This year, my daughter dressed up as a Drop Box, and we went to drop our ballots as a family. Since school is closed on Tuesday for Election Day, it’s a perfect opportunity to go to your neighborhood polling place and cast your vote!  I will never tell you how to vote or who to vote for… but, I will strongly encourage you to participate in Democracy by voting.

Every presidential election year, a little over half of eligible Americans vote.  Some people feel like their vote doesn’t matter because they live in such a red or blue state.  Even though it may not feel like it matters, every single vote helps to truly identify the popular vote for a candidate. If only  half of eligible voters actually vote, it doesn’t actually represent the reality  in each state.  In Maryland, you can register to vote when you walk up to the polling place.  Need to know where your polling place is?  Click here to find out!  Also, this year we will elect our next Mayor.  Be sure to let your voice be heard!

Happy Week 9, everyone!

–Dr. Shyla.

**************************************

Table of Contents (click a topic below for the link directly to the text)

Noteworthy Upcoming Dates: 2

Helpful Links 3

Attendance Letters 3

Save the Date — Assessment Week — Nov. 16-20 4

Committee Night — Tuesday, November 10th 4

Enrollment 2021-22 5

Consider Joining the City Neighbors Advocacy Team! 6

OUR VOICES MATTER! 7

Arts Every Day 10×10 Exhibition 7

Visual Arts Virtual Documentation Board 8

Care Center Site 9

Vote! 9

Follow Us on Social Media! 10

Donations to the School 10

Connecting with Shyla 11

**************************************

Noteworthy Upcoming Dates:

**************************************

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!

**************************************

Attendance Letters

This past week you may have received an Attendance Letter of Concern for your students, and you might be wondering why.  Although your student may have attended some of their classes every day, they may have frequently missed some classes each day.  We report daily attendance to the district but we keep class-by-class attendance on Jupiter in order to be able to support students more effectively.

What does this mean?

• In an attempt to keep all communication frequent, up-to-date, and transparent, we want to let parents/caregivers know if their student is regularly missing some classes.

• This means that, although, your student might be marked present for the day on Infinite Campus, they might be chronically missing the same class or classes, which could negatively impact their grade. You may not be aware that they are doing this so we want to bring it to your attention.

How should parents/caregivers respond?

• Check your student’s attendance on Jupiter.  If you have any questions, email Shyla Rao and Jerred Anderson.  We would be happy to screenshare the attendance from our Admin perspective and provide an explanation

• If you would like to meet with a particular teacher or with Shyla/Jerred, please email Shyla and Jerred to make arrangements.

• You can always sign-up for a conference with Shyla on her appointment calendar.

**************************************

Save the Date — Assessment Week — Nov. 16-20

At the end of each trimester, teachers need to assess where students have grown and where they  need to continue to grow.  This way, they can communicate recent data with families as well as plan for the next trimester accordingly.

The week of November 16-20, we will have our next Assessment Week. Keep an eye out for more information from your student’s teachers as well as posted in next week’s What’s Good!

Spirit Week will also be the same week as Assessment Week where each student can dress up in themed clothing, participate in fun activities, and end the week with our first Virtual All-School!

**************************************

Committee Night — Tuesday, November 10th

When families made the decision to send their children to CNH, they also made the commitment to complete 40 hours of Family Participation each year as a family and to join a schoolwide committee.  Last month, we had about 30 families (out of 175) attend Committee Night — We need your participation.

How do you join Committee Night?

Here is the link to join Committee Night.  We begin with brief school wide announcements as well as an overview for the night.  After the large group overview, you will go to this document and click the link to a committee you’d like to join for the evening.

How do you earn participation hours?

You earn hours by attending progress report conferences, any school events, and by joining a committee.  We make it easy for you — attend Committee night, the second Tuesday of every month 6:00-7:00.

How do I log my  participation hours?

Be sure to fill out this form when you meet with a staff member, attend a school event, join Committee Night, or participate in conferences.

**************************************

Enrollment 2021-22

School year 2020-21 has just begun, but enrollment season for 2021-22 has begun!

NEW FAMILIES

City Neighbors Hamilton is now accepting enrollment applications for next school year.  The deadline to receive applications from new families for inclusion in the enrollment lottery is 3 PM February 3, 2021.

Enrollment Open Houses will be held virtually as follows:  November 23, 6 – 7 PM, December 10, 12-1 PM, January 9, 3-4 PM, January 26, 9 AM

Links for the virtual Open Houses will be on our website:  www.cityneighborshamilton.org

Please spread the word!

CURRENT FAMILIES

The deadline to receive applications for siblings of current students and children of school staff is January 22, 2021.  If your child currently attends CNH, there is no need to reapply.  Intent to Return forms will be sent and collected in January.  Siblings and children of staff will not be included in the enrollment lottery, HOWEVER, you must submit an enrollment application by January 22, 2021 in order for us to have an accurate count of open seats when we conduct our lottery.

Enrollment applications can be downloaded from http://cityneighborshamilton.org/apply/

and should be emailed to applications@cityneighborshamilton.org.  Be sure to clearly indicate “sibling” on the application.  Please be aware that the Sibling Preference Policy only applies to siblings of current City Neighbors Hamilton students.  It does not apply to siblings of students who are enrolled at City Neighbors Charter School or City Neighbors High School.

If you have any questions about enrollment, please reach out to Enrollment Coordinator, Stephanie King at sking@cityneighborshamilton.org.

**************************************

Consider Joining the City Neighbors Advocacy Team!

 

From our founding sixteen years ago, City Neighbors has had a strong, powerful tradition of advocating for children, great public education, and our city.    To even open our doors sixteen years ago took the courage and organization of families, supporters, and educators.   And, in Baltimore, City Neighbors is known for our ability to turn out dozens or hundreds of people in Baltimore, Annapolis, and elsewhere, when significant issues in education have emerged and needed strong voices.   Our commitment is to create great, progressive, innovative schools for our 870+ children in our schools, but also to advocate for great public education throughout our city and beyond.

The City Neighbors Advocacy Team, including parents and staff from across our three schools, works to join this fight for great public education, equitable funding, and more.  The City Neighbors Advocacy Team will be holding a 30 minute informational meeting on Wednesday, November 4th at 7pm for anyone possible interested in joining our Advocacy Team.   Come find out about the issues facing our schools and public education and be part of the City Neighbors voice that will make a difference.  No experience necessary – just a deep care for great education and our kids!

This year – with our opportunity to overturn the Governor’s veto of the Blueprint for Maryland Schools – we have the chance to ensure equitable, adequate funding for the next generation of students at our schools, in Baltimore, and beyond!

If you are interested in attending, please click here to register:   City Neighbors Advocacy Team Informational Meeting Registration

**************************************

Our Voices Matter!

This week, follow @misscohens_atelier on Instagram to see the Advocacy Stickers the 8th graders created for a cause they care about and support. Each day, I will be sharing 5-6 designs along with the students statements about their stickers. We can’t wait for you to follow us on this social media exhibition.

**************************************

Arts Every Day 10×10 Exhibition

Calling all CNH artists, dancers, singers, poets, and creatives!

With so much going on in the world today, the need to listen to the voices of our youth are so paramount, especially because the decisions we make today will impact the world our children will grow up in tomorrow. For this exhibit, we invite students and teachers of Baltimore City Public schools to think about ways art, in its many forms can be used to inform, create discourse, and further understanding. This call for art encourages students to use whatever creative outlet suits their preferred art process, their intended message, or their call to action. How do you use your VOICE through the arts? Is it through dance, poetry, visual art, music, or film?

REQUIREMENTS TO PARTICIPATE:

• Visual art and photography must measure 10 inches by 10 inches (file types accepted: .jpg, .jpeg, .png)

• Videos, video performances, or short films must be no longer than three (3) minutes, with a file size 2MB of less (file types accepted: .mp4, .m4v (MPEG-4), .mov)

• Poetry/spoken word poetry, and art books will be accepted

• Photographs of 3D works will be accepted

If you have questions, please contact Ms. Cohen – hcohen@cityneighborshamilton.org

**************************************

Visual Arts Virtual Documentation Board

Students in 2nd, 5th and 8th grade have been busy engaging in hands-on and digital art making lessons and projects with Ms. Cohen. It has been wonderful to see creativity and innovation continuing at home. The Visual Arts Google Site features a digital documentation board that highlights the great work that is happening in each of the art classes. Click here to visit the CNH Visual Arts Google Site

**************************************

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 (10/26)

• Wellness Wednesday (10/28)

• Find a Friend Friday (10/30)

**************************************

Vote!

City Neighbors Votes! Please join us as we commit to vote this fall. We’re partnering with My School Votes to spread the word and make registering to vote a little easier.

If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time! Click the link to access our portal. Then click Register to Vote.

Following these links gives you access into Maryland’s online voter registration process, which is open to anyone 16 or older. In Maryland you can register as early as 16, although you have to wait until 18 to cast a vote. Please make sure you’re registered, and share the link with your friends, family, and neighbors to help us spread the word.

Let’s make our voices count! https://myschoolvotes.whenweallvote.org/cityneighborsvotes

**************************************

Follow Us on Social Media!

CNH is on Social Media — Follow us! Please note that Twitter and Instagram are new endeavors for CNH so please know that it will pick-up momentum with time and more followers.  🙂

• Twitter — @CNHschool

• Instagram — city_neighbors_hamilton

• Facebook — Follow us at our official school page City Neighbors Hamilton (to receive important information) and our City Neighbors Hamilton Family page (where you can share photos and comments with CNH Families as well as Staff)

**************************************

Donations to the School

Some families reached out to the school over the summer mentioning that they would like to donate the money they didn’t spend on groceries this summer due to receiving the P-EBT card for their children.  Other families reached out to me wanting to donate money to support our acquisition of technology to support families this fall.

If you would like to donate money to the school (for any reason), the easiest ways are through our CashApp or PayPal accounts.  Checks mailed to the school will also be accepted. Please add a note, no matter how you might donate, with how you would like it used (general educational expenses, technology, arts, etc).

• CashApp: $CNH346

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

If you aren’t able to donate funds to the school, 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.

*********************************************

Connecting with Shyla

Below the signature of every email I send from my computer (not the ones from my phone), I have the following text.

Want to meet?  Click here to make an appointment. Be sure to add the topic/agenda of our meeting in the Notes section, so that I am prepared. I look forward to speaking with you.

I wholeheartedly mean it when I say that I am happy to meet with you anytime you’d like to talk. It can be something you’re excited or upset about, a new idea you have for the school, if you want to share news about your family, or just to connect.  I would love to meet with you!

*********************************************