Inspire School of Arts and Sciences

Office Phone: (530) 891-3090 Fax: (530) 891-3089 Attendance Line: (530) 891-3133

Inspire is a college preparatory charter high school located in beautiful Chico, California. In the fall of 2010 Inspire opened its doors to more than 270 students, grades 9-11. Currently, Inspire serves approximately 430 students, grades 9-12, offering a rigorous academic program, a comprehensive, diverse, and professionally-driven performing and visual arts program, and a science/technology/engineering program that emphasizes our relationship with our local and global environment called Project Lead the Way.

Inspire students enjoy a small, safe community that promotes

academic excellence and active participation in the learning process.

Please explore our site and learn more about our school, our staff and our vision.

"The most beautiful experience we can have
                                             is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion
                                           which stands at the cradle of true art and
   true science." - Albert Einstein

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Link to our daily announcements: Watch this spot for important Yearbook links. Parents, your portal connection is here! School Accountability Report Card (SARC)

The Perch YEARBOOK Parent Portal SARC Report Card (pdf)

Some Important Notes and Links:

Here are some pictures from many of our academic and technical classes.

(Use the back arrow to return to our home page.)

Just click on the links below.

IS9 Biology Chemistry Physics Math Language Arts Econ Social Science

Dance Engineering and Technology Theatre Fine Arts Animation (examples)

Check out our photos of our past performances including Chicago and You Can't Take It With You. Just click on the "Education" link above, select "Theatre" and then click on "Media."

Or Click Here!

Check out our new Pathway/Focus Programs! Just use the "Pathway/Focus Program" pull-down menu at the top of our web-page. These will help you plan your years at Inspire. If dancing or singing or acting or playing an instrument or engineering or painting or drawing or...is your passion, than Inspire is where you should be.

Click on the picture and enjoy a celebration by our Chicago performers and support team.

Robotics Club Fund Raiser

The Robotics Club has an excititng new fund raiser going. For every student that enrolls in Drivers Ed, the club will receive $5. If you are interested, use the links below to register and get more information.

Driver Ed Training

Application and Enrollment at Inspire

Applications are still being accepted for the 2013/14 school year at all grade levels. Inspire's open enrollment period

closed Jan 31st, 2013. All student applications received after Jan 31st will be placed on a waiting list by date of application.

Students will be contacted as space becomes available.

YOU MAY STILL APPLY.

Click on the "Apply Now" button below.

A Message from the Principal

Greetings all,

As this is my last newsletter of the official 2012/2013, I want to thank all of you for another rich year of learning. Rich learning occurs inside and outside of the classroom, and because of all the heartfelt contributions from you and the community, Inspire students have benefited immensely, intellectually, emotionally and socially. We deeply value your partnership, you are wonderful to work with and your contributions are so appreciated.

Friday night the wonderful mural that student Katherine Sherman has been working on all year was defaced by some taggers. Since Linnea Smith discovered it Saturday morning, the response has been remarkable and the destruction of Katherine’s art has been completely transformed with the help of our community. As Susan Archer, our Resource Instructor said, “What if we turned it into a message about hope and perseverance?" And that is what has happened. News of the vandalism was communicated via social media, and students, parents, staff and community members started arriving in the late morning. People were in and out all day helping with the restoration. I have not ever witnessed that many paint brushes at work at one time.

Throughout the day, Katherine provided the direction needed, and by the end of the day, the mural had been transformed, and very little evidence of the graffiti remained. Today will be more of the same, and by day’s end, the mural will be finished.

This is the spirit of Inspire – respect, kindness, family and making a positive difference. The sight of the defacement of Katherine’s labor of love on Saturday morning gave natural rise to anger, and while one can choose to blame and live in bitterness, our community, our students, took immediate action (see attached photo), action motivated by a deep desire to bring the beauty of their art to life again, to provide the hope that is so critical to us all.

Katherine shared the original definition of Inspire with me yesterday – to inspire is “to breathe life into.” We have all learned so much in these past couple of days, and like the mural, we are very much alive!

And speaking of alive. The CFA was lively on Friday evening with the Musical Theater Showcase, “Journey.” Talented students performed a variety of songs from all Footloose, Willy Wonka, Phantom of the Opera, Little Mermaid, Westside Story, A Chorus Line…the list goes on. Great performances and a great crowd. Thanks to all who attended. Thanks to MaryLou Lim who directed the show, and played her heart out accompanying the performances. Thanks also to Jim White and Jarrah Myles for helping with the production.

Earlier that day, we had our final rally, coordinated by Antonio Isern and Student Government, a rally to honor and say goodbye to our seniors. True to our school, there was dancing and singing, the awarding of the spirit shield (surprise – the seniors won!), and a slide show to honor each of the seniors. Thanks to Antonio and Student Government for coordinating this celebratory event.

Very Big Week Ahead Culminating with Graduation Wednesday Evening, 6:30 pm, Laxson Auditorium, CSU, Chico.

Finals Week Schedule – June 3-6

• Monday, June 3 – 8:00 – 3:00 – Regular School Day (A day)

• Tuesday, June 4 – 8:00 – 12:35 – Finals Schedule (B day)

• Wednesday, June 5 – 8:00 – 12:35 Finals Schedule (A day)

NOTE: no late start

• Thursday, June 6 – 8:00 – 12:35 - *Day on the Purple*

Make sure to get plenty of rest and finish strong. Lots of projects and presentations are due this week as well as final tests. Good luck to all!

More news and info items.

Senior Sober Grad Night – Wednesday – 9pm to 1 am – AMF Bowling Alley in Chico

Tickets will be available on Monday and available in the office. Students will also be able to get them at the door of the bowling alley. Thanks to Summer Moore for coordinating and all the senior parents who have been on campus to remind seniors to bring their money and sell tickets. This is the inaugural sober grad night – always an adventure the first time, so we really appreciate the parents’ work to make it happen for the students.

Measure E Meeting Report

We had about 10 folks total involved in the meeting Wednesday night. I know many more have communicated our facility needs via the web site as well as I’ve provided much of your feedback to district facilities. We had a productive discussion with the architects and district facilities personnel in charge of the coordination and prioritization of the $78 million in Measure E money. We reviewed the needs for improvement of facilities as well as talked about ideas for a master plan for a facility that would ideally meet educational and programmatic needs. As we go forward, you can continue to make your voice heard through the web site and your participation in future meetings. One of our needs for safety is better lighting and security cameras – deterrents to the kind of behavior that defaced the mural.

Performance DVD’s Available – Due Monday, June 3^rd – Sorry for Late Notice

DVD Order Forms Are Available in IT-5

We have DVDs available for:

- "Perspective" The Dance & Choreography Showcase May 18th, 7PM

- "Music That Moves" Spring Music Concert May 21st, 7:15PM

- "Journey" Musical Theatre Showcase May 31st, 7PM

The DVDs are $20 each (cash or check payable to "Reel Dreams Productions")

Due Monday, June 3rd at the latest. They will be ready in July.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Students – Scholarship Competition Opportunity - $1000-100,000 in Scholarships

For information, go to the following link: http://siemens.collegeboard.org/ Application isn’t due until September 30^th, so you have lots of time to prepare.

Summer Robotics Program Provides Opportunities – a Partnership of Project Lead the Way and Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy.

PLTW is excited to announce that Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy, our RobotC software partner, has developed the 2013 Robotics Summer of Learning Project (RSOLP).

This summer, students and teachers will have the opportunity to develop programming skills, earn certifications, and win prizes. The training, certifications, and competition will be hosted online via the Computer Science Student Network (CS2N).

More information on free resources and opportunities through the RSOLP, including $10,000 in prizes and scholarships, can be found at www.cs2n.org

Free Online Courses – College Credit Available

This site is definitely worth exploring. Highly interactive. Thanks to Nancy Silva at Butte County Office of Education for passing this information along. FREE online courses… and Credit-granting exams designed to help students graduate more quickly from college and with less debt : )

http://education-portal.com/academy/course/index.html

Incendio: Inspire's Student Poetry Anthology--now available for purchase!

Welcome to the second edition of Incendio, an anthology of student poetry from Inspire School of Arts and Sciences. We are back and nothing has changed. Actually, a great deal has changed in terms of the presentation of the anthology. We now have a glossy new perfect-bound journal format that can be purchased on-line. We have taken editorial and styling cues from top literary journals, including a new contributor’s biography section. All of these new “professional” trimmings have helped our students see into the world of publishing, hopefully giving them insight into some of what it means to be a working writer or to work on the editorial staff of a literary journal. The success of the last anthology encouraged us to take this year’s publication to a format that would not only be more pleasing to reader but would also be available to friends, family, and other interested readers wherever they might be. At the heart of it, however, it is the same publication with the same values. Incendio reflects the encouraging, inclusive, egalitarian values of Inspire, The Living Poets poetry club, and all of the wonderful students and staff who have nurtured and supported it. It is, like all things Inspire, a place where young people can feel safe to take the sort of social and artistic risks that lead to growth, where they can take ownership of the direction of their studies, and where they can have an outlet for their ambitions that aspires to be as large as those ambitions. We are very proud to present this collection of student art and poetry.

You can purchase your copy online at the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/Incendio-Anthology-Becky-Helen-Brown/dp/1484109198/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368291934&sr=8-1&keywords=incendio+becky+brown

Juniors – Register for SAT or ACT Now!

Juniors - If you are planning on applying to CSU, UC and private colleges in the fall, and have not already registered for the SAT or ACT this spring, now is the time to do so. It is recommended that you take your college entrance exams now and then have the opportunity to retake them in the fall of your senior year. Register at sat.collegeboard.org and/or www.actstudent.org If you have questions, see Mrs. Johnson in counseling.

Inspire Hosting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Camp for Girls Going into 5^th, 6^th or 7^th Grades

Camp will run from June 17 through June 21 from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm and costs $250.00. It will include the following:

At first glance it may appear to be all fun and games but, this summertime camp experience prepares students for the rigors of high school science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classes. The critical thinking, creative problem-solving and collaboration skills that campers learn at STEM Summer Camp will benefit them for a lifetime.

Students will meet in Room PC6 at Inspire.

Each day begins … with a fun team-building exercise:

Making a human knot.

Building a desert shelter.

Role-playing plane-crash survival.

Campers then go on to work both separately and together on projects such as:

Creating a spacecraft strong and light enough to land an “eggstronaut” safely.

Building and racing a car that runs entirely on solar energy.

Firing missiles from a catapult made with a mousetrap.

Throughout the session, campers use the latest technology to solve big challenges, including:

Turning raw materials into wearable jewelry prototypes, using advanced sketching and modeling software.

Making a remote-controlled robot and programming it to navigate a maze in a race against the clock.

Designing, building and testing a rocket for maximum possible altitude and a perfect landing, with the help of Autodesk Inventor 3D modeling software.

To register, go to https://myrecreation.ucdavis.edu/store/index.aspx?view=activity&Unit=80&Rsc=536 and scroll down

It’s been a wonderful year. This will be my last weekly communication until beginning of next year. We will be communicating as needed during the summer months to help all prepare for the coming year. We will also have office hours most of the summer, and we’ll get that schedule out to you soon.

Thanks to everyone, and have a restful summer!

Eric Nilsson

Principal

Past messages from the Principal...

Latest Inspire Updates

posted by rpope@mail.chicousd.org on 02/10/13 at 01:28PM

Watch this spot fot important updates!