Parent Assembly Meeting Minutes – January 21, 2015 [DRAFT]

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Principal Report: There was an incident yesterday in which shots were fired on the school’s block.  Police came right away and the school began “shelter in”- all doors to the school are locked and no one can go in or out.  In 25 minutes the police gave the “all clear”.  This happened right before dismissal.  Late at night, there was another report of shots being fired.  All staff involved with the protocol acted calmly and quickly and the kids were never in danger.

Question from a parent: if it happens when kids are on the playground, what happens?  Bradley explained that the kids will be brought in immediately.  Perhaps they could think about practicing this as a drill to get the kids inside fast.

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New York State ELA and Math test prep

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Dear parents of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students,

Surely you know that the New York State ELA and Math tests are approaching.  The ELA will be administered on April 14, 15 and 16 and the math test will be on April 22, 23 and 24.  We obviously want all of our students who take the tests to do well, and our teachers and I have been thinking a lot about how we will prepare our students most effectively, while not compromising the integrity of the high-quality and student-centered teaching and learning that is the EVCS hallmark.  What we have come up with is this — we strongly believe that our Common Core aligned curriculum and strong pedagogy will prepare our students to do well on these tests, and that conventional “test prep” can be far less engaging for students and ultimately not necessarily more effective at producing great results.  Therefore, our teachers will be implementing a plan this year that essentially provides a minimal amount of conventional test prep, but provides small, regular doses of thoughtful exposure to test type questions and format, while staying the course on our regular math and ELA curriculum.

For many of our students this will be all it takes.  Some of our students and families however will prefer an additional level of practice and exposure before the state tests, and I’m glad to say that we will create time and space for that after school.  The after school test prep program is totally optional, available to all of our students in grades 3-5 and free of charge.  Here is how it will work:  Participating students will stay after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2:50 until 4:00, beginning February 25th and ending April 1st.  There will not be sessions on the days of our parent-teacher conferences on March 18 and 19.  There are a total of 9 after school sessions.  We do need to know which families are interested in enrolling their kids in the program so we can prepare accordingly.  Please fill out this form if you are interested: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ku5FDHe-ODXoRtf1YXiUnaJbZ0mN6e-bvfG63qW5Dy4/viewform?usp=send_form.

Many thanks, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Bradley Goodman
Principal, IA
East Village Community School

2 days left to register for AfterSchool@EVCS!

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Dear Families,

AfterSchool registration for the spring semester is still open. We are so excited to offer some new classes along with old favorites and the schedule looks great! Please follow this link for information , to see the class list and to register your child. Registration will close at the end of the day on Friday. If you do not have access to the Internet and would like a hard copy format to register your child, please contact our parent coordinator, James Mowry, and she will provide one for you.

Email PAPresident@evcsnyc.org with any questions.

Best,
AfterSchool@EVCS

Thank you for attending the EVCS Jubilee!

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Dear EVCS Families, Staff and Administration,

Thank you to everyone who came out for a night of spectacular homegrown music, dancing and bubblegum blowing at last weekend’s EVCS Winter Jubilee.

Thank you to the the gifted musicians in our community who so generously donated their talent and time: Val Kinzler on Piano/vox and her band mates, Moon Goddess: Lacy James Mandolin/vox, Michelle Fury Guitar/vox, Joseph Vasta (bass), also thanks to Bryan Schneider, Bradley Goodman, and the wonderful Kid Lucky who won the most Funky Dollars from the audience.

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AfterSchool Registration OPEN

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AfterSchool registration for the spring semester is now open. We are so excited to offer some new classes along with old favorites and the schedule looks great! Please follow this link for information, to see the class list and to register your child. Registration will be open all week and will close at the end of the day on Friday. If you do not have access to the Internet and would like a hard copy format to register your child, please contact our parent coordinator, James Mowry, and she will provide one for you.

Best,
AfterSchool@EVCS

Expected Snowstorm today: Monday, January 26

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Parents Please Note:

Due to the expected snowstorm today, Mayor de Blasio has cancelled all field trips and after school programs for New York City public schools. If your child attends an EVCS after school program please be sure to make arrangements for pick up at regular dismissal time 2:50 pm.

If you child attends another after school program (other than EVCS) please be sure to contact the program directly to confirm scheduling.

The weather forecast indicates that this storm is due to arrive tomorrow and continue into Tuesday, January 27. For further updates about school schedule and weather, look for alerts posted to the DOE website. Announcements of school closings are also reported on radio and other media outlets.

All unnecessary travel is discouraged beginning Monday afternoon, to allow people already on the road to safely reach their destinations before the heavy snow begins, and to allow snow removal equipment to begin to clear roads. Tips from ready.gov.

Blizzard Warning for NYC and Southern NY State

If the forecast delivers,
be safe, enjoy the snow and curl up with a good book!

Best,
James

Next Week at EVCS and more…

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Dear Parents

Thank you for supporting P94 the Spectrum School in their effort to raise money for one of their families, it was very much appreciated.

Re: The Talk on Testing
Bradley gave an informative talk on Testing at our recent
General Parent Association Meeting yesterday morning.
Bradley referred to the ELA Guide during his talk…
Here is one link to a 4th grade guide as a reference point:
Educator Guide to the 2015 Grade 4
Common Core English Language Arts Test
Click here for MORE On Common Core at engageNY We plan to follow-up with a speaker surrounding the common core and more on testing.

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Letter of Support for cafeteria noise-reduction-related capital funding

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Dear Principals Goodman, Shuster and Velez-Clarke,

The School Building-Wide Wellness Committee for the Children’s Workshop School, the East Village Community School and the Spectrum School has written a letter of support for your request for capital funding to reduce noise levels in the school building cafeteria. Attached are the letter and images of sound pressure (i.e., noise) readings taken in the cafeteria during the lunch hour on January 16, 2015.

In the interest of being “green”, we are emailing this letter and images, however, please do not hesitate to let me know if you need hard copies of the attached files. If you have any questions, please contact either me at the information below or Tina Gilberti, CWS Parent and Chair of CWS’s Wellness Committee. We thank you in advance for your review of our support letter and look forward to providing assistance in any way possible for advancing this important initiative.

Link to the letter

Best regards,

Naumi Feldman
EVCS Parent
Chair, EVCS Parents Association’s Green and Wellness Committee
Member, School Building-Wide Wellness Committee

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