From The Principal's Desk

From The Principal's Desk (August 6-12, 2022)
Posted on 04/03/2022
From The Principal's Desk (August 6-12, 2022)
Dear TMSA Families and Staff,

We, the TMSA Staff are thrilled to meet with all our students on Monday. We have held seven parent orientation sessions and introduced some important expectations in the past few days. It was such a pleasure to have hundreds of parents and students attend and participate in our preparations for the 2022-2023 school year. Members of our admin team presented on various critical topics and addressed questions both from families and students.Please see my presentation attached. Also please see the attached school culture presentation which is identical for middle and high school.

This summer was a very busy period of time for our campus. So many updates,so many upgrades to TMSA in terms of facilities, operations, systems and opportunities have been introduced. We gained a dedicated makerspace where our students will be able to design and manufacture their unique products using our 3D printer system and softwares. TMSA gym floor is upgraded. TMSA Campus floors are completely replaced and polished. Our building is completely painted. Our campus parking lot received a brand new asphalt. Two of our computer labs are upgraded and equipped with brand new computers. Staff have been trained and attended orientation sessions. Last but not the least, our soccer field is under construction for an upgrade and anticipated to be completed by the end of September. The students waiting areas in front of the building have been upgraded with a solid awning system. We kept our promise and had our eligible students participate in the Carowinds Reward Field Trip. Our High school math team participated in an international Math and science competition and returned home with 3rd place in math and 4th place in science. Congrats to all our mathletes and their coach, Mr. Uludag for this amazing success story!!! Few areas of clarification based on the questions received during our orientations sessions;

  • There will be ample amount of staff supervision during the first few days to assure that all first time TMSA students are guided and supported accordingly.
  • All middle school students will receive their schedules on their first day.
  • On Monday morning, we will hold a series of assemblies introducing our students to their teachers and advisors.
  • Monday morning all students will receive the 2022-2023 Student and Parent Handbook as hard copy documents. Please review the booklet, complete the last page (blue color) and then return the completed last page to school. All students will return them to their Leader in Me Advisors.
  • If our students  have any medical conditions to be reported or any medication to be utilized during the school hours, please coordinate with our school nurse, Nurse K.  [email protected]
  • Bus transportation will be implemented as of the first day of the school. Relevant communication has been shared with all the bus rider families on the bus pick-up and drop-off locations.
  • The first period will begin at 7:40 a.m. and they will be dismissed at 3:00 p.m.  Students reporting to school after 7:40 a.m. will be marked tardy and will have to enter from the main office area. The Main Campus  doors will be open for student entrance as of 7:15 a.m.
  • The Elementary Campus doors will be open as of 7:00 a.m. for students. Families with multiple school level children will need to report to the elementary campus first. The transition through both campuses will take place around 20 minutes and families' timely arrival will make it even shorter.
  • The school bus company that we work with offers transportation for bus riders only. There will be NO additional bus transportation available between the campuses for non-bus rider families who may have multiple school level children at TMSA. It would be very convenient for families to pick up from one campus only. However, our current resources are not available to cover such a cost.
  • Lunch and breakfast will be offered at no cost to all our students.
  • This email is going to all the email addresses provided through Powerschool. If your child will no longer attend TMSA, please reply to this email and we will follow up with their new school to remedy the situation.
We look forward to serving all your students at TMSA and offering them all the best possible educational journey ever! Have a great 2022-2023 school year filled with health, joy, and success!!!

Best,
 
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From The Principal's Desk (April 3-9, 2022)

Dear TMSA Families and Staff,

We started our schoolwide MAP testing last Friday and we are anticipating completing this week. This is the third diagnostic MAP test for the year and we will be using the results to determine the academic growth our students have made throughout the school year.

Based on the growth levels, we will be determining the cohorts and the course challenges our students will be offered for the 2022-2023 school year. We will be reintroducing high school courses to eligible middle school students and in addition to their MAP Test results, teacher recommendations, and report card grades, their EOG/EOC scores will help us make the most accurate decisions possible for all our students. We are also looking into additional areas of improvement for the upcoming school year. This past week, we just submitted our application for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.

Once approved, that means our students will be competing in a more challenging league, but in return, their accomplishments will be more beneficial towards their college applications and scholarships.

In the meantime, please note that the GPA requirement for participating in TMSA Athletic Programs have increased from 2.50 to 2.75. Please note that it will be effective this coming Fall, however, it will be based on their current, fourth quarter GPAs. This week our students and staff participated in various extracurricular activities, including five different field trips and the Michael Jackson Spring Concert. These activities are great catalysts for introducing more normalcy to our school climate.

This in turn increases the quality of teaching and learning after all the distractions that Covid 19 caused. Kudos to our students, staff and families for their hard work and support! We are all in this together and this shall pass soon.

Have a wonderful week!

Best,

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From The Principal's Desk (March 27 - April 2, 2022)

Dear TMSA Families and Staff,

Last week, TMSA was in the news for two reasons. The first one was about the MISS TMSA Breakfast and the second one was a surprise celebration that we prepared in coordination with the Greensboro Fire Department. One of our 6th grade students, Jamire, exercised responsible and intelligent actions which saved multiple people's lives during an apartment building fire in which his family's apartment was destroyed, as well.

The TMSA Admin team and Greensboro Fire Department came up with a recognition event for him that made local and national news. Jamire's reaction to the surprise celebration was phenomenal and one could tell that his family has planted seeds of love for others in him...Such a well needed parental practice in today's World! We are very proud of you Jamire! You are such a true hero with such a big heart!!! We made the decision to move the Spring MAP assessments from the end of April to April 1. Please make sure to have your students report to school in a timely manner everyday so that they will not be missing this critical, diagnostic, progressive, formative assessment. As we are moving into the 4th quarter, we will begin to communicate with the families whose students are at risk of retention.

These discussions and decisions will be based on students' core content area academic performance levels. However, students' MAP test growth performances, and their EOG and EOC outcomes, could also be utilized to revisit a retention decision.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank all the TMSA Families who chose to use the entire front end of the building for the student drop off and pick up process. The duration between the campus entrance and student drop off zone has dropped from 6 minutes to 4 minutes. That's an increase in efficiency. Our goal is to reach a similar kind of an improvement on all aspects of our school operation, i.e. safety, discipline, rigor in academics, facilities, community outreach and partnerships, college readiness and more.

Have a wonderful week!

Best,

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From The Principal's Desk (March 20-26, 2022)

Dear TMSA Families and Staff,

I would like to thank all the TMSA Families who were able to attend our parent teacher conferences last Friday to help support our students. It is a research based fact that the more parents who are involved in their children's education journey, the more successful students will be.  Attending the school events and activities may appear to be time consuming and even more costly these days, considering the gas prices and inflation, however, our students deserve the best and it's well worth the  time and money spent. The pick up and drop off traffic flow...

We need your cooperation on a more fluent traffic flow. It will take a few easy proactive steps on the family's side, and then we can all experience a more effective transition.  During the busiest flow time, it takes approximately 6 minutes from the entrance of the premises to the drop off spot. Therefore, if we can use the entire front sidewalk area for picking up and dropping off our students, we will be able to shorten that duration further. Once you arrive at the front and stop, go ahead and drop off your student and please do not wait until you come to the very front corner of the property in order to drop your student off. 

Students should use the school building side car doors for exit. Last but not least, please have your students prepared for departing your vehicles once you enter the premises. Last week, we held a meeting with our seniors about their upcoming prom. We had a very thorough brainstorming session, made some plans and decided to take some actions including the event organization, the venue preparation, and the fundraising. Towards the end, I was asked to see if I had any additional thoughts or questions and I responded with another question. "We have teachers, students, and admin here at this committee meeting but where are the parents?" I asked. Then we had another series of ideas with the parents included in our next steps.

I will never get tired of reiterating the fact that we will always need the entire village of TMSA on every step of our school operation.

Have a wonderful week!

Best,

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From The Principal's Desk (March 13-19, 2022)

Dear TMSA Families and Staff,

TMSA students led two major events last week: The Black History Month School Play, “The Cookout” and the MISS TMSA Student organization facilitated a World Women's Day recognition event, “The TMSA Panel”...The Cookout was a product of several months of hard work which included almost 50 students and several staff members, and the MISS TMSA panel included efforts by approximately 25 students and several staff members.

It was a very busy week filled with very powerful events, activities, and inspirational guest speakers that our students benefited from. The best part of both events was the number of students involved in making them. Kudos to all our staff members and students for both of those programs!!! As discussed before, we are at the point where we would like to see more TMSA Families involved in our school events and activities. One of the opportunities coming up is the School Career Fair and we need more parental involvement for this event.

This will be a great eye opening event for all our students at the middle school and high school level.  However, it can only happen if we are able to tap into as many professions as possible during our event. Please reach out to Ms. Friday at [email protected] and Mr. Saunders at [email protected] for any support you can offer for the best TMSA Career Day possible. Last but not the least, we held assemblies with our middle school level students last week. We reiterated some of the sensitive school wide expectations from them and we also announced an incentive on the upcoming EOG tests.

Students in 6th and 7th grade who are able to pass both EOG exams in May, and students in 8th grade who are able to pass all three of their EOG exams, will be offered a full day fun field trip to Charlotte, to Carowinds Amusement Park. The field trip will take place in July as the State Department of Public Instruction usually announces the scores in early July. The same incentive is also available for all our high school students who are taking EOC exams.  Additionally, if high school students taking AP exams score a 4 or 5, they will be eligible to attend, as well. The incentive includes the admission cost , the transportation and the lunch meal costs for Carowinds.

This was a tradition that TMSA had in place years ago and our students loved it then and we are happy to be able to bring this reward back to our student community. We will continue to celebrate their hard work through various other innovative recognitions, as well.

Have a wonderful week!

Best,

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From The Principal's Desk (March 6-12, 2022)

Dear TMSA Families and Staff,

I hope you all are enjoying the first blossoms of rising Spring and the beautiful weather. I always see Spring coming with tons of hopes. Hopes which are sometimes hidden in a rosebud or sometimes in the cracking sound of a hatching egg...I hope this rising Spring also comes with tons of hope, peace, love and success for all TMSA Families, Staff and the entire World!!! I am not sure if you had a chance to review the weekly communication that was sent out by Ms. McNeil a few hours ago, but the communications included some amazing events and activities that our staff and students have been organizing.

The School Play, The Powerful Panel of Speakers addressing our students, The Field Trips and the preparations for our Career Fair. Due to Covid, most of the school wide activities we had were limited and were not inclusive of our families that much, but we are moving carefully and gradually towards more normalcy each and every day. The upcoming Career Day will be a great opportunity for our learning community to include more TMSA Families in our school-wide activities. I highly recommend and invite the TMSA Families to step up to the challenge and plan to either participate in person to discuss their own profession or facilitate/bring someone that you know for an awesome event. Please note that this event has tons of hope and potential for our students not only to allow them to have a better idea of their future options, but to also allow TMSA to facilitate some partnerships through which we could offer summer internships for our high school students. These internships could play very critical roles when it comes to student college applications and scholarships.

Our College Counseling Team has been diligently working on this task and they need your support. Please reach out to Ms. Friday at [email protected] and Mr. Saunders at [email protected] for any support you can offer for the best TMSA Career Day possible. Our Counseling Team has also been working very hard for an awesome in person College Fair. So far, almost thirty colleges and universities have made a commitment to attend in person and arrange presentations for our 8th-11th grade level students. This will be an excellent post-pandemic growth opportunity for our students. As stated at the very beginning, hope is everywhere.  It is up to us -the adults around our students - to polish, crack open, and present the opportunities to them in a way so that they all will join us in this powerful journey; The journey of raising the college ready, independent learners of today and the leaders of tomorrow...

Have a wonderful week!

Best,