Excellence is Our Standard.
Failure is Not an Option.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to inspire and empower all students to be life long learners, to pursue their dreams, and to contribute to the global community.
"Make it a great day or not.
The choice is yours."
FORBIDDEN ITEMS
Per the St. Andrew's Middle School Student Handbook, any personal items brought to school are done so at your own risk. Although lockers are issued to students, the school cannot be responsible for personal items. This includes CELL PHONES and all other ELECTRONIC DEVICES. For the complete policy see page 21 of the handbook or the attachment below.
FORBIDDEN ITEMS.doc
 ANDREW'S MIDDLE SCHOOL MAKES ANNUAL YEARLY PROGRESS
St. Andrew's Middle School staff is proud to announce that they have met Annual Yearly Progress through the No Child Left Behind Act from Federal Government Guidelines. The students that took the PASS Assessment last year met all sub-group expectations set by NCLB and Federal Guidelines. St. Andrew's students met 21 out of the possible 21 sub categories meeting 100% of the expected measures.
According to St. Andrew's Middle School Principal Benjamin Bragg, "I am so proud of our children! They have worked so hard to move forward and become successful with their academics. I would also like to acknowledge my talented staff and their dedication to children. Also, I would like to thank the community and parents for their assistance and dedication that supports our vision at St. Andrew's Middle School."
St. Andrew's Middle School is a school choice facility within the West Ashley district. St. Andrew's Middle School focuses on literacy as a priority following the Charleston County School District focus. St. Andrew's Middle School is also a successful Single-Gender School and focuses on the applied math courses.
(For an article about our school that appeared in the local newspaper West Of, see the attached file.)
West Of Article.pdf
 IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
End of Third Quarter: Monday, March 22
Benchmark Assessments: Monday, March 22 - Thursday, March 25
School Improvement Council: Wednesday, March 24 - 4:15 p.m. - in the administrative conference room
Teacher Work Day: Friday, March 26 - No School for Students
Report Cards: Wednesday, March 31
Spring Break: Friday, April 2 - Friday, April 9
Spring MAP Testing Begins: Monday, April 12
GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT
Please refer to the Guidance link at left (near the bottom of the page) for community resources and workshops.
Support High Quality Education
2010 SINGLE-GENDER INITIATIVE SURVEYS FOR PARENTS AND STUDENTS
These surveys are for parents and students who are currently involved with single-gender education. Information for each school is sent back to the school for their own professional development use and publication. The surveys will be available until 4:00 p.m. on Friday, May 7, 2010. Participants cannot be identified by their survey.
Parent Survey
Middle/High School Student Survey
 TEACHER OF THE YEAR 2009-2010
Congratulations to Mr. Robbie Ledford, St. Andrew's Middle School Teacher of the Year for 2009-2010! As the math teacher for 6th grade males, Mr. Ledford is very focused on student success. His students made the highest gains in the district on the math MAP test in spring 2009. Mr. Ledford is the drama club sponsor. He is also a very active member of the School Improvement Council and the PTSA. We are fortunate to have Robbie as part of our school community.
 DAY PORTER OF THE MONTH
Congratulations to Mr. Harry Hunter for being selected as the March Day Porter of the Month for Charleston County School District. Mr. Hunter is an outstanding employee and wonderful asset to our school. He frequently goes above and beyond his duties to assist teachers, staff and students. No job is ever too big for him. He is always cheerful and smiling, always has a kind word for everyone, is always ready and willing to do whatever needs to be done. We are so fortunate to have Mr. Hunter working at our school.
 STUDENTS OF THE WEEK
Congratulations to the following students who have been selected as their team's Student of the Week for the week of March 1-5, 2010.
Erica Hoskins (6th Grade Girls)
Jonah Horton (6th Grade Boys)
Brittnie Coleman (7th Grade Girls)
Andrew Hotchkiss (7th Grade Boys)
Desiree Singleton (8th Grade Girls)
Christian Saxon (8th Grade Boys)
WEST ASHLEY HIGH SCHOOL REGISTRATION
The Program of Study booklet for students registering for classes at WAHS for the 2010-2011 academic year may be accessed from the WAHS web site at the following link: http://westashleyhigh.ccsdschools.com/home.aspx A Parent Guide to the Program of Study is also available.
 TRACK & FIELD
Congratulations to the following students who participated in the Track Meet at James Island High School on Saturday, March 13th.
A'swantia Edwards, Brianne Colson, Jessica Woolwine, Crystal Meads, Barry Goodwin, Alex Seabrook, Jordan Aiken, Alex Beckford, Lamont Gregg, Matt Hurley, Destinee Waddy, Nyah Mitchell, Luz Carcamo, Ashleigh Bennett, Cordella Thompson, Destiny Tyrone, Evelyn Hanna, Gracie Elliott, Haley Gallagher, Morgan Janson, Madison janson, Savannah Commerford, Madison McDougal. For a list of students who will be moving on to the District Meet on Saturday, May 15th at West Ashley High School see the "Track & Field" file under School Resources at left.
 SAMS PTSA ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS FOR 2010-2011 BOARD
If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else for next year's PTSA Board please contact Leslie Hoey at lesliehoey@ymail.com See the attachment for a list of board positions and responsibilities.
PTSA Board.pdf
 SCIENCE FAIR
Congratulations to the following students who won 1st place in the St. Andrew's Middle School Science Fair:
Lauren Justice, Christ Salter, Preston Robbs, Starr Williams and Drew Biddix. For a complete list of winners see "Science Fair" under School Resources at left.
 TOP TEACHERS
Congratulations to 6th grade boys' math teacher Robbie Ledford for being recognized as a Gold TOP Teacher and congratulations to the 6th Grade and 7th Grade Literacy Teams for being recognized for high reading growth progess. For more information about CCSD'S TOP (Teacher Outstanding Performance) program, click on the following link:
 PTA REFLECTIONS CONTEST
Congratulations to 7th grader Andrew MacNeil for winning 1st Place in the Photography Division at the Middle School Level of the South Carolina PTA Reflections contest! (Click here to see Andrew's award-winning photo.)
 GARRETT ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGY
Garrett Academy of Technology has openings for incoming 9th graders in the following technical areas: Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, Architectural Design, Auto Collision Repair, Carpentry, Computer Networking, Electricity, Hospitality Management & Operations, Information Support & Systems, Masonry, Metal Fabrication, Pre-Engineering, and Welding. For more information or an application see Ms. Davis if you are an 8th grade girl or Mr. Brooks if you are an 8th grade boy. You may also download an application from these links: page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5
 SCRUBS "U"
If you are at least 13 years old and are considering a career in healthcare you are invited to enroll in Roper St. Francis Healthcare's Scrubs "U" program. The next session will take place on Thursday, March 25 from 5-7 p.m. at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital. The topic covered will be pharmacy and will include a pharmacy tour. You may register by calling 402-2273 or see guidance counselor Ms. Nancy Davis. Spaces for the March 25th session are available on a first come first served basis. For more information about the session, see this flyer. For information about and an application for the Scrubs Health Career Exploration Camp this summer, see the attachment.
SCRUBS Camp Application RSFH 2010.pdf
 GIRLS JV SOCCER
Congratulations to 7th graders Larsen Baker-Arcilesi, Carson Carroll and Haley Ghi and 8th grader Nicole Stone for making the Girls JV Soccer team at West Ashley High School!
 BOYS JV SOCCER
Congratulations to 8th graders Dylan Such, Daniele Rinaldi and Santiago Martinez for making the Boys JV Soccer team at West Ashley High School!
 SPELLBOUND
Congratulations to 8th grader Christina Knight who finished in the top 10 in the Regional Spelling Bee on March 11th at Charleston Southern University. Christina won the SAMS Spelling Bee in December. She is in the academically gifted andn talented SAIL program and was coached for the spelling bee by SAMS GT teacher Deborah Brigman.
 ACADEMIC MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL
Congratulations to 8th graders Jacqueline Boucher, Christina Knight and Delaney Robinson for being accepted to the Academic Magnet High School!! Congratulations also to all the SAMS students who applied to the AMHS. This is a very prestigious, nationally recognized school with a very difficult admissions policy, so it is an honor just to have one's application considered.
 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR SC JUNIOR SCHOLARS Congratulations to the following 8th graders who have been recognized as South Carolina Junior Scholars: Christina Knight, Deb Cuellar, Delaney Robinson, Chance Fuller and David Hatcher. In order to receive this recognition they had to score a 50 or above on the PSAT in verbal, math, or writing. We are very proud of their accomplishments, and they should be proud of themselves. For more information about the SC Junior Scholars program and a list of all 8th graders who qualified to participate in the SC Junior Scholars program this year see the file "SC Junior Scholars" under "School Resources" at left.
 DUKE TIP
Listed below are our students who qualified for the 2010 Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program). Each year, Duke University asks schools in 16 states to identify their highest achieving students on standardized achievement tests to participate in their 7th Grade Talent Search. These students are then offered the opportunity to take the SAT or ACT test. Those who have "exceptional performance" on either of these tests will qualify for Duke TIP's summer studies programs and/or e-studies distance learning programs. All participants will gain valuable knowledge and experience from this test now as well as other benefits. We congratulate all these wonderful students.
Jacob Adkins, Trey Altice, Anthony Ballzigler, Chesleigh Burns, Collin Camburn, Luz Caramo, Carson Carroll, Spencer Clark, Brooke Cole, Thomas Covington, Kameron Cull, James Daniel, Elizabeth Davis, Dalton Edens, Zachery Ferguson, Ryan Green, Ted Haydel, Malayeshia Hubbard, Noah Johnson, Madison McDougall, Emily Mcguire, Devin McSween, Allen Mealing, Nikolas Minks, David Moore, Gracen Kahn, Jordan Merritt, Christopher Pownall, Alexis Ryan, Timothy Smith, Naomi Stokes, Preston Tenczar, Destinee Waddy, Barsha Ray.
 GROCERY STORE PARTNERS
Now you can support St. Andrew's Middle School every time you shop for groceries at BiLo, Food Lion, Harris Teeter or Publix! Check out the "Grocery Store Partners" link under School Resources at left for more information.
 TARGET'S TAKE CHARGE OF EDUCATION PROGRAM
We are pleased to announce that St. Andrew's Middle School will earn 1% of all sales used on a Target credit card. To take advantage of this wonderful opportunity for our school, go to the following web site and enroll to designate SAMS to earn some FREE money. Our school ID is 119335.
Thank you to all the parents and community members who have volunteered their time at our school. Together we will achieve excellence.
 REASONS TO VOLUNTEER AT SAMS
1. The government values one hour of volunteer time at $18.16. Every time you volunteer you are contributing money towards your child's education!
2. Find out what your child's day at school is really like.
3. Spend time with other parents working to raise middle schoolers.
4. Show your child that school is important by giving your time to make it better.
 Project Wisdom:
Our character education program provides students with positive social and academic skills by reinforcing the six core values (trustworthiness, caring, fairness, respectfulness, responsiblity, and good citizenship). Every week we provide students with a theme that relates to one or all of the core values. We ask that you reinforce the core values at home to help with the emotional, social, academic, and physical growth of our students.
Our character education program provides students with positive social and academic skills by reinforcing the core values of life (trustworthy, caring, fair, respectful, responsible, and a good citizen). Every week we provide students with a theme that relates to one or all of the core values. This information is available for your perusal at http://standrewsms.ccsdschools.com. We ask that you reinforce the core values at home to help with the emotional, social, academic, and physical growth of our students.
This month’s Character Education focus is "Making the World a Better Place". The following will be our weekly themes:
March 1st-5th Respect: Respecting those who teach us
March 8th-12th Attitude: Keeping my face to the sunshine
March 15th-19th Confidence: Daring to be my best
March 22nd-25th Education: We’re a community of learners
March 29th-April 1st: Helpfulness makes a difference
 Congratulations to Mrs. Renee Berry, Parent Volunteer of the Month for February! Mrs. Berry has been assisting in our classroom during teacher absences(helping to monitor children, keep children on task, escort students when necessary, tutor or assist when necessary), been in charge of coordinating, delivering and serving our 7th grade dessert days, and always willing to help with anything. She is a wonderful asset to our school and we are very proud to have her and her son with us this year. Thank you, Mrs. Berry, for all you do.
 Congratulations to Mrs. Shirley Fralix, Staff of the Month for February! Mrs. Fralix is our cafeteria supervisor. She is so flexible with schedule changes, follows the lunch calendar and goes beyond to assist the staff and the children whenever asked. Mrs. Fralix is always understanding and willing to make adjustments to our schedules without concern. We are so grateful to have Mrs. Fralix in our school. Thank you, Mrs. Fralix, for all you do.
 Congratulations to Mr. Matt Mason, Teacher of the Month for February! Mr. Mason is the physical education teacher for boys. He is wonderful with students in and out of the building, willing and able to do anything for anyone, very flexible in taking on the leadership role for the special area team, as well as the man in charge for the basketball season. Mr. Mason is always willing to help out any staff member whether it is dealing with a referral, parent issue, parent meeting, hallway coverage, or taking on additional students to help out while other faculty members take care of pressing issues. He puts his heart into the sports, the students, and helping the staff. He spends many an hour out of school time getting the gym ready, assisting in sporting events, and helping out whenever possible. Mr. Mason is also part of many committees here at St. Andrew’s. Thank you Mr. Mason for your continued support and dedication to our children.
March 2010
Dear Parents/Guardians: As we enter the final three full months of school, we ask that you assist your child with remaining focused on their school work. Please remind your children daily, the importance of school and that it is their job to be here everyday, be prepared, and stay attentive. Our continued guidance will help support our children to be life-long learners.
I appreciate all the community support we have had this school year. Our parents and community members have been so supportive with our progress and changes. Together we are making a difference in every child’s success.
We will be administering the South Carolina PASS Writing Assessment March 16th and 17th. Your child’s attendance is extremely important during these testing dates. Please ensure that your child is here on time for all testing days. Great testing is a result of proper rest and nutrition. Please make sure our children get a well balanced breakfast and enough sleep the night before. Please express the importance of these tests with your child. This needs to be a community push to show how much our children have developed this school year. We are extremely proud of their success and we know that every child has the strength and ability to achieve excellence. It is the expectation that every child aims to be exemplary and on all PASS tests. Our students performed extremely well on their MAP tests and we believe that they are ready for the PASS tests! We strongly believe that our staff has provided your children with the knowledge and information needed; we just need each and every student to take pride in their own scores as they did with the MAP tests.
In preparation for the PASS writing assessment, we have provided our students with testing strategies, and numerous writing practice tests. Our next writing benchmark will be Wednesday, March 3rd. We have focused our efforts to have every child organize their thoughts through a four square approach and provided numerous strategies focused on punctuation, parts of speech, sentence structure, and the use of voice in our writing. We are reviewing all materials from the beginning of the year in our classes and are focusing on individual student needs based on the MAP data we received. Students have set their individual goals during advisory, and we are ready to shine!
Testing can be extremely stressful to our students. We plan to assist our students with stress relief and brain stimulation by having morning PASS activities. On the mornings of March 16th and 17th, we will have students perform some minor physical activities to help them relieve some test anxieties, stimulate blood flow to their brains and reduce anxiety. Exercise has been proven, through research, to promote brain stimulation. The morning PASS activities will be a 20-30 minute exercise that will be monitored and fun for the children. Once they are finished walking, they will begin their PASS assessment.
We have started to provide our students with additional interventions to help support their study skills, test taking strategies, and common use of vocabulary, math solutions, and reading skills. We have implemented a PASS Push from now till the end of the school year. Teachers are utilizing PASS references in their daily lessons as a warm-up exercise to embed the information from the beginning of the school year. We feel confident that with all staff members and parents assisting with individual student needs, we will continue to improve greatly.
Students will be taking our third quarter benchmark assessments the week of March 22nd to March 25th. Students will be tested on their knowledge from the third quarter curriculum.
This month’s Character Education focus is “Making the World a Better Place”.
The following will be our weekly themes:
March 1st-5th: Respect: Respecting those who teach us
March 8th-12th: Attitude: Keeping my face to the sunshine
March 15th-19th: Confidence: Daring to be my best
March 22nd-25th: Education: We’re a community of learners
March 29th-April 1st: Helpfulness makes a difference
We have an early dismissal on Wednesday, March 10th for parent teacher conferences. Please contact the school to set-up conferences with your child’s teachers.
Parent Volunteer of the Month: Congratulations to Ms. Berry for receiving the award for Parent Volunteer of the Month for February. Mrs. Berry has been assisting in our classroom during teacher absences(helping to monitor children, keep children on task, escort students when necessary, tutor or assist when necessary), been in charge of coordinating, delivering and serving our 7th grade dessert days, and always willing to help with anything. She is a wonderful asset to our school and we are very proud to have her and her son with us this year. Thank you, Ms. Berry, for all you do.
Teacher of the Month: Congratulations to Mr. Mason, physical education teacher, for receiving the award for Teacher of the Month for February. Mr. Mason is wonderful with students in and out of the building, willing and able to do anything for anyone, very flexible in taking on the leadership role for the special area team, as well as the man in charge for the basketball season. Mr. Mason is always willing to help out any staff member whether it is dealing with a referral, parent issue, parent meeting, hallway coverage, or taking on additional students to help out while other faculty members take care of pressing issues. He puts his heart into the sports, the students, and helping the staff. He spends many an hour out of school time getting the gym ready, assisting in sporting events, and helping out whenever possible. Mr. Mason is also part of many committees here at St. Andrew’s. Thank you Mr. Mason for your continued support and dedication to our children.
Staff Member of the Month: Congratulations to Ms. Fralix, cafeteria supervisor, for being so flexible with schedule changes, following the lunch calendar, and going beyond to assist the staff and the children whenever asked. Ms. Fralix is always understanding and willing to make adjustments to our schedules without concern. We are so grateful to have Ms. Fralix in our school. Thank you, Ms. Fralix, for all you do.
Dates to Remember:
3/3: School-wide Writing Assessment
3/10: Early Dismissal/Parent Teacher Conference (2:15p.m.)
3/16-3/17: PASS Writing Assessment
3/22-3/25: School-wide Benchmark Assessments
3/22: End of third marking period
3/26: Teacher Workday/No School 3/31: Third Quarter Report Cards
4/2-4/9: Spring Break/No School
For the Children,
Benjamin Bragg
Principal
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Saturday, March 20
First Day of Spring
Monday, March 22
A Day
End of Third Quarter
Benchmark Assessments
Tuesday, March 23
B Day
Benchmark Assessments
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Today, 3/20/2010
High: 72
Low: 52
Mostly sunny
0% chance of precipitation.
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Tomorrow, 3/21/2010
High: 71
Low: 55
Rain showers likely
62% chance of precipitation.
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