Tuesday, May 23 Info:

Band vs. Choir Dodgeball Deathmatch after school until 4:45. Students can be picked up by the Tennis Courts.

Well, what a year we have had.  The kids said it best at the end of the show Saturday night,  “THANK YOU!”  Thanks to your donations every single child in our choir received a special t shirt to remember this year by.  Thanks to your dinner donations, we were able to feed almost 400 kids a wonderful dinner and insure a full tummy as they gave us their best for the final show of the season.  Each of our volunteers deserve a handwritten thank you note from Mr. Norwood and I but there are so many of you we wouldn’t know where to begin.  Chaperones, you deserve a medal and a crown.  Locker Decoration Mom’s, food and water volunteers, photographers, ushers, box office moms and dads, dinner and clean up crews, and those who helped with costumes and last minute emergencies – we just couldn’t have done all of this without you.  The car trips you make, the clothes you wash, the complaining you listen to (not that your child ever complains), and all of the daily things taken for granted by children won’t always go unnoticed.  You are investing in the most important thing in the world.  Your kids.  So for now, Mr. Norwood and I will thank you!  And thank you again!

A few last tidbits of interest:

1.  DVD orders (100!) will be delivered this week to your child.  We ordered just a few extra in case you didn’t get a chance to place your order.  ($18) First come first served!
2. Mrs. Norwood (our very amazing voice teacher) needs a few parents to send in their last payment for the year.  She is ready to close her books.  Thank you for taking care of any outstanding bills as soon as possible.
3. Pictures are coming in from the final blast!  Check them out on our facebook page!  (Thank you Mrs. Green and Mr. Yaney)

Parents we need help. We currently have an extreme chaperone need for our final blast concerts. At the moment we only have a total of 8 chaperones to help our kids on Saturday, with 5 of those being for the 4PM show and only 3 for the 7PM show. We are scrambling to figure out a way to work with what we have with the current “best plan” being that the 8^th Grade students sit out in the audience until it is their time to perform. We are not very keen on this plan and are desperately asking for several willing parents (especially 7^th and 8^th grade parents) to help us help our kids have the best performance possible.  Currently we would love to have/need to have 2 – 6^th grade chaperones, 2 7^th grade chaperones, and 3 – 8^th grade chaperones for the 4PM show, and 3 – 6^th, 3 – 7^th, and 4 – 8^th for the 7PM show. If you and/or family members are available to help us in this way please send me an email: norwoodc@mcsin-k12.org, or Mrs. Armington: armingtonj@mcsin-k12.org, or sign up directly on the signup genius website (http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090c44ada82baafe3-last ).

Sincerely (pleadingly?),                                                                                                                                           Mr. Norwood

Choir Beasts were all stars tonight in a beautiful production of Cinderella! You were fantastic! We hope you had as much fun performing as we did watching you! Great job Beasts, we are so proud of you!

Here is a copy of the letter we are sending home tomorrow!  (Just in case it doesn’t make it all the way into your hands!)

CLICK HERE –>   Final Blast Letter (Revised) (1)

Hi Choir Parents!  This is just a quick note to remind you of a few things.  We will be sending home a “Show Week” information letter with all of the particulars for May 8-13th next week!

Dear NMS Choir Parents,
A big thank you to those of you who returned the orange info sheet we sent home with all of the choir dates for our last 9 weeks. If you never received yours you will find a copy in our last post. We need a signed copy from every parent to make sure that all of you have received these dates and times. We will be calling the parents of students who do not have these completed next week. You will help us a lot if you could make sure your son or daughter turned in their signed copy.

2ndly, we will be taking t shirt sizes for each child on Monday and Tuesday. Often the kids don’t really know what size to choose for themselves. These t shirts are in youth and adult sizes and run Youth Small to Adult XXXL.
If you would please tell them what size they should get that would be helpful! Here is the size info:

Size       length x width

YS (6-8) 22  17

YM (10-12) 23.5   18

YL (14-16) 25  19

S. 28  18

M 29 20

L 30 22

XL 31 24

2XL 32  26

3XL 33 28

**T Shirt payments are not due until April 28, but may be sent in anytime.

And finally, please remember that all conflicts for the Final Blast Rehearsals and Concerts are due no later than Friday, April 21st. Extra forms may be located on the choir website.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone!

Parents we could use your help in a different way than we have asked before!
Our choir lists of students for next year are very exciting! Once again the NMS Choirs in each grade have grown. To have a middle school choir program with our current projection number of 425 students is unheard of. Our class sizes for all six choirs average 65-75 kids. We have one class of 102 6th graders! There is not any other class offering that expects the teacher to oversee this many children.
Currently I have Mr. Norwood’s help half of each day. The rest of the time I am on my own. (Not including all of the unpaid hours Mr. N puts in on his own).
We have asked the Middlebury School Board and our own Administrators to give him full time status for the last 3-4 years. Understandably they are in between a rock and a hard place as they decide where money should be spent. However they need to hear that it is a wise investment from you.
You have seen and heard what we are accomplishing. Many of you have tried chaperoning one grade at a time and have learned just how difficult it can be to control hundreds of middle school students. As great as our kids are, they are still kids!
The final decision should be coming to a vote soon. If you could send them a note in support of employing Mr. Norwood at a full time status I would really appreciate your help. Sincerely, Mrs. Armington