October 14, 2025
Dear Families,
This Saturday, from 12:00 to 4:00, our school yard opens for perhaps the biggest event on CPE’s calendar, Fall Festival.
During Fall Festival, the yard transforms with food, games, and special activities for children and families. Beyond the fun, it’s homecoming. This is the day when former students, staff, and families travel back to the school, sometimes from hundreds of miles away.
You don’t have to attend CPE1 to attend Fall Festival. Your family friends are invited, too. They all can be part of our school community’s celebration.
Click here to get your tickets, and click here to volunteer to support the festival.
Staffing Update
This is a brief update on how we are filling in with two teachers out on childcare leaves: Selena and Jazmine.
Jazmine is planning to return from leave in early January. Instead of using the movement room while Jazmine is away, we are using the art studio.
Larissa Yanofsky is a licensed teacher of visual arts. Larissa has been substituting in public schools, and prior to that, has taught art in after-school programs. She plans to have students “explore various art mediums and contemporary art, allowing them to investigate the world, deepening their understanding of themselves and their lived experiences.”
Selena will not return from leave this year. Samantha Muñoz will be working alongside Hansel, Gabe, and Ray. Samantha visited CPE1 as a student teacher, and last year taught at PS 166 on the West Side.
Samantha’s support is valuable, but her teaching license is not for special education. Actually, we have been trying to hire a special educator since May. Five years ago, when Selena was hired, she was among 46 special education teachers to apply. That’s five times more applicants than we had last summer, and only four of them had prior experience in elementary school. Since August, I have reached out to more than 580 licensed special education teachers who – at least according to the city’s teacher recruiting office – are searching for a position in New York City Public Schools. Only two agreed to be interviewed. The one we hired resigned the following day. We’re still searching for a special education teacher.
I understand that we are one of many schools across the city still trying to find a special education teacher. Nonetheless, I’m disappointed not to have hired during summer, and disappointed to be searching still. We will keep trying. For now, I appreciate that we are fortunate to have Larissa and Samantha working with us.
Second and Third Graders Swimming
Our second and third graders will begin swimming lessons.
Our school district has received a grant for all second graders to have weekly swimming instruction with Asphalt Green. Asphalt Green has agreed to have our third graders jump into the pool with their second grade classmates.
Asphalt Green has scheduled us for swimming lessons on Tuesdays from 12:15 to 1:00. This means that, on Tuesdays, second and third graders will have early lunch before they board school buses to Asphalt Green on East 90 Street.
Our superintendent has dreamed of becoming the city’s first district in which all second graders take lessons. She knows that skill and confidence in water can make children safer, and help them discover a lifelong form of exercise. Asphalt Green has one instructor for every eight students, and schools that are participating already report that children make real progress across the whole year.
One downside is that our 2-3 classes will not go ice-skating this year. (They will resume skating next year.) Another downside is time for other trips. While skating happens only in winter, swimming will happen every Tuesday until late spring. That means other trips, such as those 2-3 teachers planned as part of their upcoming study of bridges, have a bigger impact on class time.
Our 2-3 classes will begin at Asphalt Green on October 21. Families in those classes will receive more information about how to prepare.
The weather is lining up for a beautiful Fall Festival. Bring your friends, and enjoy this wonderful event.