Cecil Manor Meerkats

Principal

Albert Volpe

email address
avolpe@ccps.org

from the Principal

Cecil Manor Elementary is located in the northeast corner of Cecil County, close to both the Delaware and Pennsylvania State lines.  We currently have 480 students enrolled and pride ourselves in offering a positive learning environment for all children.  We recently adopted a new mascot, the Cecil Manor Meerkat, who represents our expectations for all Cecil Manor students to be Responsible, Respectful, Caring, and Safe.  We are a Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) School and focus our attention on teaching our expectations and celebrating the ways our children demonstrate those expectations every day.  All of our staff use positive behavior tickets to recognize specific examples of the ways our children demonstrate our Cecil Manor expectations.  We hold monthly school wide celebrations for positive behavior and conduct daily drawings to reward student success.  Each marking period we recognize academic and behavioral accomplishments for all our children.  Parents are an integral part of our success at Cecil Manor.  We have a large contingent of parent volunteers and we can always count on parents to support our programs, events, and field trips.  Our PTO is very active and has planned many family friendly events including a Fall Fest, Movie Night, Holiday Activities Night, Movie Night, Bingo, and Science Fun Night to name a few events.  They fully support a number of Cultural Enrichment Programs and our Positive Behavior (PBIS) activities such as our Super Bowl Sundae Party and our rewards program.  We have parents as members of our School Improvement Team, Positive Behavior Support Team, and County Parent Advisory Committee and Math Committee.
This fall we welcomed over 150 dads to our Dads Come to School Week.  Dads, grand-dads, step-dads, uncles, and family friends came to school to share their job, hobbies, help with a project, read a book, or spend time in their child’s classroom.  They received a ticket to attend our Dads and Kids Dinner.  We had 370 dads and kids attend and each child selected a book with a dad’s theme to take home at the end of the evening.
We are always looking for a variety of learning opportunities for our children.  We planned our Geography Week to coincide with the Earth Balloon providing interactive geography lessons for all children and culminating with a Geography Bee for 4th and 5th grades.  We conducted school-wide Black History Month research, participate in county-wide Spelling Bees and Art Exhibitions.  We have an active Band and Chorus Program with a significant number of students participating.  Our Fifth Grade Girls Clubs explore careers and interests through a variety of invited guests.   After school opportunities include a Chess Club, Destination Imagination Team, Running Club, Select Chorus, and a Talent Show.  Our Destination Imagination Team placed second in their regional competition and will be going to the State competition in April.  Our Chess Club placed first in the recent County wide Chess Tournament.  We are very proud of the accomplishments of all of our children.
We have an active mentoring program with a number of mentors coming from W.L. Gore to work with our students on a weekly basis.  Elk Mills Quarry is our business partner and long time supporter.  We frequently have family events at area restaurants and are happy to be a part of a very supportive community.

Nikole Fleming

email address
nfleming@ccps.org

Thoughts from Ms. Fleming

Hello, Cecil Manor Families! It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of our first marking period. What a great start to the 2007-2008 school year! Our students have been working hard maintaining the Cecil Manor expectations of being respectful, responsible, caring, and safe.  Please continue to reinforce the expectations at home and celebrate when your child(ren) brings home a coupon for good behavior.
            Your child may have come home last week and shared with you that Cecil Manor had visitors from the Board of Education, other Cecil County schools, and parents.  We participated in our yearly Leadership Walk with a focus on math.  Our visitors observed math in action, interviewed teachers and students, and looked at our efforts toward continuous improvement. One of the many comments that was shared with us was how engaged our students were in math and what a great relationship our teachers and students have! As we work with our new math pilot program, we are continuing to look at what is best for our students and making any needed changes.  Thank you to all of the visitors and staff for all of their hard work and feedback.
            Thank you for all you do to help our children be successful

Technical Assistance Visit

Members of the Crisis Emergency Response subcommittee will be conducting a Technical Assistance Visit at Cecil Manor from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Friday, May 18, 2007. The ultimate goal of the visit is to help the school team make the school as safe as it possibly can be. Members of our CERT team will make a brief presentation to the subcommittee members describing what is in place for safety, the training that has occurred for staff and students, facility concerns and safety issues and challenges faced by our school. Following the presentation the team will conduct interviews with select members of the CERT team, 5 to 7 teachers and 8 to 10 students. The school will then be asked to hold a practice drill while the subcommittee members observes. In closing the team will meet with the administration and select CERT team members to review their general observations, commendations and suggestions. This is just one more format to practice and receive feedback for our safe schools initiatives.

Listed below are the questions that will be asked of the students. This is an excellent opportunity for you to discuss safety with your children. During your discussion if you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate to call the school.

1. Do you feel safe in your school?
2. What would you do if you were in a classroom and you heard the “code red” announcement?
3. What would you do if a “code red” is announced while you are in the hallway?
4. Would you open the door to allow a stranger to enter the school?
5. Where do you go in a fire drill?
6. How do you deal with the following situations:
1. You are bullied by another student?
2. You are afraid?

Volunteers Needed for 2007-08 Committees

Cecil Manor needs parent volunteers to serve on several committees next year:

1. Alliance of Students, Teachers and Parents (ASTP) – This committee will hold its first meeting in the Board Room at the Board of Education in early October from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Meetings are usually held on the first Tuesday in October, November, December, February, March and April. We need two parents to serve on this committee; one staff member will join them.

1. Parent Advisory Council – This committee will meet with Dr. Roberts four times throughout the school year. We need two parents to serve on this committee.

1. Textbook Review Council – This committee will meet at Booth Street Center from 7:00 – 9:15 p.m. on the following dates:  September 6, 2007; November 8, 2007; March 6, 2008; and May 1, 2008. The purpose of this committee is to examine recommendations of textbook committees and to review that committee’s recommendations for possible Board approval.

Committee members’ names need to be submitted by June 8, 2007. Please call Ms. Clark if you are interested in supporting our school in any of these capacities. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to call.

Morning Drop-off Routine Reminder

We need to remind everyone of the procedure for the morning drop-off routine. It concerns us that the traffic has increased during the morning arrival time and impatient people are not practicing safety by following the expectations. Please remain in your car and pull up to the sidewalk area in front of the door. Children are not to be released from the car until the school-based supervising adult is on duty (8:45 a.m.) and you have pulled around in the loop to the area near the doorway. The children will enter the door and move to their homerooms.

*Please remember: All drivers are expected to remain in a single file car line and not pass each other to leave the lot. One moment of patience could save an unnecessary injury.

If you need to come into the building, please park in the visitor parking lot, enter the building at the main entrance doorway only and stop by the office to sign-in before continuing on your business. Your support and understanding is appreciated.

We are very excited to introduce the Connect-ED® service, our new school-to-parent communication system that will allow the Superintendent of Schools and your child(ren)’s principal to send periodic and personalized messages by telephone.  The Connect-ED service will help us provide a safer learning environment, enhance emergency preparedness and improve student attendance.  The system also improves parental involvement through messages sent to families regarding school programs, testing schedules, major events and other initiatives underway in the Cecil County Public School System.  We firmly believe that a more informed and involved parent leads to higher achieving student.

Please help us by ensuring we have your current phone number.  Please be aware that the Connect-ED service cannot dial an extension, so be sure the number you provide is a direct line (i.e., 410-XXX-XXXX). We gather phone information from the emergency information card parents/guardians complete for their child at the beginning of each school year.  If this contact information changes, please notify the school ASAP to ensure you receive important school updates and emergency notifications via Connect-ED.

Important Call Delivery Notes:

1. When a call comes from the school, your caller ID will display the school or district’s phone number.

1. When listening to a message, please be aware that your voice or any background noise will cause the system to “stop and start.”  It is calibrated very delicately to determine whether a person or an answering machine has picked up the phone and noise may affect the delivery.  If you can, move to a quiet area, or press the “mute” button on your phone.

• If you missed any part of the message, please stay on the line and press “*” (star) to hear the message again.

Cecil Manor Elementary School
Goals

To provide a safe, orderly, and positive school climate for
students, parents, and staff

To provide an instructional program which increases student
learning in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, science
and social studies, focuses on critical thinking skills and prepares
students for future schooling

To develop a knowledge base and a dialogue for the utilization of
the best teaching strategies

To maintain an excellent school attendance standard

To work collaboratively as a professional team for the benefit of children

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT:
Cecil Manor will continue the school improvement process by examining our instructional program strengths and weakness as measured by multiple assessments. This year our focus continues to be our school wide reading, writing, and math programs. Our goal is to implement a comprehensive balanced program in every classroom, which will meet the needs of all students. With student learning as the focus, our professional staff will continue to implement curriculum and utilize instructional strategies, which yield the best results for students in all classrooms. Together we can make a difference

“Along the way, we reach milestones—chances to step aside and
take account of how far we’ve come and where we still want to go..”

Life Songs (Hallmark Books)