Crossville Christian School

It’s difficult to believe that we only have seven days of school left after today.   It has been such a busy and exciting year.  Students have grown, matured and learned a lot!  It’s been great to watch the changes that occurred in them since last August.

We still have a few upcoming activities.  Unfortunately, due to the weather, we will not be going to the state park for field day.  The shelter that we requested was booked in January due to the popularity of that location; and in January we can’t predict what the weather will be on any given day in May.  However, we will still have our “picnic” food at school, and teachers are scrambling to come up with alternative activities.

Our older students (Grades 2-4) will be going to the Frist Museum in Nashville on Tuesday, May 20.  Thanks to one of our charitable parents, we will be riding in a comfortable chartered bus from Fairfield Glade.  Eric Buechel, our art teacher, had encouraged us to make this trip to see the Monet to Dali exhibit.  This is truly a great opportunity to see artwork that may not have been available to us again since the exhibit is “on loan” from the Cleveland Art Museum.

Our BIG event is Awards and Kindergarten Graduation Night on Monday, May 19, at 6:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church.  You’ll be sorry if you miss this one!  Our children have worked hard, and now they are rewarded for those efforts.

Sadly, we are saying goodby to two very special teachers and ladies.  Mrs. Tammy Rice will be leaving us to move to Virginia where her husband has been called to pastor a church.  The Rices are from Virginia, so, although we regret her leaving, we can understand God’s direction to allow them to return “home”.  Mrs. Rachel Wyatt will be leaving us to complete her education at Tennessee Tech; she recently finished her associate’s degree at Roane State.  We hope to see her again in the classroom at CCS.  We wish both of these dynamic Christian women the brightest of futures.

I know that individual teachers have “special” activities planned for their classes.  They will let parents know what those are.

Thursday, May 22, will be an administrative day; students do not attend that day.  Report cards may be picked up on Friday, May 23, from 8:00 - 10:00 a.m.  In the report card you will find a narrative report about your child’s Iowa test scores.  I was pleased to see how well our students did.

I want to thank all of you who have made this school year so wonderful for me; I have truly enjoyed working with the Board, the teachers and staff, the parents, and the students this year.  I hope you know that CCS is a unique and very special place.  I wish all of you a safe and healthy summer filled with fun, family activities.  If you’re attending Camp Excel, I look forward to seeing your smiling faces this summer.  We’re planning some fun things to do as well as revieweing and enriching what you studied in your classrooms this year.

It has been my great pleasure to serve as your Headmaster this year; I look forward to the 2008-09 school year.  God Bless all of you!

Julia Palumbo

A BIG thank you goes out to all of you who attended and supported the Dream Big Dinner and Auction.  What a fun evening!  The dinner was delicious, the entertainment from Allison was great, and the auctioneers, Marcus and TW, were a hoot.  I think everyone truly had a super time.  I want to especially thank the organizing committee for a job well done.  It takes an incredible amount of planning, collecting, etc. to pull this altogether.  I also want to thank the students and their teachers for their wonderful classroom projects for the live auction; there were some very creative ideas which made our students really feel like part of the event.  Way to go, CCS!

It’s difficult to believe that I’m writing about activities for February; January went by so quickly!  This month we will be having our Science Fair on the 25th and 26th.  I know that the students are excited about displaying their experiments and projects.

The Board of Directors will be meeting on Monday, February 18, to work on the budget for the 2008-09 school year.  It has already been decided that fees for registration, books, and tuition will remain at this year’s levels.  Early registration begins on March 3rd at $75.00; after April 16th that fee goes to $100.00.  During that time period we will also be getting definite commitments for the two three-week sessions of Camp Excel scheduled for June and July.  I am excited about this opportunity for students to review language arts and math skills during the summer; this will keep them from “losing” important information that they’ve learned this year.

Of course, our fundraising committee is hard at work for the Dream Big Dinner and Auction coming up on Thursday, March 6.  If you haven’t already helped out with this, please do.  This is the last major fundraiser for us and we need everyone’s help.  The dinner will be delicious and the silent and live auctions are a lot of fun.  We’re fortunate to have Allison Durham Speer with us again this year; she’s such a talent!  If you want to help and don’t know what to do, just check with Becky McKinney or Sally Nash; they’ll gladly put you to work!

In observance of President’s Day, there will be no school on Monday, February 18.  Although this is a celebration of all of our presidents, I know our teachers will be emphasizing Abraham Lincoln and George Washington this month.  And, of course, there’s Valentine’s Day on the 14th.  Don’t forget to tell someone that you love them - definitely the children who attend our great school!

Mrs. Palumbo

Happy New Year 2008 to all of you!  I think everyone is glad to be back at CCS.  I hope all of you had very special times with your families.  There’s a lot in store for us at CCS now that we have started back to school.

Look for staff biographies on the website later in January for those of you wanting to know more about the people at CCS.  We’re an interesting and very varied group of individuals.

We also want to start using the website more to showcase our students and activities.  Mr. Scott Davis, who did our video for the Goody’s Grant, will be assisting us with that.  CCS does so many great things and we’re just not getting the word out as well as we could.  It’s time to share our success!

Other activities coming up in this half of the school year are: the science fair in February, the Dream Big Dinner and Auction fundraiser in March, career week in March, occasional fieldtrips, Iowa testing, and field day.

Of course, we’ll be continuing our monthly Simple Gifts projects.  We’ve heard so many good comments about how these are helping out in the community.  Our children are learning such important lessons about giving back.

As you can see, we’re all going to be very busy with lots of activities besides the academic excellence we continue to hold dear.  All of it contributes to help us become the Christ-filled people that we long to be.  God Bless us as he gives us another year of fresh opportunities to work for His Kingdom.