February 6, 2024

Dear Families,

The weekend ahead marks the start of Lunar New Year holidays. On the second floor of our school, you can catch children skipping down the corridor singing to themselves:

Tết Tết Tết Tết đến rồi

Tết đến trong tim mọi người.

Those are the opening of a children’s song welcoming Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese festival of the new year. Students began learning the words and melody from a catchy, pop-style recording. Older students learned an accompanying dance and began playing along on xylophones. Children also have learned a Japanese song (with hand motions) about making mochi for the new year, and a Korean children’s song about a magpie whose new year was yesterday, while ours is today.

The CPE songbook has a number of songs to recognize winter celebrations, from “Ocho Kandelikas” to “Must Be Santa” to “Los Tres Santos Reyes”. As far as I know, this year is the first time our students have dug into songs of about Lunar New Year, one of the largest celebrations in the world.

CPE already has a beautiful song book. I hope that the next edition of our song book includes these songs as well, as we continue to add music that captures the diversity of our community and our world.

Black Lives Matter Week of Action

This week is seventh annual Black Lives Matter at Schools week of action. Starting with the first year, CPE1 has had an evening event for families. This year, we have to postpone ours.

We have been trying to schedule an event with artists from the world-famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – yes, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. While Alvin Ailey artists in our school would be extraordinary, scheduling has been a challenge. We hope to announce a new date soon.

To see the New York City educators guide to the Thirteen Principles and resources for children, please go to www.blmedunyc.org/resources.

Skating in February

We have three more skating days at Wollman Rink this winter. Our K-5 classes skate on February 8, February 15, and February 29.

Plese make sure K-5 students have snowpants, hats, and mittens on those days.

Budget Cuts and School Lunch

Budget cuts just reached school cafeterias. The same amount of food is available each day, but there is less variety.

A recent Chalkbeat article explains how the menu will stop serving “pricier items, including student favorites like cookies, chicken dumplings, and bean and cheese burritos.” Saying goodbye to the dumplings – the kitchen’s best entrée, according to 86% of Cecilia’s class – will be sad enough. Our cafeteria, which has the food court-style menu described in the article, will say goodbye to even more. On Thursday, when the budget cuts took effect, chicken tenders and wraps were already removed.

The federal government has not changed how it funds school lunches. These cuts come from the city, in part because our city already has been more generous than most. Most school systems charge some families full price; New York City gives more money to schools to make breakfast and lunch are free for all.

I am proud that our school system makes meals free for all students, no questions asked. Nonetheless, it’s hard knowing that the menu will be more repetitive, and that children will miss some of the their favorite choices. I hope the city reverses these budget cuts, because food is more than just filling bellies. Food shows children love.