It is hard to believe that we have completed the 1st quarter of school already.  Report cards and honor roll certificates will be given to students this Friday, October 31st.  If your child has struggled this quarter, please encourage him/her to seek help.  Most teachers have times on certain days before or after school when they are available to assist students.

Congratulations to Mr. Charles Moseley for being selected as Switzerland Point's 14-15 Teacher of the Year!!!  Mr. Moseley has an Elementary Education degree and two Masters degrees one in Curriculum & Instruction and one in Integrating Learning and Instructional Technology.  Mr. Moseley has been teaching at Swiss Point for 16 years.  Over the years, he has been the school technology coordinator and has taught 6th grade Teen Leadership, Pyschology, Computer Applications and currently teaches 8th grade Introduction to Informational Technology, a high school credit course.  Outside of the classroom, Mr. Moseley is constantly training teachers on how to integrate technology into their instruction.  We love Mr. Moseley and know that he will represent Swiss Point well!

Congratulations also to Mrs. Meagan Collier for being selected as Switzerland Point's 14-15 Rookie Teacher of the Year!!  Mrs. Collier is in her 2nd year of teaching.  She is a former student of Cunningham Creek Elementary, Switzerland Point MS, and Bartram Trail HS.  Mrs Collier earned a degree in Math Education from UNF.  She completed her student teaching here at Swiss Point with Mrs. Robbins, so we were very excited to hire Mrs. Collier last year!  We are delighted to have Mrs. Collier representing Swiss Point!

The Bartram Trail Rotary asked Switzerland Point to select a teacher to be recognized at their October meeting for their Teacher of the Quarter program.  Congratulations to Amanda Boyer, who represented us.  Mrs. Boyer has been at Swiss Point for 3 years and is a great asset to our school. Mrs. Boyer has taught 7th grade Language Arts the last 2 years, but this year is one of our Reading teachers.  She is co-teaching 7th grade Science with Ms. Ehlert and 7th grade Language Arts with Ms. Kromphardt.  Mrs. Boyer not only has a gift for teaching reading, but for working with her colleagues teaching them how to scaffold and differentiate instruction.  We are very lucky to have Mrs. Boyer on staff!

Congratulations to Mrs. Milton's 8th grade Advanced Science students who participated in the UNF Water Tower Challenge.  We had 5 teams participating and we took 1st and 3rd place in the competition!  

1st place team - Ash Fernandez & Cade Bedell

3rd place team - Matthew Zammataro

CONGRATULATIONS to all of Swiss Point for collecting 850 bears for Jeanine Blaylock's Channel 12 Buddy Bears for Cancer Patients project.  This was a great way for our students to participate in an event for our community.  We are very proud of our Raiders!!!

The 8th graders received a very special presentation on bullying this past Tuesday from guest speaker, Stu Cabe.  Mr. Cabe travels around the country speaking to middle and high school students about school culture.  He challenges students to "Be Nice!"  If you would like to have a good conversation with your child this weekend, ask him/her to explain to you about the big and little elephants.  

We would like to thank the following sponsors who paid for Mr. Cabe to present to 6 St. Johns County Schools - All American Air, Ameris Bank, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.

The 6th graders listened to Jake Marcionette, a local boy in high school who wrote is first book, Just Jake, while in middle school.  Jake spoke to students about setting goals and making things happen.  Mrs. Gill, our new Media Specialist, is selling copies of Just Jake in the media center for just $13 and she has 18 books remaining.

Next week is Red Ribbon Week.  Each morning on the daily news show we will show videos on tobacco use, alcohol use, illegal drug use, and inhalents.  We encourage you to talk to your child each day about the video shown and how important it is to stay drug free.  

To coordinate with Red Ribbon Week, we have our annual dress-up week.  PLEASE encourage your child to partipate in the fun.

Monday - PJ day - no slippers without soles and everything worn must be within dress code.

Tuesday - Hat day

Wednesday - Neon day

Thursday - Spirit day

Friday - Wear RED to state that you will be drug free!

The Leadership class is hosting our first Just Dance tournament of the year.  Students can still sign up during lunches on Monday.  The tournament will be held on Black days only during all 3 lunches.  The cost to participate in the tournament is 15 Raider Bucks for 6th grade, 10 Raider Bucks for 7th grade, and 5 Riader Bucks for 8th grade. (This is a great opportunity to discuss the principles of supply & demand.)  The tournament will take place in the multi-purpose room and students not participating in the tournament can watch each day for 1 Riader Buck.  This event is always loads of fun, so if your child likes to dance this tournament is for them.  The winner of each grade level will receive a $10 iTunes gift card.

Proposed District Calendar for 15-16

Below is a link to the District website to the proposed school calendar for 15-16.  PLEASE take a few minutes to view the calendar and give input.  Thank you.

Link to District Website for proposed calendar 

Update on teacher for Mrs. Edell's classes

I interviewed math teachers last Sunday and have submitted a name to Human Resources.  I am waiting on final clearance from HR to announce the teacher, but it should be early this next week.  Thank you to everyone for your patience during this transition.

Does your child ever stay after school? 

If so, please read below so you are aware of our new policy starting Monday, October 20^th 

Students that are staying after school for any reason, make-up work, review session, club meeting or sports, are under the sponsoring teacher's supervision until the parent arrives.  Students are NOT allowed to sit outside or in the main office unsupervised waiting for their ride.  Arrangements MUST to be made in advance if your child plans on staying after school or they should not stay.  If a child is not picked up within 30 minutes of the designated pick-up time, the student will be sent to Beyond the Bell in the library.  The parent will then be charged $1 a minute until the student is picked up.  After 3pm, teachers are giving their personal time and it is frustrating when they have to sit with a student for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or sometimes longer waiting on a student to be picked up.  We have to make changes to our policy or teachers will stop offering after school activities and we do not want that to happen.

Beyond the Bell is open until 6pm and does offer a punch card option that can be used if your child needs to stay after school and be supervised until you can pick-up.  PLEASE see the Beyond The Bell section below.

7th grade Civics field trip to Tallahassee

Originally, we had 4 buses scheduled for the field trip on Wednesday, January 7th.  We were out of seats and still had students who wanted to attend, so we have added a 2nd day.  Mrs. Miller's students will go to Tallahassee on Tuesday, January 13th, so this opens seats for Anagnostou's, Bower's and Dowling's students for the January 7th trip. Seats for both days are still limited, so students need to get their field trip form and money to their Civics teacher ASAP to reserve their seat.

Washington DC Update

The final payment of $140 payment is due Friday, Oct. 31st.  There are still seats remaining on the 4th bus, if your child would like to attend.