October 10, 2024

Dear Families,

We have community coffee this week on Friday at 8:30.  All families are welcome.

October community coffee will be in the movement room on the second floor.  Our library, where we usually hold community coffees, is unavailable because it is holding a project for our fiftieth anniversary.   

Community coffees create wonderful discussions among families.  Please come.

Special Sing and Fall Festival

Next week is a big week for us. 

Fall Festival happens on Saturday, October 19, from 12:00 to 4:00.  The schoolyard will fill with a bouncy house, box maze, face painting, and grilling.

This year, we expect an especially large crowd.  For our fiftieth anniversary, alumni from all five decades of CPE are coming back.

Of course you should be there.  For kids, playing on a transformed schoolyard feels magical.  It’s also fun for adults.

Before Fall Festival, on Friday, October 18, we are celebrating CPE history.  At 10:00 on Friday, you can observe as our fourth and fifth graders interview some of the teachers who began CPE back in 1974.

At 2:00 on Friday, October 18, we are having a special All-School Sing.  Alumni are joining our current students, teachers, and families.  Barry Solowey, CPE’s very first music teacher, will lead us.

As far as I know, this will be the first time ever that All-School Sing will happen in the afternoon, or on a Friday.  We chose this timing so that alumni could come home to the music of their childhood.  

I’m honored to welcome back the teachers who created the practices and traditions that still define our school.  On October 18 and October 19, your family should be part of the history and the fun of these celebrations.

OT Starting Soon

Late in September, I wrote about the advocacy that helped us get an occupational therapist assigned to our school.  Now, our new OT, Judy Johnson, should be starting soon.

Judy specializes in occupational therapy for children.  She has worked in clinical settings, but when she recently relocated from Texas, Judy chose to work in schools.  Schools are where Judy has experienced “the most collaboration with adults in the student's life, such as parents and teachers.” 

Judy visited CPE1 in late September.  She says she is “so excited to be working” where classrooms support the work of OT while students “tap into their creativity.”  

I am so glad to have an occupational therapist who sees how our classrooms could connect to this work.  I’m also glad that OT will be starting, period. I am hoping that will be as soon as next week.

I hope to see you at community coffee on Friday, and for all of the special celebrations on October 18 and October 19.