Thank you to all of those families who are using our new comment box.  We are listening to your comments and appreciate that you are taking the time to submit them.  We love all the positive comments and understand there will always be some concerns as well.  Here are some answers to your concerns:

1.  “I would like to be able to contact the teachers via e-mail. Can’t ever find a place to do this on website.”  

Answer:  All of the MJGDS teachers and staff have the same format for their email address, (first name.last name@mjgds.org).  If this is forgotten, you can find all our teachers and staff email addresses on our website under the About Us page.  There is a Faculty and Staff  page under there.  This page includes each faculty member’s position and a direct link to their email address.

2.  ”MJGDS is a tremendously positive experience.  I was wondering…about school lunch…the gov’t is requiring public schools to make lunch healthier…are we?”

Answer:  Margo’s started a few years back providing healthier lunch options.  ”We have limited the amount of fried foods to be only once not more than twice a month. Our milk is 1% Low  Fat or Fat Free. We offer a full serving of cooked or raw vegetables and fresh fruits each day that exceeds the required portion size. We have also reduced the portion amount of the kid friendly foods that are not as healthy as we would like. Example: 2 Small Sliced of Pizza instead of 3 and 1 Beef Hot Dog instead of 2. We have incorporated more soups, low sugar fruit breads and muffins, we use a salt free seasoning for flavoring, removed the salt and pepper shakers from our lunch room, encourage each child to partake in all of the offerings and only offer Ice Cream on Fridays. We strive to make as many healthy choices for our children as possible.”

3.  “I don’t see how the head of school is accurately assessed on his performance if the parents are not directly asked how he is doing and what hasn’t been done yet.”

Answer:  Beginning last school year, parents were sent a survey in early April to give parents an opportunity to share (anonymously) feedback about each area of our operations, from academics to customer service and everything in between.  Direct questions about our head of school was included in this survey.  We will be sending out the same survey again this year.

Once again, Martin J. Gottlieb Day School students took First Place (in all three age catergories) in this year’s DAR Essay Contest.

Congratulations to:   Eighth Grade First Place Winner – Douglas N.,  Seventh Grade First Place Winner – Aaron K.,  Sixth Grade First Place Winner – Daniel N.

The Jewish Day School Video Academy Awards is a video contest with $50,000 in prize money for the videos schools submit.  Six winning videos will be selected by both public voting and expert judging.

The Avi Chai Foundation is giving away $50,000 in prizes! Eligible videos will be rated in two ways – public voting and expert judging. Both tracks have the same prizes:

•             First place: $10,000

•             Second place: $5,000

•             Third place: $2,500 in production equipment

Please be sure to rate the video and sign up to be reminded to vote every day.  Please also share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Email.  We have 3 videos submitted into the contest… The 50th Anniversary Video, Thanksgiving Deliveries and the latest Hanukkah Video!

“50^th Anniversary” – Please vote here: http://www.dayschoolvideoacademy.org/VideoView.aspx?MovieId=73

“Thanksgiving” – Please vote here: http://www.dayschoolvideoacademy.org/VideoView.aspx?MovieId=61

“Hanukkah” –  Please vote here: http://www.dayschoolvideoacademy.org/VideoView.aspx?MovieId=116

Use as many email address accounts as you have for everyone in your family!

Deadline is Feb. 5 to submit votes.  Announcement of winners will be Feb. 13.

The contest was  open to all students in either the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, Bernard & Alice Selevan Religious School or MAKOM.  The cover will be featured on the aforementioned guide, entitled Sh’ma Koleynu (Hebrew for “Hear our voices”) and targeted to making services more accessible to those who aren’t comfortable with Hebrew and/or aren’t familiar with the flow of service.  There will be explanations, a glossary, creative liturgy that can help people focus on the thematic elements found in the original Hebrew, and contain a transliteration of all the major parts of the service sung aloud.

Congratulations to Front Cover Winner - Julia.K, Back Cover Winner – Natan.S and Runner Up – Lily H.  Winners received a $100 gift certificate to the JJC Sisterhood Gift Shop and the Runner Up received a $50 gift certificate to the Shop.

Dear Friends,

Thanks to our collective efforts, MJGDS won $500 at last year’s Super Sunday!  Our MJGDS Dream Team had a great time together while volunteering to raise precious funds for our amazing Jacksonville Jewish community as well as the worthwile Israeli and overseas causes Federation generously supports.  Please join us again this year as well as encourage friends/family to come along to.  More information on Super Sunday is listed below.  We are so appreciative of your wonderful help!  By the way, Middle and High School students are more than welcome to join in the fun.

Warmest wishes, Andrea (aka MJGDS Dream Team Captain)

It’s that time of year again.  Time to work out your dialing fingers, charge up your cell phone and rally up the volunteer troops.  It’s almost Super Sunday 2012, and the challenge is on… will your agency win?  Without our Agency Volunteer teams, we would not be able to continue to raise funds for our local Jewish community and Jewish life around the world.  For the third year in a row, the top two agencies with the highest volunteer turn out will be granted a first place prize of $500 and a second place prize of $250.  This year, for your convenience, we have developed a registration link.  At this page, volunteers can sign up for our school’s team.  Calls will be made from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Sunday, February 5, 2012, at the JCA at 8505 San Jose Blvd.  Please sign up here:  http://jewishjacksonville.org/supersunday.aspx

Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 8:30 AM in the Shorstein Room.

There will be a Knesset Meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM.