Community Newsletter September 2000

Wow! It's hard to believe that another school year has begun already. It has been an energy-charged amazing first 2 weeks at CLC. On Tuesday, September 5, we opened our doors to 94 students, 37 of them new to our community. For the first time ever, we have 8th graders, most of whom have been here since the beginning of CLC in 1998. We also have an entire new team of bright and eager 5th and 6th grade students lead by Theresa and Jalynn. And, not only have we added a new classroom space in the white building, but we were even able to convince our landlord to put in 2 huge new windows upstairs that overlook Memorial Field. Life is good here at CLC! We are very excited to get our third year under way and are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead.
This month's newsletter is full of information. I know it's a lot of reading, but there's so much happening at the beginning of a new school year. (They're not usually this lengthy, really!) Please read through the entire newsletter, so that you don't miss anything.

Family Picnic
Our first all-community event, a family picnic potluck, will be held on Sunday, September 17 from 3-6 p.m. at the lower pavilion at Holmes-Foster Park (off of Westerly Pkwy. across from the Catholic Church). Please bring place settings and drinks for your family, a dish to share, and balls, frisbees, toys, etc. for play. So that we don't have 90 bowls of macaroni salad, please follow these suggestions when deciding what dish to bring for the potluck: if your last name begins with A to F, bring a main dish; G to R, bring a salad or side dish; and S to Z, please bring a dessert. This will be a great opportunity to get to know one another (and start to connect the names you hear your child talking about with the actual faces) , to meet the new students, families and staff, and to just relax and have fun. Please plan on joining us for this informal gathering.

September Parent Meeting & Board Meeting
Our first parent meeting of this school year will be on Thursday, September 28 at 7:00 in Mark's classroom on the second floor of the white classroom building. The topic will be the CLC curriculum and our first set of projects. This is an important meeting to attend, especially if you have questions about what your child will be learning this year. Students are welcome to come also, but they usually end up in one of the classrooms working on the computers. (Surprise!) The monthly parent meeting is followed immediately by the monthly CLC board meeting. The board includes Dr. Josephine Pirrone, the administrative rep., Glenn Johnson, the faculty rep., Liz Kisenwether (children: Katie-team 1 and Matt-team 3), the parent rep., and Laurie Perman (Nate Ryan-team 2), the community-at-large rep., as well as, one student rep., selected from the student government. All community members are welcome to attend the board meeting and participate in discussion, however; the board members are the only ones who can actually vote on agenda items.

Project Blocks
The core of the CLC curriculum is a series of interdisciplinary project blocks. This year, each student will work through six projects, covering a wide range of topics and activities. Students in Teams 1 & 2 will complete all of the projects taught by Josephine and Mark; Team 3 & 4 students will work with Theresa and Glenn. Over the course of three years at CLC, students will have worked on projects which include the content knowledge in all of the "Knowlecules" (a list of questions compiled from typical middle school curricula). Our curriculum is not determined by grade level or traditional subject area (there is no 5th grade, or 7th grade science or social studies for example). We have established a three year cycle of major themes and are designing projects that fit into each of these areas while at the same time integrating different subjects. Students who spend 4 years at CLC will have a bonus experience of helping to create a more independent, in-depth final year. For a more detailed explanation of the curriculum, please attend this month's parent meeting.

Thursday "Specials"
Thursday is special at CLC because it's Specials Day! This year we hope they are more special than ever. Michelle Richards has joined our staff as our Phys. Ed. instructor. Michelle has several years experience teaching elementary phys. ed., and is very excited to be working with middle school students. She has a wonderful, individualized program planned for the students, and has already put out a bid for some real gym equipment. Her other part time job this year is teaching at the Nittany Valley Charter School. We hope that Michelle will help us build our collaborative relationship with our sister charter school.
Dr. Wendy will continue to teach art, but this year she is joined by Corey Whitesell. Corey holds a degree in Theatre Arts, with a specialty in stage management. She is currently working as the Technical Director for the State College Area High School Thespians, and this summer worked as the Apprentice Coordinator for the State College Community Theatre at the Boal Barn. Together, Wendy and Corey are planning an exciting Integrated Arts Block. Students will meet for a two hour block to explore all of the arts and to plan and produce several performances and/or exhibitions.
The Thursday schedule looks a little different this year. Students stay with their pod through the special rotations, but the teams are mixed together. Teams 3 & 4 spend the morning in the Arts block, and then have an hour of Spanish and an hour of P.E. in the afternoon. The schedule is reversed for teams 1 & 2.
The first day of Specials was a bit hectic, but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Please ask about your son/daughter's personal fitness goals, and watch for announcements of our first art performance.

Language Arts Workshop
Lisa Sharfstein will be organizing the Language Arts Workshop for Teams 1 and 2 this year. Some aspects of Workshop will remain the same as last year: students will continue to choose their topics for writing, they will publish and contribute to an online magazine, and they will conference with teachers and peers to improve their writing. Other parts of Workshop will be different. The name change from Writing Workshop to Language Arts Workshop reflects the content expansion into reading, speaking and listening. Students will continue to choose their own books for reading, but in addition to this, small groups of students will form book clubs in order to read and discuss books together. Also, they will push ourselves to explore different genres in both reading and writing. A final focus for this year's Workshop will be on improving proofreading and editing skills. A lot of work and many rewards await in Language Arts Workshop!

CLC Computers at Home
One of our commitments at CLC is to provide each student/family with a computer in their home while the student is enrolled at CLC. With 96 students, that's a lot of computers! In the next week or so, all students (old and new) will bring two forms home that parents need to sign. One is the Appropriate Internet Use Contract and the other is a Home Computer Agreement. Please note that this year parents are being asked to take responsibility for arranging for service of the home computer and transporting it to and from Keynet/Computerland in Bellefonte, where all of our iMacs are serviced. (CLC will be responsible for the cost of service, unless there is evidence of misuse or abuse of the equipment, in which case the family will be responsible for the associated cost of repair or replacement.) Please read these forms carefully. review them with your child, and return them to CLC promptly.
*New iMacs were ordered for Team 4 during the summer, but we have not received them yet. (We expect them by the beginning to middle of October.)
If you do not already have Internet access at home, you will need to get it so that you and your child can effectively use the CLC iMac at home. If the monthly fee is cost prohibitive for your family, please contact our office and we will provide you with assistance.

Attendance Policy/Absences
Students are required by Pennsylvania law to attend school until the age of 17. The nature of the CLC instructional program makes it very difficult for students to "make up" the interactions and activities that are a key component of the curriculum. Parents must ensure that their children attend school except in the case of illness, religious holidays, or other urgent circumstances.
When it is necessary that a student be absent from school, parents are requested to call the CLC office. We are required to consider all absences from school unlawful until a written excuse listing the dates of and reason for the absence is received. This note may be e-mailed or sent with the student upon his/her return to school. The CLC faculty is committed to working with parents if an attendance problem develops. In the case of excessive absences, the CLC faculty may determine that legal measures are necessary. In such a case, CLC staff will follow the procedures developed by the State College Area School District to address unlawful absences.

Friday "Mail"
Every Friday your child will bring home a Friday "mail" envelope with important information for you. Please get in the habit of asking your child for the envelope if they do not remember to give it to you Friday afternoon. (Not that they would forget, of course.) "Mail" might include the monthly newsletter, forms you need to fill out and return, a letter from your child's teacher, or your child's weekly reflection of their school week. Please check for "mail" every weekend and send the envelope and any forms that need to be returned back to school with your child on Monday. It's not uncommon for these envelopes to get misplaced, left on the bus, eaten by the dog, or intercepted by alien spacecrafts (just kidding), so please help us this year to minimize the number of replacement envelopes used by keeping a look out for them.

CLC Web Page
Our web site address is http://clccharter.org. Please get into the habit of checking the site regularly. The site includes links to each teacher's home page so that you can check out what's happening in school, as well as each student's home page which they have created themselves. There are also links to parent and board meetings, newsletters, the on-line student magazine, and much more. M.J. will also update the "Announcements" on the front page on a regular basis with important information that can't wait until the next newsletter. Check it out!

Calling School/Calling Home
If you need to reach your child during school hours, please call the office number 861-7980. M.J. is in the office daily from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. If she is unable to answer the phone, and it is not an emergency, please leave a message and it will be delivered to your child as soon as possible. If it is an emergency and no one answers the office phone, call the cell phone number 360-5060. If you are still unable to reach anyone, call one of the classroom numbers. Theresa's room is 861-7996, Glenn's room is 861-8095 and Mark's and Josephine's number is 861-8119. If it is not an emergency, please do not call the classroom while students are in class. (Remember that you can email your child at their CLC address during the day. They love getting mail!)
On the other side of this is the issue of students calling home during the day. Each classroom is equipped with a phone because we believe it is an educational tool. Students can use the phone to get information, to do research, or to arrange for a guest speaker for their team, for example. The students also have the privilege of using the phone to call their parents when necessary. Our hope, though, was not to have a line of students waiting to use the phone at 2:50 to call home and ask if they can stay after school or go home with a friend while the buses are waiting for them. This is disruptive to the class and not very practical. Please try to firm up after school plans with your child in the morning. We know that sometimes things come up and your child will need to call at the end of the day, but if we can avoid this as much as possible, it would be greatly appreciated.

Ordering school lunches
If your son/daughter plans to order milk or lunch through the school you need to purchase tickets from the State College School District. At the end of August, you should have received a packet from the SCADS Food Service Department that included meal purchase procedures, order forms, a menu, and an application for the free/reduced lunch program. There are extra ticket order forms in each classroom, also. If you are confused about the procedure or did not receive the packet, please call our office (861-7980) and let M.J. know.

7th grade openings
We thought we were starting this school year with full enrollment(96 Students), but because of two last minute withdrawls, we find ourselves with only 94 students. As a result, we still have two spaces for 7th graders. If you know of any 7th grade student that would be interested in coming to CLC this fall, please have their family contact our office as soon as possible.

Second Annual Report Presentation
On Monday, August 28, CLC presented its Annual Report to the Board of the State College Area School District. Liz Kisenwether, CLC's parent representative and Katie and Matt's mom, made an eloquent presentation. Katie represented our students with grace and style. The written report is very impressive; we have created an amazing school in just 2 short years. Many thanks to Dr. Kyle Peck for all his efforts in compiling the report and to all the staff who helped in the process and attended the meeting. A special thanks to Liz, Lynn Parker Klees, and Lauri Perman for their active demonstration of support for our program during the presentation. Theresa summed the experience up: "It gave me tingles! I am so proud to be part of this amazing group of people!" We will be scheduling meetings with the Bellefonte and Bald Eagle Area School Boards soon - we'll keep you informed of dates.

A Big "Labor Week" Thanks
We wanted to thank the many students and families for volunteering during Labor Week in August to help get the school ready for opening day. We had help with everything from painting the stairwell, to wiring the classrooms, to scrubbing the bathroom walls, to setting up desks, tables, chairs and computers, to shopping for supplies, to setting up the library, and much more. We were amazed at how much was accomplished in one week. (Another reminder of what a wonderful, supportive community of folks we have here at CLC.) Thanks, again, to all who were able to help. If you are interested in volunteering at the school throughout the year, there are plenty of opportunities. Tammy Gentzel (Tyler's mom, Team 3) is our parent volunteer coordinator. She will contact parents throughout the year with specific volunteer needs. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Tammy or M.J.

Lost and Found
Please, please, please, put your son/daughter's name or initials on their lunch boxes, binders, books, sweatshirts and jackets. Every Thursday at our all school meeting, M.J. holds up dozens of items that have been lost and not yet found. Amazingly, it's very common for the items to go unclaimed for weeks. We will bring the unclaimed items to the monthly parent meeting and if they still are not claimed, we will donate them to the St. Andrew's clothing drive or to the Goodwill at the end of each month.

Water Bottles
The UBBC building is equipped with water fountains, but the white classroom building only has a water cooler. Students are in the white building for lunch, phys. ed., and after school. To avoid wasting hundreds of plastic cups per month, we ask that all students have a water bottle with them at school. Please remember to put your child's name on the bottle since they all tend to look alike.

Extended School Program (ESP)
Diane Lehman, our ESP coordinator, is still in the process of working out the schedule, staffing, and club activities for the after school program. If you have not done so already, please return the ESP survey that was sent home concerning your child's after school needs and interests. Diane will have a link up on our web site by early next week explaining the program in more detail.

CLC Directory
We are still working on compiling the information from the beginning-of-the-year forms we sent out. (If you have not returned them yet, please do so immediately.) Look for the directory in a Friday "mail" envelope in early October.

Wish List
Have you heard the expression, "Be careful what you wish for because you may just get it" ? Well, we're counting on it! We have decided to try something new this year and include a "wish list" in our monthly newsletter. If you would like to donate any of the items listed, please contact our office.

current news magazines (for classroom & project research)
big throw pillows for the floor (or wedges)
plants for the classrooms
mouse pads
a non-electric floor sweeper
a mop
a really nice globe (this is a big item wish; we have a small globe)
glass aquariums in good repair (for the biology project)
emergency lunch supplies (peanut butter and jelly, instant oatmeal, crackers, etc.)
old T-shirts for art class (painting smocks)

*The last item on our wish list is a very important one: we need a lawyer familiar with school law to act as our solicitor for the school year, preferably pro bono. If you know of someone who fits this description, please let us know as soon as possible>