The Colonial Connection 
ffa team - county champs
Monday, February 13, 2017



Pictured very top:
CHS' FFA team which just won the the High School Division in a major county-wide competition
(story below).

Connect With CHS
Colonial High School
   

The theme for this week's update is geared to student and staff recognitions. It is truly amazing when you consider the highlights below are for the most part covering only a short period over recent days. I am very proud of our Grenadiers as their achievements are quite broad ranging from academics and career/technical education to athletics and measures of personal character. Here at Valentine's Day '17, I cannot help but pause and take note once again at how our high school truly has been blessed with extremely committed students, faculty, and support staff. It remains indeed a privilege to serve as your principal.

Parents, we still asking for your help. To date, we are only at about two-thirds of our goal with respect to the 2017 school climate survey. We need your feedback very soon as part of our school improvement efforts. If you have taken the survey, thank you; if not, kindly invest a few minutes this week to do so.



Happy Valentine's Day and thank you for looking over this latest issue. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

It's Great to be a Grenadier!

Jose T. Martinez
Principal
Colonial High School

Note:
If you no longer attend or have a student attending CHS and do not want to read our weekly updates, you may opt out at the very top of this issue. However, if you do so, your email will be permanently removed from the system as a security step. We hope you will continue.  


Around the Corner . . .
 
Feb. 13: This Week's Sports Schedule - Click Here
Feb. 14: Happy Valentine's Day!
Feb. 16: OCPS Virtual Parent Academy - 1 Hour Online (Middle School focus) - Details
Feb. 20: Presidents' Day - No School
Feb. 22: Career Fair at Holden Heights Community Center - Details (CHS Guidance)
Mar. 01: No Early Release
Mar. 06: AP Curriculum Night (learn about the variety of Advanced Placement classes & meet the teachers)



Vital Signs


 
Testing

Below are the dates coming up over the next few months where we will be testing a large number of students. This will require us to be on an adjusted bell schedule during those days. We are currently working on the schedules for those dates and will get those out to you as soon as they have been approved.

March 1st
- SAT for all Juniors
March 6th - FSA Writing all 9th and 10th graders plus any 11th and 12th grader that still needs a passing score
March 7-10 - PERT Math 10th, 11th and 12th graders who have not passed the Algebra I EOC
April 17th and 18th - FSA ELA Reading for all 9th and 10th Graders (All students must take All three parts of the FSA ELA Writing and Reading test for the Test to count)
April 24th - 26th - Common Final Exams for Seniors
April 27th and 28th - Algebra 1 EOC, Algebra 2 EOC, and Geometry EOC (First time takers only, 2 part test)
May 1st-12th - AP Testing
May 2nd to June 6th - Cambridge Testing
May 4-10 - PERT Math 12th graders in Math for College Readiness and Liberal Arts Math classes and those that have not passed the Algebra I EOC
May 8th - US History EOC
May 9th - Biology 1 EOC
May 15 -19 - PERT Math for 9th, 10th and 11th graders who have not passed the Algebra I EOC (both campuses)
May 22nd - 24th - Common Final Exams - all 9th - 11th graders

* FSA = Florida Standards Assessments (FLDOE)
**  EOC = End of Course Exam

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Official SAT Practice - Khan Academy 
Research data shows that if students practice on Khan for 9 hours prior to taking the SAT, students will see 100 point increase on SAT scores.  Remember all Juniors will be taking the SAT on March 1st.  Please encourage your child to take advantage of this free resource (click image below).

khan

Dual Enrollment
Valencia College & CHS

Any student interested in dual enrollment next year should visit the valencia College Dual Enrollment webpage to find out more information (click below). Thank you.

vc

CHS - FFA Wins the Orange County High School Division!
Career and Technical Education - FFA

ffa On January 19, we held our Orange County FFA Federation land evaluation career development event at Magnolia Park.

The students had to evaluate four (4) different soil practicums and determine the best use of each soil area.  These evaluations included areas such as: determining soil texture, wet season water tables, depth of potential rooting zones, soil PH, soil nutrient needs, drainage, home site potential as well as calculating slope and percent loss of surface soil due to wind and water erosion.

OCPS had 15 teams with 60 students participate in this year's educational event. After all the scores were tabulated, OCPS is proud to announce that SunRidge Middle School FFA won the middle school division and Colonial HS FFA won the high school division. 

Good luck to CHS FFA as they will now represent Orange County in the stateside event!

* Please see the very top of this issue for a picture of the CHS FFA team.

CyberPatriot Team (CyberGrenadiers) Wins 3rd Place Award!
National Youth Cyber Defense Competition 
 
Established by the Air Force Association, the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was created to excite, educate, and motivate students toward careers in cyber security and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation's future.

Led by Coach Richard A. Matias, the team of students from Colonial High School excelled in the CyberPatriot IX State Round held Jan. 13-15, demonstrating teamwork, critical thinking skills, and technical knowledge key to a successful career in cybersecurity.

* More information is available at www.uscyberpatriot.org or from the CyberPatriot staff at info@uscyberpatriot.org

cyber 
Team members: Hieu T. Ngo, Sarah Soran, Ryan R. Arjune, Alexandra R. Laliberte,
Kaleb Sauceda, Jazlibeth Burgos 
 
Club News - FFA (Part II)
Colonial FFA Chapter earns third place in the Florida FFA Food Science state competition!

Our FFA students demonstrated skills in sensory education, food safety, and food quality. Additionally, they presented a scenario on food product design and development, reflecting knowledge of nutrition, cost analysis, production, and target marketing. 

Student Valerie Lantiqua earned 1st high individual receiving a perfect score on every segment of the competition. Our FFA students will be recognized at the Florida FFA State Convention.  

ffa 
From left: Emily May, Valerie Lantiqua, Elenna Vias, and Sophia Jaramillo-Vasconez
 at the University of Florida where the Feb. 4state competition was held.

What is FFA?
 
January Students of the Month
Sophomore: Andy Marichal (not pictured); Junior Yalicia Ramos: Seniors (tie): Safia Alkhub and Alexa Isaac

Basis: January Character Trait of the Month = Respect
 

Yalicia Ramos,
Class of 2018

Safia Alkhub,
Class of 2017

Alexa Isaac,
Class of 2017

Athletics



Boys Wrestling - East Metros Highlights:

* Senior Khanh Dinh took 2nd place in the 170lb weight class making his record for the season 35-11

* Junior Benjamin Burgos took 2nd place in the 145lb weight class improving his record to 7-7

Note:
Benjamin Burgos was the only unseeded wrestler in the tournament to make it to the finals knocking off the 2nd seeded wrestler from Cypress Creek High School in the semi-finals.

* Colonial placed 7th as a team jumping up two spots from last year!





Girls Wrestling State Championship Highlights:
Colonial competed at the annual state championship for all girls wrestling. Junior   Arianna Lugo placed 4th in the 182lb weight class and Colonial placed 34th as a team out of 80 girls teams from across the state of Florida. 
 


From left: Coach Pitts, Arianna Lugo, and Coach Armstrong

Edgenuity Open Lab: Attention ALL Edgenuity Students
OPEN LAB

Do you need more time to work on making up your class(es)? Mrs. Short will be having open lab after school from 2:30-4:30 PM every Tuesday and Thursday in her room. (This is open to Mrs. Short's and Coach Smith's students.) Please let her know if you need transportation home so we can get you a bus pass for the tutoring buses.
  
Savings Opportunity for CHS Grenadiers
CHS has a CFE branch office operating on the campus!

CFE Colonial Branch New Youth Account Offer
Open a new account by March 31 and CFE will provide $15.00 in matching funds and a pair of CFE earbuds.

Existing CFE Student Accounts
Members who deposit at least $10.00 into their savings account each week for 8 weeks will be entered to win a $150.00 VISA gift card. Each week that a student deposits $10.00, they will receive an additional chance to win the grand prize.

cfe
 
Video Conferencing
 
video
Mr. Martinez video conferences into our SAC/PTSA meeting this past Thursday through
 the use of Safari Montage Live. 
  
    
Freshman Campus
Medical Skills

medical skills
 Freshman Grenadiers have been practicing how to take vital signs in their medical skills class

Parting Shot of the Week
Support Person of the Year Banquet at the Rosen Centre
Ms. Kelly and Ms. Omat 

spoy  
 Ms. Kelly (left) and Ms. Omat (right) flank Principal Martinez at last Wednesday's
special OCPS Support Person of the Year banquet.  
CONGRATULATIONS! 
 
CHS Social Media
 
chs fb
chs t
chs ig
CHS YT

Leadership Team

Principal: Mr. Jose Martinez jose.martinez@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Ms. Elizabeth Fuller elizabeth.fuller@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Dr. Lisa Karcinski lisa.karcinski@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Ms. Betzabeth Reussow betzabeth.reussow@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Ms. Mabel Rios mabel.rios@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Mr. Jairo Rosales jairoerosales@ocps.net
Assistant Principal: Mr. Demond Walker demond.walker@ocps.net
Leadership Team Biographies: Leadership Team Biographies

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Copyright Notice
Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS-Colonial High School is forbidden without written consent.  Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and OCPS-Colonial High School. Please contact Dr. Lisa Karcinski (assistant principal) at lisa.karcinski@ocps.net with any questions.