Good News

Dear Families,

Thanks to all of the families who attended our wellness meeting Monday night. It was an informed, open, and honest conversation about the importance of the emotional and social wellbeing of our students. Parents heard what the school does on a regular basis to support our diverse community; we will likely implement some of the programming ideas that came from the meeting, including a series of assemblies next year that will help our students with tough decision-making. We also discussed how to know when a threat of taking one’s life is real (take all threats seriously), making sure all of our kids have a path to help, especially when faced with serious decisions, and how families can keep the lines of communication open in their own relationships with their teen. Many ideas came from parents about what individual families can do, and they are looking forward to the meeting with Freedom Institute for drug and alcohol education (often drugs and alcohol are related to the serious decisions teenagers must make), open to all familes, 6:30 PM, here at the high school, April 21, 2009. For further information about the meeting, please contact your class parent representative.

We are so proud of our basketball teams, Boys’ Varsity coach James Miller, JV coach Anthony Shay, Asst. coach Billy Lipani, Asst. coach Macky Bergman, Girls’ Varsity coach Peter Fisher (who is also Athletic Director), and Asst. coach Preethi Thomas. On Tuesday, with small, but strong team, the girls sought victory against BWL, unfortunately coming up just a bit short. That said, our team worked tirelessly together and we will miss our seniors, Jessica Wilson, ’09, Vio Picayo, ’09, and Gloria Barden, ’09, who brought such leadership, grace, and positive influence to their team. The Boys’ Varsity team fought to the end in their playoff game yesterday, and after a challenging loss, I know the boys are looking to be the team to beat next year. They, too, worked together all year, and are such a close team (with no seniors) that next season is bound to be an exciting one!

We are also very impressed by the work of this year’s Scholastic Key winners! Montana Jaro, ’10, won a Silver Key for her short story “Down the Stairs”, which she read at the fiction/memoir assembly. Celi Khanyile-Lynch,’09, won a Gold Key for her personal essay/memoir titled “Identity Search.”

We are also thrilled to announce that Devon Brown, ’10, was accepted into Brown University’s summer neuroscience program, and they are paying him to attend!

Also in the news, the wonderful accomplishment of four of our seniors, dedicated to Vinnie Barile’s karate class for the past four years. For them today? Green belts! Congrats to Evan McDaniel, ’09, Delaney Porter, ’09, Ben Wellington, ’09, and Ryan Kim, ’09.
Finally, I already know that “The Taming of the Shrew” which opens tonight, will be a memorable night of theater! Directed by Performing Arts Chair Meghan Farley Astrachan, the cast’s mastery of Shakespeare’s writing is truly impressive, as is the acting, the set and the direction are equally remarkable. Tickets are available now at Charlton Street Reception. Shows run Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7PM, Friday, Feb. 27 at 7PM and Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7PM. Come and support our talented actors!

Families, please take a look at this trimester’s exam schedule! We do not expect any changes, however, the most current schedule is posted at the high school. Below, please find what exam week will look like in case you have any questions, or need to make particular arrangements.

Monday, March 2: Regular school day. Classes will review material or complete work. All students are expected.

Tuesday, March 3: Reading Day.

• School open regular hours.
• This is a day for students to prepare for exams, final papers and exhibitions. This is also an opportunity to catch up with outstanding work, work with groups for final presentations, use the Tech Center and printers around the school, etc. This is a quiet work day. Students may choose to work at school or at home. Students are not required to report to school, and it is not counted as an absence if they are not here. However, you may prefer your child to come to school for the full day to work. Please send him or her. School will be open. The Library will be open all day. All teachers will be at school regular school hours to provide the opportunity to meet with students.
• No classes will meet so that all teachers are available. There will be review sessions held. If a student is in crisis, teachers may encourage that student to make a mandatory appointment.

Wednesday-Friday, March 4-6: Exams. Exam periods are 9 AM-11 AM and 1 PM-3 PM. Each day, students should come in plenty of time for their morning exam or project presentation, and students may leave after their assessments are complete. Again, the exam schedule is attached to this blog.

Monday, March 9: Community Service Day! Students have the opportunity to use Monday to participate in community service opportunities across the city. Please check this terrific list of opportunities. Tech instructor Stephen MacGillivray has also made a connection with Housing Works on 10th and Hudson, and they are in need of volunteers! All students need to do is stop by! We are also offering a project here at school, soundproofing the music room at TSAC. Any student interested should be at the high school by 9AM to help Micah and Vin with this project. It is open to all students who are interested in fufilling in-school community service hours, and anyone interested should let Micah or Vin know he or she will be helping on Monday.

All the best,

Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

• The school’s calendar can be accessed by clicking here.

• Click here to view the 2008-2009 LREI Calendar. You can also now access the 2009-2010 calendar here! Note that school will begin on the Wednesday after Labor Day this year, not Thursday. Middle School and High School orientation will be on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Lower School phase in schedules, for our early childhood classes, will be distributed during the summer.
• For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and game recaps.

*Junior familes of students who receive academic accommodations: From Pat Carter, Academic Support instructor,

“I’ll need all remaining SAT and ACT applications for kids seeking special accommodations for the June 6th SAT and June 13th ACT tests by Friday, March 6th as ASC will no longer be processing any Junior applications until next September.

This means that any junior who is currently receiving extra time or any other accommodation at school needs to be in touch with me before Friday, March 6th in order to apply for those same accommodations on their SAT and ACT exams. Thank you!”

*Director’s Drop-In–Phil will be available for drop-in conversations in his Sixth Avenue office from 8:45AM-9:30AM on Friday, March 6th. Drop in, ask a question, and hear about what is going on at LREI. Can’t make these times? Give a call or send and email.

*The senior class is trying to locate a space in which to hold their prom. If anyone knows of a good space for this event, or has a contact of some sort, kindly email Vio Picayo at vpicayo@yahoo.com. Please respond as soon as possible, as time is running short before this late May event. Thank you.

1. Project Cicero, March 2-5: Project Cicero Book Drive is an annual non-profit book drive designed to create — or supplement — school and classroom libraries for children in under-resourced New York City public schools. Now in its eighth year, Project Cicero has distributed nearly 1,000,000 new and gently used books to 5,500 New York City classrooms and libraries, reaching 180,000 students.They solicit donations from individuals and families from over 90 independent, public, and parochial schools each year, and have received generous contributions from many book publishers. Please bring in your unwanted books for school-age children—in good condition only please!—and drop them in the box in the Sixth Ave. lobby or in the Charlton Street lobby.

2. Our Annual School Spirit Game, in which our Middle School and High School basketball teams play against the faculty is scheduled for Friday, March 6th at 3:30PM in the Thompson Street Athletic Center at 145 Thompson Street. This is a fun event for young and old. You are all invited to attend. See you at the gym.

3. Red is Green Committee:

LREI went Green to School on Wednesday February 25th. What an amazing turnout and response! Thank you to all who made the effort to go ‘green’. It was impressive to hear how everyone got to school from carpooling to walking to taking the ferry. The next LREI Goes Green to School is on Earth Day, Wednesday April 22nd.

4. Middle School Robotics continues to impress! On Saturday, March 7th you can cheer for our Middle School Robotics Teams as they take their First Place finish in the Manhattan championships to the 2009 New York City FIRST LEGO League Championship. For more information, click here .

5. Big Auction Update: The Big Auction is just one week away! If you haven’t done so already, you can buy your ticket(s) by emailing or calling Sandra Song at ssong-at-lrei.org or 212-477-5316 x275. Please have your credit card information ready with the expiration date and three digit security code–we only accept MasterCard and Visa. This year, we’re featuring select items online–please visit lreibigauction.cmarket.com and start bidding today! Click here for a look at the Arts & Entertainment Auction items.