August 2, 2023

Dear Families,

August has just begun.  It’s been five weeks since the last day of school, and five more weeks until our welcome-back potluck at 5:45 on Tuesday, September 5.  That means we are halfway through summer.  Here’s an update from school. 

Welcoming New Staff

We have three new staff members to introduce: a classroom teacher for fourth and fifth grade, a paraprofessional, and a teacher of English as a new language.

Kiyah Chester will be teaching in 4/5s.  Kiyah feels  “delighted to be entering the classroom and working with children.”  She  comes to us after two years of student teaching on the Lower East Side, at PS 15 and at the Earth School.  She sought out CPE1 because she is “deeply passionate about progressive teaching,” and wanted to collaborate on developing curriculum. Kiyah is eager to fill her classroom with “creativity, art, and joy,” and to “learn from everyone in the community.”

Josier De La Cruz has spent the last eight years as a paraprofessional in District 75, supporting students with moderate to severe disabilities.  Josie describes herself as very excited to be moving to “an amazing learning environment in the heart of my community.”  She is thrilled to be part of classrooms with art and hands-on projects, and in to meet the whole community.

For the last ten years, Kim Wong has been teaching English as a new language in South Korea, Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Brooklyn.  Learning new languages herself has helped her understand “the challenges language learners face.”  She wants her students to “build confidence and discover their passions.” Kim was connected with CPE1 through another school in our district, Manhattan East, where she will teach three days per week; she will work with multilingual learners at CPE1 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Kim is looking forward to CPE1’s “progressive, hands-on approaches to learning,” plus the “strong emphasis on traditions and community.”

I am happy that Kiyah, Josie, and Kim all will be part of CPE1. Welcome to them.

Budget and Visual Arts Update 

Last year, I spoke with families about our efforts to hire a visual arts teacher to replace Tim, who retired (again) in February.  Now, I believe we will not have an art position for 2023-2024.  Candidates applied, but ultimately, this year’s funding impacted the decision .    

Tim worked with each class once a week, in a part-time position. Last year was the final year of pandemic-relief funding and our status as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement school. Funding from those initiatives covered Tim’s two days (and much more). Those funds are gone this year. 

In actual dollars, this year’s budget has more money for fulltime staffing than last year’s. However, this year, those dollars do not stretch as far. Compared to my first CPE budget seven summers ago, the city gives us 3% more per student, while salaries grew 20%. Higher CPE1 salaries signal good things: more teachers, with more teaching experience, staying year after year to anchor the school. (Also, our hard-working teachers deserve to better pay.) We just had our biggest one-year salary increase, leaving about one full teacher position less than last year.

I am sharing these details because school communities deserve transparency about budget decisions. You deserve to know that this year’s budget is a little bigger than last year’s, and why more money won’t translate to more positions.

In our system, to hire a fulltime teacher, a school has to set aside an entire year’s salary. As of today, we have nowhere near enough. When it comes to salary, our first priority – always – is to have at least two adults in each classroom. We fulfilled that. 

I’m disappointed not to have introduced a long-term visual arts teacher among the other new staff. But for all this money talk, I’m glad our budget emphasizes something hard to count: more adults in classrooms mean more relationships and attention for children. And, of course, we will talk more about this when our community starts meeting again in the fall. 

Restroom Project Underway

After four years of waiting, our new restroom is finally under construction.

When school re-opens in September, there will be a one-person, all-gender bathroom in the center of the corridor.

The new restroom replaces an old, forgotten book closet. The back of the old closet connects to the boys restroom. Workers are connecting the plumbing, then building out the whole bathroom as a brand-new space. 

Complete Your Emergency Card

With the new school year approaching, it’s time to complete this year’s emergency contact card. Please complete one for each child you have in our school.

Click here to access the emergency contact form. Please do this before the first day of school.