January 21, 2026

Dear Families,                               

Last week, our district’s superintendent, Dr. Kristy De La Cruz, and deputy superintendent, Dr. Lisa Reiter, met with CPE1 staff.  They discussed upcoming steps in the search for the principal who will step in after I retire at the end of this school year.

Before selecting the next principal, the superintendent wants input from our community.  Dr. De La Cruz created a survey to find out what school communities are looking for in their principal.  She suggested that we could add survey questions of our own.  Our staff then crafted one question, and the parents on our school leadership team contributed another.

Now, the survey is ready for your input.  Please click here to access the survey.  The superintendent’s deadline is February 2.

This survey is anonymous.  What you write will go directly to the district office, not to CPE1 staff.

The survey questions are very open-ended.  You can raise the topics that you think will be important for the next principal, such as CPE1’s curriculum, teaching and learning, and the school culture and community.

A few candidates have reached out to the superintendent about becoming CPE1’s next principal.  They have been invited to see the school in person.

These informal visits will not be part of the formal hiring process.  The purpose is only to give each candidate time to observe the school at work.  Candidates who know more about the school in advance have a better chance of becoming an excellent fit to lead the school forward.

The district’s formal selection process will not begin until spring.  Here is your chance to inform the process.  Please fill out your survey by February 2.

Testing the Tests

New York has phased out paper-and-pencil state exams.   Students as young as third grade who take the state tests this spring will do so on school laptops.

Whether your third, fourth, or fifth grader ultimately opts into or out of state testing, we’re required to test your child’s access to the exams.

On the mornings of January 28 and January 29, third, fourth, and fifth graders will participate in a simulation of the English language arts and math exams.  The simulation lasts about fifteen minutes each day.  This quick check ensures sure every student’s log in, password, and answer entries work correctly. 

The actual state exams occur in April and early May. 

Better Space at Last

In September, I wrote that we had been waiting for years for contractors to remove the wall that divided Aishah’s classroom.  Finally, the wall is gone.

Gordian Group, the project management firm that (I believe) perpetuated delays, was removed from the job.  It took only two days during our last vacation to knock down the divider and open the space.  Second and third graders were very excited at first, but now seem used to having a larger classroom.  I’m still excited every time I glance in the room.

This simple project should wrap up next month.  The contractor plans to return during February vacation to install new outlets, new cabinets, and a new sink. 

Magic of Skating

We have had our first days skating at the newly refurbished Davis Center in Central Park.  For six months, we had difficulty getting the rink to reserve dates for us to skate.  Now that the Davis Center staff has seen how CPE1 teachers prepare the kids and how the children handle themselves on the ice, the rink offered reservations for next winter.

I love when people we meet on trips react this way to our school.  The teachers carefully plan the small details that make field trip go smoothly.  They also work a lot with children on how to travel safely and politely on trips.

On Friday morning, I walked to the rink with Anika’s pre-K class.  The park was mostly empty.  Children pointed out the trees and the tall buildings miles away on Central Park South.

As we curved around the watery meer, about thirty geese blocked the path.  Anika whispered to students to walk silently past.  “Geese can be grumpy,” she explained.  Carefully, silently, the pre-K students passed, almost eye to eye with the geese. 

This encounter with wildlife wasn’t planned, but special moments happen whenever we visit the park.  That’s one reason CPE has been going regularly for the last fifty years.

Lately, though, something’s been missing.  First, the pandemic disrupted skating in Central Park.  Then, renovations closed the rink.  While older students took yellow school buses to skate in Riverside State Park, pre-K children were not allowed on these buses.  None of our pre-K classes had skated since before COVID reached New York.   Our last pre-K skaters are now in fifth grade.

Those fifth graders seem to remember the encouragement it takes to start skating.  Many can outrace adults.  But on Friday, I saw several fifth graders slowly inching down the ice, holding four- and five year-old hands.

Fifth grade Robert skated over to help pre-K JJ.  JJ almost fell, then grabbed onto Robert.

I glanced down.   JJ’s name had been written in erasable Sharpie several times on the skates.  But someone missed erasing the name of the last student to use these based.  “Robert,” I exclaimed, “JJ’s wearing your old skates!”

A fifth grader who outgrew his old skates gravitating to the child who wears them now hints at the magic of this school tradition.  For more than forty years, CPE kids have been falling, rising, speeding up, and growing up in Central Park.  Their laps around the rink add up to several miles every year.  They always end up where they started.