Rebecca Kuzmanovich (in the lead role of Sandy) and Tanner Colson (who plays Sandy's boyfriend Danny) rehearse a scene from "Grease," which opens Friday at Bailey Middle.

Spelling bee season is still in full swing and this week we bring news of Community School of Davidson’s first-ever bee, plus results from Friday’s CMS north bee.

Also this week we have a report on a special “partners in prevention” night at Bailey Middle that will feature a seminar for parents titled, “Speaking of Sex: How to talk with your middle and high school students.”

On the arts calendar, the musical “Grease” will be performed this weekend at Bailey Middle, with a cast of 51.

For sports fans, the basketball team at Davidson Day is getting ready to take on the nationally-ranked United Faith team from Charlotte.

We have reports on all that plus a full calendar of local school events.

CHARTER HOLDS FIRST SPELLING BEE

Maddie Crow likes spelling bees so much that last year, when her school did not host one, she found a home school bee to join.  This time around, the 8th grader was delighted to find out that Community School of Davidson would be holding its first-ever bee.  Maddie talked her best friend, Aurora Taylor, into joining her among the bee contestants, and the two ended up making it to the final five and then going head-to-head to determine the school champion.

“We went through three rounds together,” said Maddie.  “It was a little bit nerve-wracking.”

She finally won on the word “plutonite” and will represent CSD at a regional charter school bee later this month.

The five finalists for the first Community School of Davidson spelling bee were: (back row, from left) Chase Loomer, Maddie Crow and Aurora Taylor; (front row) Nathen Munyak and Mary Ellis Goins.

The top five spellers overall included, after Maddie and runner-up Aurora: 8th grader Chase Loomer, and sixth graders Mary Ellis Goins and Nathen Munyak.

Parent volunteer Barbara Kaser helped coordinate the first of what she hopes will be an annual event.  The bee was open to any interested student in grades 3-8.

“You can see how excited the kids are now about spelling,” Ms. Kaser said, as the five bee finalists finished explaining what helped them perform well (reading a lot, sounding out each syllable, plus what Aurora referred to as “dumb luck”) and listing the words they were most proud of having spelled correctly (that would be “pterodactyl” for Nathan, and “synthesizer” for Mary Ellis).

The school’s grade level winners were:

• Grade 8  – Maddie Crow
• Grade 7  – Zach McAfee
• Grade 6  – Mary Ellis Goins
• Grade 5  – Oliver Picot
• Grade 4  – Kayla Guillemette
• Grade 3  – Cole Vahey

YUE IS THIRD AT CMS BEE AND AN MLK WINNER TOO

January is starting out with special honors for Emily Yue of Davidson IB Middle.

Emily Yue of Davidson IB Middle

The 8th grader placed third in the CMS North Learning Community Spelling Bee Jan. 8, and on Thursday, Jan. 14, she will be recognized at a student awards ceremony in Charlotte for her essay about Martin Luther King, Jr.

At Friday’s spelling bee, held at Cornelius Elementary, Emily was among 15 school winners who competed to be the north area representative at the CMS district bee Feb. 9.  After 13 rounds, Haley Keziah of Alexander Middle emerged victorious by correctly spelling the word “fidelity.”  Runner up was Imante Eichelberger from Ranson Middle.

Emily placed third, followed by Kaitlyn Kelly of Bailey Middle in 4th and Madeleine Wright of Davidson Elementary.

“All the kids did so very well and behaved so incredibly well,” said Rea Wright, Madeleine’s proud mother.

Click here to read our previous coverage of local CMS spelling champs.

In the MLK Art and Writing Contest, Emily and fellow IB classmate Via Savage were among the five middle school students in CMS who won a writing award.  Via, a 7th-grader, earned 3rd place and Emily received an honorable mention.  Student winners can participate in the MLK Holiday Parade Saturday morning in Uptown Charlotte.

More than 300 CMS students submitted artwork or an essay in the annual contest. This year’s theme was “Holding the Dream, Celebrating the Present, Touching the Future.”

GREASE IS THE WORD AT BAILEY

Bailey Middle School students will perform the Tony Award-winning musical “Grease” Friday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 16, at 1 p.m., in the school cafetorium, 11900 Bailey Road, Cornelius.

Admission is $2 at the door, and food will be available.

The cast for Grease (not including the singers and dancers). Photo by Ed Conway.

Set in 1958, “Grease” is the story of Sandy Dumbrowski and Danny Zuko, who meet during  summer vacation and don’t expect to see each other again. So when Sandy transfers to Rydell High, she’s surprised to find Danny isn’t exactly the guy she met at the beach. With Rizzo and the Pink Ladies coaching the wholesome Sandy, and Kenickie and the other Burger Palace Boys razzing Danny, this fun musical includes the hit songs “Summer Nights,” “We Go Together” and “Greased Lightnin’.”

The play is directed by Bill Myers (music), Debbie Cohen (acting), Jamie Julian (set design) and Marla Cochran (dance).

Playing the lead role of Sandy and Danny are Rebecca Kuzmanovich and Tanner Colson. Rizzo will be played by Carlynn Richter and her “Pink Ladies” are: Sydney Eden, Alex Fletcher and Ashley Sitarik.  Cast as Kenickie is Jordan Holmes, and his Burger Boys are: Billy Locacius, Jonathan Taylor and Carly Thomas.

Other members of the cast, including singers, dancers and the set crew, include: Sloane Adler, Mackenzie Alge, Ali Benz, Samantha Botello, Savannah Bousquet, Jasmine Coleman, Ciara Conway, Darian Depreta, Emily Dyckman, Brison Fields, Maddie Fulkerson, Lauren Galida, Alyssa Garcia, Ally Gelbron, Mary Iris Gray, Cristina Hanson, Elissa Hayes, Myra Hernandez, Alexis Henderson, Amanda Heskett, Gabby Hoffmann, Katie Keehne, Krista Larson, Katie King, Maddie Merk, Madeline Mokal, Sullivan Molinek, Kendall Parker, Lindsey Palmquist, Brenna Petty, Elia Ramirez, Heather Rogers, Nikita Samant, McKenna Smith, Connor Soules, Breyona Spreen, Susan Steckey, Jenny Stevenson, Katie Tetzlaff, Alicha Trice and Jennifer Wintercamp.

BAILEY HOSTS PREVENTION EVENT

The North Carolina Parent-Teacher Association recently awarded Bailey Middle’s PTA chapter a special grant to hold a workshop on parent education.  That will result in Tuesday’s “Partners in Prevention,” an evening of exhibits and workshops designed “to strengthen the partnership between parents and the school.”

The highlight of the evening will be a free 60-minute workshop, “Speaking of Sex: How to talk with your middle and high school student,” led by Natasha Marcus of Davidson.  The workshop, designed for parents of 10-19 year olds, will run from 6-7 p.m. and include raffles for grocery and gas cards.

“I will be talking to parents about the importance of discussing sex, prevention, boundaries, teen dating, and pregnancy with kids before they reach adolescence, during the pre-teen years, and into adulthood,” Ms. Marcus explained in an email about the workshop.  “We will show a short DVD from the perspective of teen mothers and fathers. We will discuss good strategies about how to start and continue the conversation with your child and how to present your values and important information to kids in ways that they will absorb. We will even spend some time practicing how to respond to the dreaded embarrassing questions.”

Following the workshop, CMS will host a Parent University seminar, “How to talk so your teen will listen and listen so your teen will talk,” from 7 – 8 p.m. Both the seminar and Ms. Marcus’ workshop will be held in the Bailey media center.

The Cornelius Police Department will have Amber Alert kits that include fingerprinting and will also conduct child safety training with firefighters as part of the Kidz’n Power program, which will run from 6-8 p.m. in the Bailey Cafetorium.

Chick-fil-A will be offering sandwich or nugget dinners for $3 from 5-6:30 in the Bailey cafetorium.

DDS HOMECOMING/HOOPS UPDATE

The Davidson Day boys basketball team gave the home crowd a win at the school’s first-ever Homecoming Saturday.  The boys handily defeated Covenant Classical of Charlotte 76-34, led by Dorrian Albritton’s 18 points.  The Patriot’s girls team was led by Jasmine Hamilton, who scored 11 points in the 30-40 loss to Covenant.

The school also crowned its first-ever Homecoming Queen.  You can see our previous coverage of the coronation by clicking here.  Below is a photo of the Homecoming Court.

The DDS 2009-2010 Homecoming court included, from left: Queen Allie Sherman of Davidson (with dad Dave), 12th grade rep Jade Cotter (with dad Paul), 11th grade rep Katy Leonard (with dad Andy), 10th grade rep Allie Uszenski (with dad Ron), and 9th grade rep Kay Funderburk (with dad Anthony Brown). Photo submitted by Davidson Day.

The basketball teams are gearing up for a big home game on Jan. 22, when the Patriots take on the nationally-ranked Charlotte’s United Faith.  This will follow a trip for the boys to Greensboro on Friday, Jan. 15, to play Caldwell Academy, and a Tuesday Jan. 19 away game for both boys and girls against Gaston Day.

SCHOOL APPLICATION SEASON

School registration is now underway for local charters, private schools and the public Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district.  Click here to see our previous coverage of what you need to know to register your child.

SCHOOL CALENDAR

• THURSDAY, JAN. 14 – Community School of Davidson will host two of its four January open houses.  Thursday sessions will be at 9:30 a.m. and also 7 p.m.  The last open house of the month will follow at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29.  To register for an open house, call the charter school at 704-896-6262, or send an email to info@csdnc.org.  The registration deadline for CSD is Jan. 31. For more information, click here to get to the CSD registration website.
• TUESDAY-FRIDAY, JAN 13 – 15 – The North Meck IB program program will host informal walking tours from 8-10 a.m.  Call 980-343-3840 to schedule an appointment.
• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, JAN. 15-16 – Theater students at Bailey Middle will perform “Grease.”  See above for more information.
• MONDAY, JAN 18 – Most area schools will be closed for the Martin Luther King Holiday
• TUESDAY, JAN. 19 – The Bailey Middle PTA presents “Partners in Prevention,” with food and exhibits from 5-6:30, and seminars from 6-8 p.m.  See above for more information.
• WEDNESDAY, JAN. 20 – Walking Wednesday for Davidson Day
• THURSDAY, JAN. 21 – Davidson IB Middle will host an information meeting for 8th graders interested in the high school level of the International Baccalaureate program.  Students and staff from the North Meck IB program will be on hand to answer questions.  The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium.
• THURSDAY, JAN. 21 – Open house, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.,  for families of prospective students at McKinney Academy.  Parents can also call 704-895-9664 to schedule a tour.
• FRIDAY, JAN. 22 – Davidson Day basketball hosts the top-ranked United Faith of Charlotte.  Girls varsity play at 6 p.m., followed by the boys at 7:30 p.m.
• THURSDAY, JAN. 28 – Davidson IB Middle will host an open house for prospective students, starting at 10 a.m.   Families will be able to hear a presentation about the IB program and tour the school.
• SUNDAY, JAN. 31 – Application forms are due at Community School of Davidson for the registration lottery for 2010.
• MONDAY, FEB. 8 – Deadline for the CMS magnet programs application lottery. Click here to get to the CMS Magnet Programs website.

Have school news you want to share?

Send calendar items and press releases about local school news to us at: lauriedennis@bellsouth.net