What’s Good in the Neighborhood, May 17, 2021

The first Cohort of Physical Fridays ended last Friday. It was so amazing to see the students connecting with one another, their teachers, and the school again after such a long time! The second Physical Fridays cohort will begin this Friday. We will be having end of year events for the students in each grade band the last week and a half of the school year. We need to get approval from the district for each event. Once they are each approved, we will announce the exact plans.

You might notice a new background with some of the teachers this week! This morning, we doubled our in-person staffing on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  This will not change the online schedule — all teachers will still be teaching on Zoom using the same schedule.  Staff are returning to the building to support times in-between classes.

What a remarkable 15 months we have had as a community (and as a world!). I will be holding listening sessions for families to share their reflections and hopes for next year with the CNH community the first week in June (more to come). Along with that, the district is planning to fully return in-person in September. Here is the link to their “Reconnect. Restore. Reimagine.” initiative for returning in the fall.

Happy Week 35!

–Dr. Shyla

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Noteworthy Upcoming Dates:

 

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Hiring Update — Middle School and New Position Announcement

The message below is copied from an email I sent last week to all families.

I am excited to share the outcome of our Middle School search process.

We had two open positions for middle school:

• Math — Mr. Johnson is moving out of Baltimore and is leaving CNH at the end of this year. We conducted a search, had a number of really compelling candidates and are excited to announce our new middle school Math teacher, Elisabeth Budd-Brown.  She is a veteran teacher who approaches Math education from a Progressive, project-based perspective.  She will continue Mr. Johnson’s work of considering Math Education as a liberatory act. Families who interviewed loved her honesty, openness, and candor.  She is going to be an incredible addition to the Middle School team. We are so excited to have her engaging and effective teaching practice at our school!

• Social Studies — We created a new Social Studies position for next year.  After a rigorous process meeting with a variety of strong candidates, we had two finalists.  Both candidates were amazing, and the parents who participated in the family interviews wrote comments about what a hard decision between the two because they were both such great fits.  I am happy to say that we were able to hire both of them!  Erika Cabrera is going to serve as our Middle School Social Studies teacher.  With teaching experience as a middle school History teacher and a Master’s Degree focused on inclusive engagement with history from the perspectives of both dominant and underrepresented communities, she is going to excite students to dive into critical engagements with history both globally as well as locally.  As for our other candidate, let me explain below:

One other announcement:

•  Educational Associate — The budget committee (consisting of parents/guardians and teachers) and the CNH Board of Directors committed to hiring a new Educational Associate to serve as a second leader in the school who is focused on family and student support. It was important to the staff that this position is held by someone who knows the community, is committed to the mission and vision of the school, and can support students and their families in effective ways through workshops, restorative circles, and on-going partnership. Our school’s Equity Committee has helped us develop a school-wide goal of fostering leadership opportunities for future leaders within the school.  With all of that, we opened up a search process with our internal staff. Liz Mencer, our current Middle School Humanities teacher was selected to serve as our Educational Associate.  She has a Master’s degree in school leadership, is student-centered, loving, and has already established herself as a leader within the school as the Literacy Specialist last year and Middle School Team Lead this year. She is developing a vision for the position in collaboration with the staff that will be brought to the family community next month for feedback and ideas. Liz is going to do great things with building an even more inclusive and supportive community at our school!

• English — Since Liz Mencer is transitioning into a leadership position at the school, the English portion of her Humanities course is now open for a new teacher.  Jerred Anderson, who has worked at the school for the past 6 years, was the second finalist in the Social Studies interviews.  He is able to teach both English as well as Social Studies, has served as Ms. Mencer’s long-term sub when she was on maternity leave, served as a teaching Fellow in the English classroom before we moved to a Humanities blend, and is dedicated to developing engaged readers and effective communicators in our student body.  He is also incredibly student-centered and has worked tirelessly to support our students this year as our School Culture Advisor. He and Erika Cabrera are going to be a dynamic duo as they are able to expand and deepen our Humanities curriculum in their two classes!

What an amazing and exciting series of announcements to make.  This new staffing model will also allow us to deepen and expand our Middle School program for all of our students.  I can’t wait to see how our Middle School programming grows and develops with this dynamic new team!

We will hold a meet-and-greet with our new teachers before the start of the school year so that you can get to know them before classes begin.

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We need 85% response to this Survey by Thursday — Please Complete Today!

The end of the year is almost here! Before students start their break, we want to hear from you! Our annual End of the Year Family Survey is your opportunity to give feedback on your school experiences. School and District leaders will use the data from this survey to plan for next year. Make sure that your voice is heard!

The End of Year Family Survey will be open through Friday, May 21. This anonymous survey will take about 10 min to complete. You can take this survey on any internet connected device at surveys.panoramaed.com/baltimorecity/family. Select the school that your child attends from the dropdown menu. Take one survey for each school that you have a child enrolled in. The survey is available in 12 languages: Amharic, Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Nepali, Kinyarwanda, Swahili, Tigrinya, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Simplified Chinese.

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

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Show your School Pride with CNH Swag!

                                       

Who else loves seeing all the CNH bumper stickers driving around the city? Have you noticed your kid’s CNH and Known, Loved, Inspired shirts are all getting too small? Now they can get a fresh version for the coming warmer weather. We even have masks, mugs, hoodies, phone cases and more. Show off your school pride AND help support our school with your purchase – everyone wins.
Click here to check out the CNH school store. (Be sure to use the left hand navigation to see all the CNH Gear)

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Resources for Families

 

• Here are Resources to support health and wellness during COVID

• Funeral Assistance  — FEMA will reimburse anyone who has the need

• FEMA — Other COVID Economic Support

 

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Care Center Site

Families can access the Care Center Site by accessing the CNH Family Site and clicking on the Family Resources tab. You can also click here to access the site. Students, teachers, and families can find different ways to support social-emotional learning on this site. You can also use this site to get in touch with Ms. Lauren & Mr. Jerred.

Care Center Week Ahead…

• Mindful Monday

• Wellness Wednesday

• Find a Friend Friday

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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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Helpful Links

• The CNH Academic Calendar — This gives all important dates for this year (end of each trimester, Progress Report Conferences dates, etc.)

• CNH Family  Site — This is one-stop shopping for families (links to Google Classrooms, Family  Resources, the Care Center, Tutorial Videos, etc.)

• School Schedule Spreadsheet — This document has each grade’s schedule with links to Zoom meetings in one mega spreadsheet.  (NOTE: Student schedules are also posted in every Google Classroom with links to Zoom meetings)

• Family  Participation Hours Log — Any time you participate in a meeting with a staff member, attend a school event, participate in progress report conferences, or attend Committee Night, complete this form so that we can keep track of your participation!  Every family needs to log 40 hours of participation each year.

• CNH Main Website — Here is the main website with information about the school and resources.

• CNH Care Center Site — Find resources for supporting your child’s (and your own) social-emotional learning needs as well as see the videos posted for our morning meetings each week.

• COVID Testing Sites — If you are experiencing symptoms, click this link to find a testing site near you.

• Meal Sites — This site provides information for meal sites as well as other resources for accessing food.

• Shyla Rao’s appointment calendar — Feel free to make an appointment if you have questions, comments, or concerns. Shyla looks forward to meeting with you!