What’s Good in the Neighborhood, August 24, 2021

The Family Work Day was amazingly productive last weekend — our families moved 10 cubic yards of mulch to the playground, put together outdoor furniture, revitalized old furniture with paint, carried furniture all over the building, put together cleaning kits for teachers, helped to set up work spaces for kids, and laughed our way through it.  .  I am so deeply grateful for everyone who pitched in to help get the building ready for the students!!  We will be back at it THIS SATURDAY, 10:00-2:00. If you can stop by to lend a hand, we would deeply appreciate it!

Have a great week!

–Dr. Shyla

 

This Week’s Topics

(click a topic below to link directly to that text)

Noteworthy Upcoming Dates: 1

Kindergarten, MS, and New Family Orientations 2

Meet the Teachers 2

Family Work Day/Reopening Task Force 3

Action Needed — CNH Charter Renewal Update 3

Board Nominations 3

CNH Greeting Competition 5

Before and After Care 5

Safety Protocols for the Fall 6

Donations to the School 6

 

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Noteworthy Upcoming Dates:

 

 

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Kindergarten, MS, and New Family Orientations

This Thursday evening, we have Kindergarten orientation at the school 6:00-7:00, Middle School orientation on Zoom 6:00-7:00, and New Family Orientation 7:00-7:30.

Kindergarten Orientation will meet under the tent in front of the stage.  Lisa Bryant will cover information as a large group outside and then will have small groups come into the classroom at a time while you get the chance to get to know the other families outside.

Middle School Orientation will be held on Zoom due to the large number of students and families.  We are inviting both 6th and 7th grade students to orientation as last year was a very different experience for the rising 6th graders. Here is the link to join the Zoom meeting. (https://bcps-k12-md-us.zoom.us/j/6798012472)

New Family Orientation is for any families who were new last year or this year.  You may join us under the tents in front of the stage at school for this meeting. We will go over general opportunities and expectations of the school and school district as well as provide small group tours of the school building.

• If you are a Middle School family and are also new to the school, we will have the MIddle School Orientation projected in a classroom in the school for folks who want to attend both events.

• If you are on-site for the Kindergarten Orientation I will be facilitating the meeting in-person under the tent in front of the school.

• If you are new in a different grade (last year or this year), you may also join us at the school at 7:00.  The goal of New Family Orientation is to help you navigate the opportunities and expectations of the school and school district.  Here is the link to join the Zoom meeting (same link as for MS Orientation). (https://bcps-k12-md-us.zoom.us/j/6798012472)

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Meet the Teachers

THIS FRIDAY, August 27th, from 12:30-3:00 we will host Meet the Teachers.

In order to minimize the number of people in the classroom at a time, we have created a Sign-Up Genius for you to select a time slot when you will drop by.  This is a great time for you and your child to meet the teachers, drop off school supplies, and check out the classrooms! We’d love to see you!

You will not be permitted to visit the classroom if you do not sign-up prior to the event. If you show up to school without signing up for a time slot you will need to wait until there is an open slot in the schedule. We opened more slots yesterday. Hope to see you there!

Here is the link for the SignUp Genius to reserve your time slot.

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Family Work Day/Reopening Task Force

Last Sunday we had a Family Work Day and those in the Reopening Task Force came together at CNH to help ready the building for our students. It was a great turnout with collaborative effort among our families. As the start to the school year is rapidly approaching, we will be hosting another Family Work Day/Reopening Task Force THIS SATURDAY, August 28th from 10:00am- 2:00pm to complete remaining tasks for making our school building an inviting space to welcome our students back.

We will make/hang welcome signs, paint hopscotch, four square, and a mini basketball court in the courtyard, and help make all of the shared spaces look warm and welcoming for the students on Monday!

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Action Needed — CNH Charter Renewal Update

Our CNH Charter Renewal journey began last year and is now in its final stages of being completed! To help us bring to a close our renewal process, we are looking for letters of recommendation, love, and/or appreciation of our school. We are calling on you, our families, to provide us with this documentation to be added to our charter renewal. We are requesting letters that illuminate the aspects of City Neighbors Hamilton that, in your entrusted opinion, support the work that we do to further our approval of a renewal (There is not a required length for the letter).

You may hand write the letter and drop it off at the main office.  You can send an email.  You can type the letter and share it with Shyla. Any format will do!

Please send your letters to Dr. Shyla by August 30th. (srao@cityneighborshamilton.org)

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Board Nominations

It is that time of year again where we are looking to nominate new board members to serve our community! Every year, three positions open up.  We are looking for parents/guardians to help us support the important learning in our school. You may nominate yourself or someone else. The nomination form will be included in next week’s What’s Good.

What makes a good nominee?

• Someone who loves the school

• The ability to attend monthly meetings

  • board meetings and committee meetings (both the same night)

  • If in-person, childcare is provided; if online, Chromebook provided if needed

• Someone who would like to get to know more parents/guardians

This year we are looking for nominations in the following areas:

• President — Facilitate monthly board meetings, support board members with their committee ideas, meet regularly with Shyla

• Family Engagement — Help us activate our family participation with school events and then track and celebrate family participation hours

• Facilities — Work with families to identify beautification and structural needs around the school and organize family workdays to help improve the school

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CNH Greeting Competition

Long gone are the days when Dr. Shyla, along with other staff members, would greet each student at the door with a handshake and “Good morning.”  We need to think of a new way to greet each other in a way that does not include physical contact, but that is still warm and welcoming for each student entering school each morning.

We need your help!  We have initiated a CNH Greeting Competition.  Here is the link to see the Flipgrid prompt and submission page. If you have an interesting new idea for us to be able to greet each other, record the greeting on Flipgrid and post it in the Greeting Competition page no later than Friday, August 20th.  From Saturday, August 21 through Thursday, August 26th, families will vote on which greeting they think we should use in the mornings.  The winner will receive a special pizza lunch for their class, and the greeting will be named after them.  We are so excited to see what you come up with for our school!

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Before and After Care

After careful consideration and vetting of various Before and After Care service providers, we have selected an awesome program to bring to City Neighbors Hamilton!  We are excited  to welcome Elev8 to our community. Elev8 is more than aftercare — it is a program for academic support, mindfulness, fun, and loving care for students in an extended day format for 2nd through 8th grade students.  What excites us even more about Elev8 is they are aligned with the City Neighbors Way culture.

We are providing aftercare programming for K-1 with internal  CNH staff that is designed specifically for the developmental, social, and academic needs of our Kindergarten and 1st grade students. It will mirror the programming for Elev8 but will be differentiated for our youngest learners.

We will be providing before care from 7:00-8:00 every morning and after school programming care until 6:00 every day.  Please complete this form by THIS FRIDAY, August 27, to reserve your spot for before care and/or after school programming  

NOTE:  At this point, every person who has signed up for Aftercare has a spot!  We are trying hard to ensure that everyone who is interested can participate.

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Safety Protocols for the Fall

Over the past week, we are continuing to receive updates from the district surrounding safety protocols for our return to school.

Below are the main protocols we are planning.  We will add to this list each week as we receive more guidance.

• Any times when more than one grade is in the same space (small group intervention work, aftercare, etc.), students will remain a minimum 6 feet distanced from one another.

• Breakfast and Lunch will be eaten outdoors, weather permitting.  Alternative plans for indoor eating with half of the students at a time (for optimal spacing) is planned.

• Students sit 3 feet apart from one another in their classrooms when masked

• Outdoor mask-wearing — Students will wear masks when playing on the playground, as it is hard to maintain social distancing.  Students will not wear masks when playing socially-distanced structured games outside to allow for a mask break.

• Windows will be open in all classrooms, no matter the weather.  Box fans will be in each classroom to provide extra fresh air circulation from the windows

• We have purchased C02 readers to test air quality in rooms regularly

• Health Screening will be self-reported by parents/guardians prior to arrival at school each day. Students will still have separate entrances to avoid crowding at the entrance or in the hallways.

• We will have limited visitors in the building — for scheduled appointments only.

• All staff and students will wear masks at all times indoors, when not eating (see above)

• Hand washing and table/materials wiping is built into each class period

• Pooled testing will be conducted weekly.  If a pool has a positive result, our Health and Safety Coordinator will administer individual tests to every person in the pool.  Quarantining will vary depending upon results.

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Donations to the School

If you would like to donate money to the school (for any reason), the easiest way is through our PayPal account. If you want your donation to go to a specific fund or activity (general educational expenses, technology, arts, etc), please note it with your donation.

PayPal Donate Button on Website: http://cityneighborshamilton.org/

If you aren’t able to donate funds to the school right now, we always appreciate your donation of time supporting the general programming needs at our school (all virtual, of course).  If you would like to volunteer for the school, please email our Family Participation Board Director Elisabeth Hyleck at ehyleck@cityneighborshamilton.org.

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Next What’s Good

Beginning next week,  you will receive the What’s Good every Monday with details for the week to be aware of. Be on the lookout for our next What’s Good this coming Monday, the first day of school!