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 Head's Corner
The majority of items in this months newsletter are related to issues of time. Which has lead me to reflect on the concept of time. There are those moments in which time moves so slowly; nap time seem like an eternity for some CMS students. There are those moments in which time moves so fast; that look of disappointment when students must put work away. As adults time rarely seems to go at the speed that we would wish.
An obvious example of this in our community is the new building. All of us care so much about CMS and it's students, that it is frustrating to still be waiting to get the building started. As all of us begin planning for the next school year, it is important not to let our frustration call into question the quality of the Montessori Elementary Education at CMS. The education at CMS has been and will continue to be superb. The elementary teachers have been meeting with Gail and myself to proactively envision the physical layout of next year's program. The specifics of this plan will be in the re-registration packets.
Also included in this re-registration packet will be information about summer camp, next year's faculty, and financial aid decision letters.
Speaking of time there is an ancient concept of limbo, a place where time stands still. We have such a place at CMS - it is our lost and found. This lost and found in located outside of Mrs. Zodtner room and is currently over following. If you are missing something, give it a look.
Time in some sense started this past week for Ms. Guy's new baby daughter. While Ms. Guy is out, Ms. Teague will be working in the toddler room. Ms. Teague will also be part of our extended day staff for the remainder of our school year.
Our immediate future holds some great opportunity for all of you. Winter Escape is the 23rd. I am looking forward to seeing all of you there. If you ever wondered if I can cook - I will be cooking dinner for some lucky bidders. Joining us at Winter Escape will be CMS's 2008-2009 head of school, Deborah Bricker. If you Ms. Bricker at Winter Escape she will also be holding a coffee for parents on Monday, February 25 after drop off in the Cabana.
Keep Warm,
Bob Mattingly
Head of School |
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Board - Building Update  Recently, a CMS community member constructively brought forth to the building committee a "due diligence report" on the county permitting process. Part of the report showed that there has been no activity with the county since August of 2007, which is what you see if you go to the county's web site. We would like to assure the CMS community that this is not the case. The building committee has been working through some major hurdles with the county in respect to our site development plan. In early November, we got a letter from the Public Works department giving us permission to pursue a septic system for the new building. After getting preliminary approval from the Health Department on the septic system, the site development plan was resubmitted at the end of December. Also, in mid to late December the board brought on Scott Jay to act as our owner's representative to relieve most of the work that the building committee and Bob have been doing to get the permit through the county, continue with important review and oversight for the contractor, etc. Scott has acted as an owner's representative on various other projects, most notable being the Severn expansion and the Chesapeake Academy expansion. Scott has focused his attention toward getting the approval for the site development plan and the issuance of the Septic permit, the grading permit, and the building permit. Through his recent investigation, which agreed with the investigation done for the "due diligence report", he has determined that the site development plan and the septic permit are very close to approval. We have been asked for a few more pieces of paper to submit to the county this week, and it is hopeful these should be the last pieces necessary to complete the paperwork to get the county's approval. Then it is up to the county for a timely review and approval - and we hope with no new requirements that we need to satisfy. Our earnest desire, with effort extended to achieve it (!) is that we'll soon have a communication shorter on status and longer on stating the fact of having received county approvals!
We'd also like to clarify that financing, in conversations with banks some time ago, did not seem to be an issue. The combination of final construction numbers and estimates having come in higher than the early projections and the uncertainty of that 'ol sewer/septic issue is what precluded us from being able to present to banks the more complete package that they require to review and process loan requests. Hence, our comment in the recent Building Update that responses were just coming in for us to analyze. | |
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2008 Calendar
Feb 18
School Closed
Feb 21
"Meet the Elementary Teachers" Coffee for Parents of Older Primary Students
Feb 23
Winter Escape
Feb 25
Re-Registration Packets Mailed
Feb 25
"Meet Next Year's Head" Coffee
Feb 27
Class Pictures
Feb 29
Grandparent's Day
(first of three)
March 1 - 9
Spring Break
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We look forward to seeing you Thursday February 28th at 7:00pm at the PTO meeting and social! We will be excited to share with you some of the ideas for the Winter Family event and the Spring Fair!
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