A reminder that this Wednesday, November 2, will be our second Parents’ Council Meeting of the year. It’ll be held from 6pm-8pm in the Upper School Library.

New Curley Parents Encouraged!

Whether you’re new to the Curley or are a veteran parent who’d like to be more informed or involved, we hope that you’ll join us for monthly parents’ council meeting – all parents and guardians are welcome.

We will meet in the Upper School Library. Please enter the school through the Centre St. doors, go through the lobby, slightly to your right for the stairs, then go directly up the stairs to the library.

Dinner, childcare, and Spanish interpretation will be provided. If you can’t attend this meeting but are interested in figuring out how to participate at the Curley, please email our Parents’ Council Co-Chairs, Carrie Fletcher and Punam Sharma, to let them know.

The proposed agenda for November 2 is as follows:

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Brief intro to the School Parent Council: goals and mission
3. Update on Fall Fling results
4. Discussion of upcoming events and opportunities
5. SY 2011-2012 budget discussion, review, and request for approval

Just a reminder that WE STILL NEED VOLUNTEERS for the first School Preview Tour on Friday, November 4. The tour begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Lower School Entrance.

Please help us welcome prospective parents as they tour our buildings, meet the principal and leadership team, and have an opportunity for Q&A with Curley parents.  Please sign up online ASAP if you can participate. (You can also sign up now to help with the December 2 or the January 6 tours.)  This is really easy!!

In past years, we’ve had a very high volume of interested families coming to check out the Curley, and it really makes a difference when we have lots of Curley parents on hand to meet them.  This is a fun and easy way to help out, and we’ll give you lots of guidance on what to do if you’ve never led a tour before.  New parents are welcome to come and share your experience at the Curley so far – we will plan to match you with a veteran parent.   Please email Carrie Fletcher or Punam Sharma if you have questions.

See below for a brief summary of upcoming Curley events – and remember to bookmark (and regularly check!) the Curley online calendar.  You can click any individual calendar item  for more details.

Our website and our online calendar are maintained by parent volunteers, and we’re not always aware of every event that might be of interest to the Curley community.  If you know about a school, classroom, BPS, or other event that you think should be on the calendar, please email Carrie Fletcher with the details.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27
8:45am – 9:45am Principals’ Breakfast with Parents
Upper School Library
Come hear principal Jeff Slater’s vision for the 2011-2012 school year, learn about the Curley’s after-school programs, and ask any questions you might have.

Special Ed Parent Advisory Council (SpedPac) General Meeting
7:00pm – 9:00pm
English High School 2nd Floor Cafeteria (144 McBride St., JP)
The BPS SpecialEducation Parent Advisory Council (SpedPac) invites you to attend our October General Meeting.  Childcare is available upon request. Please reserve at least 3 days prior to each meeting by contacting Boston SpedPac at spedpac@boston.k12.ma.us or (617) 635-8600.  Spanish translation is available at all meetings and light refreshments will be served.

Picture Day Rain Date for Grades 6 – 8
Curley K-8 School
Rain date for individual school pictures for students in 6th-8th grades (class photos will not be taken for upper grades). Parents must return order forms by picture day or photos will not be taken.  Children do not have to wear uniforms on picture day. If you have questions or would like to help out on picture day, please contact:Jennifer Connelly/PHOTO CHARM ph: 781-696-1138; email:Jenniferjojo@hotmail.com; web: www.angelfacephoto.com.

MFABS at Bella Luna/Milky Way – Curley Moms’ Night Out
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Bella Luna/Milky Way, The Brewery, JP
Hello Curley Mamas! Join us for Mamas, Friendship and Beverages for Survival at Bella Luna/Milky Wayat 7:30pm on the last Thursday of each month. It’s a casual evening of beverages and mama-ship. Arrive whenever you can (it’s a “soft” start-time), and leave whenever you need to. By way of introduction for those of you unfamiliar with MFABS, this is a chance for mamas in the Curley K-8 community — and beyond — to get together for a drink and a chat. It’s just for fun; there are no dads, kids, or agendas other than to relax, vent, share, and otherwise take a load off our far-too-busy minds and souls. PLEASE SHARE THIS INVITE with any moms who might enjoy a night out!
Note:  We encourage the Curley dads to start their own similar gig! 🙂

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2 – New Curley Parents Encouraged!
Parents’ Council Meeting
6pm-8pm
Upper School Library
Whether you’re new to the Curley or are a veteran parent who’d like to be more informed or involved, we hope that you’ll join us for monthly parents’ council meeting – all parents and guardians are welcome.  We will meet in the Upper School Library.  Please enter the school through the Centre St. doors, go through the lobby, slightly to your right for the stairs, then go directly up the stairs to the library.  Dinner, childcare, and Spanish interpretation will be provided.  If you can’t attend this meeting but are interested in figuring out how to participate at the Curley, please email our Parents’ Council Co-Chairs, Carrie Fletcher and Punam Sharma, to let them know.

The proposed agenda for November 2 is as follows:

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Brief intro to the School Parent Council:  goals & mission
3. Update Fall Fling Results
4. Discussion of upcoming events & opportunities
5. SY 2011-2012 budget discussion, review, and request for approval

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 – Volunteers Needed!
School Preview Tour
9:30am – 11:00am
Lower School Entrance
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS for our first School Preview Tour of the year!  Please help us welcome prospective parents as they tour our buildings, meet the principal and leadership team, and have an opportunity for Q&A with Curley parents.  This is a fun and easy way to help out, and we’ll give you lots of guidance on what to do if you’ve never led a tour before.  New parents are welcome to come and share your experience at the Curley so far – we will plan to match you with a veteran parent.  Please sign up online to participate – and email Carrie Fletcher or Punam Sharma if you have questions.

Just a reminder with some details about this year’s Picture Day – and a call for some parent volunteers (particularly in the morning, which is when the younger children have their pictures taken).

Details: Pictures will be taken on Monday, October 24 (Grades K-5) and Wednesday, October 26 (Grades 6-8).  The rain date for both groups is Thursday, October 27.  Order forms were sent home in the backpacks; if you need another form, you can download it here.

You must return the order forms on or before picture day!   If a child does not return a form, he or she will not be able to have a picture taken.

Parent Volunteers Needed: As in the past, our fabulous photographer will be Curley parent Jenny Connelly of Photo Charm – and she needs parent volunteers to assist with the pictures starting on Monday at 8:45a.m. There are many ways to help out, and it’s lots of fun to see all the children dressed up and smiling!  If would like to help out on picture day, please contact Jenny directly via email or telephone at 781-696-1138.

Additional Info:

• All students in K-5th will be in a class photo.
• Grades 6-8 will not have a class photo taken.
• All children must have an order form to have their individual photos taken.
• Photo Charm would love to photograph children together.   For sibling photos, parents should fill out a separate order form for siblings (in addition to any individual order forms).  Parents should let teachers know if a child will be in a sibling photo.
• Children do not have to wear uniforms on picture day.

Photo: Jennifer Taub

Last Friday’s Fall Fling was a great success! Curley SPC Treasurer Bill Elsbree writes, “The numbers look great!  $13,100 raised and approximately $2,100 in expenses, for a profit of $11,000, which is up almost $1,000 from last year.  Great Job Team!”

Fall Fling attendees included State Representative Jeffrey Sanchez and City Councilor Matt O’Malley. Councilor O’Malley tweeted later, “Great time (and huge crowd) at the Curley K-8 Fall Fling in #JamaicaPlain.”

Each of the grand prizes were won by members of the Jamaica Plain community. The xBox 360 was claimed by the Brendan Behan’s own John Casey. The Fuji kids’ bike kindly donated by Ferris Wheels, was won by Jamaica Plain local Lynn Brown, a non-BPS teacher. According to Fundraising Committee Co-Chair Molly Mariano, in between “her screams of joy” Ms. Brown said that she planned to give the bike to a student. The iPad 2 was won by Dr. Robert Oldshue, a pediatrician at SJPHC. Congratulations to all the different raffle winners!

A very big thank you to all those who worked hard to make this event such a success. Scores of parents, teachers, staff and students helped sell tickets outside JP Licks as well as to their friends and families. Others spent countless hours helping to gather donations of prizes, services and food from local businesses.

Still others donated raffle baskets and baked goods, worked to set up the event, staffed the tables during the Fling, and cleared up afterwards. Others worked on the complicated logistics and budget tasks, did PR to spread the word, shook their contact lists and drew on their previous experience. Curley upper school students were especially great in helping to set up the event, serve food and refreshments, and make signs.

Many thanks also to everyone at the Curley, and to our larger community of individuals and businesses for their great generosity. By buying raffle tickets, donating prizes, food and other services, and coming to the Fall Fling, each person helped raise money that will directly fund the Curley’s arts, music and science programs.

Most of all, a massive dose of thanks is due to both Jess Ormsby and Molly Mariano, our powerhouse Fundraising Co-Chairs. They worked tirelessly for months to coordinate the event, and without them the Fall Fling would not have been such a success. Thanks Jess and Molly!

Any Curley moms out there who enjoy singing? Check out Curley Mom’s A Cappella!

Join us for music, fun and fellowship. All are welcome! Email Daryn Stylianopoulos if you are interested in learning more.

We’re hoping to perform for the upcoming Curley fundraiser at the Midway Cafe on Wednesday, November 9th.

Thanks to the generosity of the Midway Cafe and the creativity of our Curley parents, there is an upcoming benefit concert featuring Curley parents and teachers!

The 2011 Curley K-8 Art & Music Benefit Show is happening at the Midway Cafe in JP on Wednesday, November 9th at 7pm. Come tap your toes and support the Curley K-8. Details are below:

2011 Curley K-8 Art & Music Benefit Show at the Midway Cafe
3496 Washington Street
Age 21+
Wednesday November 9th
Early Show! Bands start @ 7pm
Raffles * Used Record Sale * Food * Cash bar * Prizes
$12 /or/ $10 with donation of records, CDs

Featuring Curley Parents/Teachers:
Lars Vegas
Chris Warren (of Viva Viva)
Looker
Seamstress
Aurelio Ramos
T A J
Bunce-opoulous

Though the lineup is pretty full, if there are any parents or teachers out there who sing or play, please email Fundraising Co-Chair Molly Mariano if you would like to be included.

This week we will have a Math and ELA test in grades 3-8 related to the ANet framework. The exams will be on Tuesday and Wednesday and are scheduled for two hours each day. The teachers should have results in about 48 hours. The teachers and administration will use the results in their 3 hour Professional Development series to develop plans for instruction that helps to meet the needs of the students.

The Achievement Network framework, or ANet for short, has been adopted this year to help help fine-tune learning improvement for all students. As many of you will remember, Principal Jeffrey Slater covered this data driven methodology in his presentation at our first School Parent Council. The detailed minutes are here. The PowerPoint presentation Principal Slater gave is here: Accelerating Achievement in the Boston Public Schools: Academic Achievement Framework.

ANet is a tool that provides us actionable data as a school to improve student achievement over the course of the school-year (a formative assessment tool compared to MCAS which is a summative assessment tool).

Our partnership with ANet helps us to embed data practices school-wide, particularly through their coaching model, which we have aligned with our whole-school professional development for teachers.

The ANet assessment and coaching model helps to identify gaps in learning, take corrective action, engage in planning and goal-setting, and assess our results over the course of the school year.

Partnering with ANet also connects us to a wide network of schools that enables us to rapidly learn and share what works around student achievement.

More information on ANet may be found here:
http://www.achievementnetwork.org/

The page that lists participating Eastern Massachusetts schools is:
http://www.achievementnetwork.org/networks/eastern-massachusetts.html

Below is a list of the BPS schools that are using ANet this year in addition to the list above.

Thanks to the many people who have already volunteered to help out with the Fall Fling.  Thanks to your help, and to the tireless efforts of our event co-chairs, Jess Ormsby and Molly Mariano, things are rapidly coming together for another fun-filled fiesta at the Curley on October 14!

We need just a few more volunteers – we especially need people to help clean up after the event.  If you can assist, please sign up online.   We also need people to sell more raffle tickets to their friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. (and by “people” we mean either you or your kid(s)!)   Sign up online for ticket books and we will make sure they get to you!

Principal Jeff Slater shared the following piece of exciting news about our very own Robert Baroz (right) who was mentioned by President Obama today:

“This morning, President Obama gave a press conference about his jobs bill and mentioned our own Robert Baroz by name in his remarks in the context of needing to preserve jobs in education. Local media outlets picked up the story and the BPS Communications Department set up the opportunity for the media to interview Robert at the Curley this afternoon. The various news outlets will air the interview this evening, so please be sure to check it out.”

Mr. Baroz was named earlier this summer by the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, as one of 16 teachers from across the country to be Teaching Ambassador Fellows for the 2011-12 school year.

UPDATED:

Below is a selection of some of the media coverage:

• CBS TV and radio interviews here.
• President Obama’s remarks about the jobs bill during which he highlights Robert’s achievements is here.
• BPS Newsletter with coverage of the President, Superintendent Johnson, and Robert.