Director's Cut January 2024 |
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Happy 2024!!! Sorry I'm so late in getting this out..... Something came up...... |
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But all is well and we are back on track! In light of the snow that we experienced last Wednesday, the broken pipe really only cost us one day of school. We are truly grateful to the Northern Lakes Firefight Department and our STEM Family for getting us back up and running so quickly! |
The days are getting longer and we can see each other during pick up! We are almost halfway through the year and before we know it, we’ll be on the downhill side of winter and the school year. We are really pleased with the progress our students are making; not just the skills they are learning, but the depth of their understanding. They are really starting to think differently. They are learning to defend their answers against higher level questioning and that is part of what makes STEM an exciting place to learn. I truly enjoy watching the interaction of our students with their peers, their teachers, and their own work. It is rewarding to see such positive progress. The pattern we see is clear. The future success of our students is NOT measured by grades; it is, in large part, measured by their refusal to quit, and their desire to do better today than yesterday. When we sit in conferences with you and your children, we are never as concerned with their grades as we are with the current status of their attitude and determination to keep working. This success is directly attributable to you as parents supporting the mission of STEM and not letting your children take the easy way out when they struggle. When we look at the tremendous success of our students, they all have one thing in common, they all have parents that loved them enough to never let them quit and their children will forever reap the benefits of that support.
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The end of each quarter/ semester is a good time to discuss your child’s progress with them and see where they have made gains and where they can improve (we can all improve!). Teachers will be setting up conferences with some (but not all) families this quarter. If you do not receive a conference request and would like to meet with your child’s teacher, please email them to set up a time. |
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Competition Celebrations and Updates! |
Invent Idaho Regional Competition: |
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Congratulations to the approximately 45 young inventors who represented North Idaho STEM Charter Academy at the Invent Idaho Regional competition at Silver Lake Mall last weekend. Over 175 students in grades 1-12 competed in 5 categories (Working Models, Non-Working Models, Gadgets & Games, Adaptations, and Jules Verne) at this Regional event, which includes schools from all over North Idaho. Regional winners from North Idaho, Boise, and Idaho Falls will compete at the Invent Idaho State Finals at the University of Idaho in Moscow March 1st & 2nd, as they strive to be selected to represent Idaho at the National Invention Convention in June at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
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Below are the STEM Charter students who are moving on to the State Finals! Please congratulate them when you get a chance. |
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Grade/ Name 2- Curran Oswald 2- Daniel Paul 2- Josephine Willingham 2- Alexis Eastman 2- Daisy Johnson 3- Solomon Hernandez 5- Hollyn Kramer 6- Brooklyn Caywood 6- Lily Yang 6- Charlie Asper
7- Gus Brown 7- Ava Keppner 7- Amelia Thompson 7- Ella Cook 8- Nolan Vogan |
| Placed 2nd 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd Best of Category 1st 1st 3rd
1st 1st 2nd 3rd 1st |
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First Lego League State Competition: |
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We had 12 teams compete at the North Idaho First Lego League Tournament on Saturday and they performed brilliantly. As a school we won 9 awards including 1st and 2nd place overall. If you see any of these students around be sure to congratulate them on a job well done. |
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| Los Cuatro Amigos - 1st Place Champions Award, 2nd Place Robot Game - Kaylee Barnhart, Amelia Freeman, Emmett Hernandez, Reagan Smith |
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Monkey Maniacs - 2nd Place Robot Design - Iain Edwards, Jaden Grothe, Aiden Hunt |
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| Bracketz Bunch +1 - 1st Place Core Values - Shasta Ackerman, Anjali Ferguson, Hannah Fleener, Hailey Viaud |
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Subway Surfers - 2nd Place Core Values - Scout Cannon, Piper Garwick, Carlyn Harte, Holly Helinski |
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| Supercalifragilistic - Artists- 2nd place Champion - Micah Alverson, Brooklyn Caywood, Judah Emery, Lauren Harrell |
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Legos of the Galaxy - 1st place Breakthrough Award - Rachel Brusati, Austin McAdams, Avery Ohlenkamp, Skarlet Schultz |
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| Lego Lords - 1st place - Judges Award - Colm Bertolero, Elise Burnett, Ty Knopp, Aritsara Stanis |
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Lego Lasers - 2nd place - Innovation Project Award - Nathaniel Armatys, Hollyn Kramer, Monica Mendoza, Kaleb Neely |
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And even more GREAT News: Our Seniors competed in the You Lead Idaho Contest: With STEM Charter Senior teams taking 5 of the top 8 positions! |
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Our top two (2) teams will be driving down to Boise to compete with other schools in the High School Idaho Entrepreneurship Challenge (HSIEC) in Boise this Friday. These two teams have already won $7,500 in scholarship money each and are going for more!! |
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Isabel Howard Kara-Elise Grossman Catherine Roco Sarah Wakelin Magnus Williamson |
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A HUGE Thank you to the Greene Idaho Foundation for their generous donation!! $30,000!!!
The Greene Idaho Foundation has helped many small organizations around the Panhandle over the last decade including STEM Charter Academy. Their generosity has helped us build new science classrooms, Purchase Laser Cutters, 3D printers and our new Star Lab. It is a compliment to our staff and students and the work they do that the Foundation continues to support us. We are very fortunate and VERY grateful!! |
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| Members of the Greene Idaho Foundation presenting a check to Mr. Thomson: (Left to right) Don Gross, Todd Tondee, Doug Okuniewics, Scott Thomson, Randy Oaks. |
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It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of one of our STEM Family members: Mrs. Linda McCaslin. Linda was a fixture here at STEM for the last 8 years as a reading aid and playground duty. Linda helped innumerable children reach their reading goals and was always a friendly face on the playground and around campus. She was like a “Mama Bear” with those children on the playground. Always keeping them safe. We are deeply grateful for our time with Linda. She will be greatly missed.
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We are Pro-small business and many of our STEM Families own small businesses. Do you own a small business? Let us know about it so we can all support each other. While we cannot personally endorse each of these businesses, we can offer them up to you as a resource if you have a need in their particular area. Here are just a few of our STEM Family’s small businesses: |
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US News & World Reports Ranks North Idaho STEM Idaho’s #1 school!! |
There is always a lag time with these publications because they use data from previous years. However, they have finally included us in their elementary and middle school rankings. We will need one more year of graduating over 20 students before they will include us in their High school rankings. Nonetheless, they did rank our elementary and middle schools #1 in the state. Check out the link here: STEM Charter Academy #1.
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Parking Lot Safety: We have worked very hard to create a system that flows smoothly (12-14 minutes total) and is safe for our students. I want to thank all of you for having your children load/unload on the right side of the vehicles whenever possible. I also want to thank you for driving slowly through the parking lot. Our kids are worth a few seconds of your time. ☺ |
Yearbook: Photo submissions continue to be accepted for this year's yearbook. If you have pictures from the Christmas concert, FLL competitions or Invent Idaho, or any other fun stuff, please email photos to stemyearbook@northidahostem.org. Please include the names and grades of students in the pictures and a brief description, if possible. Yearbook order forms will be available in April.
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School Closures for snow, power outages etc: Update: The news channels are not always quick to post our closing, so please also check your email, texts and/or our website and Facebook if in doubt. As always, we will continue to post school closures on our website and Facebook as well as notify the three local news stations, KHQ- 6, KREM-2, KXLY-4. We will also send out an email to the same address that receives this mailing along with a text message to the phone number we have on file.
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Re-Enrollment for 2024-25:
You should have received an email regarding re-enrollment for next year. Please contact us if you have not as we don’t want you to miss the February 29th deadline and lose your spot for next year. Applications for New Students:
If you know of a family that wants the same quality education for their children that yours are receiving, let them know the New Student Application for the 24/25 school year is now on our website and due no later than February 29th. Openings will be filled in the March lottery. |
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Thank you all for your continued support of our school and program. |
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| Until next time, we’ll see you in the parking lot!!! |
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Scott Thomson Executive Director STEM Charter Academy |
| Travis Swick Principal STEM Charter Academy |
| Cyndi Cook Vice Principal STEM Charter Academy |
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STEM Charter Academy
15633 N Meyer Rd. Rathdrum, ID 83858
(208) 687-8002 |
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