Elternbrief for December 12, 2019

Ted shares what's happening this week at TCGIS: construction updates, visitors, the food drive, and wishes for a great long weekend (there's no school tomorrow)!

Videogruß vom Direktor 12 Dec 2019

Fundraising at TCGIS

Early-Bird Tickets Now Available:
A Conversation with Sara Zaske, author of Achtung Baby

January 29, 7:00-9:00 p.m., University of St. Thomas

Buy your $10 Early-Bird tickets to an evening with Sara Zaske, author of Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children.

Join author Sara Zaske and fellow parents and educators for an evening of cross-cultural learning and conversation about modern parenting and raising independent, self-reliant children.

Ms. Zaske will share her research on German and American traditions in parenting and education, her experience raising her young children in Germany and her (now) older children here in the U.S. She will discuss themes like risk-taking and safety, freedom and independence, and what parents and educators can do to foster self-reliance in children and young people. The evening will include a Q & A session with the audience, and a book-signing.

Early-Bird tickets ($10) are available until Dec. 31. After January 1 ticket prices increase to $12-$15. This public event is a fundraiser for the TCGIS Annual Fund, co-sponsored by TCGIS and the German Department at University of St. Thomas.

Copies of Achtung Baby are available at TCGIS for a $20 donation to the TCGIS Annual Fund. Order your copy now and enjoy a great read over Winter Break!

School Board Announcements

Next School Board Meeting: Thursday, Dec. 19

The TCGIS School Board will meet at 6:30pm on Dec. 19 in room 100. The preliminary agenda and packet can be found here after noon on Friday, Dec 13. The final agenda and packet will be available on Monday.

Upcoming Committee Meetings

Finance & Facilities Committee Meeting: Tuesday, Dec. 17, Room 99

Nomination Committee

The Board is looking for one or two parents willing to serve on the Nomination Committee in preparation for this year's elections in April and May. The time commitment is small, and the impact big! If interested, please contact Stephanie Forsland ([email protected]) by the end of December.

Moving to Electronic Board Packets

To preserve paper and more fully engage with TCGIS's focus on managing our resources with care, the Board will begin using primarily electronic packets for each monthly meeting. Packets can always be found in the public folder and are uploaded three days before each meeting. The Board invites you to follow along on your personal electronic device during meetings or bring your own printed packet. If you would like a printed packet and cannot print your own, an individual packet can be printed for you if requested before 3:30 PM on the day of the Board meeting. Please contact Nicole Crashell ([email protected]), the Administrative Assistant to the Board, with any questions or to request a printed packet.

School Information

School Pictures Update: Good News!

Our photos and proofs shipped from the Lifetouch Shakopee location yesterday! We are expecting them to arrive in time to send them home with your students next week.

Retake Day has been rescheduled for Tuesday, January 14, 2020.

More info will be sent home after Winter Break.

Thank you for your patience and understanding through these last few months!

Winter Reminders for Timely Arrival

Winter weather makes the morning commute more challenging. Please remember that the school day begins at 8:15 a.m. School doors lock automatically

at 8:10 a.m. in order to give students 5 minutes to put away their belongings and be ready to learn at 8:15.

If the curbside drop-off line looks very long, we encourage families to park on a side-street and have students walk a block or two (it may be faster than waiting in the carpool line!). Streets that are perpendicular to Como and Van Slyke are best for this: Lexington, Churchill, Oxford, Argyle, Chatsworth, and Horton. Staff crossing guards are stationed on the south side of school at Como and Oxford Ave. and east of school at the intersection of Como-Van Slyke-Argyle. Vielen Dank!

Enrichment Activity Winter Session Registration Open

Registration is now open for the winter session of enrichment classes (formerly after-school activities)! Winter session runs from January 6th until March 27th. Beginning this session, TCGIS will use an online registration platform called Popsicle. Via this web application, you will be able to register your children for classes and pay for them online. You will be able to view dates, locations, and instructors for all classes, as well as a calendar view of your child(ren)'s class schedule. When the class is full, it will close automatically. The registration deadline is December 18th at 11:59pm.

Please visit this link to create your Popsicle account and sign up for classes. The website is easy to use and here are instructions for creating a parent account and adding classes.

This link will take you to a troubleshooting guide and contact information for Popsicle support in case there's any issues.

Scholarships will continue to be available but will be a little bit different. If you need a scholarship, please visit this link for more information.

We are so excited about this new program, we're offering FOURTEEN classes this winter and have classes for all grade levels and on every day of the week!

Updating your Child(ren)'s Dismissal in PikMyKid

Please pair your enrichment class sign-up with delegating your child(ren) in PikMyKid to the "Enrichment Class Winter Session" pickup mode on the appropriate days. You can set the change to recur weekly, just watch out for any no class days like early-release days or conferences.

TCGIS Food Drive continues through Monday!

Vielen Dank to everyone who sent food to TCGIS for our Food Drive!

As of Thursday morning, we have 640 total food items toward our goal of donating 1,000 food shelf items to Keystone Community Services.

Since we don't have school on Friday, we are extending our Food Drive one more day to Monday, December 16! If every student brought in just one more item on Monday, we'd exceed our goal of donating 1,000 items!

Ideal Food Donations: Soup (canned or boxed); Cereal (cold and hot); Rice & Beans; Proteins (peanut butter, canned tuna, canned meat).

Thank you for helping your child(ren) share the TCGIS value of Freundlichkeit (Kindness) and expand our TCGIS Gemeinschaft (Community) to this corner of St. Paul.

Construction Updates

This week construction is moving forward with soil work. Most of the existing soil was approved for use as infill. The ground thaw equipment has been put in place and the footing crew is expected to start by Friday. We are also in the process of planning out the electrical and low voltage requirements for the different spaces. The new school kitchen is also in the final stages of planning.

Student Council Seeks Volunteers for Lost & Found

The Student Council is looking for volunteers to help wash and donate clothes that have been sitting in the Lost and Found. We are hoping to have the Lost and Found cleared out soon!

If you would like to help the Student Council as they start to take over the organization and donation process for the Lost and Found, please contact Emily Albers ( [email protected]).

Parent Council Update: December Meeting

Parent Council met on Dec. 9, 2019 and discussed a number of issues including the generally positive feedback from this year's Krampus visit. Mike Mullins updated us on the upcoming 6th grade math meeting (scheduled for Dec. 10, 2019) and the DSD1 exam. We also heard from Tina Haarbush that parents are encouraged to be involved in the strategic goals of TCGIS.

In response to parent inquiries, the Parent Council discussed and will continue to discuss the kindergarten snack policy, school lunch policy, options for outdoor
activities during recess, and teacher retention at the next Parent Council meeting.

As always, please email your Parent Council representative or the full parent council at [email protected] with questions, comments, concerns or compliments.

Reminder: 2020-2021 Enrollment is Open

Please visit the TCGIS website under the prospective parents tab to find our 2020-2021 application online.

Parents with incoming siblings of currently-enrolled TCGIS students: please remember to submit an application for sibling enrollment.

Mausmünzen Winners for Dec. 10, 2019

The selected students have shown exemplary behavior at TCGIS during the school day and are representing their class and grade level. Meistermäuse have demonstrated to staff one or more of the following praised traits: Sicherheit (safety), Verantwortung (responsibility), Respekt (respect), and Freundlichkeit (kindness).

KA - Veronika Orlova; 1B - Liam Avery; 2C - Graham Hennessey; 3C - Zoie Nieters

4A - Ameila Olson; 5C - Adeline Althaus-Kotila; 7B - Bella Pouladian-Kari

PTO Updates

Potluck Sign-ups in December

Monday December 16 - 8th Grade

Intern Breakfast

Let's show our appreciation for the interns' work with our children by providing a tasty breakfast during their monthly meeting. There are still 14 spots to fill, primarily for bread, dairy, fruit and protein items. Please sign up here. Vielen Dank!

Wednesday, December 18th - All Grades

Staff Appreciation Holiday Luncheon

The PTO will cater the main meal for staff, but we are looking for families to provide desserts and beverages, and help set up and clean up. Please sign up here.

Waldsee Family Retreat Still Open!

This 4 day/3 night respite will send you home refreshed and ready to face the rest of winter.
Herr Tabisz is hosting a long weekend over Spring Break (March 28-March 31) filled all the amazing things Waldsee has to offer (woods, snow, sauna, great food, and fantastic company). Learn more about the weekend here.

Here's how this will work: You buy-in to the event with the Auction at $20/person (a minimum suggested donation). That's the fundraising part and what will go to support the PTO.

Once the Auction is over, Herr Tabisz will be in touch regarding arranging payment for the actual cost of the weekend. That cost ($166) is per person and includes your cabin and all of your meals. Alle sind willkommen - everyone is welcome!
Click here for more info.

Get Involved!

We could use YOU to join the Maskenball planning team. Reach out to [email protected].

Save the Dates:

Thursday, February 6th - PTO Meeting at School

Saturday, March 21st - Maskenball

Local German Cultural Events

Weihnachtsgottesdienst on Sunday, December 15

St. Paul's United Church of Christ will host an Ecumenical Christmas Service in German on Sunday, Dec. 15, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Enjoy hymns, liturgy, readings, special music and a short sermon auf Deutsch. Click here for more details.

The service includes a number of readings interspersed with music. TCGIS students who are interested in reading one of these passages are invited to contact Fritz West, (651) 433-4058 or [email protected].