Dear Families of the MS 104 Community:

I hope this message finds everyone doing well. Over the weekend our nation was once again faced with confronting another tragic incident as city officials in Memphis released footage that revealed the actions taken by law enforcement officers against Tyre Nichols. I know that many of you, along with your children, found the videos disturbing and deeply upsetting. It is difficult to continue to process and confront incidents like these, as well as the many others we have learned of in recent weeks in our nation in which lives have been lost as a result of violent actions.

During moments like these, my thoughts often return to our school and community. I think of our students and their futures, and think of the world I want them to live in. Then I think of what we as educators can do in order to help them get there. Much our work this year has focused on creating an inclusive school environment that allows all students to feel seen, heard, valued, and respected. As a staff, we consistently reflect on our practices to ensure that we are engaging with students in ways that promote kindness, compassion, understanding, and appreciation for one another. This work is ongoing and never stops. It must be modelled, reinforced, and prioritized each and every day. Please know that I will continue to work as hard as I can to promote these values and find ways to allow students to learn from one another and about one another. As always, I appreciate your partnership, collaboration, and support.

Please see below for information and announcements.

Sincerely,

Rocco Macri, Principal

Updates on Our Work with Our Newcomers

As previously communicated, we have seen an increase in the enrollment of newcomer families who have migrated here from other countries. I thank all of our families and community members that so generously made donations and contributions to provide our newcomers with essential items. They are making a world of difference.

The administration has continued to work with our staff on providing our newcomers with supports in class while also ensuring that their peers continue to receive the educational experiences and academic supports that they need in order to continue their progress. Over the last few weeks we have increased our professional development support for staff with a specific focus on servicing our newcomer students in the general education classroom. Our curriculums and units of study remain the same. We are working to ensure that our newcomers can access the work their peers are engaging in. This will continue to be a priority for the staff as we work to ensure that all students are receiving the high quality education they deserve. We also continue to look for opportunities to add additional support staff and will do so if we identify appropriate candidates.

We have also created a lesson and activities to be delivered during advisory this week that acknowledges the arrival of our new students and families, welcomes them to our community, and revisits the values of our school charter as a tool to ensure that all of our students feel welcome. We also created a few simple activities that allow our students to greet one another and begin building connections between our newcomers and those that have been with us all along.

Finally, we have planned an event for our newcomer families to formally welcome them to our community and provide them with important information about the school and their child's educational experience. We thank those of you that have offered to support this event.

I am proud of the work being done on behalf of all of our students and thank our entire community for the efforts being put forth to continue making 104 the special place that it is.

Parent/Family Teacher Conferences Are This Week!!!

Parent/Family Teacher Conferences will be held on the following dates:

Thursday, February 2nd- 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM

Friday, February 3rd- 12:20 PM to 2:40 PM (*this is a HALF DAY for students. All students will be dismissed at 11:30 AM)

Tuesday, February 7th- 7:45AM -8:20AM

Please be reminded that Parent/Family Teacher Conferences will be VIRTUAL as per the DOE labor policy.

Families are now able to register for parent/family teacher conferences and locate the Zoom links for your conferences using this LINK On the left hand side of the form, you will find the links needed to register for the conferences. On the right hand side, you will find the Zoom links for the conferences to be used at the time of your meetings.

House teams are listed as one link, while math and elective teachers have individual links. Please be sure that you are aware of your child's teachers names when registering and searching for the appropriate Zoom links.

Please read the information below before registering for your conferences:

Families will sign up for ONE time slot that will allow them to meet for 3-4 minutes EACH with their child's ELA, Social Studies, and Science teacher. For example if you sign up for a 4:30 PM time slot with House 40, your meeting will begin with Ms. Kim, then after 3-4 minutes you will be transferred to Ms. D'Andrea, and then after 3-4 minutes you will be transferred to Ms. Fraser and Mr. Gofur.

Math teachers in houses 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 will have their own time slot sign ups. 

Elective teachers will have their own sign up time slots.

Our parent coordinator Ms. Rivera will be available to support families if needed.



Adult Only Comedy Night Fundraiser on Thursday, February 9th

I am excited to announce our first ever Adult Only Comedy Night Fundraiser being hosted by our fabulous PTA here at the school on Thursday, February 9th! This is another opportunity members of our community and their loved ones and friends to come together, laugh, and support the school.

This is an ADULT ONLY event so children are not permitted to attend the event. Please click here to see the full details of the event!

Tickets cost $28.52 for general admission and $55.20 for VIP table seating. General admission seating is on a first come first served basis. We encourage you to invite family and friends to attend! Families may also sponsor a staff ticket as well.

To purchase tickets, please click here.

To make sure we give everyone in our community an opportunity to see the show, we've arranged for reserved seating to accommodate those who would like to attend, but may be financially unable to purchase tickets at this time. Please email me at rmacri@schools.nyc.gov and I will facilitate tickets for you. Families may sponsor a donated ticket for a member of our community to attend.

We look forward to fun and funny event on February 9th. I look forward to seeing many of you there!