Gearing Up!

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…”

Yes, I know that’s actually a Christmas song, but if you are connected in any way to the excitement associated with a new school year, you might be humming it, too.

The halls are humming at Summit and preparations are in full swing for the 2014-15 school year!  If you stopped by today the word chaos might come to mind. The hallways are full of a variety of supplies, the smell of fresh paint is in the air, crews are hard at work installing bulletin boards, updating iPads and refreshing our kitchen. In addition to painting and prepping their rooms, our teaching staff are also knee deep in planning and development sessions. Not to worry; it will all come together and be ready for our first day of school on Wednesday, August 20!

A few improvement highlights: more iPads! Our teachers are excited to engage students with technology and you’ll see more iPads in the hands of our kiddos this year. COLOR: be sure to pop into ALL the classrooms during our Ice Cream Social Monday night; the transformations are amazing! Kitchen: a new stove and refrigerator allow us to bring lunch home! Chef Shawn is working with our new foodie Rachel to fully integrate lunch into our health and wellness initiatives. Stay tuned for how YOU can get involved.

There’s lots going on! In addition to our Facebook page and email communications, we’ll use this blog to highlight  special initiatives at the school and keep you up to date on School Board happenings. The board meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 7pm at the school. We’d love to see you there. We’ll publish a general agenda on this blog the week of the meetings. We’ll also share some of the work the standing committees are doing here.

Hope to see you all at the Ice Cream Social on Monday, August 18 from 6:00-7:30PM at the school. Let’s make it a great year!

Lisa Wiebenga Stroschine
Summit School Board

5 Great Reasons to spend the Summer at Summit

Join us for the Summer at Summit Schools! Here are FIVE great reasons why Summit is the best place for your child this summer:

1.       It’s a variety, guaranteed to keep children active and engaged. We offer summer preschool, day camp, academic camps, and themed camps changing each week covering a multitude of subjects like art, creative writing, technology, and more.

2.       It’s a giant puzzle of possibilities. There are hundreds of combinations for summer camp options. We have students who spend only a week at Summit, and students who spend the whole summer with us full time!  Families needing full-time care can register for before and after care from 7 AM to 5:30 PM for the entire 8 weeks of Summer Camp. (Please note, students MUST be enrolled in an AM & PM camp session to be eligible for both before and after care.)

3.       It’s Diverse. Our programming is open to students from every school district in Cedar Rapids and surrounding areas.

4.       It’s established. Summit is a fully accredited preschool through fifth grade school during the academic year.  Our summer programming has access to Summit’s building and playground, resources, and technology.

5.       It’s affordable.  In comparison with many local camp offerings and daycare, we are proud to give families an affordable place to spend the summer.

Our camps are filling quickly.* Our registration can be access by visiting our websitehere. Have additional questions?  Your best bet is to email our camp director, Micah Nardini here or by calling Summit Schools at 319-294-2036.

*Registration fee for summer camps is $25.00/student.  This fee is considered a “session option” in our registration, but is REQUIRED to be paid once per student, no matter how many camps s/he is enrolled in.  If you do not select the fee, it will be added to your account after your registration has been submitted.  

Open Enrollment is going on now!

Every year we look forward to inviting our current families back to Summit for the next school year.  This is also an exciting time as we prepare to add new members to our community.  We celebrate this time and look forward to the future; our appreciation for your commitment to our children’s education is beyond words.

Please visit our ONLINE ENROLLMENT SITE to enroll now.  If you have any questions about the enrollment process, or are a new family to Summit, please contact our Enrollment Director, Micah, at micah.nardini@summitschools.org.

This year we are excited to announce our enrollment incentive and referral program.  These programs are offered to Summit families who play a primary role in the admission of new students to Summit Schools.

Re-enrollment Incentives include:

• Families enrolling before March 19th have a chance to be entered into a drawing for one month free tuition (approximately a $800 value).
• Families enrolling before April 16th have a change to be entered into a drawing for waived materials fees (approximately a $350 value).

Referral Program:

A referral award  will be issued to referring families using the following guidelines:

• $500 for referring new, full-time students in grades Preschool through 5th Grades
• $200 for referring new, 1/2 time Preschool Students

A referral award will also be issued to new families referred to Summit following the same guidelines:

• $500 for enrolling in a full-time program Preschool through 5th Grade
• $200 for enrolling in a 1/2 time Preschool program

Please see the image above this post for more details and information regarding each program.

We look forward to seeing you with us next year!

Welcome to Summit!

Summit and its predecessors have had a long, remarkable history in the Cedar Rapids community stemming back to the mid-1980s.  We pride ourselves in our ability to offer children an exceptional, highly personalized education grounded in lively learning experiences that foster creative exploration and independence of thought, while providing a solid foundation for the future.

As Chomsky suggests, “the person who wins the Nobel Prize is not the person who read the most journal articles and took the most notes on them.  It’s the person who knew what to look for.”  To that end, families are drawn to Summit because of our emphasis on teaching children how to think and how to learn.  We purposefully make room for alternative pathways and comparable destination points in learning.  I am reminded of a recent conversation with a colleague who noted that their day is not complete until they have touched the hearts and minds of their students. Our teachers’ dedication to education is more than a career; it is a calling that continues to drive us in our quest for educational excellence.  Because of this, a Summit education is transformative.

It is for these reasons I welcome you to Summit’s blog.  Here I will be sharing stories about the wonderful things happening at Summit. Please visit often and join us in our effort to give children the opportunity to develop into compassionate, imaginative, and resilient people.