Organizing around the budget cuts continues at a frantic pace! No need to remind our community, but our advocacy work stems from the deep cuts we as a school, as well as other schools, faces next year.

Tonight, our very own 1st grade teacher Laurie Ciardi will testify on enrollment projections problems in front of the Boston School Committee (BSC).

The meeting will be at 6pm, tonight, Wednesday, February 26th, in the Winter Chamber of 26 Court Street.

As ever, a group of Curley parents will join her and show their solidarity by standing silently with her as she speaks.

Wear your Curley shirts! Come and join us.

We will do the same for other parents from other schools. Our organizing is gathering pace as we work with now 14 other schools, coordinating our actions, and advocating for all schools in our BPS family. These schools are from all over Boston, from the Winship in Brighton to Youth Achievers in Mattapan, from the Hurley in the South End to the Roosevelt in Hyde Park.

Parent Testifies at the Last BSC Meeting

Parent Carrie Fletcher delivered our testimony at the last BSC meeting, giving a comprehensive overview of the problems schools face as they get larger. She urged the BSC to adopt our scale proposal, and she also outlined again our cuts. We first testified this year at the last January meeting of the BSC.

Carrie’s testimony is here:
Carrie Fletcher’s BSC Statement – 020514

You can also watch the video of the entire meeting here. Public comments began at the 18:30 minute mark.

We were very grateful to be joined by many other parents from other schools who came and stood with us as Carrie delivered her testimony. Many, many thanks to the folks from the Roosevelt, Mendell, and the BTU who joined us that night. We also stood with them as they delivered their speeches. There was also eloquent testimony from parents from the Mary Lyon as well.

We’ve been busy!

We’ve been busy! We have met with City Councilors Matt O’Malley, and Tito Jackson, and Jessica Taubner, Councilor Ayanna Pressley’s Chief of Staff, and were joined at that meeting by parents from 10 other schools.

We met yesterday with George Perry, Mayor Walsh’s Education Advisor, and were joined by parents representatives from 6 other schools. We will be meeting with Superintendent John McDonough a little later today before the BSC meeting.

We are also very grateful that so many parents have also stepped in to speak at the forthcoming school committee meetings too – thank you!

We have several more meetings being planned with members of the City Council, the School Committee, and the Boston State delegation.

Email Campaign Launching This Week!

An email campaign with pre-written emails, one to the Superintendent, School Committee, City Council and the Mayor, and a second for the Boston State Delegation is launching later this week.

Please take part. All you will need to do is click to open the pre-written, pre-addressed email, then fill out your name and neighborhood, and then hit send. Or if you prefer, you can simply copy and paste the pre-written statement, sign it, and mail it.

Keep your eyes open for it over the next couple of days.

Join the Organizing!

For more information or to be involved, again please contact Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, Carrie Fletcher, or Jill Lazer.

Below is the script of the recent ConnectEd phone message from Principal Grassa. The announcement is about the playing field capital campaign, and this Friday’s Principal Breakfast.

_____________

Hello this is Katie Grassa; principal of the Curley K-8 School. I hope you had a restful vacation.

I’m calling on behalf of the School Parent Council Playing Field committee to share some great news. The committee is pleased to announce that they have reached a goal of $240k raised thus far. We are asking for your continued support to help us reach an additional 20k by this Saturday, March 1st any amount of donation will help us to reach our goal and to transform the playing field for our students and community and we are hoping so by the start of school in September.

If you would like to donate or know someone who would like to donate please go online to playingfield.curleyk8.com.

Just as a reminder the Principal Breakfast is this Friday, February 28th at 8:45am in the upper school library. I will be giving a presentation on formative assessments. We will be going over the test that students take during the school year and how it helps them in school and at home.

_____________

Buenas tardes familias de la escuela Curley:

Esta llamada es de parte de la principal Katie Grassa , del Concejo Escolar de Padres y el comité de padres del Campo de juegos, queremos compartir una buena noticia:  Hemos alcanzado  nuestro objetivo de la recaudación de  $240.000. Esperamos pedirles que nos sigan apoyando para recaudar adicional de $20,000 para el sábado primero de marzo. Cualquier donación nos ayudará a alcanzar nuestro objetivo para transformar el campo de juegos para nuestros estudiantes y la comunidad: playingfield.curleyk8.com

Tambien queremos dejarles saber que este viernes 28 de febrero a las 8:45 a.m. en la Biblioteca de la escuela Intermedia,  tendremos el desayuno con la principal y la presentación sobre Examenes Formativos.  Estaremos viendo cuáles examenes los estudiantes estarán tomando durante el aňo escolar y cómo Uds. Pueden ayudar en la casa.

Gracias.

The playing field campaign committee is very, very pleased to announce that we’ve now hit the $240,000 mark in donations raised.

Holy cow – thank you.

We are almost there, but we also only have ONE week left too…

So if you are able to, tell every single person you know to take two minutes and visit http://playingfield.curleyk8.com and put us over the top!

We are very grateful to all of our funders, including Whole Foods Market JP who organized a coupon drive which has netted close to $3,500, which includes a matching gift amount. Massive thanks to Nikki Douglas for coordinating this with other playing field organizers, and other parents and community members, including Jennifer Licht.

Parent Dan Barcan, along with our very own 6th grade teacher Alissa Ferro are running the Boston Marathon to support us – Alissa is running to help our after school partners Tenacity. They have a joint fundraiser at Doyle’s this Thursday.

We are also very grateful to J.P. Licks in Jamaica Plain for also supporting us by offering a fantastic promotion. So go on, brave the coming cold and go get some hot chocolate, or thumb your nose at February by ordering ice cream. Then donate! For every $2 donated, you will receive a FREE $2 gift certificate good for your next J.P. Licks purchase. The promotion has been extended until March 2nd!! Many, many thanks for Curley parents Sylvia Velez and Genevieve Day for coordinating this with J.P. Licks. Thanks to Carla Imperial and Carrie Fletcher for the further advertising too, and of course J.P. Licks for their generosity.

We’re almost there.

Tell everyone you know go donate at http://playingfield.curleyk8.com!

Let’s build it.

Don’t Forget General Fundraising and Box Tops Too!

Please remember too though that the playing field campaign is in addition to our usual efforts to fund our arts, science and music programs, as well as other support we give to such things as field trips, sports, and technology initiatives. So:

• The organizing committee for our 7th Annual Silent Auction at Canary Square, which is on March 25th from 6-9 pm, are looking for auction items. Please see here for details. This event is extremely fun so make sure you book your sitters now!

• A third person, Keith Schultz, a community member, is also running this year’s Boston Marathon to support the Curley’s music, arts and science programs. To follow his training and aid him in his fundraising, visit
  http://keeponrunning716.blogspot.com/.

And finally, one of our Phys. Ed. teachers Mark Righini also wants to remind everyone that he would love more box tops coupons from many, many products to come in. He uses box tops to fund the end of year field day for all our students, as many of you know, a very worthy and fun end of school activity. To date the students have raised $435, the goal is to reach $700. Each student who collects the tops and bring them to Mr. Righini receives a prize.

This week’s Paw Prints from Principal Katie Grassa:

• Vacation: We hope that all families had a relaxing and enjoyable February break!
• AWC/General Education Planning: Please join us to discuss and plan some changes to the curriculum in grades 4-6 next school year. We will be meeting from 3-4pm this Wednesday, February 26th. Goal: Group of parents and teachers who will be collaborating to improve the curriculum in the regular education strands for grades 4, 5 and 6 and promote integration, instead of segregation, that occurs in these grades because of the AWC program. All of this will promote the following:
  • social cohesion and improved school climate,
  • equity of educational chances for all,
  • keeping families at the Curley and so, keep enrollments healthy,
  • combating segregation, keeping friendships intact,
  • possibly more targeted instructions to all levels, making the Curley a destination for non-AWC families to come to, so again keeping enrollments healthy,
  • and, tighter cohesion for teaching teams.
• MCAS: Testing window will begin on Tuesday, March 18th and close on Monday, March 31st. A more specific schedule for each grade level will accompany next week’s Paw Prints.
• Snow: Families we are asking that you keep your children off the lawn and away from the snow during arrival and dismissal each day. This will assure the safety of all students as they enter and exit the building during these slippery winter months. We appreciate your support in holding all Curley Community Members accountable to this as well.
• 6th-8th Grade Report Cards: Families be on the lookout, they should have been received over the vacation.
• Principal Breakfast: Please join us on Friday, February 28th from 8:45am-9:45am in the Upper School Library to learn about the types of Formative Assessments that students at the Curley K-8 are required to take K-8.
• Support the Curley K-8: There are several more opportunities for families to help support the Curley K-8 School.
  • We have only one more week to go to finish our fundraising for the school playing field. We are so close, and have now hit the $240k mark in donations! Please help us meet our goal so that at the start of SY2014-2015 we will have a brand new playing field. For more information about the field and fundraising campaign, visit playingfield.curleyk8.com.
  • The organizing committee for our 7th Annual Silent Auction at Canary Square, which is on March 25th from 6-9 pm, are looking for auction items. Please see here for details.
  • Two of our community members are running the Boston Marathon to raise money, one for the Curley K-8 playing field, and another for our after-school partners Tenacity. Their efforts will directly impact our school and our students. Please join us to help Dan Barcan (parent) and Alissa Ferro (ELA teacher) reach their fundraising goal. The event is at Doyle’s Cafe on Washington St across from English High from 6-9pm on Thursday, Feb. 27th. Raffles: 50-50, babysitting, drinks, and maybe more. $26.20 for a ticket, or free to donors. Free beer to first 26.2 people to sign up. Details and tickets are here: https://dbboston2014.squarespace.com/party-at-doyles/.
  • A third person, Keith Schultz, a community member, is also running the Boston Marathon to support our music, arts and science programs. To follow his training and aid him in his fundraising, visit
    http://keeponrunning716.blogspot.com/.

Although the Curley After School Program (CASP) is open this afternoon, because of the worsening weather at this time, CASP director Torri Canada asks parents to come and get their students as soon as they are able.

For more information, please email at Torri Canada at tcanada@bostonpublicschools.org or call her at 617-777-9330.

CALL FOR ITEMS!

The Curley SCP is currently soliciting donations for our Silent Auction Night in March.

Contact us if:

• You have a good or service you would consider donating,
• You know a business owner (family friend or acquaintance) who may be interested in contributing.

Desirable auction items include:

• Sports Tickets
• Vacation rentals / time-shares
• Gift-Certificates
• Services: Painting, lessons, photography, etc
• Artwork, hand-made items, jewelry

Please email Heidi Brooks at heidibrooks@yahoo.com if you can help.

Note:
Please contact us BEFORE soliciting companies or local businesses to ensure someone hasn’t already contacted them and to receive our formal solicitation letter with tax information.

BOOK YOUR BABYSITTERS NOW & INVITE YOUR FRIENDS

The event will be March 25th from 6-9 pm at Canary Square. This adult-only event is one of the most fun, important, and popular SPC fundraisers. Event proceeds help fund the music program, class field trips, the purchase of art and science supplies, and many other school initiatives.

Stay tuned for other ways to help out with this event!

Two quick appeals for you to all consider:

Nurturing Young Writers – Ms. Ciardi

A worthy cause in need of funding is a donorschoose.org project organized by Ms. Ciardi to help her first-grade students become better writers. She seeks funds to buy a basic printer and a collection of books. She writes:

I am teaching my students to think of themselves as writers, just like the authors of the books we read every day in our classroom. First-Grade writers can do many of the same things that grown-up writers can do. I will use this literature to show my students how writers tell stories. I will also encourage my students to notice elements of these books and to use them in their own writing.

I will also celebrate the work of the First-Grade writers by publishing their stories. I will use the printer to publish their work.

I want my first graders to see themselves as writers and to learn about writing from other writers. By studying great children’s literature, my hope is that my students will be encouraged to emulate these writers, and try some elements of their craft in their own writing.

To help with this project, please visit: http://www.donorschoose.org/project/nurturing-young-writers/1182352/

Teachers: If you have similar fundraising projects like Ms. Ciardi’s, we’d love to publicize them and help you with your campaign. Please email Heshan Berents-Weeramuni.

____________________

School Supplies for Guatemalan Schools

Below is an appeal from Curley parent Rachel Parker. Hope you can all help:

Jonathan, Carolena (age 8, second grade), and I will be traveling to Guatemala for 9 days in February to volunteer in the garbage dump in Guatemala City and to visit the little girl whose education we help sponsor. We are collecting donations of school supplies to deliver to both organizations that we’ll be visiting.

Potter’s House http://www.pottershouse.org.gt/ provides holistic opportunities and empowerment to the 11,000 people who live and work in and near the dump – the largest dump in all of Latin America.

Common Hope http://www.commonhope.org/, through a sponsorship approach, provides opportunities for families to receive access to education, health care, housing, and family development.

Here are a few school supplies that both organizations have requested:

• 12-ct. colored pens
• 12-ct. colored pencils
• 12-ct. pencils
• large erasers
• scissors
• glue bottles
• rulers

If you are interested in contributing something, please do so by February 13th at the latest. We will have a box in the front entryway of the triple-decker house that we live in. Please email me for our address (rachel.parker34@yahoo.com).

Thanks for your support for both projects!

Reminder of our AWC info session tomorrow morning, Tuesday (2/11/14) at 8:30am.  Details online here.

Thanks to our Northeastern University partners at CASP for hosting the Future City Engineers event where the kids had a chance to design their own cityscapes.  Here is a writeup about it all.

Northeastern University student groups American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) volunteered to help run the Future Cities program for the Curley After School Program (CASP) in Jamaica Plain. Future Cities is a Boston Society of Civil Engineers (BSCES) hosted event that teaches middle school aged children the complexities of civil engineering in a three pronged approach. First the students design a city using the computer video game SimCity. Next the students write a short paper describing the city. Lastly they build a scale model of the city and present the city at a competition. The Northeastern University students Michael Littman, Joel Shaffer, Matthew Grote, and Alston Potts worked with Daniel Sullivan from the Center for S.T.E.M Education to provide engineering knowledge to the Curley School students in the program. Although the students did not participate in the competition, as they were too young, they still made each component of the project and were presented with an “Officially Licensed Future City Engineer” certificate for their involvement in the program.

A reminder that the February Curley SPC meeting has been moved from Wednesday, February 5th, to Wednesday, Feb 12th. We are encouraging all parents to come to the Boston School Committee Meeting on Feb 5th to support Curley parent, Carrie Fletcher, who will be testifying about the proposed budget cuts during the public comments period of the meeting. School Committee Meetings are held at 26 Court Street. Please remember to check the BPS website in the event of cancelation due to snow. If you cannot make the meeting but would like to get involved in the effort to restore our funding, please contact Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, Carrie Fletcher, or Jill Lazer.

The February 12th SPC meeting will be an evening meeting (from 6 – 8pm) in the Upper School Library. Dinner and childcare will be provided. On the agenda are updates on the Playing Field Capital Campaign, SSC, budget, Silent Auction, and lots more.

If you have issues, questions, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Genevieve Day or Dave Demerjian, your friendly SPC co-chairs.

A reminder that there will be a budget organization meeting tomorrow, Monday, February 3rd, from 6pm – 8pm in the library. We will provide an update to everyone on our budget advocacy work so far, and plan the further implementation of our multiple ongoing advocacy strategies for the Curley and for all other BPS schools. We hardly need reminding, but our advocacy work stems from the deep cuts we as a school, as well as other schools, faces next year.

We are also happy to announce a number of other parents from other schools will join us, including from the Mendell, Manning, JFK, the BTU, and (possibly) Mission Hill. Any other parents from other schools are more than welcome too!

We plan to split the meeting in two, the first hour will be spent strategizing for the whole system. We hope to offer some lessons we’ve learned from our successes and failures in the past, and look forward to learning some best practices from other schools.

For more information or to be involved, please contact Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, Carrie Fletcher, or Jill Lazer.

Curley Parents Testify at the Boston School Committee

We’ve already started, and the latest part of our efforts was this past week. Curley parents joined other parents at this past Wednesday’s Boston School Committee (BSC) meeting to advocate against the proposed cuts to both the Curley, and to at least 62 of 119 other schools. This figure will likely be much closer to 90 schools once cost and pay increases are factored in. Implications for the entire system are rather daunting.

As the Curley did two budget cycles ago, we turned out in numbers to stand silently in front of the School Committee while one of our parents, this time Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, delivered collectively prepared testimony. Read the testimony here:

BSC Testimony – Heshan Berents-Weeramuni – 012914

The video of the TV feed of the entire meeting is linked to here. The public comment period begins at the 40:00 mark, and includes not only the Curley’s testimony, but the budget-related testimony of three BTU parents. The Curley contingent gladly all applauded their testimony as well, which dealt with their own projected deep cuts. Carrie Fletcher later aptly described each of their testimony as “eloquent.” Other testimony included members of QUEST addressing issues of equity within the student assignment process.

Members of the Curley community will testify at future BSC meetings, including at the one this Wednesday, February 5th at 6pm. This Wednesday’s meeting will also be the meeting where the BSC is formally presented with the BPS budget. The speaker this time will be Carrie Fletcher. Please come and support her then (and wear your Curley shirt!). Future BSC meetings will see others speak, including Laurie Ciardi, Amy Sobota, Dave Demerjian, and Val Snekvik.

For more information or to be involved, again please contact Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, Carrie Fletcher, or Jill Lazer.