creek Montessori Public Charter School Follow me on Twitter: @ccmpcsppal

Families, Students, Community

and Staff

Please stand with our school

in the FCPS countywide

Rally Around the

Promise!

Thursday, January 17*

7 PM

Tuscarora High Auditorium

Come learn about the promise

of public education.

Share your views with

people ready to listen.

Show you care about

Frederick County’s future.

www.fcps.org/thepromise

*Snow date: Thursday, January 24

Counseling Corner

Hi CCMPCS Families,

In light of Friday's tragic event, I wanted to

remind our families that I am a support for

our entire community, including staff, stu-

dents and families. Please never hesitate to

reach out if you or your child needs assis-

tance here at school. In my helping role, I

am dedicated to each and every student's

success both academically and socially.

I feel very fortunate to be a part of the

CCMPCS family. I enjoy working with our

staff and students every week. Both never

cease to amaze me with their dedication and

excitement for what's happening in their

classrooms. I wish you all a restful and

peaceful winter break. I look forward to all

that the New Year has in store for us.

Happy Holidays!

Deb Herbaugh

Counselor, CCMPCS