Hello CMIT Family! I hope this email finds you well. This email will address the extension of school closures, 4th quarter grading policy, and communication protocol. School Closure Update As you know, Governor Hogan and Superintendent Salmon announced yesterday that all Maryland schools will remain closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At CMIT we have been preparing for this possibility and are ready to continue distance learning in an effort to provide the best possible education under these circumstances. Students will attend one class each day from Monday through Thursday and two classes every Friday. These classes may be live or recorded. There will be two assignments for each class due two days from the date assigned. Information for each class is posted in Google Classroom to include the class schedule and assignments. Weekly Schedule Mondays - Reading/Language Arts Tuesdays - Math Wednesdays - Science Thursdays - Social Studies Fridays - Electives        - 5/8, 5/22, 6/5: Spanish and PE/Health        - 5/15, 5/29, 6/12: Technology and Art Grading Policy Students will receive either a grade of pass (P) or incomplete (I) for 4th quarter. All students who receive a (P) grade will earn 3 quality points towards their cumulative average from quarters 1 through 3 for this school year. Example:  78 (quarter 1) + 73 (quarter 2) + 80 (quarter 3), final cumulative average grade of 77. Once the student earns a (P) grade for 4th quarter they will receive an additional 3 points for a new final average of 80. Communication All teachers will check emails Monday through Friday from 9am to 1pm. Parents and students are asked to contact teachers first with any class related questions. Any unresolved questions should be forwarded to the student's grade level administrator. All email addresses can be located on our website at http://cmitacademy.org/middleschool/faculty/. Our weekly Newsletter will continue to be released every Sunday. Please be sure to review for updates. It is highly encouraged that student review the newsletters to stay informed as well.

Andrew Brauer, Principal

Dear CMIT families, I hope this message finds everyone well during this crisis. Despite being in the midst of this pandemic, CMIT is still planning on offering a yearbook for the 2019-2020 school year. In order to put out a yearbook that reflects this school year, I need your help. If you have pictures from sports, clubs, or other school activities, please send them to me so I can use them in the yearbook. I would like to incorporate pictures of students learning at home, as well as them practicing social distancing. You could take photos of your students with their laptops still in their pajamas or outside with their masks on. Anything that will help record the COVID-19 pandemic, I can use. The deadline for photos is Monday, May 25th. Send photos to Amy Sumor - asumor@cmitacademy.org The window to order a yearbook has been extended to mid-June. To order a yearbook go to - URL: yearbook.lifetouch.com YEARBOOK ID: 12970820

Amy Sumor

Just a note of thanks to all the mothers, grandmothers, legal guardians, or big sisters who nurture, love and care for the little ones in our school community on a daily basis. You often go without so others can have, you take care of everyone's needs, many times before your own, and you are always there. Today we celebrate you and thank you for being a mom.

James Screven, Assistant Principal

According to Alberts et al. (1998), a gene is a region of DNA that controls a discrete hereditary characteristic of an organism, usually corresponding to a single protein or RNA. Of the 32,000 human genes (Penng, 2001), only a fraction of the genes in a cell are expressed at any given time. An expressed gene is a gene that is transcribed into RNA. How does the cell determine which genes will be expressed and which will remain “silent”? Biology students from Elon determine the role of protein synthesis to heredity by simulating regulation of gene expression of a fictitious character called “EuGene”. Regulation of gene expression is a process by which a gene exerts its effect on a cell or an organism, usually by directing the synthesis of an RNA molecule that can be translated into a protein with a characteristic activity. “EuGenes” are members of Animal kingdom. They contain only one chromosome that is made up of eight genes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H), each of which is responsible for a certain trait. The above pictures showed some of the students' work.

Mrs. Crespo-Montano (Science Teacher & TRAC Bridge Advisor)

Dear Parents and Students, I would like to extend my many thanks to each and every one of the parents who have been working diligently to ensure students are on task and an active participant in the distance learning process. Some of you have expressed your gratitude towards me during teacher’s appreciation week, but I will say that you the parents are equally deserving of the recognition as co-educators of your children during this new distance learning process. Many of you done what is normally the hard work of keeping students on task and accountable for actively learning and engaging with the educational material provided by the teachers. If you have checked SchoolMax recently, you may have noticed a change in the category assignation for each assignment. Prince George’s County Public Schools has recently made an update to the grading policy for the fourth quarter indicating that all work completed by students must now be placed in the classwork category. Each assignment is now equally weighed and can only be distinguished by the numerical value of each assignment instead of the percentage weight of the category. Hence, I have made a change in the numerical value of the quizzes that students have completed so far to ensure a proper balance in all the work completed by students. The initial Reading English/Language Arts distance learning plan was detailed in an April 5th newsletter blurb and in an April 8th email. In the initial plan, the explanation provided for adding a weekly quiz that extended beyond the two weekly assignments required by our school district was to fulfill the CMIT administration’s directive to maintain a balanced number of assignments in each category. Since the school district mandates that RELA classes have three weighted categories in the gradebook—classwork 40%, homework 10%, and assessments 50%--I intended to use one weekly classwork and one weekly homework to fulfill the district’s two weekly assignment requirement. The weekly quizzes were intended to fulfill the administration’s balanced gradebook requirement. With the new gradebook mandate, I have needed to decrease the point value of each quiz and to exempt students who had not successfully completed the additional workload that extended beyond the two required weekly assignments. Since the beginning of the school year, all classwork assignments have been valued at 15 points each to ensure that one missed or incomplete assignment did not disproportionately impact a student’s grade. Following the same rationale, all homework assignments have been valued at 10 points each. Tests have varied in points within a reasonable range between 50 and 70 points on average. The result of the measures has ensured that students have had multiple and equitable opportunities to overcome any academic misstep in their learning process within a grading term. In the same spirit of balance and fairness, both the first 50-point and the second 48-point quizzes will be reduced at 25 points and 24 points consecutively. Each item on the quizzes was originally valued at 2-points each; however, the value of each item will be halved at 1-point each. Students who completed the two quizzes will be given full-credit solely on the basis of completing the assignment. Because the assignments extended beyond the expected two assignments required by the district, the quizzes will serve as a virtual bonus for the students’ fidelity in keeping up with the assignments posted in Google Classroom. The students who did not complete the quizzes will be exempt from the quizzes and the assignment will not hurt their grade. Because the quizzes will serve as a bonus and because every student without exception was granted a one-day extension to complete each quiz, there will be no more extensions for any of the two quizzes. The assignments that would normally be completed in a physical setting will still include a warm-up, guided practice, and independent practice totaling 15 points. The assignments that would normally be assigned as homework, such as the vocabulary exercises, will be valued at 10 points. Moving forward, students will complete two assignments per week. Each assignment will continue to be posted at 9:00 a.m. every Monday and due at 9:00 a.m. every Wednesday in accordance with the district requirement that students be granted two days (48 hours) to complete the two assignments. Thank you for all you do. You have responded to the call as partners in the education of your students and, for that, I am extremely grateful.

Mr. Conde RELA 7 Teacher

Hello ALL !!!! IMPORTANT NOTE Please be mindful of the due dates. I will NOT check work that is handed in late after the due date. All work will need to be completed and summited into google classroom within the days allowed. I will grade all work completed on time and post grade to SchoolMax by Monday at 11:59PM. Again all work done after will not be accepted, this includes resubmissions.

D Curry

Subject: Vacancies on the High School PTO Operating Board The High School Executive Operating Board will have openings for the 2020-21 School Year. Positions include: President Vice President Corresponding Secretary Treasurer If you are interested in any role, contact the High School PTO at hsinfo@cmitnorthpto.org no later than May 15. Thank you,

Thank You, MS CMIT PTO

As we continue with distance learning, many teachers are utilizing Zoom for live lessons. PGCPS has mandated that teachers use the district's account. Because of this, students need their PGCPS account information. Your student's PGCPS email, clever log-in, and SchoolMax log-in are all the same. If your student has access to one, they have access to all. If your student does not have their PGCPS log-in then please email Mrs. Linnenkamp (jlash@cmitacademy.org). Please see the how-to guide regarding the best way to access Zoom while you are on your computer so that you can assist your student.

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CMIT Administration

Q: Is CMIT North MS a public school? 

A: Yes We are a public charter school who is staffed by PGCPS teachers and administration, and support staff who work along side of a limited CLF staff. We have access to PGCPS support but also benefit from additional guidance, management and financial support from Chesapeake Light House Foundation, whose educational concept this school is based on. 

Q: Do siblings get preference in applying to CMIT?

A: The process of gaining entry to any charter school in Prince George's County is through a lottery. However, siblings of already attending CMIT students are weighted differently during the lottery process. This different weighting gives preference to siblings. 

Q: What makes CMIT different then any other school in the district? 

A: Although we are a PGCPS public charter, we are given some autonomy over curriculum. This autonomy allows us to fast track students, who are academically ready, through selected high school courses in math, foreign language, science and technology. It is that fast tracking that opens up opportunity to more advanced  coursework on the college level while still in high school.  Additionally, we offer students supports and enrichments to every student, not available at most schools. Lastly, we are a uniform school which takes away the distraction, the competition and the social stratification that is brought on by non uniform dress in a school. 

Our test scores oustrip not only county averages but also state avaerages. This, along with other metrics has made us a 5 star school. 

Q: Do you offer everything the big middle and high school's offer? 

A: Unlike many school in Maryland, we do not have a  full spectrum offerings in sports.  Instead, our focus is on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). Therefore, our sports offerings are more limited.  We offer, boys and girls soccer, basketball, girl's softball, boy's baseball and club lacrosse in the middle school. Additionally, boys and girls basketball, track/field and volleyball at the high school level. With that said we recently (2017) won the girls county basketball championship and made it to the playoffs in soccer. Our high school opened a multi-million dollar, state of the art gym complex, competitive with all schools of their size. The middle school has also added an indoor gym space.  Lastly, we do offer special educational services, but becuase we are a school of choice, the amount of service hours we can provide is limited to 7.5 hours a week, split between literacy and math. Services hours are delivered by special education teachers but are limited to literacy and math courses.