Dear Open Choice Partner;
To keep you informed regarding services, events, and information for the Hartford Region Open Choice program we have revived our newsletter, The Oracle, which you will receive on a monthly basis. We are thrilled to offer you another way to keep abreast of what is happening to help support children and families enrolled in your district through Open Choice. Please share this with your colleagues and contact us if you would like any additional information or assistance.
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The
Oracle
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April 2019 - In This Issue:
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DIRECTOR'S CORNER
What's New in Open Choice
Spring Greetings from the Hartford Open Choice Office,
April is turning out to be another busy month for us at Open Choice. We are in the process of planning three big events; a one day Youth Empowerment Summit for Middle School students, a two day Youth Empowerment Summit for High School students and an engaging and project-based summer program for middle school students.
Falling under the category of
"not so good news," Kristen Martel and Michael Livingston are leaving the Open Choice Program. We wish them the best in their future endeavors. We will miss them greatly and thank them for their service to our families and districts.
Upcoming: May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month as well as Jewish American Heritage Month
Warm Regards,
Debra M. Borrero
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FEATURE STORIES
We would like to feature the excellent work and partnership we have with our Open Choice districts. Please share your brief stories about Open Choice students and their positive experiences in your school/district, along with any high resolution photos. We will share them here and on CREC's Facebook and Instagram pages. Stories can be sent to
@OpenChoiceHartford on Instagram!
Thanks in large part to our colleague, Curtis Porter III; the Hartford Region Open Choice program is expanding its social media footprint! You can now find us on Instagram by searching @OpenChoiceHartford or by using our official hashtag #OpenChoiceHartford. Please use our hashtag when posting pictures on any social media platforms so that we can continue to promote all the great things districts are highlighting.
Join us on social media to catch all the Open Choice buzz!!
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OPEN CHOICE SHINES!
Open Choice Prom Prep Event 2019
The Hartford Region Open Choice Program hosted its 1st annual Prom Prep event on Saturday, March 16, 2019. Students were able to choose from over 200 dresses and receive a discount for tuxedos. Thank you to all the generous donors and businesses that helped make this a success for our students.
At Simbury's Squadron Line Elementary School, an Open Choice Pre-K student, Melody has flourished this school year. "I learned my letters!" Melody proudly exclaimed. "My favorite part about school is going to the kitchen area. I play with the little baby dolls."
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As a new service to districts, we will list links to resources that we feel may be of assistance to you in our monthly newsletter.
- The State of Connecticut has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice called the STOP Violence Grant. The purpose of this grant is to bring proven violence reduction training to schools in Connecticut at no charge. We have partnered with Sandy Hook Promise to conduct these trainings. For most schools, the trainings will begin in the fall of 2019 and continue throughout the school year.
The "Signs of Suicide" training will be delivered to school staff members, deemed appropriate by you, through a regional delivery model. The "Say Hello" and "Say Something" trainings are for grades 6-12 and are delivered in an assembly type setting about 45 minutes to one hour in length. If you are interested in arranging this training for your school contact:
William Turley, MS, AEM
Regional Coordinator, Region 3
Division of Emergency Management
And Homeland Security
360 Broad Street
Hartford CT. 06105
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For information on an upcoming professional development session focused on conducting effective home visits,
click here
- Hartford now requires that all requests for door-to-door transportation for students with IEPs or 504s, be completed online!!! Here is how:
- Go to: https://www.hartfordschools.org/transportation.
- Click the corresponding link under IMPORTANT LINKS on the left-hand side.
- If your student has a 504 plan click: Transportation Request Form
- If you have a Special Education Student with an IEP click: SPED Transportation Request Form
- Password: RideTheBus
- Fill out
- Hit submit
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT POSSIBILITIES
Twelve high school students and three teachers from Enfield High School spent two days together building trust, stepping into discomfort and sharing their stories to understand each other's life experiences better, using a racial equity lens.
Following the creation of conversation guidelines, the group spent most of day one hearing each other's perspectives, with the latter portion of that day delving into examples of structural racism. During the second day, the students and teachers focused on better understanding privilege, stereotypes, and how skin color impacts a person's life experiences. The second day closed with a student/staff dialogue; youth shared their perceptions of racial inequities within school settings, followed by brainstorming ideas and actions that, if implemented, could address existing equity challenges.
One teacher who participated in the dialogues noted that,
"The training was incredible and just what we needed. You gave us the empathy and compassion to process our feelings, along with the motivation and focus to set tangible goals. You enabled us to build bonds with one another as you taught us the skills necessary to facilitate racial dialogues, which is a very task-oriented accomplishment, and yet you allowed us the freedom to veer off course to process and acknowledge feelings. It was masterful."
For more information on Facilitating a Civil Discourse in the Classroom, please feel free to contact Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator Gloria Francesca Mengual at [email protected] or at 860-509-3768.
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 F
AMILY ENGAGEMENT
From Curtis Porter (Family Engagement Specialist)
As we near the end of the year we have a lot of exciting happenings in the works!
Open Choice is implementing our inaugural Open Choice Day of Service at the beginning of June. This event will include a community service project at Food Share headquarters in Bloomfield. This event is open to all district families (Hartford & Suburban), school administration, and staff. We are looking to have transportation provided to and from CREC Central. All are welcomed and encouraged to participate. If you are interested in your school participating;
please RSVP here.
We are thinking about hosting and bringing folks together for an "Appetizer and Apps" Night to share best practices for accessing and using interactive applications to engage students and families in a safe and effective way. If you are interested in attending such an event, please let me know
here
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We are pleased to announce that we will be recognizing our first ever Open Choice Liaison of the Year at our last liaisons' breakfast happening in June. If you would like to nominate your Open Choice Liaison for this honor, please
click HERE
to complete the nomination form and to see the criteria for nomination.
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The Hartford Region Open Choice after School Program (CASA) has completed 24 weeks of after-school support serving 93 students. Homework/skills building support and credit recovery for high school students continue to be our primary focus. To date, we have received 110 referrals from 22 of our suburban districts. Sixty of the 93 students have completed 9-24 weeks with CASA.
CASA has extended its closing date by three weeks for those high school students needing time to regain lost credits. The program for those students will end on June 6. The program will for the middle school and high school students not needing the extra time, will end on May 16, with an end of year celebration for the students.
We are accepting referrals for our third session, specifically for those high school and middle school students in a final push to improve their grades. To make a referral, please visit
www.crec.org/casa.
Thank you for making this year's CASA program the best ever!
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TRANSPORTATION TIDBITS
As working partners, we all have concerns about the effective management of student behavior on our buses. However, there are districts that appear to be making some positive steps forward in this most challenging area.
If you have a best practice that you are implementing in your district regarding student bus behavior, we would love to hear from you. Email Rudy Thomas at
[email protected]. We will consolidate your good thinking and get it out to everyone in the next month or so.
We are a community of concerned professionals with the common goal of maintaining the safety of all students while traveling on our vehicles. Some travel 180 minutes round trip to their school districts and home every day!
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