Welcome All Middle School Families!

Dear LNC Middle School Families,

On behalf of the Lake Norman Charter Middle School faculty, staff, Mr. Mavity and the administrative team, I would like to officially welcome you to the 2022-2023 school year.

It is an honor to join the Lake Norman Charter family and serve as your middle school principal. Who I am as an instructional leader has always strongly depended on the relationships I am able to build with staff, students and their families. I learn best through observation and practice. It is key to listen, listen more, and listen often, then collectively put students, families and staff in situations where their strengths can be on display and the outcome is success. By all of us working together and identifying trends in data, putting supports in place, making decisions based on what is best for kids and celebrating student and staff success, we will reach a high level of academic achievement and excellence unsurpassed in the community.

This letter provides valuable information for our MS families. Please read it carefully and thoroughly and do not hesitate to contact me at ncarlascio@lncharter.org with any questions.

LNC'S STRATEGIC AREAS OF FOCUS

Fostering a place of belonging for each LNC student and helping develop and support their "whole" self will be the two overarching themes throughout this 2022-23 school year. We will continue to build upon our district-wide Global Diversity and Inclusion initiative with the goal of every student knowing they belong and feeling valued for all their individuality and uniqueness. It is fitting as we celebrate 25 years of school service that we return to our roots as we implement LNC’s THRIVE strategic area of focus. THRIVE focuses on our students' overall well-being, supporting their full selves while growing areas of individual strengths and needs. To that end, we are grateful that mental health therapist, Dr. Danielle Graham, will be returning to LNC to support our students.

TECHNOLOGY

We are proud to be entering the 9th year of LNC’s 1:World Program. Students in 6th to 8th grades will receive their iPads on or near the first day of school provided the technology co-pay has been paid by August 9. That co-pay can be conveniently paid here. Students in grade 5 may pick up their iPads on August 4 from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM as long as their co-pay has been satisfied. We appreciate our parents' support of our 1:World program!

SCHEDULES

Student schedules will be emailed to parents by Friday, August 5. While we made every effort to schedule students' elective preferences, if your child didn't receive a preferred elective, it likely was not available. The schedules are final unless there is an obvious scheduling error on our part. Thank you for your understanding. If you wish to send us an updated email address, you can make that change using this form.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

School begins for our 5th grade students on Wednesday, August 10 (half day from 8:00 to 11:30 AM) and for all of our students on Thursday, August 11 (full day from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM). The middle school bell schedule remains the same for 2022-23. Student enrollment is critical to ensuring that students are engaged with their teacher and curriculum in order to be successful from day one. This student enrollment is also crucial to our school’s funding. Please be reminded that prior to the first day of school all parents are required to complete LNC’s parent acknowledgement form.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

Any pre-ordered EduKits will be waiting in students' homerooms on their first day of school. If you did not order an EduKit, no problem, you can find supply lists by grade here. All students must have an LNC-issued combination lock. If returning students have forgotten the combination to their lock, they can come to the office and we will remind them. New 5th grade students will need to purchase a school-issued lock and 5th and 6th grade students must have the LNC agenda. We will provide a link to purchase these items next week. There is no required 5th grade calculator this year.

HEALTH PROTOCOLS

While we continue to monitor COVID conditions in our area, we return to normal, pre-COVID school operations. We continue to have strong health and safety protocols in place, striving for the healthiest possible learning environment. Since we are a mask-optional school, some families will opt to mask. Please speak to your child about being respectful of individual choices. If you have specific questions, please contact Ms. Rebecca Shipman at rshipman@lncharter.org.

LUNCHES/CARPOOL

The LNC PTO sponsors a hot lunch option for our families that begins a few weeks into school. This means students will need to pack a lunch until the program begins. We will communicate more information about the PTO-led lunch program before school begins.

For maximum MS carpool efficiency, we are issuing carpool tags with assigned numbers this school year. We are not using Pik My Kid. Look for carpool information to also be communicated before the opening of school. As always, we appreciate your patience in advance during the first few weeks of carpool, as it takes some time for everyone to learn the appropriate procedures.

SERVICE & ENGAGEMENT

We look forward to a return to many activities and programs that support our mission and core values at LNC. We are fully reinitiating our commitment to service for our parents through our Serve10 program. The MS PTO, led by Ms. Jamila Lindsay (mspto@lncharter.org) has many exciting plans to support our teachers and your students and needs your involvement. This is a very important way our parents can contribute to the school as the PTO provides many benefits and services to our teachers, which in turn, benefits our students. Your family already belongs to the PTO and we hope your membership fosters a sense of belonging to our school community. Please sign up here to get involved.

SAVE THE DATES

You will want to save Thursday, August 25 at 6:00 PM on your calendar for the middle school Back to School Night. We welcome you to come meet your child's teachers and receive valuable information about their curriculum and instruction. This will also give new parents an opportunity to see the inside of our school, your child's classroom and elective and recreational spaces. We will provide more information on Back to School Night as it draws closer.

Homecoming is Friday, September 9. Look for more information about pregame tailgating activities once we are back to school. On October 17 we will hold our annual Royal Golf Outing, benefitting LNC athletics. We are also very excited to have a fall Field Day for MS kids. More information about this event will follow in the coming weeks.

We are also devising fun ways of celebrating our 25th year milestone throughout the year and will share those during the course of the year as they develop.

PARENT/PRINCIPAL CONNECTION

A strong relationship between all stakeholders is critical to our students' success. This includes the connection between you as parents, myself as principal, and our assistant principal, Mr. Mavity. To that end, we will continue our monthly Principal Coffee Chats this year. The coffee chats will convene on the second Tuesday of each month from 8:15 AM to 9:15 AM. To acclimate our parents to the new school year and the new administration team, we will hold grade-level specific chats in September. Our first chats will be:

Tuesday, September 13 for 5th grade parents

Wednesday, September 14 for 6th grade parents

Thursday, September 15 for 7th grade parents

Friday, September 16 for 8th grade parents

Parents are encouraged to attend; we will also continue to live-stream the coffee chat via a link on Schoology, allowing all families to view the chat live or watch/listen to the archive at their convenience. If you are not a member of the LNC2MSP Schoology group, the code to join is is 2MB34-KX3ZB.

In addition, I encourage our families to connect to the school via our Facebook page, Twitter account and Instagram. We are very active on all three and they offer an opportunity to gain an understanding of our school culture and keep up with the "softer" side of the news at LNC. We will also continue our MS Instagram channel. We received great feedback last year as we captured the sights and happenings at the MS and watched students learn, play, grow and interact during their MS years. We will share that Instagram handle once school is in session.

NEW MS STAFF

Next, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new faculty to LNC:

Sarah Patterson is moving from the elementary school to the middle school to teach 5th grade math and science. Ms. Patterson holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Elementary Education with an emphasis on math from Appalachian State University. Before joining LNC, she was twice named Teacher of the Year and in 2018 was named a state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. In addition to teaching, Ms. Patterson served as coach for Girls on the Run.

Jamie Killian is joining the LNC family as 7th grade ELA teacher. She holds a degree in English with a concentration in Public Relations and a graduate certificate in middle school education. She is in the process of obtaining her National Boards. Ms. Killian is coming to LNC from Northwest School of the Arts in CMS and she has taught middle school ELA since 2012. In addition to teaching, she has coached cheerleading, served on school committees, and has written various publications and personal essays as a freelance writer. Her husband is also an educator and her daughter will be attending LNC this fall as a 7th grader.

Diana Cwynar is joining the LNC family as 8th grade math teacher. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Middle School Education Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Middle School Mathematics. Ms. Cwynar is coming to us from Harold E. Winkler Middle School in Cabarrus County Schools. She has taught middle school math since 2005. Her three children will be attending LNC this fall (1st, 3rd, and 5th graders).

Vanessa Rukavina is joining the LNC family to teach 8th grade science. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science Education and Mathematics. She is coming to us from Danville Park High School in South Africa. She has taught middle and high school science since 2007. In addition to teaching, she has coached cross country, served on school committees, and chaired the science department. Her three children will be attending LNC this fall (4th, 6th, and 10th graders).

We are extremely excited to welcome this group to our middle school community.

SAFETY AT LNC

Our greatest responsibility and first priority is to provide a safe environment for our students and staff. You can expect to receive a communication next month explaining our protocols and procedures for ensuring our school’s security. Mark your calendars for “Coffee with Officer Bo” on September 16 where you’ll hear directly from School Resource Officer Bononno and have an opportunity to ask questions. This informational session will also be live streamed and archived for your convenience.

ELEVATE PROJECT

As you will see when you come on campus, construction on Knights Fieldhouse, our final campaign objective, has begun! Although we have yet to raise all of the funds needed to build Knights Fieldhouse, after careful deliberation, the LNC Board of Education decided to move forward on construction, essentially agreeing to be paid back over time as funds continue to be raised from the Elevate campaign. On behalf of the LNC board and administration, I want to thank those of you who supported and continue to support "elevating" the experience for our students and invite those of you who haven't to support your child's school experience in this important way.

Thank you in advance for taking every opportunity to be involved in our efforts to establish and build upon a strong partnership. I am excited about the upcoming school year and all the great things our students will achieve and experience at Lake Norman Charter.

Yours in education,