January 16, 2024

Dear Families, 

We started skating this winter at Riverbank State Park, and soon we will change rinks.  Riverbank has no more dates available for our school, so we will start skating at Wollman Rink on the south side of Central Park. 

Before we skate at Wollman, all students, from kindergarten through fifth grade, need their guardians to complete Wollman Rink’s online waiver.  Wollman does not accept paper copies.  You must give your child permission online. 

Please click here to fill out Wollman’s waiver.  It takes about one minute.   

Please complete the waiver for each child you have in grades K-5. 

We will be taking a school bus to the rink on January 25, February 15, February 29, and March 8.   

While it’s nice in some ways to see other rinks around Manhattan, we are still looking forward to getting back on the ice nearest our school.  Reports so far are that Lasker Rink, across 106 Street in Central Park, could be ready for next winter.  Let’s hope we can get back to skating within walking distance next year.  

Teachers Training in New Literacy Curriculum 

In January and March, our teachers will be going out of their classrooms for three days of online training.  Starting this week with Selena, teachers will take turns attending three days of training, organized by our school system. 

The training is part of the NYCReads initiative.  Every school district in the city must adopt one of three literacy curricula.  District Four, selected HMH – Into Literacy for our district-wide program.  The three days of training teachers attend are in how to implement HMH. 

Having teachers miss three days apiece will be challenging.  At the same time, it’s good that the city is investing in training for teachers before next year.  This will allow our school to think about how to integrate HMH with our existing literacy work. 

Petition to Move Early Voting Out of Schools

Our building is one of 33 public school campuses used for early voting in New York City.  Three times a year, the city Board of Elections moves voting equipment into school gymnasiums and cafeterias; each time, students are locked out of those spaces for eleven days.   

CPE1 does not use the big gym in our building often, but the other schools in our building rely on it every day – except about two dozen days a year, when the Board of Elections cancels gym.   

A petition circulating argues that we should continue to have early voting, just not in schools.  Please check out the petition here.