Greetings

Hello, and welcome to the official blog of the Central Cambria Middle School.  As your new principal, one of my goals is to help students, staff, parents, and community members engage with our school.  Since it is rare to find a story in the news media that focuses on the many positive things that take place within our walls every day, our aim is to give you a glimpse into what really goes on from week to week in our middle school.  We will post highlights of school activities, interesting lessons, and opportunities for you to get involved in a positive way to support your child's education. 

If you are on twitter, you can follow us at http://twitter.com/CCMSPrincipal. When I post a new blog entry, I will send out a tweet to let you know the site has been updated.  We are also exploring the construction of a facebook page that would be another means of communication with the community.  It would be set up as a business page with alerts, notifications, and information posted as needed.  When that site is constructed I will post a link here on the blog to let you know it is ready to go. 

As the new principal here, a question that I have been asked most often is "what do you do at school in the summer?"  So, to answer that, here is what has been taking place this summer at the middle school:

• The master schedule for teachers was adjusted and completed, and students have now been scheduled for classes.  Many thanks go to Mrs. McDermott and Mrs. Ribarich for their efforts in helping to get this done.
• Our custodial staff, under the direction of Mr. Shaffer, has cleaned every square inch of the middle school so it is ready for students to return.  The building is sparkling, and Mr. Shaffer's team did a great job.
• I reviewed our PSSA results from the 2011-12 school year in order to identify our areas of strength and any weaknesses that we need to work on.  Our PSSA performance this past year was exemplary, so I want to congratulate our teachers and students for their successes in regards to the PSSA.
• We have finalized our personnel needs to make sure all positions are filled and ready to go for the start of school.
• I am currently working on our in-service activities for our teachers next week.
• Last week we held a boot camp orientation for our incoming 6th graders to help them adjust to the middle school.
• I have spent some time over the past month driving around the district to familiarize myself with the geography of our attendance area.  I have been to Vinco, Colver, Revloc and other points north and south of Ebensburg, and plan to continue this until I have covered most of our attendance area.
• Developing and setting goals for the upcoming school year.

Needless to say, the past month and a half has been filled with activity, and I am excited to meet our students and teachers starting next week.  Our first student day is Tuesday, August 28th.  We are putting the finishing touches on student schedules, and when they are completed we will inform parents so you can stop by the school and pick them up.  I hope you all enjoy the remainder of your summer, and we look forward to kicking off the school year!

Mr. Santini - Principal