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Dear Parents:
My schedule of “The Week Ahead” keeps changing as the rain brings cancellations.
Today’s tennis game has been more to next Friday and tomorrow’s cross country
meet has been cancelled.
I would like to congratulate our two semifinalists in the National Merit
Scholarship Program: Jeff Miller and Liam Smith. Approximately 16,000
semi-finalists are selected each year, representing less than 1% of those who
take the test. About 90% of national semifinalists go on to become finalists,
and half of the finalists are chosen as National Merit Scholars. As you probably
know, our students’ scores and rankings are exemplary when compared to other
schools in this state. Up to 90% of our students take the SAT compared to only
7% from Kansas schools in general—in other words, our scores reflect almost all
of our students and not just the top ranked students in the class, and yet our
scores (1219, combined Critical Reading and Math for the class of 2008) are
significantly higher than the scores from our fellow schools. Our average ACT
score (26.5 for 2008) is also higher. Per capita, our number of National Merit
Scholarship finalists this month is not only clearly ahead of the public schools
but leads the Independent schools in ours and other regions. This is the way it
should be. I am quite proud of our students and of the fact that we are
fulfilling our academic mission.
Various efforts are underway to heighten school spirit next week. Per tradition,
students will have opportunities to dress “differently,” as requested by Student
Senate:
Monday: pajama day (please use discretion…students know the rules)
Tuesday: twins day
Wednesday: Seahawk apparel day
Thursday: Dress Up
Friday: Blue & Green.
Also, we will have “spirit vans” going to the Football game on Tuesday afternoon
at 3 pm. Students who want to attend have been asked to sign-up and take home a
permission slip to be signed by parents and returned before departure. I have
included that permission slip as an attachment. Students will be asked to
contribute $5 to offset the costs for the van. If the endeavor is successful, we
will provide this opportunity in the future for other away athletic events.
We have set Grandparent’s Day for Friday, October 10th, when each student’s
grandparent will have the opportunity to attend morning meeting and several
classes (with respective grandchildren). Clearly not all of them will be able to
attend on that day, but we hope this will be an opportunity for many
grandparents to see their grandkids in action. If you have not had a chance to
send grandparent information and would like to, please send the information to
Melissa Padgett at melissarp@sbcglobal.net.
The 1st Annual Seabury Texas Hold’em Tournament is coming. This event is both a
fundraiser and a chance for parents and friends to get together and have a great
time! Please come and enjoy poker, conversation, snacks, and a few drinks, and
if luck or skill is on your side, you might win a healthy prize! RSVP at
poker@seaburyacademy.org.
If you want to get out of the house for dinner on Tuesday night, please consider
going to Quiznos. The Student Senate will receive a percentage of all purchases
for that evening.
Parent-Teacher conferences occur Thursday 25th & Friday 26th. Betsy is ready to
schedule your appointment and would like you to send an e-mail noting the time
frame you can attend and the teachers you wish to see. Please do not call to set
up an appointment. Betsy will reply to your e-mail with your scheduled times.
For some parents, the conference is a chance to learn about the methods and
subject matter of the course, and for others, those 10-minute sessions are a
chance to strategize how best to serve respective students. We do try to keep
these meetings to 10 minutes so that we can serve every parent, but parents who
would like more time should feel free to schedule an appointment for the
following week. Do feel free to communicate with teachers by e-mail if you are
unable to see them on these two days.
I trust that all parents have had the opportunity to sign on to RenWeb at this
point. Now would be a good time to check for missing assignments and problems
that your student can solve before progress reports come out next week. Please
remember that you are also welcome to e-mail teachers or advisors if you have
any questions about your student’s progress. We are happy to hear from you.
Yours respectfully,
Dr. Schawang |