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High School Newsletter

THE CRAIG SCHOOL

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Message from the Head Of School

One of the most essential aspects of Craig High School is our focus on making your teen more academically and socially independent. We identify various aspects of their Executive Functions and explicitly teach strategies that promote independence. Executive Function is a term that relates to mental skills like memory, regulating emotion, time management, etc. All of these develop with age in the pre-frontal lobe of the brain. It is the last part of the brain to develop, and everyone’s brain develops at a different pace. This is why teens are often a mess regarding their Executive Functions! Their brains are still developing. We also know that the brains of teens with any sort of Learning Disability develop at a more varied pace than those of traditional students.

At Craig High, we recognize that all teens struggle with these skills. We identify problem areas and provide specific strategies to improve those. For instance, a big problem for most teens in the classroom is being what we call a “passive learner.” This means they are much more comfortable with a teacher just telling them the answer rather than looking for it themselves (sound familiar?). As parents, we see the same sort of thing at home! One technique we teach at Craig High is the “Three Before Me” strategy. We ask students to do the following three things BEFORE asking the teacher: think for themselves, use a resource like notes or the Internet, or ask a friend. If none of those work, of course, they should ask the teacher. When working with your teen at home, you may want to use the same system. At first, it may seem easier just to tell them (again) what to do, but employing this strategy will help them become independent at home (just like we are training them to do at school!).

NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR

Craig High Info Letter: Week of October 2nd       

This Thursday, October 5th is our first Craig Community Food Drive teaming up with “Rise Against Hunger” Organization, an international hunger relief non-profit (https://www.riseagainsthunger.org/).

Thank you to our students and parents who have already committed to join us but we are still looking for a few more student/parent teams to help make our community event complete.   It is this THURSDAY from 5:30-8 PM on our Mountain Lakes campus.  Please email me and I will fill you in on the specifics.  For any of our Cross Country runners, I can take them from Thursday practice to Mt. Lakes and parents are welcome to meet us there.

As we tell our students often (and ourselves), “the right tool for the right job”!  So in the same vein, we would like to share with you, our parents, “the right person for the right question”!  In this week's CHIL, you will find our Craig High Communication Ladder.  Have a great week,

Dr. Cap

CALENDAR INFO

CHS October Calendar

Tuesday, October 3rd 

XC Practice (3-4:30PM)

Thursday, October 5th

XC Practice (3-4:30PM)

Thursday, October 5th

RISE Community Event (Mt. Lakes Campus, 5:30-8PM)

Tuesday, October 10th  

XC Practice (3-4:30PM)

Thursday, October 12th 

XC Practice (3-4:30PM)

Saturday, October 14th

CHS XC Team: Beavertown 5K (Lincoln Park, 9 AM, Race Link)

Saturday, October 14th

3rd Annual Craig School Drive-In (Lot Opens at 6 PM, Movie starts at Dusk)

Tuesday, October 24th

CHS XC Meet at Winston Prep (4PM Race Time, Whippany)

Thursday, October 26th

1st Trimester Progress Reports Coming Home

Sunday, October 29th

CHS XC Team 5K:  Running with the Devils (West Orange, 9AM, Race Link)

*pending

Monday, October 30th 

Annual CHS “Great Pumpkin” Entries Due

Tuesday, October 31st 

Annual High School Halloween Bash: “Great Pumpkin” Winners Announced and Halloween Costume Contest

OCTOBER Craig Community Events

THIS THURSDAY Evening OCTOBER 5th-Rise Against Hunger Event at The Craig School:  This Thursday, October 5th, from 5:30-8PM, we will bring together student and parent volunteers from both our campuses with the goal of sharing some community time together and building 10,000 meals for others!  We are still looking for a few more Craig High Student/Parent teams to help with the event.  Arrival and a pizza dinner will start at 5:30 PM at our Mt. Lakes campus with our assembly line of meal builders starting up at 6 PM.  The evening will wrap up a little after 8:00 PM.  All CHS students who participate will earn Community Service Hours towards their annual requirement.  Interested students should see Dr. Cap.  Parents who would like to join us or have any questions can email Dr. Cap at ECaparulo@craigschool.org

SAVE THE DATE- Craig School Annual Drive-In:  If you haven’t already, mark your calendars for Saturday, Oct. 14th as we will building our own Drive In in Montville and hosting a snack-filled viewing of the computer-animated adventure comedy of the year, THE SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (Movie Trailer)!  Snacks are free courtesy of PACS, drive-in is free!  Arrival will be between 6-7 PM.  More info in the next week.  For now, SAVE THE DATE!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Craig High School Communication Ladder

Administrative Assistant, Mrs. Deb Mershimer (DMershimer@craigschool.org

  • Day-to-day General School Questions (i.e. Drop off/Pick up procedures)
  • All school forms
  • Updates to/Copies of Student Records and Transcripts
  • Attendance
  • Transportation Liaison with Districts and Transport Companies
  • Schedules including school calendar and after-school programs (i.e. Athletics)
  • Scheduling of IEPS, ISPS, and all related testing (ed evals, ect)

School Psychologist, Mrs. Tiffany Brown (TBrown@craigschool.org)

  • Interpretation of testing, test results, and their implications
  • School Facilitator for ISP and IEP process/Case manager for school district and county commission
  • Provides guidance and support for Individual Classroom and Program accommodations
  • Individual Student Counseling requests
  • Oversees general related service supports
  • Teaches 9th grade Self & Group Dynamics course

Director of College Counseling and Placement, Ms. Lindsey Skerker (LSkerker@craigschool.org)

  • Postsecondary Searches
  • Pre-College Courses
  • PSAT, SAT, and ACT Testing including testing accommodations
  • Career, college, and postsecondary transitions classes for 10th/11th/12th grades
  • National Honor Society Program
  • Graduation Requirements
  • Working Papers Guidance

Director of Craig High School, Dr. Eric Caparulo (ECaparulo@craigschool.org)

  • Overarching questions about the academic program
  • Course questions
  • Student-Parent Handbook questions
  • Behavioral concerns
  • Any way I can help support our students!

School Nurse, Mrs. Deborah Mershimer (DMershimer@craigschool.org)

  • General student health concerns or updates
  • Updates to Health Records - physical, vaccines including COVID, etc
  • Paperwork accompanying medication
  • Extended student absences due to illness or injury
  • Montville Department of Health Liaison
FACULTY

ATHLETICS

Badger Cross Country October 5K Schedule:  Badger X-Country will be holding practices on the following TUES and THURS in October from 3-4:30 PM

  • TUES October 3, 10, 17, 24
  • THURS October 5, 12, 19, 26

We have finalized our 5K race schedule and in addition to a tri-meet with a couple of area HS, we have two potential live 5K races coming up in October.  Feel free to sign up and join us!

For any race or practice questions, you can contact CHS Cross Country coach Ms. Crum at JCrum@craigschool.org

Badgers XC at Last Year's Winston Prep Dual Meet
PACS

Back to School Coffee Rescheduled

Due to Back to School Night being held on October 12th, the Coffee with PACS will now take place on October 17th 8:30-9:30am in the Lower/Middle School Cafeteria. We look forward to connecting with you and sharing all the ways to get involved with PACS.

All School Annual Drive-IN-Movie

Saturday, October 14TH @ HS Parking Lot

This is an event that is fun for the whole family. We are looking for snack donations. If you can help out, Click  here to sign up.

Halloween Bash

Tuesday, October 31st

A sign-up link will be sent in October for parents to donate candy and goodies for the day's activities.

CHS Program Spotlight

Craig High Celebrates National Coloring Day:  This past week, our students celebrated National Coloring Day in the CHS Art Room with the creation of some colorful mini-masterpieces! Our artists were able to choose from several small coloring templates which allowed them to design their own color combinations. Once finished, these completed masterpieces can be used as bookmarks, gift tags, or simply artwork to hang on a very small wall. Three student works were chosen as this year’s coloring masterpieces and along with winning a fabulous coloring book and colored pencil set- their designs will be formatted as limited-edition stickers that will be displayed prominently in the art room.

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