News from Our Schools 9/18/20

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News & updates

September 18, 2020

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First Graders Start Year

With Gift of

Literacy Kits

Barnard Early Childhood Center Principal Dr. Nicolas Cracco accepting the kits from My Brother's Keeper New Rochelle Managing Director Colleen Gardephe

Every first graders in the City School District of New Rochelle is starting the new year with a gift – a Literacy Kit with reading material, activity cards, crayons and more. The treats are made more special with personalized notes of encouragement from community leaders in each one.

Thank My Brother’s Keeper New Rochelle, the New Rochelle Public Library and the United Way of Westchester and Putnam for to assembling and donating the 781 Literacy Kits. They were distributed to schools as part of the MBK NewRo’s “Fast Track to First Grade” campaign.

“Thank you to our community partners – My Brother’s Keeper New Rochelle, the New Rochelle Public Library and the United Way – for this incredibly thoughtful gift,” said Acting Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero. “What a great way for our first graders to start the year, with literacy kits that not only will spark the minds of our curious learners, but will inspire and encourage them with letters of support from the caring leaders of their community. This is a perfect affirmation of the tenet, ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’”

Approximately 70 New Rochelle community and school district leaders provided the notes, including Mayor Noam Bramson, Board of Education President Rachel Relkin, and City Manager Charles Strome III. Other letter-writers represented the Board of Education, City Council, MBK, the New Rochelle Public Library, the PTA, Boys & Girls Clubs, Municipal Housing Authority, Chamber of Commerce, New Rochelle Council on the Arts, the Rotary Club, the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence and other groups.

“The notes we received were so encouraging and tender -- the writers were clearly hoping to provide a boost for all these young students in these challenging times,” said Colleen Gardephe, Managing Director of My Brother’s Keeper. “It was also heartening to see how appreciative the Principals, Assistant Principals and teachers were to be receive the Literacy Kits and be able to provide more resources to the children and families in their care.”

The notes included formal, typed notes on letterhead to hand-written notecards with the coolest stickers available, some in English, some in Spanish, highlighted the hopes and aspirations they community members hold for this class of first graders. Their messages: have fun, work hard, read, be kind and perhaps most importantly in this pandemic environment, ask for help.

They were distributed to schools last week and this week.

Assembling the literacy kits. From left: Adjua Thomas, Literacy Coordinator for MBK; DeParis Banks, Program Coordinator for MBK; Colleen Gardephe, Managing Director for MBK; and Denise Link, Community Support Specialist with the New Rochelle Public Library.

Scenes from Our Schools

The school year looks a lot different this year, starting with a distance learning platform and planning to move to a hybrid model. Here are a few scenes.

Paul Williams, a veteran physical education teacher at George M. Davis Jr. Elementary School, teaching kindergarten students from home.

Measures to upgrade cleaning and sanitizing of buildings gets the attention of ABC news. (Watch the news report here.)

New Rochelle High School math teacher Steve Newman leads class online while desks remain empty.

Jefferson Elementary School Principal Kimmerly Nieves drops in (virtually) on a second grade class to see how things are going.

Fall Sports at NRHS

Begin September 29

The fall sports season will begin September 29 for several New Rochelle High School teams under the rules announced this week by Section One.

On that day, varsity and junior varsity boys’ and girls’ soccer, boys’ and girls’ cross country as well as girls’ tennis can begin practice. The winter season is scheduled to begin November 30. March 1, 2020 has been set for football, volleyball and cheerleading and is the proposed day for girls swimming, pending Section One approval.

While swimming is considered a low-risk activity for COVID-19, it is not being held this fall because many other schools do not have access to facilities.

FamilyID is now open for student athletes to register. If a student had a valid physical for sports during the 2019-20 school year, it will be accepted for the fall season this year, along with an updated immunization record. If a child is new to the athletic program, an updated physical and a complete immunization record will be required prior to tryouts.

“Each season will be shorter than most years, but this schedule allows a student to participate in all four seasons, if desired,” said Director of Athletics Steve Young.

The status of middle school sports is still in discussion with no approved dates at this time.

Equity, Access Committee Holds First Meeting

The newly formed Equity and Access Committee has begun its mission to explore obstacles to equity, fairness and equal access in the City School District of New Rochelle and to recommend action steps to eliminate them.

“I’m incredibly excited to have launched a critical journey with community thought partners,” said Acting Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero. “This work is as important as everything else that were managing during this critical time.”

Comprised of District administrators, educators and community members, the 21-member panel held its inaugural meeting virtually on Thursday.

“The first meeting was a start of a productive committee with intelligent and very motivated individuals,” said Daniel Bonnet, director of the New Rochelle Community Action Program, and a member of the group. “I know that we will be making strides to enhance the access and resources to all students within our city.”

David Peters, LMSW, a consultant on matters of racial equity also on the committee, said he was encouraged by the members’ commitment to the committee’s goals.

“Our first meeting was focused, and showed both a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose,” Peters said. “I’m optimistic because there was a recognition that this is not a quick fix, and that we are going to be deliberate, transparent and committed to our mission.”

The full membership is as follows:

Co-chairs:

· Alex Marrero – CSDNR Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction

· Tawanda Robinson – Principal, Isaac E. Young Middle School

· Rachel Cornelius – Interim Assistant Principal, New Rochelle High School

Members:

· Aisha Cook – teacher, Columbus Elementary School

· Akil Hawthorne – community member

· Anthony Bambrola – Principal, George M. Davis Jr. Elementary School

· Camille Edwards-Thomas – Assistant Principal, New Rochelle High School

· Candace Pinn – teacher, Henry Barnard Early Childhood Center

· Carlos Leal – CSDNR Director of Elementary Education

· Daniel Bonnet – community member

· David Peters – community member

· David Soberman – community member

· Julia Taylor – community member

· Mariana Jusufaj – community member

· Michael Galland – Principal, Columbus Elementary School

· Myriam Decime – community member

· Nadine Wallace – former Board of Education President and member

· Rachelle Rumph – community member

· Timothy McKnight – community member

· Tracy Hill – community member

· Valarie Cadet Simpkins – community member

Spotlighted so far, from top left: Acting Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero; Gustavo Barbosa, chair of the Social Studies and Business at New Rochelle High School; Ana Santiago, Principal Clerk for the Superintendent of Schools.

District Members Highlighted for Hispanic Heritage Month

For Hispanic Heritage Month, we are celebrating some of the many Latinx educators, administrators and staff members that help make the City School District of New Rochelle the wonderful school system that it is. A different member of the District family will be spotlighted throughout the month, which goes from September 15 to October 15.

You can find them on the District’s Facebook page, @newrochellschools. We will also showcase them on our web page, www.nred.org.

Additional Tenure Recipients

Katrina Brown, an English teacher at Isaac E. Young Middle School, and Jessica Alvarez, a special education teacher at George M. Davis Jr. Elementary School were celebrated at a September 8 Board of Education meeting for having received tenure, along with more than 30 others educators and staff. Their names were inadvertently omitted from an article on the tenure recipients in last Friday’s e-newsletter.