From Phil Kassen, Director

Dear LREI Families,

Hello. Phil Kassen here, contributing to the divisional blogs this week. Please be sure to check below to read important announcements from your division’s principals.

Three short comments this week.

1) At this point in the school year most of you have been to your division’s curriculum night. You have heard from your child’s teacher(s) and have a sense of the academic journey your children will undertake this school year. If you continue to have questions about the year’s program or about how it matches your child’s interests or needs, please contact your child’s teachers or your divisional principal.

In the divisional blogs of the past few weeks the principals have written a great deal about community and the ways in which we foster and support the development of classroom communities. This was also the topic of conversation for our LREI 101 meeting for new families this week. (New families that did not participate in LREI 101 this week should contact Chap, our Director of Diversity and Community at schapman@lrei.org to sign up for next week’s session.) I encourage you to visit the Lower School blog to read Sharon Dupree’s comments on her introduction to the Lower School community as the new principal. I also suggest that you visit the Middle School blog to read Mark Silberberg’s posting on the new Middle School advisory system. Mark and the Middle School faculty worked tirelessly over the past year to create an advisory system that meets the needs of middle school students and works to create safe comfortable places in which early adolescents can foster relationships with classmates and feel increasingly comfortable taking personal and academic risks. Finally, please visit the High School blog to read Ruth’s comments on “Gender and Sexuality, What’s Next in the Conversation,” a series of discussions and assemblies that will occur throughout the year for the High School students. I was amazed at the focused attention that our high school students brought to this difficult topic at last week’s assembly with Don McPherson. Our High School students are so trusting of each other and enjoy being challenged to be their best selves individually and their best collective self. Very impressive!

2) Please visit www.lrei.org and experience the fresh look of the home page. In addition, we are excited to let you know that the LREI Event Calendar can be accessed online at http://www.lrei.org/calendar/. From the main page you can view the calendar, by day, week or month. When you first view the calendar, you will see the events for a default set of event categories.

If you click on the “Filter Events” link in the lower left-hand corner, you will be taken to a window that will allow you to personalize the calendar. For example, sports schedules are not included in the default set of events. If your child plays on a Middle School or High School team, you can check the box for that team to have the schedule appear on your calendar. When you make changes, click on the “Apply Filter” button to have your new preferences stored.

If you have a desktop calendar or PDA compatible with the iCalendar standard you can subscribe to a calendar or download events. Currently the iCalendar standard is fully supported by Apple’s iCal, and the Mozilla Calendar. If your calendar software cannot subscribe to a whole category of events, you should still be able to download a category. To subscribe to or download the whole calendar or a specific category, click on the link “Subscribe & Download” in the lower left-hand corner of the main calendar page. You can also download individual events by clicking on the link “copy this event into your personal desktop calendar” which you will find on each page that lists event details.

We hope that this calendar will provide an additional avenue for you to be connected to the many events at LREI.

3) Thanks to those who offered thoughts and suggestions about the dangerous crossing at Houston St. and Sixth Ave. We are working with the Sixth Precinct and our City Councilperson to address this situation. In the meantime I encourage you to avoid crossing Houston St. on the east side of Sixth Avenue.

Calendar:

  • October 5-School closed, Professional Day
  • October 8-Columbus Day, School Closed
  • October 17-PSAT test for all 10th and 11th Graders

Updates and announcements:

  1. Beginning September 27, every Thursday through November 29, I will host a very informal morning coffee from 7:45 to 8:15 AM in the cafeteria.
  2. If you would like to be a parent rep, please contact Ronnie Halper, P’11 and Vice President of the Parent Association at rsh@panix.com
  3. From Michel de Konkoly Thege, Associate Director, regarding the Debate Series: Phil Kassen has asked me to help organize the creation of a series of debates and discussions leading up to the Presidential elections in November 2008. Our hope is to create a community forum to discuss and debate the issues, not the candidates. If you would like to be part of a small group of faculty, parents and students who will organize these debates, or if you have suggestions for debate topics, please contact me at mdekonkolythege@lrei.org or 212.477.5316, ext 319 by October 3 to let me know of your interest. I would like to convene an initial meeting of the organizing group in mid-October to discuss the format and potential content of these debates.”
  4. A reminder for families new to LREI: LREI 101 will provide an in-depth, interactive, and engaging introduction to LREI, its mission, philosophy, and diversity initiatives. This orientation session will offer you an opportunity to understand our core values as you begin to take part in activities that help you become a member of the LREI community. LREI 101 will be held on Thursday, October 11 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm at 40 Charlton Street. Please contact the receptionist at 212-477-5316 to let us know which session you will attend. Contact Director of Diversity and Community Chap Chapman either by phone (x294), or by e-mail schapman@lrei.org, if you have questions about LREI 101.

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