Gurney Elementary School is holding kindergarten registration at the school located at 1155 Bell Road on March 16.
Kindergarten Registration
Gurney Elementary School is holding kindergarten registration at the school located at 1155 Bell Road on March 16. The registration will last from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Children 5 years old on or before Sept. 30, 2019, are eligible for kindergarten for the 2019-20 school year.
In order to fully register a child for kindergarten, parents or guardians must complete the online registration at https://chagrinfalls.finalforms.com. They must also bring the required documentation to the registration event.
The required documents include: child’s original birth certificate;parent or guardian photo I.D.; proof of residency (includes current utility bill, tax bill, lease or rental agreement);custody documents, if applicable; and immunization records of what the child has received. No doctor signature is required at this time.
Registration is considered incomplete and will not be accepted without the proper documents listed above as well as completion of the online final forms.
Gurney offers both full and half-day kindergarten. Full-day kindergarten is tuition-based and more information regarding tuition and instructional programming for the full day option will be provided at registration. To hold a spot for a child, the parent or guardian must put down a $200 non-refundable deposit. Parents or guardians who sign their child up for full-day kindergarten before May 3 will be granted a spot.
To indicate if a child will be participating in half or full day kindergarten, parents or guardians must fill out the questionnaire at http://bit.ly/KindergartenForm.
No appointment is necessary for registration day and the future students do not need to attend. With questions, call 440-893-4030 ext. 4102.
Family Bingo Night
CFHS student reporter Alexis Christie
On Feb. 8, the Chagrin Falls High School softball team hosted their second annual Family Bingo Night to help raise funds for their team. The event has become a favorite among many Chagrin families with its fun raffle and auction prizes, local celebrity callers and kid-friendly concessions supplementing the exciting bingo games.
“In our first year, it truly went so smoothly,” said co-organizer Lori Newbauer, mother of junior Sophee Newbauer, who is on the softball team. “All of our amazing softball players helped out the night of the event and had a great presence. Families loved a reason to get out for some good old-fashioned family fun on a wintry night.”
Teamed up with many of the other parents, Newbauer and co-organizer Kelly Christie, another softball mom, brought this fundraiser back after a lapse in its occurrence. Now that it is back, many Chagrin families, particularly those with younger children, look forward to the event as a fun night for their kids to let loose.
“When my three Tigers were little, we used to enjoy this event when the PTO held it as a fundraiser. We looked forward to it every year,” Newbauer remembered.
In fact, she said, this family aspect was one of the primary factors that inspired the resurfacing of the event.
As Newbauer described, “There was a lot of chatter in 2017 among the softball families that our group didn’t do much fundraising compared to many other sports teams. This event immediately came to mind. I had helped with the baseball team’s Breakfast with Santa event for four years and saw what a nice community gathering it was. Anytime you can bring families together for fun, and it happens to be an opportunity for fundraising, it’s a win-win.”
The players, who volunteer their time to help out with the event, echoed this emphasis on making bingo night a family-friendly environment. “The best part of the event for me was helping all of the families and being able to promote the softball team,” said junior Ashley Jones, a member of the team for both of her first two high school years.
In order to help make the event as enjoyable for families as possible, the parents who organized it improved on several of the aspects of the night, including collecting generous donations from many popular local stores and experiences in the form of raffle and silent auction prizes. They also amplified the tech and space aspects of the event in its second year.
“We’ve taken our bingo digital this year with the amazing help of Hunter Galloway,” said Newbauer. “Hunter is currently taking Honors Advanced Data Structures. He has developed a program to project our bingo numbers as they are called which was a huge improvement over [the] retro light board used previously.”
Galloway is a junior at Chagrin Falls High School who worked very closely with the bingo organizers to help spruce up the event.
In addition to some high-tech improvements, bingo night also made the transition from the Gurney gym to the middle school gym this year, as last year they faced issues with overcrowding.
“Gurney seemed fitting since the softball field is housed there and many of our young families are based in that building. But with nearly 300 in attendance, we had to move to a larger venue,” stated Newbauer.
Following the event, the organizers were extremely satisfied with their move, with Newbauer definitively stating, “Our move to the middle school gym was the right thing to do.”
Overall, attendees like high school junior Anais Levi greatly appreciated all of the updates for the event’s second year, agreeing that the event was once again a huge hit. “I thought it was a fun event, it was very well organized, and kept a lot of little kids entertained,” she said, echoing the community’s satisfaction with the event’s return.
The softball team has big plans for all the funds they raised at the event this year.
“We have utilized funds from last year’s event to purchase custom bat bags for the team, as well as off-season training at an offsite facility. We will be using event proceeds this spring to make special improvements to the dugout at the softball field. We also donate 10 percent of our net proceeds to CAA softball to help promote and grow the program for our little Tiger softball players. We want to do what we can to grow the program and our players skill sets,” said Newbauer, making it clear that there are good things to come for the Lady Tigers this season.
CFMS Student Participates in County-Wide Spelling Bee
Seventh-grader Jason Cheng competed in the regional spelling bee on Feb. 23.
This spelling bee hosted 36 Cuyahoga County school champions who competed against each other for a chance to go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Jason came in sixth place out of the 36 who competed.
The bee took place on Cuyahoga Community College’s metropolitan campus. It was presented by cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer, and was hosted by Plain Dealer columnist Michael McIntyre.
CFMS Students of the Month
The Student of the Month award at Chagrin Falls Middle School acknowledges students for their outstanding performance and rewards them for their efforts. The students were chosen by seventh- and eighth-grade teams to be a “Tiger of the Month.” These students exemplify the Tiger Techniques of: Think, Integrity, Grit, Effort, and Responsibility.
February’s Tigers of the Month were Norah Pope, JP Zimmer, Anna Mee and Andrew Sutliff.
Seventh-grader Norah Pope is a polite and kind young lady who gives her best and is willing to help wherever it is needed. She is diligent and goes above and beyond to make sure her schoolwork is done at an exceptionally high level. Norah is always friendly, giving, and well-adjusted. Her positive influence extends to permeate the whole classroom. Her work in social studies is complete and beyond expectations and she is constantly participating in class discussions. Many times, her classmates follow her lead.
JP Zimmer is a seventh-grader who is willing to help with any task and is genuinely kind to others. He is a leader in the middle school building and has a positive attitude in every activity and task in class. He stands out among his peers because of his coachable attitude. JP isn’t afraid to try any part or role in a subject and takes on new challenges with a smile. He offers insight into the class discussions and starts the day with a warm and genuine smile every first period.
Eighth-grader Anna Mee is committed to her studies and is an insightful student. She stays organized, picks up concepts quickly and is attentive to details. She is genuinely respectful of her teachers and peers and creates a positive environment inside the classroom and out. She is always reliable in her leadership roles and is the first to remind her peers of Student Council meetings. Anna and her friends attend all school events and Anna is willing to lend a helping hand in any situation. She makes CFMS a better place.
Andrew Sutliff is an eighth-grader who always comes into class with a smile on his face. He listens attentively and takes an interest in his own learning. He works well with a group and exemplifies responsible behavior. Andrew isn’t shy about taking on leadership roles to help others who are struggling with class content. His leadership qualities extend outside of the classroom as he ensures sporting events and school wide activities have great participation.
