Currents

Note: We will not be posting new Currents weekly during the summer. We will, however, post at least monthly, and will continue to send out an email alert when postings are complete. If you have an interesting school-related item to share, please send it to me at sheila (at) hokan.org. We reserve the right to include or not, and to edit for length, style and content. --Sheila, your Currents editor.

WATERSHED HAPPENINGS

June 9 – 13
Faculty Workshops

June 17
Grades Mailed Out

June 19
Board Meeting

September 2
First day of the 2008-09 school year!

ADMIN NOTES:
–Phil Grant, Administrator

Dear Watershed Community,

Congratulations and best wishes to all of our 2008 graduates! I thought our commencement ceremony at MCTC last Saturday was wonderful. I always have such mixed feelings at commencement, for while I’m proud of our graduates, I shall miss them.

I want to thank all parents, guardians, and friends of Watershed for a fine year. Your support of the school throughout 2007-2008 contributed to the many successes we enjoyed. I wish everyone a great summer and I look forward to an even better school year in 08-09!

Though summer vacation has begun for students, teachers and administrators aren’t quite there yet. For example, Watershed is migrating to a new student information system called Power School. Our old system (SIPS) is obsolete and will no longer be supported by its maker. Accordingly, all faculty and staff will be trained June 9-11 in this new system. Later on, we’ll provide parent and student training. Look for more information on this over the course of the summer.

Another task for us during this workshop week is to prepare for a visit from our charter sponsor, Adler Institute, part of the charter contract renewal process. (Watershed was originally chartered in 2002 and the contract was renewed in 2005.) Among other things, Adler representatives will ask us to affirm our purposes, describe our programs for carrying out those purposes, and identify the specific and measurable outcomes pupils are to achieve as a result of those programs.

That’s more or less the technical language used in Minnesota law. In everyday terms, it reduces to such questions as “What are you doing for your students? How well are you doing? How do you know?” These are useful questions for our professional staff to ponder as we prepare for the Adler visit and plan for next year.

Sports report, as promised! During the weekend of May 31-June 1, our Ultimate Frisbee team participated in a tiring but fun state tournament. During the course of eight games over the two days, our intrepid disc-throwers acquitted themselves nobly. A few days later, our golf squad ended their season with “The Watershed Scramble.” (I believe you’ll have to ask a golfer what that means.) I understand that the student-athletes on both squads learned much about their sports, teamwork, and themselves this spring. Congratulations to all of them and their coaches and supporters, especially Matt McElrath, Mark McGarraugh and Christina Beck!

Lost and found department: Mack Wenberg (612-868-1129) reported a missing backpack after the last day of school outing at the park. It’s dark blue with gray backing. If you know where it is, give Mack a call.

I’ve received several calls and emails about lunch accounts; thank you. We will send out a final bill—most likely in our next mailing the week of June 16, along with final grades. (One of the anticipated benefits of our new Power School student information system will be greater ease in tracking lunch balances.)

The next Watershed School Board meeting is Thursday, June 19, 5:30-7:30 p.m. All board meetings are open to the public. If you would like to be on the agenda, please contact Keith Dunder or Endel Kallas.

Questions, concerns, ideas? Give me a call at 612-871-4363 x206, or email me at pgrant (at)watershedhs.org. Have a great week!

ACCENT ARTS AWARDS ANNOUNCED:
–Maggie Rozycki

Congratulations to our winners and to all who showed their work in the show at Accent Arts, a custom framing gallery on 1618 West Lake St.(cross street is James Ave)Mpls, 612-822-1234

Kristi, the owner, generously custom framed a piece by every student in my classes. She also provided an opening party for the show and prizes of art supplies to the top 4 winners.

Note: The winning pictures are below, except for the show favorite, Lucia Berocay; we are waiting a “postable” photo and will put the image up when it becomes available.

1st Place, Ana Hedenstrom:

2nd Place, Ayla Weber:

3rd Place, Hunter Bodene-Yost: