 Dear Families, A few updates from the summer. Performing Arts Success: THANK YOU to everyone for your contributions to our Performing Arts Fund Drive! We set a goal of raising $15,000 by July 15. As of right now we've received $14,053 dollars. Our generous matchers are willing to extend that deadline until July 30 in order to raise that remaining $947. We need to meet our goal. Checks can be sent to the school or donations can be made online at http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Tcgis-Performing-Arts-Fund-Drive-2011. We are very grateful for each contribution large and small. We are grateful that Herr Valentin Solakhau will once again be heading up his dynamic and energized Performing Arts program for the 2012 school year. Emergency: Two Amity Host Homes Needed Immediately Do you, a neighbor or an extended family member have an interest in housing an intern? We still have two interns, one man and one woman, without homes for the fall. They're arriving in just a little over a month. Please consider whether you can host for even a partial semester. It is really important to find someone who can do this. Please re-examine whether your spare bedroom might be available after all for the opportunity to meet and welcome a young aspiring teacher from Germany. Thanks for your help. Even short term emergency coverage for several weeks would be helpful. Please let the school know if you are able to help. Supply Lists Many of you are ready to start watching summer sales for your supply lists. These are formatted and will be posted on our website soon. We will alert you at that time. Calendar Dates We are looking forward to welcoming families back to school at our Open House on Thursday August 26 4:00 - 6:00.This will be an opportunity to drop off school supplies and meet and greet your new teachers. It is not a time to get detailed curriculum information from the teacher. Curriculum Night will be on Thursday, September 15 at 6:30. Questions about homework, content and expectations should be saved for that time. We will announce which students are assigned to which classrooms shortly prior to the Information Session. Shutdown Impact As you have likely read in the newspaper the state budget was resolved by a decision to continue borrowing money from schools by delaying 40% of our payments until the following year. Both the Finance Committee and the Board have addressed the impact of this decision in recent weeks. We are of course challenged to manage our cash flow with such a large hold back . Nonetheless, we remain grateful to the leadership of all boards and directors up to this point to act in a fiscally responsible fashion and maximize our fund balance that will help us weather this storm financially. Although it is likely that we will need to take out a line of credit, we remain confident that our bank will support us through this difficult time and that the challenges should not impact the quality of education we are able to provide Staffing Updates Please welcome Sarah Bailey in the position as Site Administrative Manager. She began work this week and is excited to meet and work with many parents on volunteer committees. Sarah comes to us after managing several offices in Germany, from where she has just recently returned after a 5 year residence. I want to extend a large thank you to Linda Michel for the leadership and dedication she has shown to creating systems to run the business side of the school. Linda has given everything in dedication of both saving the school money and ensuring that support systems are there in terms of furniture, teacher resources and technology to support learning in the classrooms. It was my decision to restructure the office team. All decisions I have made are guided by my commitment to serve the long term stability and growth of the institution of the school so that we remain in a strong position to fulfill our mission. We are grateful to all the members of our community who support this mission in so many myriad ways. Frau Annika Fjelstad Director
Twin Cities German Immersion School afjelstad@tcgis.org | 
