Pacifica Wednesday Weekly

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April 25, 2007

IMPORTANT CALENDAR DATES

If you have items to add to the calendar, please e-mail the date and time along with a description to calendar@pacificaschool.org  

CHARTER RENEWAL UPDATE

As you may have heard, Pacifica's charter is coming up for renewal in May. It's hard to believe, but we are in our fifth year. LAUSD has approximately 18 charter schools going through the renewal process this year (they will have 30 next year). A few have already been before the Board and have had their charters renewed. 

We are developing a short presentation for our turn in front of the board. (All charter schools go before the board twice, once for the presentation and once for the vote, two weeks apart.) We will need families and community members to attend our meeting in a show of support. 

There are many things that still need to be done. Please see CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS, below for more information and to see how you can help! 

SCHEDULE CHANGE: K/1 COMMUNITY MEETING & FOLLOW-UP

K/1 Families: Please join us on Monday, April 30th at 6:30 pm for a meeting of K/1 families. Child care will be provided by parent volunteers. The previously scheduled 3:30 pm potluck/meeting has been cancelled to accommodate the schedules of working parents. 

MORE ALFIE KOHN INFORMATION!

By now we should all know that Alfie Kohn will be coming to Pacifica on May 15th at 3pm to speak in the First Lutheran Church Main Building (adjacent to Pacifica), 3735 Hughes Ave., Los Angeles 90034. This event is FREE, but Reserved seating is recommended: rsvp@pacificaschool.org 

We’re planning a variety of things to ensure the success of this event. See the Call for Volunteers, below to see how you can help! 

Childcare

If you need child care for the Alfie Kohn event on May 15th at 3:00 you MUST sign-up in advance!!!

There will be a sign up sheet in the front hallway on the bulletin board. 

Early Release Day

Because of this event, Tuesday, May 15th will be an early release day. Please pick up your student(s) by 2:00 pm.

For more information, please visit alfiekohn.org. For more information on sponsoring organizations please visit www.PacificaSchool.org, www.NewRoads.org, www.palms-ca.us. 

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR ALFIE KOHN AND CHARTER RENEWAL

Alfie Kohn Help Needed:

We still need folks to sign up to help with the Alfie Kohn event. If you can do any of the following things, please contact Lisa Givot at lisag@pacificaschool.org. 

• Distribute Flyers to schools, libraries and other public places
• Call school tour attendees to personally invite to the event
• Arrange Child Care for the event
• Coordinate Information Tables for Pacifica, New Roads and Palms Neighborhood Council
• Make posters/banners for the event

Charter Renewal Help Needed:

We need letters and emails showing support from the community. Charter schools have previously brought over 100 people to attend the board meeting with matching t-shirts - and many children; we’d like to do the same for our meeting. We will let the community know when this meeting will be held. 

Thank you to those of you who have already written letters. We have received letters from parents, grandparents and organizations such as the Palms Neighborhood Council, Music Center and Young Storytellers. Letters, notes and drawings from children are also welcome.

Please feel free to write your own letter or modify the sample letter at the end of this email

Please email letters to Cheryl (cheryl@pacificaschool.org) or Janin (janin@pacificaschool.org), or drop handwritten letters off with Carmen in the office. Letters will be forwarded to LAUSD board members and the Charter Office

We could use help with

• Contacting community members for letters
• Contacting community members for the hearings
• Contacting other charter schools for support (Santa Monica Blvd. School has already said they will be there. We got our charters the same day, five years ago, and their renewal was recently approved)
• Contacting politicians or well known figures in the Los Angeles community
• Coordinating families on the day of the hearings (carpools, snacks, sign in, etc.)
• Collecting and forwarding letters to LAUSD
• Preparing packets for the LAUSD Board members
• Collecting and analyzing school data

Also, if you happen to know any LAUSD Board members personally, please let Janin know. If you have any questions, or would like to help, please email Janin (janin@pacificaschool.org) or call her cell, 310-560-5088. 

DID YOU KNOW?

Pacifica gets $40/day for each child that attends school. Guess what: if your child is absent, for any reason, Pacifica loses that $40. Many parents have been kind enough to compensate the school for their children’s absences – we request that all parents consider reimbursing the school whenever their children are absent, so we can continue to afford the programs that make Pacifica special. 

SPRING ART FESTIVAL, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2007, NOON – 6:00 PM

Help us prepare for this year’s festival! Student Booth Sign-up sheets will be delivered to family mailboxes along with Donation Letters with opportunities for businesses or families to sponsor any of the following:

• Pacifica Premium Stage: $250
• Fun-Time 3-In-1 Bouncie: $250
• Adventure Climber Bouncie: $250
• Old Fashioned Dunk Tank: $250
• Festival Food Booth: $200 (10 Available)
• Popcorn or Snowcone Machine: $150
• Carnival Game Booth: $100

Please turn in Booth Sign-ups and Donation Letters to the Fundraising mailbox in the office. We have a place to store donated items. Please contact Doris for more information: doris@pacificaschool.org. 

CLASSROOM UPDATES 

5/6 Group:

Dear 5/6 parents, 

Firstly I would like to apologize for the lack of communication over the last two weeks. As you can imagine, things have been very busy and there hasn't been enough time to get everything done. I will try my best to get as much out there, with enough notice. 

Right now our classroom is preparing for the state tests by doing many practice tests and covering small concepts. I think it would be very beneficial if parents spent some one-on-one time with their child, going over language arts, and math and science (5th graders only) questions. Students will get their test booklets today, but these booklets MUST come back. We will have a check-out system for this.  

I will be doing after-school tutoring on Mondays and Wednesdays and possibly Thursdays (next week) for an hour (3:30 - 4:30). Please talk to me if you would like your child to participate in this. I have approached a few parents already about this program. I will do a session today from 3:30 – 4:30. If any parents would like to help tutor kids please let me know. 

Our class has also begun to explore Greek drama and politics and have created amazing advertisements that are related to Greek mythology. We are now moving into the idea of "putting on a play" and I hope to guide the students into creating, designing and putting on a Greek tragedy or comedy. We will need lots of help in this, so please check-in with me if you are interested. 

FYI - students will be doing the PE fitness test on Thursday. The test will include and is not limited to: mile run, push-ups and chin-ups. Please check-in with Beth for additional information. 

We are having our parent meeting on Friday 5:00 – 6:00 pm. The agenda is fluid, however we will be covering support in the classroom through parent participation, what we need to do now as the 5/6 community and your help in the Greek production. I think it will be a good idea to have the last 15 minutes open for parent concerns.

Meanwhile, any time that you can be in the classroom will be much appreciated. Please come in and be with us during this changing time. We need your help.

Thanks for all the love, 

Ramiza and 5/6 students

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