Compass Newsletter -- February 11, 2009

**Schedule reminder: Feb vacation is 2/14 - 2/23.  

(Monday 2/23 is a teacher inservice day; classes start back up on Tues. 2/24.)

FINANCIAL AID FORMS-Due Feb. 14^th!

All families interested in receiving financial aid for next year need to complete a financial aid form prior to February 14, 2009. Financial Aid forms are available in the Compass School Office for pick-up, your child can be given one at school to take home, or we can mail a form to if you prefer. Please let us know if you will want a form and how you wish to obtain it.                 

--Wishing you all health and happiness in 2009, Compass Admissions

**This Thursday night- Don't miss this one:

Sojourner Truth- Dramatic presentation at Compass this Thursday Feb. 12 @ 7:30pm

Born a slave in New Paltz, New York, Isabella Baumfree walked away from slavery and her travels evolved into Sojourner Truth. In this program, Kathryn Woods allows Sojourner Truth to tell her story in her own words, speeches, and songs. All are invited to this performance at Compass School on Thursday Feb. 12 at 7:30pm. Free and open to the public, sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council.

Welcome home to our Mexico Expedition!

They all report an outstanding trip. You can see their pictures and inspired reflective writing at http://compassmexicotrip2009.blogspot.com/

**NO Winter Sports tomorrow 2/12  (The next winter sports day is Thurs. 2/26)

WINTERM  - We busily continue with our winterm projects. Here are a few reports:

A  group of students is working on a service project at the Great River Arts Institute in Bellows Falls to exhibit and advertise a show of award winning teen artists on February 13-21^st, 2009.  This is the first time Vermont has hosted the art of state Scholastic Art Award winners.  Last Wednesday we journeyed to Boston to research art curation and exhibition.  At the ICA we caught a pre-opening glimpse of the art of Obama "Hope" poster artist Shepard Fairly.  We also saw art by artist Joe Zane, who we would say hello to in person at MIT later that day.  At MIT we meet Meg Rotzel, program coordinator of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, which connects artist and scientists for innovative collaborations.  Meg gave us a tour of the artist's studios (including world recognized artist Krystof Wodiczko) and a behind the scenes look at what it takes to work with artist and exhibit art.  Afterwards, we went to galleries at Harvard and saw works by Picasso and Van Gogh, among others.  For novices in the arts world, we are quickly becoming fully immersed as arts organizers and developing an eye for art appreciation!

MONTREAL - La nouvelle: Souhaitez-vous un bon voyage a la classe francaise qui departent pour Montreal!  Wish us a good journey as the French class drives north to Montreal to experience French language and culture.  We will attend a spoken work performance on Tuesday night, walk in Old Montreal, see the Basilica of Notre Dame, visit the Biodome while stretching ourselves to speak as much French as possible.

(**We just got a text message from the group in Montreal: "All is well! We are having a blast.") 

Here is an offer from the French class, which is doing a Valentine's Day fundraiser with Secret Valentines.  We have made our dramatic and musical presentation at Monday's All-School, but here are the necessary details if you wish to honor a Compass student or faculty member on Friday:

- Anyone may contact Starcie or Ann, our SV coordinators, who will take name of the person who is to receive a Valentine's Day card on Friday along with payment from the purchasing sponsor/benefactor.  Said sponsor of the French class' card delivery has three choices for a message:    

1) Prewritten French message for $2 (this is a card, 2-4 lines: Soyez-vous ma Valentine, s'il vous plait - Please be my Valentine, for example)

2) Personalized short message from buyer to be translated by French class for $4 - Your message will fit onto a small card. 

 3) Prewritten French song in a card, to be sung. -$5

All presentations happen Friday during preparation for group presentations.  All messages, including songs, are delivered in French and then in English immediately afterward.  Consider sponsoring a secret (or not secret) Valentine's message....  Amusez-vous bien. 

As Ann and Starcie will be away on Tuesday and Wednesday, please drop off your requests in the box that they have left in the office.  Merci beaucoup!!

Play news - Nearly all parts have been cast for Twelfth Night.  Scripts are in student hands, and we are having a marvelous time as we explore Shakespeare together. Andy and Ron will meet with the cast again on Friday from 2:30-4:00.  Performances are the first week of April. 

Overnight Housing Needed for Education Students
A group of education students from Siena College (in Albany NY) are studying Compass School as part of their curriculum and are planning to visit Friday March 27 for the school day. Because of the distance from Albany, they plan to drive up Thursday and arrive about dinner time and need places to spend the night. They will have sleeping bags and just need floor space for the night. If you could host one or more of these students, it would be most appreciated. They are inspired by Compass and looking forward to learning more about the school through this direct experience. Thanks.

Rock Climbing Winter Sports Group: The climbing group will be traveling to climbing gyms in Northampton, Quechee, and Rutland after vacation. All of these gyms require their own waivers. These can be downloaded at the following websites or picked up in the office. Students will not be able to climb without these waivers. Thank you:

Northampton Gym:      http://www.nohoac.com/downloads/climbing_waiver.pdf

Quechee Gym: www.vermontrocks.com

Rutland Gym: http://www.vermontclimbing.com/Waiver.pdf

Also, please note that rock climbers will return to school at 4pm on 2/26/09, 3/5/09 and 3/12/09.  

Middle School PoL's:

2^nd Trimester Presentations of Learning (PoL's) will take place on Wednesday, March 4^th from 9:30-11am, Thursday, March 5 from 8:30-10:30am, and Friday, March 6 from 8:30-noon. Please mark your calendars and contact Lauren if you would like to reserve the time that works best for you. Parents and guardians are expected to attend their children's presentations. As many of you already know, these are times of great reflection and celebration!

ANNUAL APPEAL

Please give to our annual appeal if you have not already done so. Any contribution will help lead to the goal of 100% parent participation which can help us leverage other grants. Your giving also supports the Challenge Grant of $25,000 whereby for every $3.00 you give we receive and additional $1.00. 

We are working hard on a number of fronts to raise money to support financial aid to Compass families. We are pleased to announce that Compass has recently been awarded $12,750 from the Turrell Fund!

Upcoming Dates:

• Feb. 2-13 - Winterm service learning projects
• Feb. 12 - Sojourner Truth performance at Compass, 7:30pm
• Feb. 14-23 - February vacation (Note: Monday Feb. 23 is a teacher inservice day)
• Feb. 24 - Start 3^rd trimester and 3^rd quarter exploratories
• March 2 - no classes - Student/Parent/Teacher conferences
• March 3 - no school - statewide Town Meeting Day
• March 4-6 - Middle school Presentations of Learning

School calendar can be viewed at http://www.compass-school.org/resources/calendar or you can get additional paper copies in the office.