January 9th- January 13th

From the Board of Governors

Dear members of the CAS Community,

We hope that you and your families are in good health and in good spirits.

The Board of Governors thanks all parents, faculty and staff members who attended the Ordinary General Assembly meeting on December 15th, 2022. At this meeting, the association approved the 2021-22 financial statements, renewed association's audit firm's (BDO, ex-KPMG) mandate for the next three years, elected a new member and ratified an appointed member to the Board of Governors.

We extend our warmest congratulations to Mr. Yazan Alahmad (elected) and Mr. Ali El Alaoui (appointed) who join the Board of Governors. In addition, we are very pleased to welcome Ms. Robyn Mofsowitz, who has been appointed as the representative of the U.S. Consulate General on the Board of Governors. We look forward to working together with our new members in service of our school and community.

As we welcome our new members, we express our deepest gratitude to our outgoing members, Mr. Nabil Safieddine (elected), Mr. Salahaddine Mouaddib (appointed) and Mr. Alex Black (U.S. Consulate General representative). Mr. Safieddine, Mr. Mouaddib and Mr. Black have served with great dedication and talent, providing valuable insights and support, and helping to ensure institutional continuity for our school's governance.

We thank you for your continued support and commitment to our school's mission and our children's success.

Sincerely,

Omar Laafoura

President

Board of Governors

Director's Message

Happy New Year, Happy Hanukah, Happy Amazigh New Year to all of our CAS community members and Congratulations to the Moroccan Football team for their 4th place during the World Cup.

We welcome everyone back for the second stretch of the year. The month of December has been busy and, as usual, there is a lot to share with our Community Members.

As a US Department of State assisted school, we had the pleasure to welcome on campus one more time, Dr. Beatrice Cameron, who has been our United States Department of State Office of Overseas Schools Regional Educational Officer for thirty-two (32). Dr. Cameron is retiring to do what she likes best; Reading. Dr. Cameron holds Morocco and more particularly the Casablanca American School dearly in her heart and will miss our Community. Thank you Bea for your incredible support for all of these years. CAS will definitely miss you.

We also would like to inform our community that Louis Sirota and Rebecca Keel from Education Design International spent a week visiting, touring and meeting with our Community Members; Instructional, Support, Administrative Staff, Parents and Students to conduct their Discovery Phase as we plan to upgrade the school physical plant. We extend our appreciation to the students, parents, faculty and staff for their valuable feedbacks and suggestions which EDI will consider as appropriate when they begin to plan for our new construction and building renovations.

A special thank you to the Facilities Committee Members who have been working hard on this project:

Rachid Chaoui

John J. Randolph

Ghaiti Mamoune

Ghandi Najmeddine

Agnieszka Bazus

Mohamed Es-Sagar

We sincerely thank our Board President, Omar Laafoura, for his dedication and participation on this committee and for his sound advice.

As we encourage students at CAS to be Global Citizens by respecting, advocating, questioning and thriving to make this world better, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. whom we will be celebrating on Monday, January 16th. Dr. Martin Luther King was one of the most important activists, agent for social change and advocate of Human Rights in US history.

As a reminder, please note that there will be school on Monday in case you did not get the chance to check the updated calendar, and in which Monday, January 16th is marked as a day off.

Finally, we would like to present our sincere condolences to Hamza Hajry (Class of 2015) and Jinane Hajry (Class of 2010) for the loss of their father. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hajry Family. Our thoughts and prayers go also to Mrs. Jamai Ghazlani Kaoutar (mother of Hamza in Grade 10 and Radia in Grade 5), a long-term PTC valubae member for the loss of her mother.

Have a great weekend

Sincerely,

John Randolph

When CAS former teachers shine beyond the Solar System

We are so honored and so proud to have our former IB Physics Teacher discover an exoplanet that appears to be a World like Earth but covered in a vast global ocean, Collin Cherubim. Collin joined CAS in 2019 as the IB Physics Teacher for 3 years before joining the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department as a student at Harvard University where he is enrolled in a PhD program in Astrophysics.

Please follow the link to view this amazing discovery: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.06445.pdf

Stay tuned!! More will be shared about Mr. Cherrubim's discovery of the Exoplanet..

Hereafter is Collin's message to CAS Community:

Dearest CAS community: I miss you! Since leaving my positions as IB Physics teacher and Science Department Chair, I’ve begun my next chapter at the Harvard Earth & Planetary Science PhD program where I do astrophysics research. In my first year, I studied applied mathematics, Earth climate science, the origins of life, developed a planetary atmosphere model, and I discovered a new exoplanet! It’s been a successful year. I’ve also continued my role as an educator by teaching a Harvard undergraduate course, tutoring high school students in physics and chemistry, and serving as a research mentor for high school students aspiring to be astrophysicists in partnership with MIT. I’m so excited to reconnect with CAS. I hope you’ll come hear about my research soon and reach out for physics tutoring! In the meantime, check out my latest video at http://www.etaearth.org

Academics

From the US Principal

In the last edition, we have featured Model United Nations . We are proud of our Upper School students as they show their involvement through the different clubs and committees that they have formed this year. All these young men and women are true ambassadors in the field they are representing. In this edition, I would like to feature People-To-People

People to People is an Upper School student-run volunteer club that provides an opportunity for students to help our community both in and out of our school. Students bring forth their own volunteer project ideas and then work together to make them a reality. By channeling our passions, skills, and privilege, we help people in need and deepen our own levels of empathy.

Last year, we were able to successfully execute the nature cleanup in the Bouskoura Forest, the Talent Show to raise money for an elderly home, the Blood Drive to replenish blood banks in the midst of the covid crisis, and other fun projects that allow us to give back to our Moroccan community.

Thank you to Ms. Melissa Mitchem, Mr. David Klemp and Mr. Bachir Niah, People-To-People advisors, and to the students Volunteers for keeping up the great CAS Commitment to helping those in need!

Simohamed Sarhane

From the LS Principal

Hello! Welcome back to a happy new year in the Lower School! We ended this first week back by completing the Reading and Math MAP tests in Grade 2-6. These reports will be sent home in the coming weeks. Teachers use MAP Scores as well as other data points to drive instruction and individualize your child's learning. Don't forget about the upcoming Family Outreach event: Multilingual Story Night on January 26th at 17:30. This event is for Preschool and Lower School students and parents only. More details about the night are coming soon!

Have a restful weekend

Elizabeth Phillips

First Grade Physics Field Trip

Back in November our first graders enjoyed an educational field trip to the Green Town Golf Course to discover physics in action!

The Pros at the golf course gave them a wonderful tour around the golf course and taught them how to use force to hit the ball in different ways and how to use gravity to place the ball closer to the hole.

Community News

Congratulations to Dr. Melissa Mitchem

Our IB History teacher Ms. Mitchem defended her dissertation over the Winter Break, which means she has finished her PhD at Columbia University in New York. Her PhD is in social studies education and her dissertation reflects over seven years of courses, papers, and research. Congratulations, Dr. Mitchem!

People 2 People Nature Clean Up Day

This past week, the People 2 People committee organized a Nature Clean Up day at the Bouskoura Forest. The event was led by Faiza Bourhfir (11th grade) and Aahd Arnous (12th grade) with 25 volunteers in attendance from grades 9 to 12.

Congratulations to Ibrahim Benssy (Grade 4)

We are so proud of Ibrahim Benssy (Grade 4): "Ibrahim and Showtime Blacky are crowned Champions of Morocco Pony A 2022 thanks to their 5 rounds without fault throughout the Championship with a jump-off 3 seconds faster than the second." It’s great to see them both on the highest step of the Podium. Go Champ!

Welcome to Ms. Alexandra Chaunu, who just joined us as the Lower School French teacher, replacing Ms. Kenzi Benjelloun. As we welcome Alexandra, we also wish Kenzi all the best in her future endeavors.

Welcome to Ms. Anissa Peters and Ms. Alexandra Chaunu

This week, Anissa Peters, alumni of CAS class of 2011,has rejoined the CAS family, but this time as part of the administration taking on the role of Communication and Marketing Manager.

After graduating from CAS, Anissa went on to continue her university studies in Boston, where she attended Northeastern University, for which she serves as the Northeastern University Ambassador for Morocco today. Since then, Anissa has worked in marketing throughout various industries; tech startups, retail, finance and most recently agriculture.

Message from Anissa: "CAS holds some very cherished memories for me and I am very happy to be back at CAS for a new adventure. I look forward to collaborating with each and everyone of you."

Talent Show

Save the date and join us to discover our talents on February 11th at 6:00 pm.

From the Admissions Office

Dear CAS community,

Application for Admissions for the 2023-2024 Academic Year is now open! Should you need to enroll another child please do so as soon as possible. Places are extremely limited!!

We also encourage you to represent us and inform your family and friends because there are no better ambassadors than members of our beautiful community. Make sure to drop by our office to fill out an inquiry form or digitally fill one out on our website.

Cordially,

Zaineb Sajid- Admissions Officer

CAS in a glance today!!!!!

Congratulations to the Varsity Basketball Boys for winning today against GWA. Imad Jacobs, with the 13 goals that you scored, you took the game to another level.

Thank you to the Varsity Basketball Girls for doing your best!

Lost and Found

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Lost and Found items will be displayed by the back gate EVERY Friday, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. Please take the time to claim lost items .

If you have not seen our new faculty and staff biographies you can find them here. A link to this page is always available at the end of our what's up cobras.

Alumni Corner

We are currently working on updating our Alumni page on our website. Please stay tuned for it's official publishing soon to find out more about our Alumni!

KEY DATES

January 16th

Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Day

January 19th

IB Information Night

January 25th- January 31st

IB Mock Exams

Shout out to All Alumni!

We seek to share information on our Alumni to our community and it is also an opportunity for the Alumni to stay in touch! Please email us pictures and updates and we would be happy to share them!

We are eager to hear from you! Email us at the following email address: alumni@cas.ac.ma

What's Up Cobras