Community Newsletter

Friday, January 22, 1999

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Announcements…

 

NEXT CLC PARENT & BOARD MEETINGS SET FOR THURSDAY, 1/28/99.

Our meetings are scheduled for the FOURTH THURSDAY of each month, except when holidays conflict. Parent Meeting Starts at 7:00, Board meeting follows.

SMILE!!!

CLC Picture Day

is Tuesday, February 2 (Groundhog’s Day?)

(See the enclosed flyer.)

Lunch Tickets are on sale from the State College Area School District BY MAIL.

To get lunch tickets, use the attached forms, and mail a check and form to the district using the address on the form.

It is now possible to buy "milk tickets" if you’d like to send your child’s lunch, but buy milk.

(See the enclosed lunch ticket form.)

Since many of our students ride the State College Area School District busses, our schedule is tied to theirs. If the State College High School is open, we’re open. If it’s delayed, so are we.

Any Betsy Ross "Wannabes" Out There?

We don’t nee a flag made, but the same skills might be used to mend the CLC cot. The cot we use in our makeshift "Nurse’s Office" is rather old canvas, and it tore. A strong patch sewn over the tear might do it, but your opinion on that will be more valuable than mine. If you are willing and able to mend the cot, please stop in and pick it up. It’s folded up in the office, between the refrigerators and the sink.

January 20, 1998

To: CLC parents / guardians

From: Josephine Pirrone

I would like to inform you of a wonderful opportunity I am able to share with the CLC students.

A former student of mine is currently studying musical composition at Julliard in New York City. Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum has been commissioned to write a piece that will be performed by the Nittany Valley Symphony at the Children’s Concert on Saturday, January 30th at 3:00. It is entitled "The Morning Day Slept In". Nora describes it as "an introduction to the orchestra with a story about outer space and journeys." She has offered to come to school and speak to the students about the process of composing, to tell them the story which inspired the piece, and to invite them to attend the performance. She will be at CLC on Friday morning, Jan. 29. It is possible that a reporter from the Centre Daily Times will be on hand to take photographs. (If you did not return the form indicating whether your child may be photographed at school, on has been included with this newsletter. Please complete and return it, by sending it to school with your child.)

The Symphony has donated five free tickets to the performance to CLC students. I would like to distribute these tickets by lottery. I do not want to obligate anyone to attend the performance, nor do I want to squander the opportunity. If you and your family would be able to attend the performance, please indicate your willingness to include your son/daughter’s name in a lottery. I will randomly draw five names from those submitted. (I realize that some students may be reluctant to express interest in a symphonic performance I would ask you to encourage your son/daughter to hold off judgment about their interest until they meet and hear Nora speak.)

Thanks,

Josephine

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Please do / do not include my son/daughter in the drawing for tickets to the performance.

(circle one)

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Student’s Name

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The CLC asked permission to have a student join the Corl Street Elementary School Orchestra, in the mornings, before school. We offered to pay the district for this learning opportunity. We saw this as a "win/win" proposition because our student would get a good learning opportunity and the District would receive revenues and have a stronger orchestra. We had hoped that this would prove to be a productive model that might extend to include math classes at the Delta program for some of our stronger students, and perhaps other mutually beneficial opportunities.

Unfortunately, the School Board voted unanimously to deny the request. We believe that there is merit in the proposal, both for our students and for the taxpayers supporting the public schools. We will convene a group of interested parents in the near future, and will determine how to proceed. We may decide to take the issue to the Board again, and make our case for the request in a formal, persuasive way. If you are interested in participating in this discussion, please contact Kyle.

We must be very careful how we handle this. On one hand, we want to do everything that is in the best interests of our students, and this type of collaboration certainly makes sense for our students. On the other hand, The State College Area School District has been VERY, VERY good to us, and we value them as partners in the education of our students. They are good people who work very hard to make one important decision after another. They, too, have the best interests of students in mind, but they must consider ALL of the students in the district.

I hope my fear is unfounded, but I must confess that I fear that an "anti-charter" sentiment is present and growing in the community and perhaps among its representatives on the Board. This may be fueled by the recent submission of a charter proposal that is many times larger than the existing charters. Let’s move forward slowly, remembering that the District’s leaders are fine people, reacting to many pressures and more information than we have at the moment. This decision may have been the result of the feeling of a need to maintain a "competitive advantage" over the charters in the district. If we put ourselves in their shoes, we can certainly understand that.

Let’s proceed with caution, with the dual goals of preserving the positive relationship we have been so fortunate to experience and improving our academic program. It is very rare for such a relationship to exist between a charter school and a district, and I value it immensely.

  SHOULD THE CLC EXPAND NEXT YEAR?

What do you think? It's a tough decision, one that needs to be made very soon, and one about which we'd like your input. There are only a few CLC employees and only 24 hours in the day. Time we spend working to expand (which involves finding and hiring new employees, recruiting new students, finding and moving to a new location, acquiring more equipment and furniture adding to the databases, installing a new network in the new location, and more) is time that we can't spend improving the academic program.

Let’s consider postponing growth for a year, while we continue to make great progress on our academic an non-academic goals. I have floated that idea by the School District, and there seems to be no opposition. I've also discussed the option of staying in the current location with the leaders of the University Baptist and Brethren Church, and they would welcome that. Please let us know what you think, by joining our Board Meeting after the Parent Meeting on Thursday, 1/28, or by using the "CLC Parent Conversations" link from the CLC home page at http://clccharter.org.