Please join us for our first Parents’ Council meeting of the year on Wednesday, October 10 from 6-8pm in the Lower School cafeteria.  We’ll gather for a potluck dinner, and Principal Jeff Slater will start the meeting by sharing his key goals for this school year.  The parents’ council elections will follow.  Childcare WILL BE provided.  Please bring a dish or drink to share if you can; if not, please come anyway!  (Please note that this is a different event than Parent Night on October 4, which is when you can meet your child’s teachers and visit the classrooms.)

All parents and guardians are part of the parents’ council, and we encourage you to come learn what’s going on at the Curley and figure out you’ll help us support our teachers in providing a strong learning experience and a positive community for our children.  Whether you’re brand new to the school or you’ve been here for years, please come!

The Q&A below explains the elected parent/guardian roles.  Please think about whether these might interest you, or whether you’d like to nominate someone who will be great for the task!  There are also opportunities to work on different specific teams (fundraising, community building, art/music, etc.)  All of these great options will be discussed on October 10, so prepare to get involved with the parent community and begin building strong relationships with parents, families, teachers, and administrators at the Curley.

School Parent & School Site Council Members:  Roles and Responsibilities

Q. What is the School Parent Council (“SPC”)?
A.  The School Parent Council is the independently established “voice” of ALL the parents in the school community.  All parents and guardians are members and are welcome and encouraged to attend meetings so that we have a diverse mix of opinions.

Q. What Does the School Parent Council Do?
A.  The School Parent Council advocates for the students and the school, elects representatives to sit on the School Site Council, raises funds to support school activities, takes a leadership role in promoting parent engagement at the school, and promotes an environment of understanding and common purpose among parents and teachers.

Q. What is the School Site Council (“SSC”)?
A.  The School Site Council is governing/ advisory body at each school. The School Site Council is comprised of equal numbers of parents and staff. Parents on the School Site Council are accountable to the School Parent Council and are elected by the School Parent Council of the school.

Q. What Does the School Site Council Do?
A.  The SSC develops and approves school policy, including, but not limited to:
•    Developing and reviewing the Whole School Improvement Plan (WSIP)
•    Developing and approving the school’s annual budget
•    Creating and overseeing sub-committees such as:
–    The Instructional Leadership Team (ILT)
–    Personnel sub-committee for hiring new teachers
–    Engagement Action Team for developing a family & student engagement plan
•    Reporting back to SPC and the larger parent body on regular basis

Q. What Do the School Site Council Representatives Do?
A.  The School Site Council Representatives review and approve school policy, fully participate in the meetings, representing the School Parent Council and reporting back to the School Parent Council executive committee.

Q. What Do the School Parent Council Co-chairs Do?
A.  The SPC Co-chairs provide leadership and direction, and act as spokespersons for the School Parent Council. Co-chairs also sign off on important documents on behalf of the SPC with input from the other members, help decide what should be on the meeting agenda, and communicate regularly with principal or headmaster.  The Co-Chairs are elected members of the School Parent Council executive committee.

Q. What Does the Secretary of the School Parent Council Do?
A.  The School Parent Council Secretary takes notes during all general and executive committee meetings, prepares minutes and distributes minutes at meetings. The Secretary is an elected member of the School Parent Council executive committee.

Q. What Does the Treasurer of the School Parent Council Do?
A.  The Treasurer is responsible for keeping record of all funds raised by, or allocated to the School Parent Council. The Treasurer will prepare written reports regarding School Parent Council financials and distribute to School Parent Council members. The Treasures is an elected member of the School Parent Council executive committee.

Q. What is the City Wide Parent Council?
A.  The City Wide Parent Council is the organization of and by Boston Public Schools (BPS) that involves and empowers parents of BPS students to become effective advocates for their children.

Q. What does the Citywide Parent Council Representative do?
A.  The elected members are invited to represent the parent body on the City Wide Parent Council, attend regularly scheduled meetings and develop strategies to address these citywide issues and concerns. Members can then be voted to the CPC board.  The City Wide Parent Council Representative will share information gained at City Wide Parent Council meetings with School Parent Council members.

Q. What is the Boston Parent Advisory Council (BPAC)?
A.  The mission of the Boston Parent Advisory Council – Title 1 is to empower all parents of children attending the Boston Public and Private Schools that receive Title 1 funds to be actively and meaningfully involved in the education of their children. Two parents per school are recruited by Boston Public Schools to serve on the Boston Parent Advisory Council.

Q. What does the Boston Parent Advisory Council Title 1 Representative do?
A.  The Boston Parent Advisory Council  – Title 1 Representative will represent the parent body on the Boston Parent Advisory Council, attend regularly scheduled meetings, learn more about distribution of Title 1 funds and share the information gained at the Boston Parent Advisory Council meetings with School Parent Council members.

Attention Curley School Families: Join us for our Parent Night. You can learn what your child will be covering during the school year. Meet your child’s teachers and get informed about their expectations for this school year. Parents will also get the chance to meet the teachers you teach your child’s specialty classes.

Parent Night will be held on Thursday, October 4th from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Your child’s teacher will be in your child’s homeroom.

If you have any further questions, please contact Family and Outreach Coordinators Betty Villalba-Alvarado at (617) 304-6771, or Maria Monteiro-Roby at (617) 635-8176 Ext: 135.

Curley K-8 Noche Para Padres

Jueves, 4 de Octubre, 2012
5:00pm – 7:00pm

Atención Familias de la escuela Curley: Acompañenos para nuestra Noche Para Padres. Ustedes pueden aprender lo que sus hijos estarán cubriendo durante el año escolar. Conozcan a los maestros de sus hijos e informense sobre sus expectativas para este año escolar. Por favor reunanse con los maestros de las clases de especialidades también.

Por favor, vayan directamente al salón hogar de su hijo/ hija

¿Preguntas? Pueden ponerse en contacto con:
Betty en 617-304-6771, o Maria en 617-756-3667

Below is a round up of some of last week’s news from around the Curley presented by Principal Jeff Slater:

Principal Jeff Slater

• Our breakfast in the classroom initiative has been a huge success! We’re already seeing an increase in the amount of students eating a healthy breakfast! You might have seen the piece on CNN recently regarding breakfast in the classroom… Here’s a link to the corresponding article… Check it out: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/07/breakfast-comes-to-the-classroom/
• On Friday all of our lunch monitors (along with elementary physical education teacher Mark Righini and Guidance Counselor Sue Trotz) attended a day-long Playworks training session. Playworks is focused on healthy and inclusive play and physical activity. You can learn more about it here: http://www.playworks.org/
• We would like to provide our students with some board games to play during lunch time. We are looking for games that can be played in a fairly short amount of time. If you have games like “Connect Four” or checkers and would like to donate them, please drop them off in either office.
• Linda Solomon-Key and Ron Hobson were awarded a scholarship to take 5 of our 8th grade students to participate in a civil rights conference in New York City this weekend! The conference is sponsored by the Advancement Project. The Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization. Founded by a team of veteran civil rights lawyers in 1999, Advancement Project was created to develop and inspire community-based solutions based on the same high quality legal analysis and public education campaigns that produced the landmark civil rights victories of earlier eras.
• We administered our first BPS predicative assessment this week. Teachers will have the results of this assessment early next week. They’ll be able to use the data to inform their instruction and provide targeted support to students during intervention time.
• The Curley  has been selected to receive an award from Boston Cares for Outstanding Community Partnership!  Recipients were selected from a pool of inspiring nominations offered by volunteer, community and corporate members of the Boston Cares community. Curley parent Julie Smith-Bartoloni and I will accept the award on behalf of the Curley community at the Boston Cares Annual Awards Reception.
• Are you following me on Twitter? I’ll be posting updates throughout the week of the exciting things happening in our amazing classrooms! Follow me @CurleyPrincipal

— Principal Jeff Slater

On Sunday, September 30, a Curley team led by PACE instructor Collen Leary will participate in the 2012 Walk Now for Autism Speaks.  This event is a major fundraiser for vital research about autism, which is one of the fastest-growing serious developmental disorders in the U.S.  Every 11 minutes, another family receives the devastating news that their child has an autism spectrum disorder. Help us change that by supporting the Curley’s team – you can even donate online!

The annual Curley K-8 Fall Fling is our key fundraising event of the year – it brings in 40% of the money we raise to support music, art, and science at the Curley!

This year’s event, the 6th annual, is on Friday, October 12 from 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. It will be held as usual in the Upper School Gym. Enter through the Pershing Street bridge entrance. An event attended by hundreds of people, including in the past the Mayor, Superintendent, and some City Councilors, it features raffles, dancing, food and lots of fun!

The all important grand prizes this year include an Apple iPad, a kid’s bike, and a Nintendo Wii.

Those of you who have attended in the past know how terrific the Fall Fling is, and it takes a lot of volunteers to pull it off. To make this year’s Fall Fling a success, we really need you to pitch in. Many of the things we need help with take two hours or less.

A combined Doodle poll has been created to coordinate volunteers. Here are some easy ways you can help:

Sell raffle tickets for a mere two hours outside of JP Licks on September 22nd, 23rd, 29th or October 6th:

• Sign up online now!
• Choose a two-hour block between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• We need three families for each slot – kids are welcome (and are often great at persuading folks to support the Curley!)

Sell raffle tickets on your own to your friends, family, neighbors, or colleagues:

• Please contact Molly Mariano, one of the co-chairs of our fundraising committee who is coordinating the event.
• Tell her how many books you would like.
• We will get the tickets to you!

Make and donate a themed basket to be raffled off at the event:

• Contact Jennifer Taub or click here and fill out the Google Doc noting the basket you’d like to create.
• Alternately, sign up through the Doodle Poll – REMEMBER TO EXPAND THE COLUMNS!
• Choose any basket theme you like – for adult or kids – and let us know

Help on the day of the event:

• Sign up online – REMEMBER TO EXPAND THE COLUMNS!
• Donate drinks and bake sale items, or to help set up or clean up!

If you have any questions about volunteering at the Fall Fling, please contact Molly Mariano. Thanks in advance for your help – we couldn’t pull this off without all of our terrific Curley volunteers!

For the important reasons discussed below, this year we do not have morning playground supervision or early-morning cafeteria supervision.  Accordingly, PLEASE DO NOT DROP YOUR CHILD OFF AT SCHOOL BEFORE 8:20 a.m.

This process is different from last year’s, and here’s why:  the Curley K-8 provides free breakfast to all students who want or need it.  This year, breakfast is delivered to the classrooms at 8:20 a.m. for all children in the class.  (Breakfast packages that are unopened will be returned to the cafeteria to be used another time, up until the expiration date.)  Each breakfast package contains cereal, milk, a drink, and a snack cracker.  Children are not required to eat school breakfast, but they are welcome to do so.  Breakfast is no longer being served in the cafeteria, and teachers will be in their classrooms beginning at 8:20, and they are no longer on duty on the playground or in the cafeteria before school.

School breakfast is the only breakfast option for many of our students, and – importantly – the new breakfast system has already resulted in more of these children actually eating breakfast on a daily basis.  We have also eliminated some breakfast options that parents had concerns about (honeybuns, sugary muffins, sweetened french toast, etc.)  We expect in-class breakfast to reduce the delays and interruptions to class start times that were previously caused by children coming up late from the cafeteria.  Thank you in advance for your understanding and support as we work to provide these necessary meals and to increase and enhance classroom learning time for everyone.

We realize that this is a change from last year, and are working to investigate and develop before-school options.  If you are interested in helping with this project, please email Carrie Fletcher.

Please Join us for the Annual Curley Kindergarten Welcome Potluck Picnic.

The picnic will be held this Saturday, September 8th, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at 40 Pershing Road, in the Curley School Playground (located behind the lower school).

• Meet the Curley K-8 Principals, Support Staff & several Kindergarten Teachers
• Meet other Kindergarten Families
• Purchase “Curley Wear” and school stickers
• Bring a dish to share, beverages provided

Por favor acompañenos a nuestro evento anual de la escuela Curley, dar la Bienvenida a los estudiantes de Kindergarden con un picnic y colaborando con un

Plato de comida el Sabado 8 de Septiembre de las 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

En el 40 de la calle Pershing (en la parte de juegos detrás de la escuela elemental)

• Conozca al Principal y el Asistente al Principal de la escuela Curley K-8
• Conozca a otras familias de estudiantes de Kindergarden
• Compre “Camisetas y otros articulos” como tambien calcomanías de la escuela Curley
• Traiga un plato con comida para compartir, nosotros proveeremos bebidas

Kindergarten Picnic Flyer

Many of you have now received your children’s teacher assignment letters, which include a “Homeroom” designation.  It appears, however, that the chart that matches up the rooms to the teachers was inadvertently omitted from some of the letters.  Please click here to view the chart so that you can match up your child’s homeroom number to his or her teacher.

See you on Thursday, September 6 or Monday, September 10 (for kindergartners)!

UPDATE: As we are still on summer break, the registration deadline has been dropped. CASP will offer ongoing enrollment until further notice.

The on-site Curley After School Program (CASP) will begin on Thursday, September 6th this year. In her recent welcome letter, Torri Canada, the CASP Director, outlines the 2012/13 rates, a program description and other details such as program hours, voucher information and drop-in options. Both the letter and application form are in English and Spanish. You will find links to the documents below as well as on the CASP page of the Curley website.

The Program’s enrichment options this year will include Dance, Music, Theatre/Drama, Language (e.g., Spanish/Japanese), Home Economics, Art, Sailing, Chess, and more. Sports programs and outdoor recreation will include Flag Football, Basketball, Soccer, Tennis and more. Academic support will include assigned homework time for students, teaching of skills to organize homework, essential habits of learning, and individual support for students including for those in advanced programs.

• CASP Introduction Letter (English, 2012 – 2013) which includes the 2012-2013 tuition rates
• CASP Carta del Programa de Introducción (Español, 2012 – 2013) que incluye las tasas de matrícula 2012-2013
• CASP Registration Form (English, 2012 – 2013)
• Formulario para el Programa Después de la Escuela de Curley K8 (Español, 2012 – 2013)

Please note that this year CASP is open to children from outside the Curley, though transportation must be arranged separately.

You may also contact Torri directly by calling 617-777-9330 or at tcanada@boston.k12.ma.us.

Thank you to all of you who weighed in during our recent uniform survey.  The School Site Council has voted on Curley student attire for SY 2012-13, and Curley students will be expected to wear the following to school next year:

• Bottoms or dresses/jumpers:
  • Navy, black, or khaki
• Shirts
  • Collared light blue, plain white, or white with Curley logo; or
  • Black Curley t-shirts

Both the Parents’ Council and the School Site Council will be taking a larger role next year in communicating with families to ensure that our students come to school wearing clothing that is consistent with this policy.  Please let us know if you have ideas about how we can work to ensure compliance among our students.

Results from the Uniform Survey

The Curley community is overwhelmingly in favor of a uniform policy for SY 2012-13.

All Responses (Parents & Teachers)

• Uniforms:  81.3% (209 votes)
• No Uniforms: 18.7% (48 votes)

Parent Responses

• Uniforms:  82% (200 votes)
• No Uniforms:  18% (44 votes)

Teacher/Admin Responses*

• Uniforms:  73.3% (11 votes)
• No Uniforms:  26.7% (4 votes)

All Responses (Summary Chart)

Enter your zip code here

Response Data

We received a total of 257 responses, 244  from Curley parents, many of whom listed multiple children.  Fifteen responders identified themselves as teachers or admins (and two of these also identified themselves as parents).  Responses came from families with children in all grades, with 2^nd grade families submitting the highest number of responses and the smallest number coming from K0 families (not a surprise, given the small number of K0 students).  As the bar chart below illustrates, the overall distribution is relatively even among grades K2-6, with a drop for 7^th and 8^th grades.  We received 67 phone responses, and were not able to capture grade for phone survey responders.  These responses, along with any paper responses that omitted grade or were illegible, are categorized with “unknown” as the grade.

Grades Represented in Survey Responses (Summary Chart)

*Although the initial survey was aimed at parents, several teachers nonetheless completed it in online or in paper form.  Late in the process, other teachers requested to weigh in, resulting in the addition of a “teacher/staff/admin” category on the online survey.  It was too late to do an additional paper survey. Because this change was made at the very end of the survey process; we received only 15 teacher/admin responses.

Curley Girls Volleyball Team Finish 2nd in League!

Congratulations to our Curley Girls Volleyball team for an outstanding 2nd place finish in the league! This was our first season in the league and the team performed tremendously!

Special thanks to Coaches Moran and Ricciardi!

The Curley family sends their congratulations to the Frederick Girls Volleyball Team and school for their championship win!

– Principal Jeff Slater

Curley Baseball Team Are Citywide Champions!

The Curley Lions (except John Appel and Coach Pearl) with the City Trophy, joined by Alissa Ferro's bulldog, Truman, who became the unofficial Curley mascot/ good luck charm.

Congratulations also to the Curley Baseball Team who won their game against the Edwards Middle School by a score of 11 – 9 to become Citywide Champions!

The Curley Lions Baseball Team are:
Aref Elbek, 6th grade
John Appel, 7th grade
Heri Martinez, 8th grade
Brandon DeSilva, 7th grade
Edwin Baez, 8th grade
Christopher Louis, 7th grade
Nikos Baez, 6th grade
Marvin Mendoza, 8th grade
Wesley Melo, 8th grade

Coaches:
Mr. Pearl and Ms. Mercadox

The excellent pictures below were taken by parent Sara Mallach and Curley teacher Alissa Ferro.

Both the baseball and volleyball championships were generously supported and organized by a the non-profit Play Ball!, Inc. Foundation in partnership with Boston Public Schools.

Dear Curley Parents & Guardians,

Each year, our school must decide whether to continue our uniform policy for the next year.  Please share your input by Friday, June 15 via this quick online survey.

The proposed Curley uniform will consist of the following:

Navy, black, or khaki bottoms and
Collared shirts (light blue, plain white, or white with Curley logo) or black Curley t-shirts

Please note that this survey is about whether you are in favor of the school having a uniform policy (as distinct from issues about effective enforcement of a uniform policy).  If the school does have a uniform policy next year, the School Site Council and the Parents’ Council are committed to taking a larger role in improving and supporting the enforcement of that policy.

ONE RESPONSE PER FAMILY: this survey (a) was also conducted by a telephone call on Sunday, June 10 and (b) will be sent home in paper form. Each family may vote ONE TIME: online OR by phone OR by paper. Please do not vote more than once and please do not vote if you are not a Curley parent or guardian.

Thank you!
Curley School Site Council
Curley Parents’ Council