A Note from Mr. Trafford: Playground Progress and Planning
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Dear Parents,
To the casual observer it may not appear that much is
happening to improve our elementary playground, but I want you to know that
behind the scenes much is being done.
Our playground is undergoing extensive soil testing to
determine the amount and location of any residual contamination from the wooden
structure that was removed in the fall.
We are expecting this process to be completed in 30 days and remediation
to be completed in 120 days.
We have a budget in place for the playground. Thanks to your "Pennies for Playtime" donations
and strong fundraising efforts, the FSUS PTSA has deposited over $10,000 to the
FSUS Playground Foundation, the FSUS School Board has pledged $20,000, and
$60,000 has been pledged from the school's operating budget for a grand total
of $90,000. This money is both for the
remediation and improvement of the playground.
I have convened an FSUS Playground Committee comprised of
PTSA parents, teachers and myself. We
are considering a number of options which range from replacing the wood
structure to a redesign of the entire playground. There are designs being considered from two
different companies that offer traditional playground equipment, Game Time and
Landscape Structures. Our third option
is a custom-designed playground from Learning Structures, Inc. Learning Structures specializes in wooden,
community-built playgrounds and designed the new playground at the Tallahassee Outdoor Museum.
The labor to construct a playground can cost as much as 50%
of the cost of the actual structure. With all three companies we are discussing
the possibility of getting more equipment for our dollars using a
community-build. A community-build is a
construction process similar to an old-fashioned barn-raising using skilled and
non-skilled volunteers. It will take our
entire school community to get a project like this done, but with the money we
save using volunteers to construct the playground, we can apply more money
towards additional play equipment, shade structures and other important amenities. Please be thinking about people in your
household, relatives, neighbors, friends, and people in the community who you
think might want to be involved in this project.
Please mark your calendars for Thursday, March 29. Our Playground Committee is having a
Playground Planning Day. A Learning
Structures representative will be on campus during the day to survey our
playground, talk with our playground committee and have a workshop with our
elementary students. Based on the
drawings and ideas of our children they will come up with an outline of a
custom design which they will present to you at an evening presentation. We will also have information on the plans
from the other two companies at this meeting.
You will receive more information about this day soon in a flyer that
will be sent home in your child's backpack.
The playground committee's motto is borrowed from Walt
Disney, "If you can dream it, you can do it".
Together, we are going to make our children's and our own dreams for a
fun, safe playground come true. T. Neal Trafford
Elementary Principal
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Making Good Habits a Priority for our Students All Year Long!
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 During FCAT, I
notice that we prioritize:
- Getting our children to school on
time.
- Making sure students eat a good
breakfast before school.
- Making sure students get enough rest
the night before testing.
What if we made
these a priority throughout the school year?
I believe it would make a real difference for our children. When
students arrive late for school, they are stressed. When students don't eat breakfast, they have
a more difficult time concentrating. If
kids stay up late watching TV, talking on the phone, or playing computer and
video games, they are tired at school.
In our busy lives, we all know what a difference adequate rest
makes.
I would like to
challenge our FSUS parents (myself included!) to make the emphasis on sufficient
rest, punctuality, and a good breakfast become a habit. Our students will feel the difference! Kristina Pineau
Middle School Counselor
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Good Nutrition and Health
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Eating is one of life's great pleasures. There are many foods and many ways to build a
health diet and lifestyle - so there is lots of room for choice. What follows are some general points to
assist you and your family to maintain better health. A child's lunch (and breakfast) are two
important pieces toward achieving that goal.
By providing a well-balanced diet for your children, you are forming the
basis for a lifetime of good eating habits.
Enjoy the food you and your family eat and take additional action for
good health.
The ABCs of
nutrition for your health and that of your family are:
AIM for fitness
BUILD a healthy
base
CHOOSE
sensibly
AIM for fitness
- Aim for a healthy weight: Balance the calories you eat with physical
activity.
- Get moving:
Do 30 -minutes or more of moderate physical activity most days or every
day. Make physical activity part of your
daily routine.
- Set a good example for children: Eat healthy meals and enjoy physical activity
together. Children need at least
60-minutes of physical activity daily.
BUILD a healthy base
- Build your eating pattern on a variety of
grains, fruits and vegetables.
- Include several servings of whole grain goods
daily-such as whole wheat, brown rice and oats.
- Enjoy five-a-day: Eat at least 2 servings of fruit and at least
3 servings of vegetables each day.
Choose dark green leafy vegetables, orange fruits and vegetables, and
cooked dry peas and beans often.
- Also choose foods from the milk and meat and
beans group each day. Make low-fat
choices most often.
- It's fine to enjoy fats and sweets occasionally.
CHOOSE sensibly
- Choose fat-free or low fat types of milk products
(such as reduced or low-fat milk (1 or 2%), yoghurt (1%), cottage cheese
(fat-free or 1%), etc.) and lean meat (little visible fat on meats) and poultry
(lighter parts)
- Limit your intake of beverages and foods that
are high in added sugars. Don't let soft
drinks, juices that are not 100% juice (such as: Sunny Delight, Tampico Punch,
kool-aid drinks, etc.) or sweets crowd out other foods you need such as milk
products
- Use the Nutrition Facts Labels to help choose
foods lower in total fat-especially saturated fat as well as cholesterol and
sodium
One good resource for more in-depth information is to visit
the Mayo Clinic's web site at mayoclinic.com and type "nutrition" into the search engine. Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D., R.D.
PTSA Member and Parent of a FSUS 6th Grader
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Nominations Being Accepted for 2007-2008 PTSA Executive Board
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FSUS PTSA Elections are fast approaching. Your PTSA Nominating Committee of Bonnie Abellera, Kasey Chapin and Trevor Brumbley have been tasked with finding candidates for the elected positions on the 2007-2008 PTSA Board. We ask each of you to consider offering your service for the next school year.
Elected positions include: President, Treasurer, 1st Vice President-Fundraising, 2nd Vice President-Membership, 3rd Vice President-Programs, Recording Secretary and Corresponding Secretary.
Please contact Kasey, Trevor or me for more information, to nominate someone or to submit your own name for consideration.
The Nominating Committee will present candidates at the April General Assembly Meeting and elections will be held at the May General Assembly Meeting.
Bonnie Abellera
Nominating Committee Chair
3rd Vice President, Programs
President, Leon County PTA
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Be a CapWiz during this Legislative Session
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With the Legislative Session underway,
I encourage you to sign up for CapWiz to receive legislative alerts and
dispatches from the Florida PTA. Fill in all the information and submit, and soon you will be
receiving updates on your legislators' actions.
An exerpt from
the most recent dispatch, from Georgia Slack, Legislative Consultant for the
Florida PTA, highlights our own Representative and fellow FSUS PTSA parent, Curtis
Richardson!
(From Florida PTA Dispatch #1, 2007) Greening Up
Good news for the Florida PTA is that a
bill rewarding districts who build "Green Schools " is being filed on its behalf
by Rep. Curtis Richardson in the House and Senator Lee Constantine in the
Senate. The bill is still in its infancy, but the idea behind it is to
create a grants program and allow school districts to apply for some extra funds
to be used to build the green schools which employ a design philosophy that
integrates daylight, electric lighting, air conditioning and ventilation systems
and other materials to create an environment that is not only more energy
efficient, but also healthier and more conducive to learning. While these
schools cost a little extra to build, in the long run, they are expected to save
money in terms of energy use.
In the April newsletter, I will send out information
for PTSA members who would like to visit our respresentatives during the
week of April 16-20, 2007, but if you want to know more sooner, please
contact me at sepstein@admin.fsu.edu
or 644-9779.
Susan Epstein
Legislative Chair
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Box Tops Winners! Closing in on our Goal
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 I am very excited
to announce the total amount of Box Tops contributed during the 3rd
collection period was $580.20. Our goal for the year is $1,600. We
are only about $102 away from meeting our goal. I would love to see
us exceed our goal. It won't take much. If every
student brings in 5 Box Tops, we could raise close to $800 more for
our school. That would be AWESOME. This is free money for our
school, all we have to do is check the items that we already buy at the
store and clip the Box Tops, turn them into one of the collection bins
and I mail them off for free money. You might think
that if you only have 1 or 2 that it won't make a difference but if
everyone turned in those 1 or 2, that would make a HUGE difference. Let's end this
school year with a BANG and exceed our goal of $1,600 and remember, everyone that participates receives a prize.
The following
students are the winners for the 3rd collection period:
K-2 Lauren Shirley and Taylor Cherry
3-5 Kiersten Wright and Grant Gandy
6-8 Hunter Brown
9-12 PJ Newman and Kyndall Simon
I would like
to thank our students, parents, teachers and staff for helping support
our school and this wonderful program. If you forgot to turn yours in
this time, don't worry, there is one more collection period. The
deadline is May 11. Please remember to put the students name, grade
and teachers name on the bag so that your child will receive their
prize.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at brumfam5@earthlink.net and until next time, remember KEEP CLIPPING!!
Trevor Brumbley
Box Tops Chair
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Your Child's Health & Safety
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 Health Fair
Free bike helmets and tetanus shots will be just
two of the many health-related items available at the annual Florida High Health
and Safety Fair set to take place Wednesday, March 28, from 3:30PM to 6PM in the
Tomahawk Cafe (Cafetorium). More than 40 participants are expected this year to showcase
the abundance of health and safety options available in our local
community. The event is sponsored by the PTSA and will take place the
Wednesday after spring break. Please make plans to attend.
School Gardens
Perfect gardening weather is here and the Florida
High gardening project is ready to go, with planting expected to get
underway in mid-March. There are three garden plots ready to go along the
northwestern edge of campus--one for middle and high school students near the
gazebo and two for the elementary children just north of the
playground.
Elementary School Garden Kindergarten
teacher Pat Davis will spearhead the elementary school gardens, consisting of a
vegetable/herb garden and a second plot designed to attract butterflies.
Students in grades K-5 wishing to participate should sign up for the Elementary
Garden Club by filling out an application, which will be sent out to parents via
email through the Florida High listserve, available through elementary
school teachers, or downloadable from the PTSA website. Gardening
activities will take place after school from 3PM to 4PM each day and will be
supervised by Mrs. Davis and other PTSA volunteers. Any parents wishing to
help with the gardens should also indicate their interest on the
application.
Middle and High School Garden--The middle
and high school garden is being handled by high school art teacher Barbara
Davis. Middle and high school students who want to participate do not need
to fill out an application, and should contact Mrs. Davis during second lunch or
after school.
SNAP Nutrition
Project
In light of a national obesity epidemic, the PTSA
has undertaken a review of the snacks available on campus with the hope of
improving the nutritional value of these foods and promoting healthier
choices for our children. The Student Nutrition Advisory Program (SNAP) so
far has reviewed the gym and football stadium concession stands, fall festival,
afterschool program and various fundraisers, finding that the vast majority of
the foods available through these programs do not meet the healthy foods
criteria in the Florida High Wellness Plan adopted by the school's Board of
Directors last August. The Wellness Plan, mandated by federal law,
sets limits on the calorie, fat, saturated fat,
salt and sugar content of school snacks.
Last November the PTSA requested the school
Wellness Committee meet to consider the results of the SNAP surveys and enforce
the Wellness Plan, but as of March 5 no meeting date has been set. The
PTSA Health and Safety Committee will continue to push the school administration
to enforce and strengthen the Wellness Plan and assure the school provides
healthy food choices for our children. Complete details of the survey are
available on the PTSA website.
If you want further information about the above
health and safety projects or are interested in volunteering for the PTSA Health
and Safety Committee please contact me.
Danni Vogt
Health & Safety Chair
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Dance Around the World
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FSUS PTSA is hosting "Dance Around the World", a Cultural Dance
Fair, Thursday, March 15, from 1PM-4PM in the
Tomahawk Cafe (Cafetorium). The day will be
divided into 3 sessions:
Middle School 01:00 - 01:55PM
High School 02:00 - 02:55PM
Elementary/ 03:00 - 03:55PM
After School
Professional dancers from around the city will perform and teach the dances for each group. We have several local
professional dancers, a school group and a couple of parent volunteers
involved but are still looking for people who would like to
participate.
We need you!! Parents, we need help escorting kids in groups into the Dance Fair. This is
the same day as the middle school Field Day so, if you are already planning to be
at school for that event, please consider volunteering for a few minutes and join us while we
dance. Please contact me at maguirre@tnc.org
or 668-0827.
Marie Aguirre
Special Events Chair
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FSUS and Astronaut Norm Thagard Make News at Megaconference Jr.!
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 I am proud to let you know that Florida State University School made national news with Megaconference Jr. Our school was featured in a Washington Times article. This exposure through Megaconference Jr lets everyone know what a unique and superior school we have.
Events like this one do not happen by themselves. I want to give credit to my colleagues who volunteered "mega" hours of time and superior technology expertise and deserve credit for creating this experience as well: Linda Jones, Susan Martelli, Celeste Rosso, Geoff Buchanan and the entire Technology team, Danny Bailey, Jennie Dekle and more. Teachers gave up classrooms. Custodians gave extra time to move furniture, make the rooms look extra "spiffy", etc.
Susan Borland and FSUS parent Alan Hanstein from the Challenger Learning Center were instrumental in getting Astronaut Dr. Norm Thagard to our school. They also hosted a group of our students at the Challenger Learning Center to prepare for the Megaconference. One of the conference sponsors wrote me that Dr. Thagard was "a hit with the students around the world. The students wanted more."
Sherry Southerland from the Science Ed Department of the College of Education lent her support by her attendance.
These wonderful people supported Linda and I in making this a unique educational opportunity for our students. We are grateful for their help and the superior technology infrastructure required to put on such a high tech event.
It is my hope that we can find ways to add more technology to FSUS so that we can continue to provide our students with superior learning events like this one.
Cathy McQuone
Earth/Space Science Instructor
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| Announcements |
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The FSUS
PTSA congratulates the following Latin Club students for their excellent
showing at the Latin Regional Competition on February 13 at Leon High School. The winners included:
Abner Yang, Alex Logan, Ashten Mays,
Austin Shiver, Basil Yang, Cameron Santana,
Dallas Perkins, Dezondria Broxsie, Emma
Jonas, Erin McGivern, Evan Key, Isaac Moscoso, Jed Tanglao,
Jenny Duval, Jessica Wackes, Jhamal
Holliday, Jodeci Richards, John Seay, Josh Strobel, Justin
Grabowski, Katie Tuovila, Marissa Hucaby, Mark Gordon, Marlaina
Peacock, Matt Allen, Matt Byrd, Michael Franklin, Olivia
Townsend, PJ Rivera, Randy Crisp, Rocio Leonides, Sana Ozair,
Sarah Notley, Sean Sullivan, Sumair Ozair,
Taylor Conley, Teale Feeler, Titus Severance,
Travis King, and Xavier McGill.
Combined our Latin
Club had 19 First Place, 13 Second Place, 9 Third Place, 9 Fourth Place and 12 Fifth
Place wins.
The
following teams also placed at Certamen, the Latin Brain Bowl:
Level 1 - 1st place: Dallas Perkins, Alex Taylor, Basil Yang,
Jed Tanglao, Sumair Ozair
Level 2 - 4th place: Matt Allen, Jodeci Richards, Katie
Tuovila, Sean Sullivan
Level Adv- 2nd place: Matt Byrd, Abner Yang, Michael Franklin, Sarah Notley
- The Extended Day Program at FSUS will be having a summer camp again this year. Our theme this summer is "Life's a Party." The camp will start on June 4, 2007, and run until August 10, 2007. We will have many activities such as bowling, swimming, skating, crafts, games, and weekly field trips to name a few. For more information please call
Phyllis or Amanda at 245-3843.
- Help Our Graduating Seniors! Please participate in an easy and profitable fundraiser f
 or Project Graduation. We are selling two, very popular children's maze activity books. They are inexpensive and easy-to-sell. They retail for $5.95 each, but we'll sell them as a package of 2 for $10 or 10 for $50. Every penny goes to Project Graduation and other senior activities. Contact Seņor Guastella at 245-3755 or sguastel@mailer.fsu.edu.
- Every Tuesday Night is FSUS Night at Huston's Oven & Grill in Southwood's Town Center. When you visit Huston's on Tuesdays please sign in and Huston's will donate 10% of your purchase price to FSUS. Proceeds will go to student awards and incentives.
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