	Fri., Sept 17 4-8 PM	Back to School Night at Wahooz Family Fun Zone - Hosted by the Coalition of Idaho Public Charter and Virtual School Families. (Tokens for each attending family and more...) This is a free event sponsored by the Coalition of Charter School Families to help charter school families in the Treasure Valley get to know each other! For more information, click here for the event flyer.
	Mon., Sept 20 7:00 PM	GCCS BOARD of DIRECTORS MEETING Our school is very unique with the way school board meetings are handled. You are invited to join the “family” as the directors love to hear from stakeholders and are very open to your opinions and ideas. You do not have to sign up in advance – just come down to the school any third Monday to join them! They are the people who vote on final decisions affecting the school, but your input is always requested and respected.
	Thur., Sept 23 6:30-8:15PM (two session choices)	Family Goal Night. *This is a special evening that is required for all students and a family member to attend.* You will learn to work with your child to help them set goals for their lives – in addition to learning more about their teacher and the class’s year plans. (Each parent even has homework to complete!) You may choose Session 1 (6:30-7:20PM) or Session 2 (7:25-8:15PM). Your child’s teacher will send you more information soon! Also, Voting for a Parent Representative to the Board - for more information, see the section Voting for Parent Representative below.
	Wed., Sept 29	School Pictures All students and staff are required to have their photos taken for our information system. If you would like to purchase the photos, there will be packets sent home the week prior to the day. These need to be returned on Picture Day to hand to the photography company rep for ordering.
	Thur.-Fri., Oct 7 & 8 NO SCHOOL	IDAHO ART EDUCATION CONFERENCE (IAEA) No school for students as these are the dates for Idaho teacher in-services. The Art Ed conferences will be held at our school this year! If you would also like to attend, see the IAEA website to register!
	Sat. morning, Oct. 16 between 8-10 AM	APPLEBEE’s GCCS PANCAKE FEED Save the date for our annual All-You-Can Eat fundraiser sponsored by AppleBee’s! Students will be selling tickets to the event where the GCCS board and staff will be the servers! The restaurant only allows our ticket buyers to eat during this fun 8-10AM event and the GCCS families enjoy getting to meet each other!! More info to come later!
	Thur., Oct 21 NO SCHOOL (there is school on Fri. Oct. 22)	TEACHING with POVERTY in MIND No school for students – just on Thursday! GCCS is hosting this huge workshop for the entire state by internationally know brain-researcher and educator, Eric Jensen. If you are interested in registering to attend, click here for more information.
	Sat., Nov 13 (Save the Date)	ANNUAL SCHOOL AUCTION The GCCS Annual Auction will be Saturday, November 13 this year! This is our biggest fund raiser of the year, so the results are very important! Chairman, Tiffany Coffey, btcoffey@cableone.net , would love to have your help! This could include planning, advertising, invites/thank you’s, set-up, clean up, donations…… If you marked this on the blue All-School Volunteer form, she will be contacting you soon!

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!!!!
If you - or others you know in the community - are interested in sharing your artistic talents with our GCCS students, please contact:
Director Cindy at cindy.hoovel@gardencityschool.org
to help her complete our 2010-2011 guest artist schedule.

We are interested in exploring all arts, but are coming into our rotation year to focus on music during Art Studio sessions.
RECENT FOCUS: 2009-10: visual art, 2008-09: theater/dance, 2007-08: music/dance.

Take a look at the Arts Integration page for information about the
art studio classes the students attended this year.

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Voting for Parent Representative

Parent Representative to the Board Elections

Thursday, September 23

Voting for the open Parent Representative to the board position will take place at Goals Night, Thursday, September 23^rd, at the school from 6:00-7:30PM. Two positions on the Board of Directors are elected by the parents of the school. The opening for the new parent representative was created by Sara Covington’s resignation this past summer. Michael Tetrault serves as the other Parent Representative to the board. The candidates e-mails are included so you can contact them to learn more about them.

The candidates for the position include:

Audra Bryant audrabryant@gmail.com - Audra Bryant is a licensed professional counselor. She specializes in Child and Adolescent counseling as well as family support and parent education. Audra has been married 16 years to her junior high sweetheart and has three children. Will is five years old and attends GCCS, Natalie is three, and Lucille is one. In her free time Audra likes to read, exercise, and be with family and friends.

Tiffany Coffee btcoffey@cableone.net – Tiffany Coffey was an elementary teacher for 10 years prior to having children and can relate to parents and teachers in a school setting. She enjoys learning and continues to take courses to keep her Idaho teaching credential current. She has participated in the organization and planning of fundraising events for both preschools for her children. She is currently chairing and coordinating the GCCS Auction.

As a public school teacher, Tiffany saw firsthand the loss of creativity – by both students and teachers – that results from a focus on testing. She is happy to have found a school environment that nurtures her son’s creativity and academic development. She wants to help GCCS continue to be successful as a school and grow as a community so all three of her children can benefit from GCCS.

Melanie Owens boiseowen@msn.com - Melanie Owen is a Boise native and graduated from ITT Technical Institute in 2008 with a B.S. in Business Administration. Melanie works at CATCH (Charitable Assistance To Community’s Homeless) as the Administrative Assistant/Resource Coordinator. Melanie also serves as a Commissioner for the Boise City/ADA County Housing Authority. She is familiar with ADA, the Fair Housing Act and Education Act. She was a member of the Family Self Sufficiency Coordination Committee and volunteers for many non-profits through out the community.

Melanie is a wife and mother of two - MacKenzie age nine, currently attending GCCS and Dwayne Jr, at 10 months is a GCCS hopeful. She enjoys being active in the community especially being involved with families and children services.

To read the bios for the current Board Members, click here to see the School Board page.

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Newsletters

Click here to view the September/October 2010 family newsletter.

Click here to view past newsletters.

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More News

School name-change proposal:

Community Council Meeting Minutes - school name-change proposal

RECRUITING STUDENTS:

Pass the word……..we still have a few places available in some classes! Word-of-mouth is our best form of advertising!

PARENT PERMISSION:

Please remember that we have to have written, dated/signed permission any time you want your child to ride home with anyone who is not on the list you gave us for their permanent file or to be dropped off at a different place on the bus route. There are NO exceptions…it’s all about safety. Please appreciate how much we care about your children and do everything possible to keep them safe!

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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

If you are a grandparent raising grandchildren, the Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare has compiled a list of websites that you might find useful. Click here for a list of these websites.

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Recycle Electronics & Help GCCS

Help us to collect unwanted/broken PDA’s, iPods, Digital Cameras, Laptops, Cell Phones, and oh, yeah, Empty Ink Cartridges! There is a collection bucket at the school in the common area. Click here for more information and visit www.projectkopeg.com

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Fundraising

Sara Covington, one of your parent representatives to the GCCS School Board, is organizing some great fund raisers for the school. She’ll be contacting those of you who signed up to volunteer in this area.

For more ways to help, please see the Fundraising page.

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GCCS Needs You!
(Did you know? Volunteering is fun!)

Remember that each family is asked to volunteer at least five hours each month in their child’s classroom or with an all-school aspect. It’s a great way to help the school and become more involved in your child’s education. If you haven’t completed an All-School Volunteer Application, they are available in the office or on the Volunteering page of this website. You will be contacted as soon as the volunteer area you signed up for needs help! We can always use office greeters and sub, so please contact Director Cindy, if interested!

Please see the Volunteering page.

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Flu Prevention Plan

Please see the Healthy Schools page for information about the steps that GCCS is taking to prevent the spread of the flu virus and ways that you can help stay healthy.

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Revised: 09/07/10