Two field trips in a single week! One down, one to go. Yesterday we hopped over puddles (which the girls inform me is no small feat in a long skirt) and spent time with financial experts at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. While some of our students have spent time in large cities, one of the treats for many was the sheer size of the buildings. For others, sharing stories with people who think for a living was a real treat. What a nice capstone activity for the CLC investment project! Special thanks to Mark Toci, Josephine Pirrone, and CLC parent John Beard for their work in designing the project and planning this trip.

Friday's trip to Gettysburg is a horse of a very different color. Instead of city canyons formed by skyscrapers and an emphasis on economics, we'll walk rolling fields and be surrounded by history. Thanks to Josephine Pirrone and Bill Brusse for pulling this expedition together. Thanks, too to all of the chaperones who accompany our troupe when we hit the road. You make this type of learning possible!

Because we care so deeply about the progress our students are making, and because it is so important that we demonstrate the power of what we are doing to the State College Area School Board, we have implemented a comprehensive assessment program. Dr. Tim Daniels, the PA Department of Education's "point man" for charter schools, reviewed our plan and was so impressed that he asked if we would present it to a meeting of the other schools in the state.

You have an important role to play in this assessment. One aspect of the assessment (funded by the state, not the CLC) is a parent survey. I know what you're thinking - "Another survey? Haven't they heard enough from us?" I realize that we have asked for lots of feedback lately, but this time the sealed confidential responses will go to a team of researchers at Western Michigan University, and the responses from all of PA's charter schools will be analyzed and reported to each school and as a whole. The researchers have selected (at random) 25 parents to receive the survey. We provided them the mailing labels, and the surveys went out Monday, 5/24. Please return them to the CLC in the enclosed envelope. We will not open the envelopes - I'll just collect them and send them on to the researchers when we have a complete set. (The return address label has your address on it, so we'll be able to follow up with a phone call or second mailing, if necessary to get all 25 back.)

In addition to this Parent Survey, our students have taken a total of 8 tests, covering all subject areas. The results of these tests will become available as the summer rolls on, and we'll let you know when we have the results pulled together in a meaningful way. Penn State has granted me a research assistant for 120 hours this summer to help us gather and interpret the data. Roxanne Toto has been selected for this position, and she starts today. The State College Area School District has agreed to provide us with the data we need to compare the progress of our students with the progress of comparable students in district schools. We are eager to see the results of our efforts, despite the fact that new educational programs never reveal their true potential in the first year of operation. Stay tuned! 

Roxanne Toto, PSU Research Assistant

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Don’t forget the

Parent & Board Meetings on Thursday, 5/27/99!

(We will keep both short so we can all get some sleep before the field trip to Gettysburg.)

A team of charter school applicants led by Dr. David Popp will be visiting the CLC on Wednesday, 5/26. These pioneers are hard at work to get a charter approved by the Johnstown School Board, and they are coming to the CLC for ideas and inspiration. If you see visitors, let them know how you feel about the CLC and the value of Charter Schools.

It's that time again! As we wrap our first year of CLC operation, it's time to set the wheels in spin for next year. Expansion of facilities and faculty are underway (nothing to announce just yet, but we should have great news on both in the next few weeks). So now it's time to let parents in the area know that we are expanding and that there will be opportunities for some new fifth and sixth grade students to attend the CLC next school year.

We anticipate about 28 openings next year and, without advertising, we already have 12 applications on file. Advertisements should start running today, and will appear in three issues of the Centre Daily Times each week for the next three weeks. These advertisements invite prospective parents to attend information meetings at the CLC, beginning at 7:00 pm on the following dates:

• Wednesday, May 26
• Tuesday, June 1, and
• Monday, June 7

As was the case last year, we anticipate two lotteries. Our first lottery will be on June 10, during which we should be able to accept all applicants, unless an unanticipated flood of applicants materializes. Then, based on the number of vacancies that remain, we'll consider additional advertising and will set a second lottery date, trying to ensure that we have all of the students we need, but trying not to disappoint anyone.

We appreciate the help you provide by telling your friends about the CLC. Our "satisfied customers" are our best advertising. If you'd like some brochures to hand to friends, feel free to pick some up at the school. They will be available at Thursday's meeting.

At our last Board of Directors' Meeting we decided that the time had come to add an "Administrative Assistant" to the CLC staff. As you know, the CLC has been operating in a mode we call "administration light." We take pride in that, and it has made money available for important learning resources and for expenses related to next year's expansion.

However, the service we have been providing to you, as parents, has not been very good. Phones often go unanswered, messages taken by students don't always find their intended targets, and requests for information are not always handled in a timely manner. When computers or copiers go down, teachers and aides have to spend valuable time to deal with the problem. And, some opportunities for external funding have come and gone because we didn't have time to submit a proposal.

We didn't have to look far for the solution! We hired Brian Rowan as our Administrative Assistant, for four hours each day. You already know Brain. He's the fine young man who is currently running our after school program. Brian will continue to work with our students after school, in addition to his duties as Administrative Assistant. He has been answering phones, taking our ailing computers in for repairs, investigating math curricula, and researching networking options for our new location. Brian will work with us four hours each day through the summer, to help make sure that we start smoothly in September.

In addition, we've asked Malena Moore and Carol Sonenklar (Sam's Mom and author of children's books) to work as a team to develop a response to a call for proposals from the Disney Foundation. The proposal, which would hire people to design and develop the ideal replacement for our current online parent information system, seems an ideal fit. However, if Disney doesn't go for it, we'll have our team of consultants to modify it and submit it to another likely source. Thanks, Brain, Malena, and Carol!

Diane Lehman, CLC Instructional Aide, is interested in providing tutoring services this summer. If you would like to make arrangements for Diane to work with one or more of your children, please contact her at 861-6037 (evenings and weekends) or by email at diane@clccharter.org

What a year it has been! We are so proud of the CLC pioneers &emdash; the families, the students, the teachers, the aides, and all of the volunteers &emdash; that we're going to celebrate on the last day of school. We've rented the pavilions at Tussey Mountain, and hired a caterer to provide a simple meal for the CLC community. We will provide hamburgers, hotdogs, and a few side dishes. Bring a side dish if you like, but it's not necessary. The batting cages will be open for our use, and each CLC student will get a free ticket for a go-cart ride.

You are welcome to bring the whole family, but we'll need to know how many will be attending. Please send an email to our new Administrative Assistant, Brian Rowan, at brian@clccharter.org. If email is not a good option for you, please call 861-7996 and leave a message on the CLC recorder.

If your CLC student will be attending the picnic, transportation to Tussey Mountain will be provided. Parents are responsible for providing or arranging transportation home. Bus students who attend school on June 11, but will not be attending the picnic will be dismissed at 12:30, to ride the high school busses, which leave at that time. Dinner will begin at 6:00. If it rains, we will move inside.

This should be a GREAT way to end the year!