MINSTER – The first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 19. Grades 7-8 will begin at 8 a.m., while grades 9-12 start at 9:05 a.m.
Elementary students will not have release time for Wednesday morning mass on the first day of school. School will start at 8:10 a.m. on the first day of school. The first late start/release Wednesday will be Aug. 26. They will begin class at 9:10 a.m. on Wednesdays, beginning Aug. 26.
Kindergarten students will have a staggered start time during the first week of school. Having smaller groups of students the first few days will be more comfortable for students and allow our kindergarten teachers to give everyone help in learning routines, how to get around the building, and how to go through the cafeteria line.
The child’s first day of school will be noted on a post card received in the mail. Beginning Monday, Aug. 24, all kindergarten students will attend.
On Aug. 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. the elementary will be open for Back to School Night. Parents will be able to visit their child’s classroom and pick up beginning of the year paperwork. Teachers will be in classrooms to greet families and answer questions about the upcoming school year.
Schedules for grades 7, 8, and 9 will be distributed at orientation sessions. Schedules for grades 10-12 can be picked up beginning Wednesday, Aug. 5. Any changes to schedules must be completed by Friday, Aug. 21. A complete listing of fees is included in this portion of the newsletter for both the junior and senior high school students.
Transportation:
• High school students parking on school grounds (south lot only) must have a visible parking tag identified by the appropriate’15-16 school year. Forms are available in the office and the cost is at $5. Vehicles are subject to towing at the owner’s expense if registration is incomplete and/or the tag is not visible. Vehicles must be properly registered by Thursday, Aug. 20.
Picture day for elementary students will occur on Aug. 27. Picture day for grades 7-11 will occur Aug. 26.
Lunch prices:
$2.15 for K-6
$2.40 for 7-12
$.35 milk only
• Negative balance from 2014-2015 will roll over and are listed with school fees.
• Families who qualified for the free/reduce lunch program last year will continue in the program for 30 days until a new form has been approved.
New in the math department:
The state of Ohio is requiring high school math students in Algebra I, Algebra B, Geometry, and Algebra II to take an end-of-course exam. This exam will be given online, and students will have access to an online calculator provided by the testing company. They must use this calculator on the computer as they will be prohibited from using their own calculators.
The calculator provided for the exam is identical to the Texas Instruments TI-84+ graphing calculator. For this reason, they are encouraging students to obtain one of these calculators (or the TI-83+ graphing calculator, which is an adequate, less- expensive version) for math class for the coming school year.
Students will be using these calculators almost daily in these classes, and students have already been using the graphing calculators in Transitions to College Math, Trigonometry, Pre-Calc, and Calculus for years. (Amazon.com seems to have the lowest prices, for both new and used, but Walmart, Staples, Target, and many other retailers also sell the calculator.)
New staff:
• Abby Brigadoi will be teaching elementary music. Brigadoi comes to Minster with vocal music teaching experience in Columbus and Dublin, Ohio as well as Ayer, Massachusetts.
• Teaching high school science this year will be Marianne Bruns. Bruns comes has teaching experience in Celina schools, as well as experience as a Medical Laboratory Scientist.
• The new Spanish teacher is Alexis Blum. Blum brings with her two years of teaching experience from Lakewood Schools in Hebron, Ohio.
• Cami Garman will be teaching third grade this year. Garman brings her two years of third grade experience from Ansonia to Minster.
• Christa Prenger will be serving as the Business Technology teacher. Prenger brings her experience in that position, from Ft. Loramie to Minster this year.
• The fifth grade language arts teacher will be Samantha List. List has experience as a long term sub for Minster, as well as language arts experience from Gahanna-Jefferson schools.
This information and more can be found at www.minsterschools.org.
