Greetings PS 20 M Community!
Welcome back! We hope that you had a wonderful summer. I can't wait to hear about the terrific adventures you and your families have had.
We have had a few changes at our school....namely because we have had to reduce staff in light of a smaller budget. It's been tough, but luckily our student population is growing. More students equal more funds, which helps offset the overall budget decline. We've also been able to add some enrichment programming due to very gracious grant support. For grade 3 we will have a half-year artist in residence who will help integrate the arts into the everyday curriculum. This wonderful artist comes to us via Urban Arts. And for grades preK-2, we have a lovely Orff music program for approximately 10 weeks out of the year. This program is provided by the Turtle Bay Music School.
Our biggest in-house change is that we lost one class in grades 3 and 4. We went from 8 classes on those grades to 7. In doing so, we've created one bridge class that combines 3rd and 4th graders. This is a terrific opportunity for these students as the teacher will be opening up her curriculum to adjust for wider learning expectations. We also closed our Academic Intervention Teacher position. This person was assigned to helping students at-risk. Without this position, it is now more important than ever that at-risk students attend our 8am morning program for extra assistance.
As always, we set some goals based on last year's tests and survey data. Every single person in our community is working hard to reach them. Our goals for this year are:
~Address the US Common Core Standards in literacy (particularly in non-fiction text) and mathematics (particularly through making models and increasing student debate)
~Increase parent engagement/participation at school through the PTA
~Increase clarity in communication between staff, administration, and families
~Increase second language learning (in English and Mandarin)
~Increase student achievement for students with special needs.
~Whole-school attendance at 95%
To meet these goals, we have adopted the following key actions/strategies.
~Continue study of sheltered instruction strategies, as outlined in the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
~Study US Common Core Standards and performance-based assessment.
~In writing, improve shared writing, analysis of mentor text, grand conversations, and editing.
~Study of PTA practice from across the city.
~In mathematics, incorporate weekly applications of concepts to problems based in real-world situations. Grand conversations will occur to deconstruct these applications.
As you can see, we have our work cut out for us...all in the name of bringing the best possible education to your children. To help us in this effort, please consider one of the multiple opportunities we have for for parents and community members to join in. Most importantly, we have our PTA. They have a huge agenda for the year supporting our arts program, literacy instruction, cultural awareness, and after-school programming. We also have our School Leadership Team, which meets monthly to review school data and our progress towards meeting our above-mentioned goals.
See you on September 8 for the first day of school!
James