Weekly Email

As many of you are in the process of appointing new Assistant Principals, please ensure you have read the following which was sent to you last week: Changes to C-30 Regulation: All schools: According to recent changes to the C-30 Regulation governing the selection, assignment, and appointment of principals and assistant principals, hiring managers must consult with their School Leadership Teams (SLTs) before finalizing principal and assistant principal appointments. This consultation can take place at a regularly-scheduled or a specially-scheduled SLT meeting. In order to stay on-track with the recommended three-month guideline for completing C-30s, we encourage hiring managers to schedule a special SLT meeting if one is not imminent. The hiring manager must send an agenda in advance to all SLT members noting an agenda item to discuss the appointment of X position at the SLT meeting on Y date—do not indicate candidates’ names. Attendees must sign an attendance sheet and the Agreement of Confidentiality/Certification at the SLT meetings. The hiring manager should send these documents, along with the meeting notification and agenda, to the appropriate ISC or CFN. Additionally, the hiring manager should send the appropriate C-30 Coordinator an email stating, “I have consulted with the SLT of [School] on [Date] and wish to appoint [Candidate name] to the position of [specific license area] effective [Date].” For more information, please consult the Hiring Page on the Principals’ Portal. For questions, contact the Office of School Leadership at SupvSupport@schools.nyc.gov or 718-935-5226. In addition, Principals can serve as the mentor for new APs.

I.  PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – 12/07/09 – 12/12/09 

 ACCOUNTABILITY: CEP: By Thursday of this week, all schools will receive the feedback from Appendices 1 and 7.  Schools have already received feedback for the base sections of the CEP (profile needs, goals, actions) through their network leaders. The submission date for the final CEP is January 6, 2010.  These will be posted immediately to the public website for your school. Specific instructions on how to submit will be forwarded by next week.

AUTISM Autism Symposium: Integrating Genes, Brain & Behavior-See Attachment.

APPLIED LEARNING: IDOL: Thank you to the schools that have already submitted their D 75 Idol videos.  It is exciting to see the diverse student talent out there!  Don't let your students miss out on this unique opportunity.  Keep sending in your videos and see if you have what it takes to be a D75 Idol.  Deadline for video submissions is January 15. For more information please visit: www.district75.net/idol

DEBATE: The High School competition begins this week!  Tune in to www.district75.net/debate for schedule, highlights, and live sessions.

ALTERNATE ASSESSMENT: NYSAA SCORING INSTITUTES: NYSAA Scoring Institutes this year will be done during the school day, due to budget restrictions. The plan requires schools to assign up to 2 people for each. 1-week session. There will be 2 scoring sites per week for a total of 3 weeks. The number of personnel assigned will be based on the number of datafolios that need to be scored from each school. A list of staff members who have participated in previous NYSAA scoring will be provided to Principals to assist in the selection of designated personnel. Scoring will take place the weeks of March 15-19, March 22-25, and April 12-16. Please contact Nanette Slansky (NSlansk@schools.nyc.gov ) 212 802-1634 with any questions. 

MATHEMATICS: New ECAM (Early Childhood Assessment in Mathematics K-2) Professional Development: ECAM is an assessment tool for standardized and alternate students in academic or chronological Grades K-2. It is designed to identify the mathematical knowledge and understanding of each child in the content in counting, numeration, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, geometry, and length and time measurement. The assessment is conducted as a one-on-one interview. The child performs small mathematical tasks, and explains his thinking as he proceeds. Teacher observes and questions the child. The child answers orally and in many cases the child uses concrete materials to find or show answers. This structured mathematical interview allows students to perform task and explain their thinking. Teachers are then able to move from assessment to instruction. There will be 3 training sessions learning: how to use ECAM tool to assess students’ mathematical understanding.  Participants will be expected to administer the ECAM assessment with their class, interpret the findings, link the information to instructional practice, and find ways to support students’ mathematical growth in the classroom. Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. If you would like to obtain additional information please contact Anne Sommers asommer1@schools.nyc.gov or Dorota Koczewska dkoczew@schools.nyc.gov. Registration: http://www.district75pd.org/. Curse Code: D75-09-180. Dates: 12/11/09; 02/08/10; 04/26/10. Time: 8:10 – 3:00. Location: District 75 Office, 400 First Ave , NYC 10010.

INCLUSION: Part Time Inclusion Survey: In order to clarify questions about the Part Time Inclusion Survey please be reminded that this pertains to students who have been mainstreamed/included with supports, as per their IEP for some periods of the school day.   It is NOT for students who are receiving our D75 SETSS supports (full inclusion programs).  

LITERACY: The Literacy Empowerment Foundation, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, invites your school or other literacy project to apply for FREE books for Read Across America Day. During the past year, LEF has distributed over 3,000,000 books to schools all across the country for Read Across America Day and other literacy projects. Resources are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Orders must be received by February 12th, 2010. Free Books for Read Across America Day:  Order Form at http://www.lefbooks.org/

OFFICE OF CLINICAL AND SUPPORT SERVICES

Vision Screening: REMINDER: All vision screening must be done and entered into ATS by March 30, 2010. Attached is the “Visual Behaviors Checklist” that will assist your staff during the screening process. The vision screening document is appropriate for the students with multiple disabilities and for those students with autism and severe cognitive disabilities.

Updates on H1N1 Vaccination Program  All schools: Please review the following important updates about the H1N1 vaccination program. The latest information will always be available on the Principals’ Portal. If you have any general questions, e-mail H1N1Questions@schools.nyc.gov. For specific questions, please reach out to your network team or Integrated Service Center. Elementary Schools: Second Dose Letter for Parents: Children under ten years old need a second dose of the H1N1 vaccination at least 21 days after the first dose to develop adequate immunity. The Health Department will begin the program for the second dose this month. Given the increased availability of the vaccine, children with parental consent for the school vaccination program may have received an H1N1 vaccination outside of the school program. The school nurse needs this information in order to determine if it has been 21 days since the first dose. Please print and backpack home the form letter available here to parents who have opted-in to the vaccination program asking them to call or write your school to share the date of the first H1N1 vaccination if it was provided outside of the school program. The school designee should then share this information with the school nurse. To help manage this process, a template has been posted to the Principals’ Portal to assist the school designee in tracking the first dose information. Elementary Schools: Implementation Schedule for Second Dose: The Health Department will start administering the second dose in elementary schools as early as this week. A list of the schools scheduled to start this week or next will be posted on the Principals’ Portal.  The schedule for subsequent weeks will be posted as soon as it is available, so please check this Web site regularly. You should expect deliveries of documentation forms and additional vaccine and supplies where needed. Not all schools will need to receive additional vaccine and supplies; however, all schools will receive the round 2 documentation form. Middle and High Schools: Weekend Vaccination Clinics—Optional Letter for Parents There are only two weekends left in the middle and high school weekend H1N1 vaccination clinic program, which ends next Sunday, December 13. Please print and backpack the parent letter available here to remind parents of this vaccination opportunity for their children and for other eligible individuals. 

Payroll for Weekend Work The system upgrades needed to process payroll for those who have worked at weekend vaccination clinics are complete. Please note that there is a budget set up outside of school budgets to cover this cost and that schools are not responsible to fund the overtime costs. Please follow instructions in Payroll Memoranda 9 and 10 to process the payroll for staff who worked at the weekend sites. 

PARENT INVOLVMENT

President’s Council Meeting: December 17th @ 10am. The attached flyer should be sent home to PA/PTA executive board members. 

PC Meeting- December 17th- 1pm- @ the District office-8th floor conf. rm.

School Leadership Teams: Reminder: After every monthly SLT meeting, minutes, agendas and sign-in sheets must be faxed to the parent office at 212-802-1678. 

PC Monthly Activity report: Parent coordinators who are having difficulty logging into the Monthly Activity report should send an email to dherrera@schools.nyc.gov and include the following information: DBN; School name; Parent coordinator's name; Parent coordinator's e-mail address

HUMAN RESOURCES/ISC

School Security Requests Schools are reminded that they should be placing their requests for school security into the Citywide mailbox. It has come to our attention that some schools have been placing their requests into the Queens mailbox making it difficult for staff to locate and approve.

FAMIS Portal Downtime: Reminder, as indicated in the Principal’s Weekly of November 24th, All FAMIS Portal financial processing (including purchase orders, SIPP payments to vendors, and SIPP reimbursements to parents, students and employees) will be suspended from December 18, 2009 through January 3, 2010 as part of a citywide initiative to upgrade the City’s accounting system. Financial transactions that are not approved by close of business December 17 will not post to the City and FAMIS systems and will remain in the FAMIS approval box until the system reopens. During the integration period, Galaxy and all payroll systems will not be affected, and FAMIS will be available for inquiry purposes only. Approvals and full system functionality will be enabled when the FAMIS Portal resumes after the winter recess on January 4, 2010.

Part Time Inclusion Survey: A survey document to assess the extent of part time inclusion was e-mailed to Principals 11-30-09. This survey is capturing information regarding students in V classes who have part time inclusion on their IEPs and are receiving these services from a general education school. The data captured will be used to determine an allocation of District 75 resources to be transferred to general ed schools to support these part time inclusion students. The electronic survey document must be completed,  and e-mailed to Roberto E. Tillman, Assistant Director Citywide Schools at rtillma@schools.nyc.gov no later than Wednesday, December 23, 2009.  If you have no students in Par Time inclusion, you can send a brief e-mail indicating this to Mr. Tillman.

Posting # 20, Family Worker, P. 255Q Posting-See Attachment

Posting #21, Family Worker, P. 752Q Posting-See Attachment

ARTS: EVENT: OPERATION SANTA: Wednesday, December 9th @ JFK International Airport – Hangar 19. Busses should arrive early (before 10:30am) and will be directed to parking. Please make sure tickets are affixed to the students’ outer clothing before disembarking the bus. When parked, a Community Mayors volunteer will board the bus to issue student lunch vouchers to the teacher.  Have a great time! Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking Competition: For Students in Grades 3 through 12. The Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking Competition for grades 3 – 12 invites students to create picture books as vehicles for expressing themselves through visual arts and creative writing.  Each school site may submit ONE book into the competition.  The deadline is March 12, 2010.  At an awards ceremony to be held in mid May, each borough-wide elementary, middle and high school winner will be awarded $100 and each city wide winner will be awarded $500.  Access the competition guideline materials at http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/arts/competitions.html#Wkshp  

GENERAL

SEC Report of Unserved Students: Your efforts to update the SEC Report of Unserved Students (for related services and IEP paras) should be reflected when we run the report for your organization this week.  We anticipate that the numbers of unserved students will be dramatically reduced since the initial SEC report that was sent to you on November 23.  Principals must continue to monitor SEC (preferably weekly) to be sure the report continues to be accurate.  Every error in this report has a negative impact on the funding allocated to District 75.

Chapter 683: Dates for Ch 683: June 28th last day of classes for students. June 29th/30th---shut down of school year. July ½--Start-Up of Summer School. First Day of Ch 683----Tuesday, July 6th. Last Day of Ch 683---- Friday, August 13th.

KUDOS:

• Mr. Yvon Milien, Teacher of Earth Science and Technical Science at P753K is the recipient of a 2009 Teachnet Grant for his three-dimensional scale model project. For more information about Mr. Milien’s project please visit the following link: http://teachersnetwork.org/grantWinners/Teachnet09_YvonMilien.htm
• Stephen Epstein Art Teacher at P721X was awarded a Fall 2009 Mollie Parnis Dress Up Your School award in the amount of $1,400 to support the school's beautification efforts. The grant is from the Citizens Committee for New York City.
• P10X@ CHS Inclusion student had his artwork exhibited in a gallery at New Visions for Public Schools. He was honored at the ceremony held on December 3, 2009 at the New Visions headquarters.

Attachments

• Autism Symposium: Integrating Genes, Brain & Behavior
• Revised Visual Behaviors Checklist 2009-2010
• President’s Council Flyer 12-17-09
• Posting #20 Family Worker, P. 255Q Posting
• Posting #21 Family Worker, P. 752Q Posting
• Mainstreaming IEP & CAP