Raleigh Charter High School

IMPORTANT DATES
NEWS AND NOTES
THANK YOU, DRIVERS!
GRATITUDE FOR A GREAT STATE FAIR
RCHS HOSTS QUIZ BOWL TOURNAMENT
ATHLETES, "ENJOY THE CITY" BOOK SALES
DONATE TOYS TO FAMILIES AFFECTED BY DOMESTIC ABUSE
LAPTOPS FOR COSTA RICA
BOOK DRIVE FOR INVISIBLE CHILDREN
KEEP THE PASTA POT DONATIONS COMING
THE SPORTS PAGE
LADY PHOENIX START THE SEASON
WEEKLY ATHLETIC CALENDAR
LINKS OF INTEREST
PUBLICATION INFORMATION

IMPORTANT DATES
NOVEMBER
22 Homecoming dance
26-28 Thanksgiving break

DECEMBER
4-5 Ex Days
8 RCHS Board of Directors meeting, 5:30 p.m., Room 300
11 PASTA Board of Directors meeting, 8:30 a.m., Room 305
19 End of third grading period
22 Winter break begins; school resumes Jan. 6, 2009

NEWS AND NOTES

THANK YOU, DRIVERS!
A heartfelt thank you to all of the volunteer drivers who braved the incredibly rotten weather to help us make Community Workday happen. I can't begin to express my gratitude and admiration for the positive spirit shown by our volunteer community—you are the best!
Judy McDevitt, Community Liaison
jmcdevitt@raleighcharterhs.org

GRATITUDE FOR A GREAT STATE FAIR
The Fine Arts faculty would like to extend their thanks to the Muse parents who planned and brought to fruition a tremendously successful and fun RCHS State Fair on Nov. 15. The proceeds from this event will directly enrich the curriculum and daily learning of the Fine Arts students.

We are grateful to all the parents. who volunteered their time, who offered donations (both monetary and for the auctions) and who came to the event to support and to bid on auction items. Special gratitude is extended to the core planning group: Pam Huck (Overall Event Chair), Gloria Rich (Auction), Tracy Whitt (Food), Janet McCormick (Publicity), and Gretchen and Roger Adema (Auction Software and Check-Out).

And what about those performers! You truly revealed the depth of talent that our school enjoys and the level of student commitment to the fine arts at RCHS.

We are blessed to be a part of this vibrant, supportive community!
Sherry Lattin, Maggie Rasnick, Bill Thelen and Cynthia Brown
Fine Arts Faculty

RCHS HOSTS QUIZ BOWL TOURNAMENT
The Raleigh Charter Quiz Bowl team hosted 27 teams from across North Carolina and Virginia for our own quiz bowl competition held at Raleigh Charter High School on Nov. 15. Thanks to the team members, parents and alumni who helped with scoring and reading questions throughout the day.

Thanks especially to Mr. Rich (RCHS teacher and parent) for his custom software that enabled participants to keep track of scores and teams on screens and computers that were set up in each classroom. This ability to communicate with the teams scattered throughout our buildings was essential, given that we do not have a large enough centralized space to house 150 people at one time. The projected images even had photos of individual team members who were competing in any given classroom. The pictures and relevant information changed accordingly when teams moved from room to room for the six preliminary rounds and playoffs.

Cave Spring (Virginia) beat Early College of Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.) in the finals.

Our upcoming competitions before the Winter Break are at Robinson High School in Concord, N.C., on Dec. 6 and at Cave Spring, Va., on Dec. 13.
Betsy Newmark, History Teacher and Quiz Bowl Coach
bnewmark@raleighcharterhs.org

Eric Grunden, Former RCHS Teacher and Quiz Bowl Coach

ATHLETES, "ENJOY THE CITY" BOOK SALES
CALLING ALL fall, winter and spring RCHS athletes to pick up their "Enjoy the City" sample coupon book and order forms in the athletic office now. We are hoping that each athlete will sell at least three books.

"Enjoy the City" books are different from the coupon books sold by PASTA. Many families buy both books each year and benefit from having both! Your savings add up very quickly to more than cover the original $20 cost of these books, and you help RCHS athletics at the same time.

We count on the success of this fundraiser to support the Raleigh Charter sports teams. Please help the Phoenix Sports Booster Club in this endeavor, as all athletes benefit!
Phyllis Hill, Treasurer, Phoenix Sports Booster Club
hillpw@nc.rr.com

DONATE TOYS TO FAMILIES AFFECTED BY DOMESTIC ABUSE
You can help out by donating new toys to the Interact Holiday Bazaar. At the Bazaar, mothers can select gifts for their children for the holidays. Please drop off new toys to Room 204 by Dec. 5. No violent toys please.

Sponsored by Ms. Klein's community workday group
Shayne Klein, Academic Dean and History Teacher
sklein@raleighcharterhs.org

LAPTOPS FOR COSTA RICA
Students going to Costa Rica this spring are hoping to bring some laptop computers with them to leave behind at a school there.

Last year, students visited the school during a spring-break trip. Besides talking with the kids and playing soccer at a nearby field, we learned of an effort by the school to create a computer lab. Right now, they only have two nearly-obsolete computers. While many people here have older desktop computers sitting in their basements and attics, the cost of sending them to Latin America is fairly prohibitive.

This spring, I am bringing a group of students to Costa Rica. We are hoping to bring some donated laptops with us, which can be delivered to the school. If you have an older laptop that is no longer being used, or have any leads/ideas as to how we might acquire some (new or used), please contact me at the address below.

While this is not a school-sponsored trip, it would be a great opportunity to help out another school that is trying to improve the lives of children in another part of the world.
Mark Slattery. Spanish Teacher
mslattery@raleighcharterhs.org

BOOK DRIVE FOR INVISIBLE CHILDREN
The Raleigh Charter Ideas Festival Committee is having a book drive in order to help support the school that we sponsor in Uganda through the Invisible Children organization.

Invisible Children Inc. is a nonprofit organization that works to build schools in Northern Uganda, an area which has been ravaged by civil war for the past 20 years. The school that we sponsor is in desperate need of books, as it currently has only one textbook per 40 students, so the Invisible Children organization is partnering with Better World Books to gather books of all kinds. All of the books that the school in Uganda can use will be sent directly to the school, and the rest of the books will be sold through Better World Books to raise money that will then be sent to the school.

We need books of all kinds! Novels, cookbooks, children's books, biographies, textbooks, etc.: as long as it has an ISBN number on the back, we can use it!

Collection bins have been set up in the 200 hall at school. We hope to gather 10,000 books or more from RCHS and the surrounding community, so help us out and bring those books.
M. Khater, Ideas Festival Committee Member

KEEP THE PASTA POT DONATIONS COMING
PASTA Pot donations continue to come in, and we thank the families who have already contributed. Your donations will go toward helping all of our students here at RCHS. We truly appreciate your support.

We are still in great need of donations in order to reach our minimum PASTA budget requirements for the year. Approximately 40% of our families have participated to date, and we continue to hope that 100% will do what they can to support the PASTA Pot.

Donating is easy:
1. Write check made out to RCHS-PASTA Pot.
2. Mail to 1111 Haynes Street, Raleigh, NC 27604 or bring to school office

We have a few families who have opted to give several postdated checks in order to spread their donation out over a period of time. If this works for your family, please consider contributing in this way.

Again, we thank you for all you do.
Nancy Thompson, PASTA VP-Fundraising
pullet@msn.com
Lynne Chambers, PASTA VP–Fundraising
lynnechambers@nc.rr.com

THE SPORTS PAGE

LADY PHOENIX START THE SEASON
Congratulations to the members of the 2008–09 Lady Phoenix basketball team:

Seniors: M. Barrow, P. Warmus, C. Warren
Juniors: L. Creech, H. Deters, G. McLaughlin
Sophomores: A. Cole, N. Eick
Freshmen: E. Karsten, L. Peel
Head Coach: Bobby Lyons
Assistant Coach: Stuart Todd
Team manager/scorekeeper: A. Lamb (sophomore)

The Lady Phoenix began their season with the Tip Off Tournament at Village Christian Academy in Fayetteville on Nov. 7–8. They played Trinity of Fayetteville on Friday and won their first season game 42-33. Returning to Fayetteville on Saturday, the Lady Phoenix played in the championship game against the hosting Village Christian Crusaders. The Phoenix played tough and kept the game close, but the Crusaders prevailed and won 52-41. M. Barrow and H. Deters were named to the all-tournament team.

On Friday, Nov. 14, the Lady Phoenix hosted Chatham Central in Raleigh Charter's first Homecoming basketball game. It was wonderful to see all the students in the stands cheering for the team. The girls played extremely hard but came up short, losing 47-36. L. Creech scored 22 points to lead all scorers.

This week the Phoenix will play Grace Christian in Sanford on Tuesday and Trinity of Durham on Saturday. The Lady Phoenix invite the RCHS community to their games—please come and cheer the team on to victory.
Denise Creech, RCHS Basketball Mom

WEEKLY ATHLETIC CALENDAR

Tuesday, 11/25
6:00/7:30 Basketball at Princeton (Women play at 6:00, Men play at 7:30)

For directions to events, see https://www.raleighcharterhs.org/athletics/Sports_Directions.pdf

LINKS OF INTEREST
The following are quick links:
The Phoenix News at http://www.raleighcharterhs.org/pasta/news.asp
PASTA Fund-Raising at http://www.raleighcharterhs.org/pasta/simplefund.asp
Join PASTA at http://www.raleighcharterhs.org/pasta/membership.asp
PASTA Alumni at http://www.rchspasta.org/alumni/alumni.php
Lunch Vendors at https://www.raleighcharterhs.org/studentlife/lunch.asp
RCHS College Counseling Naviance at http://connection.naviance.com/fc/signin.php?hsid=raleighcharter
Calendar at http://www.raleighcharterhs.org/pasta
Helpful Hints at https://www.raleighcharterhs.org/Pasta/hints.asp
The Flame at http://flame.raleighcharterhs.org
Helpful hints at http://www.raleighcharterhs.org/pasta/hints.htm
Extracurricular opportunities at http://rchspasta.org/extracurriculars.htm

PUBLICATION INFORMATION
The Raleigh Charter High School newsletter, the Phoenix News, is published each Friday of the school year as a service of Raleigh Charter High School's Parent, Administrator, Student, and Teacher Association (PASTA) and is distributed via an electronic news group. The Phoenix News is also available on the RCHS website at https://www.raleighcharterhs.org/pasta/news.asp

Parents, students and faculty are invited to share school-related news, recognize accomplishments and solicit volunteer needs via the Phoenix News.

**The deadline for submitting articles is every Tuesday at noon for publication the following Friday. Please send articles to phoenixnewseditor@yahoo.com

If you would like to receive the Phoenix News automatically each week, please subscribe to the RCHS Yahoo! news group by sending an email to RaleighCharterHS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Please indicate your student's name in the subject line so the moderator can verify that you are a member of the RCHS community.
Membership is monitored and available only to RCHS parents, students and personnel.

To unsubscribe from this group, send a blank email to RaleighCharterHS-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com