ALL SCHOOL NEWS
Friday, October 15, 2004

The SFCS campus was teaming with excitement and visitors for Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day held on Friday morning, October 15. Visitors enjoyed special musical programs, an art gallery, classroom activities and refreshments. Crusader athletes will continue the special day with evening sporting events and the SFCS Booster Club will hold its 2nd, annual Grandparents’ Day Tailgate Cook-Out on Friday evening, October 15, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Hot dog plates will be $3.00 and hamburger plates will be $4.00. See page 11 for the total game schedule for the evening sporting events.

Seniors David Jacobs and Ben Van Dyke are among the nation’s scholastically talented high school seniors that have been named as Semifinalists in the 50th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Jacobs and Van Dyke will now have the opportunity to continue in the academic competition for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship® awards, worth $33.9 million, that will be offered next spring for undergraduate study. About 90% of the Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level and half of those students will be selected as Merit Scholarship winners. To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an academic record of very high performance, be endorsed and recommended by the school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier qualifying test performance. Students must also submit a detailed scholarship application including a self-descriptive essay outlining their participation and leadership in school and community activities. More than 1.3 million juniors, in nearly 21,000 high schools around the nation, entered the 2005 National Merit Program. The Merit Scholarship Program was founded in 1955 and is a non-profit organization that operates without government assistance. Congratulations, David and Ben!
- Source: National Merit Scholarship Corporation Public Information Office

SFCS’ new Spanish teacher, Dilsa Johnson, is thrilled to be doing what she loves – teaching Spanish! Johnson brings a wealth of experience to her position in the Upper School. She teaches Exploratory Spanish, Spanish I, Spanish III and an Honors Level IV class. Johnson began her studies at Radford College in Radford, Virginia and graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Following her college graduation where she received a Bachelor of Science in Education with a concentration in Spanish, she finetuned her skills by studying for a semester in Spain. Johnson’s past teaching experiences include teaching at Langley High School in Langley, Virginia and at Mauldin High School. She also taught small private classes, tutored privately, taught elementaryage children in Cincinnati, Ohio and has worked as a substitute teacher. She also has experience working as a translator and as a child protective caseworker. Johnson was born in Bogota, Colombia and considers Spanish her first language!

SFCS administrators, faculty and School Board members have been hard at work preparing to host the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Peer Review Team on Monday, October 18, as part of the on-going school accreditation process. As SFCS maintains the standards of learning for SACS accreditation, it files annual reports and hosts a team every five years. The team visit allows for a closer inspection of the school and it’s School Improvement Plan (SIP).

SFCS Development Director, Steve Whaley is pleased to announce the addition of Joanne Heiser as Endowment Coordinator for the SFCS Endowment for the 21st Century Program. This four-year program will not only provide a multi-million dollar trust to propel SFCS into the future, it will allow the school to successfully achieve our goals, sustain exciting programs and show the community our true heart. Heiser holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Nyack College in New York. She served as an Administrative Assistant for four years at the Providence Center for Classical Studies. The Heiser family is well-represented at SFCS with daughter Becky in the 10th Grade, son Jeff in the 9th Grade, Matt attending the 7th Grade and Susie enrolled in the 4th Grade. Joanne’s husband is a professor of History at Presbyterian College. When not hard at work at SFCS, Joanne keeps busy reading, quilting, camping and canning. Every Heart Endowed Will Affect TODAY, Brighten

Reading books that enrich the soul is such a vital part of a child’s education! For this very reason, SFCS has chosen to participate in the Thomas Nelson Enrichment Program, a Take-Home Christian Book Fair. Students have already brought home a catalog displaying a wide variety of Christian products from Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest publisher of Bibles and Christian inspirational books in the world. Please consider ordering one or more products for your family. In addition to providing great tools for the family, SFCS will receive 40% of the retail sales in library products and cash. All order and money need to be turned in to the school by Wednesday, October 27. Checks should be made payable to Shannon Forest Christian School. All products will be delivered to your child in their classroom within three to four weeks after the company receives our school’s order. The SFCS Library staff - Susan Bellew, Kathy Malphrus and Michelle Brown look forward to some great Christian books arriving in our homes and community as well as increasing the resources of our school’s Library!

Didn’t like your smile…hair a mess? If so, you’ll want to mark Tuesday, October 26, on your calendar. Previously taken pictures have been sent home. If you do not like these photos and want a retake, you must return the package to the photographer on retake day. If a student did not have their picture taken, please pick up a form in the appropriate school office.

	September 24, 2004 - "SFCS Celebrates a New Upper..."
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