Burger Fry Fundraiser

Greetings all!

The summer seems to be slipping by so quickly!  CRSS staff have been busy working on curriculum, developing assessment tools, taking classes, refining our systems and planning for next year.  With all that, though, we are painfully aware of how quiet our campus is, and how much we miss the laughter and enthusiasm that fills our halls when school is in session.  With that in mind, we would like to invite everyone to a fundraising meal that will allow us to connect with old friends and catch up on summer adventures.  The Knights of Columbus has graciously offered to host a Burger Fry for CRSS on Friday, August 6th from 5:30-7:30 p.m.  For $4 you can get a burger (or chicken strips) with fries.  Proceeds go to benefit the Cannon River STEM School and will be used toward our playground design and installation.* 

Naturally, the more tickets we sell, the more money we raise for our playground!  While tickets can be purchased at the door, we would like to sell as many as we can in advance, so we have a sense of how big a night it will be.  Tickets can be purchased by mailing a check into the school (1800 14th St. NE, Faribault, MN 55021), by dropping by the school office (though you should call first to make sure someone is here to help you, 331-7836) or by stopping at the service counter at Nelson’s County Market on the corner of 4th Street and 2nd Avenue in Faribault.

Please plan on joining us on Friday, August 6th.  Call your friends and arrange for a class reunion.  Plan on renewing friendships, welcoming our new families, or meeting new classmates.  Bring your relatives, out of town guests, neighbors or anyone who would want to enjoy a night out for a relaxed dinner that benefits the amazing kids at the Cannon River STEM School.  Please help us get the word out, and encourage folks to buy tickets!

 Looking forward to seeing you there!

 Nalani and the CRSS Staff

 

 

* CRSS has contracted with Fireflies Play, Inc. to develop a campus master plan to guide development of playground and other learning spaces on campus.  The plan is being finalized this month, and we anticipate purchasing 1-2 pieces of play equipment to be installed (with community help!) this fall.  Playgrounds are pricey endeavors, and just two pieces of play equipment will likely cost $20,000 not including installation and surfacing.  This is a long-term project, but we are committed to working on developing a fun, healthy and educational play space for our students.  Funds raised at the Burger Fry go towards expanding what we can do yet this fall.

CRSS has open positions!

Please see our Jobs Page to view the postings for our two open positions; a Part-Time Office Assisstant and a Part-Time Special Education Teacher.

Change in Finance Committee Meetings

The Finance Committee Meetings will now be held on the second Thursday of each month at 6pm at the school prior to the monthly School Board Meeting.

Cannon River STEM School Students Excel at Regional Science Fair

Five Cannon River STEM School students qualified to participate in the 59th South Central Regional Science and Engineering Fair held on May 1st, 2010. This annual fair attracts approximately 1,200+ projects from southern Minnesota. All five CRSS students earned purple ribbons, the highest honor awarded at the Science Fair, and three placed in their respective divisions. CRSS award winners are as follows:

Neil Toering (Faribault), 4th Grade, Purple Ribbon and placed 2nd in the Biochemistry Division for his project, “DNA Wars: Plants vs. Animals.”

Sydney Kranz (Northfield), 4th Grade, Purple Ribbon and placed 2nd in the Energy and Transportation Division for her project, “On a Cushion of Air.”

Christopher Garlitz (Northfield), 5th Grade, Purple Ribbon and placed 3rd in the Physical Science Division for his project, “Conducting Electricity.”

Julianna Math (Medford), 5th Grade, Purple Ribbon for her project, “Which Wood Would Fling Things the Farthest?”

Zackery Moreau (Faribault), 5th Grade, Purple Ribbon for his project, “Absolute Zero.”

Nearly 30% of the CRSS 3rd-6th grade students participated in the CRSS Science Fair, devoting time outside of class to develop and investigate a scientific question. Of those participating students, five were selected to continue on to the regional science fair in Mankato.

Finance Committee Meeting Rescheduled

The Finance Committee Meeting that was scheduled for Monday April 5 has been rescheduled for Thursday April 8 at 6pm at the School.

Cannon River STEM School Application Process and Lottery

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Cannon River STEM School Application Process and Lottery

Calling all parents looking for a school focusing on science, technology, engineering and math with an emphasis on outdoor education!  The Cannon River STEM School, a K-8 public charter school, is accepting applications for the 2010-2011 school year and will conduct its public lottery to fill available openings on Saturday, March 13th at 11 a.m.

Cannon River STEM School (CRSS) is a public charter school with an academic curriculum focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), in addition to traditional subjects.  It opened with grades K-6 in the Fall of 2009, and will add an additional grade annually, to serve K-8 in Fall of 2011.  The school envisions being the preeminent leader in STEM education by combining academic rigor with social responsibility and the mastery of the process of scientific inquiry. The mission of CRSS is to foster each student’s innate curiosity and joy of discovery and to address the growing need for improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, locally, in Minnesota, and nationally. CRSS will use the nationally recognized EIC and GLOBE learning models to foster a sense of connection and personal investment in science and the natural world, through inquiry-based, place-based and project-based teaching techniques.

Applications can be found on the CRSS website (www.cannonriverstemschool.org) and must be completed for students interested in attending CRSS for the 2010-2011 school year.  As a public charter school that limits its enrollment numbers, applications received by 4 p.m. on March 11th will be entered into a public lottery, scheduled to be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 13th.  Openings for enrollment for 2010-2011 school year will be filled through this lottery drawing.  In accordance with Minnesota Law, siblings of already enrolled students are granted sibling preference in the lottery process.  For further information, or to arrange a tour of the school, contact Cannon River STEM School at 507-331-7836 or nbroden@cannonriverstemschool.org.

Contact: Nalani McCutcheon, Executive Director
507-331-7836

A New Brochure

A new brochure has been created for the school!  Check it out by clicking on the link below.

 Cannon River STEM School brochure

Coming Soon…..A complete website redesign!

Now that we are well into our first year, we are in agreement with many of you that our website is in need of an overhaul.  We are happy to report that this process is well underway and we should be unveiling a new website ins the next 30-60 days that is more user-friendly, interactive and a source of current information including a launch of our parent portal link.  We thank you for your patience as we go through this process that will ultimately allow us to provide you with a more dynamic site with continually updated information.

Finance Committee Meeting Rescheduled

The Finance Committee Meeting that was scheduled for Monday February 8 has been rescheduled due to weather to Thursday February 11 at 6pm in the school cafeteria.

Charter School Funding

Parents and supporters of the Cannon River STEM School may be interested in these two articles about how the current state budget crisis is affecting charter schools across the state, including CRSS:

A Forum on Education Funding.  Written by Rob Hardy, CRSS Board Chair.  Originally posted on Northfield.org, and reposted by Simon Tyler (Director of ARTech Charter School, Northfield) and State Senator Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield) on their blogs.  

Local Schools Reeling from State Payment Shifts.  Written by James Warden, Faribault Daily News.