This week’s Paw Prints from Principal Katie Grassa:

• Fall Fling: Thank you to all the families who worked hard to make the Fall Fling a successful event for the Curley K-8 School. It was great to see families and staff enjoying their Friday evening as a way to support the school. This event would not have been possible without the School Parent Council and we appreciate all their efforts!
• Quality School Plan Meeting: The rescheduled event will take place twice to try to accommodate various schedules. The first meeting (Principal’s Breakfast) will be Friday, October 25th from 8:45am-9:45am in the Upper School Library and it will be repeated on Wednesday, October 30th from 6:00pm-7:00pm. All families are welcome to attend and hear about the goals and actions steps the Curley K-8 will focus on this school year.
• Halloween: I have heard from many staff and families around the celebration of Halloween and I appreciate their honesty and support. The Curley K-8 will not have a Halloween celebration during the school day. As a community we are focused on health and wellness and therefore we ask that all candy remain at home.
• Picture Day: Picture day is this week so read the earlier story for details. K-5 will participate on Monday, October 21st and 6th-8th will participate on Wednesday, October 23rd. Order forms were sent out in backpacks earlier but you can also downloaded them here.
• School Showcase: Stay tuned for updates and volunteer opportunities for the Boston Public Schools Showcase. This is the first time the new student assignment process will take place and we are going to be opening our school to potential families on Saturday, November 16th from 9am-1pm.
• NAEYC: The Curley K-8 School will be recognized for receiving NAEYC Accreditation at the November 6th School Committee Meeting. The meeting will take place at 6pm in the Winter Chambers at 20 Court Street. All are welcome to attend.
• Katie Grassa Professional Development (PD): Our school is participating in a national study concerning principal use of time. As a principal I try to make instructional work my priority but management duties sometime get in the way. A data collector will be shadowing me on 10/22, 10/23, 10/25, 10/28, 10/31. Every five minutes my “shadow” will take data on what I am doing. The data collector can’t talk to me, or anyone else. The data collector will carry a clipboard with a stopwatch and will try to be as “invisible” as possible and not disrupt our work.
  • I will receive the results of the data collection ten days later and will work with my SAM to increase the percentage of time I spend on instruction.
  • Next year we will repeat the data collection process to see how much progress I have made.
  • Please make every effort to interact with me as you do every other day.