Monday, January 06, 2020

 Dear families,

 Happy New Year and welcome to a new and exciting decade…2020!

Our PS 38 Professional Learning Community wishes all of our families a New Year filled with lots of love, laughter, good health, and happiness!

 We hope you had a restful and enjoyable break and welcome you all back to an exciting second half of the school year.

Time will begin to pass very quickly and before you know it, we will be bringing closure to the 2019-2020 school year and getting ready for the summer.  Therefore, mid-year is the time when we reflect and take stock of where we are in relation to our instructional goals and shifts for the 2019-2020 school year and reflect on the direct impact they have had on your student’s achievement.  Teachers will be engaged in monitoring student progress more closely in comparison to where students were at the beginning of the year, where they were a few weeks ago, and will continue to make adjustments to instruction as they work diligently to move all students along the learning continuum.  Mid-year assessments closely target and monitor all of our struggling students.

 Our goal is to meet every child where they are at, motivate, inspire, and grow them by providing them with the best learning experiences and actionable feedback to grow them as learners.  We institute a “Growth Mindset” in which all children learn strategies to continuously challenge and grow themselves as life-long learners.  In order to do this well, teachers must provide your children with actionable feedback in relation to their goals.  This feedback notes and compliments what the child is doing well and provides students with next steps for learning in which teachers give and show the student how to use a strategy or two to improve their learning in the particular subject area.  Teachers monitor how well students are applying the new strategies and intervene with guidance when needed.  After a targeted amount of time the teachers check back in for mastery and provides students with new strategies.  Students also learn to monitor their own learning through self and peer assessing as we foster and guide student independence.

 Open lines of communication regarding student progress continue between teachers and families.  Please note that Mid-year is also the time of the year when Potential Hold-Over (PHO) letters will be mailed home to families of those students still struggling and in danger of not meeting grade standard.   This is a New York City DOE policy/protocol all schools engage in.  The purpose of PHO letters are to inform parents that at this point in time their child is not meeting standard but there is still time to move them along the learning continuum before June. These letters should not come as a surprise to any family as teachers have engaged all families in continuous one to one family meetings on Family Engagement Tuesdays. Teachers have also made it a priority to find an agreeable time to meet with families who could not make a Tuesday.  All concerns and celebrations of progress have been discussed to date and teachers continue to keep on-going open lines of communication with all families.  Teachers share a variety of ways they are intervening to support your children and how you can also support their learning in partnership and will continue to do so.

 Attendance/Lateness Policy:   Our school day begins at 8:15.  By 8:20 your child is late and missing instruction.  Children must be in school in order to learn/grow and consistent patterns of absenteeism and lateness directly impact student achievement.  Students consistently absent or late will receive a phone call from the attendance monitor to inquire why.  If the pattern persists, it is reported to the district attendance liaison assigned to our school who follows up and if need be, visits the home.  In severe cases that boarder educational neglect, The Agency for Child Services is called.  Instruction begins at 8:15 am. Please note that class trips and special activities are privileges and any student who demonstrates little effort, consistently does no homework, or is excessively absent/late, will not be permitted to go.  In December, letters went home to all students who are have fallen below the 90%.  We will continue to monitor our attendance/lateness data and very soon we will once again send Letters home to families where children have fallen below the 90% for absence/lateness.  Consistent patterns of lateness negatively impact student achievement. Students who walk in late daily miss out on important learning.  When a child walks in late they feel like a fish out of water and it is very hard for them to catch up to the rest.  They have missed what the teacher has modeled and they will no doubt flounder.  Please ensure your children are on time daily.  We want your children to be successful as they continue to do their personal best.

 We have a number of support programs in place to provide students with academic intervention and enrichment.  All AIS programs monitor student progress from beginning to end.

All of these programs are implemented to provide children with extra support in areas they are struggling in and to enrich their lives in the arts.  A very large portion of our school budget is used for our children to support them in their learning.  These programs are VERY expensive and the expectation is that students maintain good attendance in order to participate. I also apply for and write grants in order to provide your children with exciting new opportunities.  Grant writing is very difficult and time consuming and not all schools are awarded monies.  I make an extra effort to do this in order to provide your children with additional programs that foster academic achievement and prepare them to be college/career bound.

 Speaking of college/career bound, January is College Awareness month!  It is important that children are exposed to college/career possibilities at an early age and so this month’s Parents as Learning Partner Day will focus on an abundance of interactive activities around “College Awareness.”  This will also be a spirit day and we would like all children to get creative and dress up to represent various colleges!  Staff will do the same and we encourage families to join us.  PALP will take place on Friday, January 10, 2020 at 8:35 am.  Get your college wear ready!

 At PS 38 we teach your children that they should always do their best and that it is their educational responsibility to themselves to do so.  Success comes with hard work and as a staff we will continue to instill good learning habits as we want all students to be high achievers.  Parent engagement plays a critical role in student achievement and we must be on the same page or it sends a mixed message to the children about what is important. Therefore, we ask that all .parents please continue to support us in our endeavors. 

 ~Thank you for entrusting your children to us.

  “Partners with Families…Partners In Learning”

 Believing In Children...

Inspiring Young Minds,

 Nancy Murillo

Principal

  9-26-19.doc 

 10-7-19.doc 

 12-20-19.doc 

 1-6-20.doc