[CabotCommunity] JABBERLITE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 9TH 2007
Jo Doherty
jcdoherty11 at comcast.net
Tue Jan 9 10:20:12 EST 2007
JABBERLITE FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 9TH 2007
This week the Jabberlite contains information about the following topics:
Save the dates for upcoming events:
Fireside chats with Cabot Principal, Dr. Marilynne Quarcoo
Cabot Connecting Families Bowling
Q&A session with your School Committee Representatives
Campaign for Cabot update
Cabot Family Dance
Community Action - Recent house demolition - Important City contact
information
Next PAC Meeting & Cabot PAC Liaison
Free seminar "Drinking, Drugs and Depression"
Referendum on the Newton North site plan - information sources
MCAS schedule for 3rd, 4th & 5th grade
CALENDAR
Jan 9
(Tues)
-
Conversations About NNHS:Part II The Finances Lasker Auditorium 7:30PM
Jan 10
(Wed)
-
All-City School Chorus Concert, Brown Middle School 7:30 PM
Jan 15
(Mon)
-
Martin Luther King Day, NO SCHOOL
Jan 17
(Wed)
-
METCO Parents' Council Meeting 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Jan 17
(Wed)
-
PTO Mtg - School Committee Members visit Cabot- Ask questions of your
elected Officials 7:30PM Cabot Gym
Jan 22
(Mon)
-
School Committee Meeting, 7:30 PM
Jan 25
(Thur)
-
CA&S Chinese Ribbon Dance - Grade 2 1:00 - 2:45 PM
Jan 25
(Thur)
-
Winter Concert, 10:45 AM & 7:30 PM
Jan 27
(Sat)
-
Cabot Connecting Families Bowling, 2-4 PM Ron's Ice Cream & Bowling Hyde
Park
Feb 3
(Sat)
-
Cabot Family Dance (snow date 2/10)
Feb 3
(Sat)
-
PTO "Campaign for Cabot" ends
Feb 8
(Thur)
-
Early Release, 12:30 PM Dismissal
Feb 11
(Sun)
-
Snow date for Cabot Connecting Families Bowling
Feb 12
(Mon)
-
School Committee Meeting, 7:30 PM
SAVE THE DATE..Remember to put these important dates into your family
calendar!
Fireside chats with Cabot Principal, Dr. Marilynne Quarcoo
A series of evening neighborhood gatherings are being arranged over the next
weeks. Initiated by Dr. Quarcoo, these are opportunities to strength our
neighborhood roots, meet and greet Dr. Quarcoo and your local Cabot
neighbors, or to discuss important issues of the day. Dates & locations to
be announced shortly.
Cabot Connecting Families go Bowling - Saturday, January
Does your family like to bowl? Would you like to get to know some more Cabot
families outside of school & your children's grade? Well, this is an
excellent opportunity to do both! Cabot Connecting Families is a PTO
sponsored committee which focuses on bringing Cabot families together
outside of the school environment.
Meeting your School Committee Representative & ask your
questions - Wednesday, January 17th 7:30pm Cabot Music room
Do you have questions about increasing student enrollment, the 2 modular
classrooms for Fall 2007, the state of our elementary schools or Newton
North? Then come along and ask your questions of our elected School
Committee representatives, Reenie Murphy & Marc Laredo.
Campaign for Cabot
Great news! As of this morning we have an amazing total of $25,578,
surpassing our goal of $24,000! Our huge thanks go to the 119 families who
have so far contributed ensuring that the PTO can continue to support the
programs and enrichment activities for the rest of this year. But our
fundraising does not stop!! The 199 contributing families represent 37% of
those families attending Cabot this year. We would really like to see the
level of participation rise to at least above 50%. What's important to
remember is the amount of your donation is not important but your
involvement is. Every dollar makes a difference, so please contribute
whatever you can now..
The spending of any additional monies raised will be discussed at the next
PTO meeting, but remember there are always many ways in which your
contributions can be used. Take as an example Program Enrichment, a PTO
sponsored opportunity for Cabot teachers and parents to request funds which
will enrichment students experiences in the classroom. Each year these
requests are reviewed and adjudicated by parent volunteers. This year a
total of $3,500 was awarded for things such as the purchase of a digital
camera for use in a classroom, keyboards to initiate a primary grade
keyboard program, the procurement of classic books for the Cabot library,
microphones for classroom computers and an online Math resource Brain Pop!
Conversations About NNHS:Part II The Finances Lasker Auditorium 7:30PM
Before you know it, your elementary children will be in High School. If
things stay on track, this year's current fifth graders will be the entering
freshman class in the fall of 2010, when the currently proposed new NNHS
building is scheduled to be opened. Get informed about the Jan. 23rd Newton
North High School ballot question. Don't miss the final public forum
tonight, Tuesday Jan. 9th at 7:30 sponsored by The Newton Schools
Foundation, The PTO Council and The League of Women Voters, focusing on the
finances of the project. The discussion takes place at Newton North's Lasker
Auditorium. For more info visit www.newtonptocouncil.org
<http://www.newtonptocouncil.org/> or call Lisa Mirabile at 617-332-5374.
Cabot Annual Family Dance - Saturday, February 3rd 7 - 9pm
Cabot PTO invites you and your family to a fun filled evening of music,
dance and food - free!. As in previous years, the dance will be held at
Bigelow school from 7 to 9 PM. Once again our very own famous
faculty'n'musician - Marc Lacatell, will help us all swing to some groovy
music. It is fun relaxing event for the whole family, held by the PTO every
year where we announce the results of the Campaign For Cabot. In the spirit
of Healthy Body and Healthy Minds, the family dance committee requests
families to bring healthy snacks to share for this evening.
The PTO's Social Action committee will also be collecting packaged food
for the Newton food pantry. Look for a flyer in your child's backpack with
detail information. We look forward to see you all there.
For the family dance event, we are looking for a dancer to showcase her or
his talent, such as Chinese, African, Irish step dance or any other folk
dances from different parts of the world. If you know any student within
Newton Public school system who would like to participate, please do let us
know. The performer gets a gift certificate from a local bookstore. If
you have any question, please contact Archana Vahalia at auvusa at netscape.net
or Suzy Ernheart at srenyeart2 at yahoo.com.
MATHS CHALLENGE ALERT - SOLUTIONS DUE THIS THURSDAY, JANUARY 11TH
Community Action - Recent demolition of House on Cabot Street
Have you seen the empty lot on the corner of Withington & Cabot Street? Last
Wednesday afternoon the house there was demolished in a matter of a few
hours resulting in clouds of dust pouring into the air. A family new to
Cabot alerted Mary Kathryn & myself to the fact that the house contained
asbestos and the demolition was done without the necessary permitting or
inspection work. As a result of calls to City Hall work was halted on the
site. I wrote to the Ward 2 Alderman on behalf of the Cabot community &
registered our concern regarding the situation. I reference this in the
JabberLite this week not to cause alarm but to make the point that each one
of us should take the responsibility to make our voices heard in any such
similar situation. This is not an issue that should fall only on the
shoulders of our school Principals or the PTOs. Kudos to those of you who
took action. Maybe some of you are not sure whom to contact. Well, here's a
reminder. You can always contact your elected officials - the Alderman or
School Committee members. Take a moment to note these websites which contain
all their contact information:
http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee/members/members.html contact
information for elected officials, Superintendent of Schools & Mayor
http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/Aldermen/contact.asp has contact information for
the Board of Alderman
http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/councils_boards.htm lists all of Newton's
committees & boards
Parents Meeting on Special Education, Wednesday January 10th 7pm
The next PAC meeting will be on Wed, Jan 10 at 7PM. The Mass Dept of
Education (DOE) is now conducting a coordinated program review of special
education programs in Newton. Two people from DOE will speak about the
components and goals of a coordinated program review and the steps they
follow to check on a district's compliance with state and federal special
education laws and civil rights laws. Learn about how DOE conducts a
program review, how the results are reached, and how you can be involved in
Newton's review. Please call 100 Walnut Street for location - do not email
the PTO Presidents. The meetings for 2007 will be: 1/10, 2/8, 3/7, 4/4, 5/2
and 6/6. I am not sure what the subjects will be. Are you a parent who is
interested in the issues of Special Education? Do you attend these meetings?
Consider being the Cabot Liaison & update other Cabot parents on these
important meetings? If you are interested please contact Lisa Spagnuolo for
more information on spags70 at peoplepc.com
A free seminar "Drinking, Drugs and Depression" , Thursday January 18th
7:30pm
The Newton PTO Council and Project Interface present a seminar at the
Shipley Auditorium at Newton Wellesley Hospital at 7:30 - 8pm. There is no
charge to attend and all are welcome. More than 800,000 American teenagers
suffer from depression each year. Often, these children have been
experimenting with or using drugs and drinking. A panel of experts will
share information, tips and resources on this very important topic including
Michael Jellinik - President, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Jeffrey M. Young -
Superintendent, Newton Public Schools, Nadja Reilly - Director, Swensrud
Depression Prevention Initiative, Children's Hospital, Julie Totten -
President, Families for Depression Awareness, Chris Fortunato - VP of Teen
and Adult Programs, Newton Community Service Center, Nanci Ginty - Riverside
Community Care, Coordinator of School and Community Programs, Rich
Catrombone - Social Worker, Newton South High School, David Gotthelf -
Psychologist, Brown Middle School.
Referendum on the Newton North site plan, Tuesday January 23 Polls open 7:00
AM to 8:00 PM
On January 23rd, voters will be asked to decide whether to confirm the Board
of Aldermen's decision to approve Site Plan 5a for a new Newton North High
School building, or to reject it. The Newton Election commission has now
posted specific information about this election, including the full text of
the Board Order approving the site plan, which includes the list of
conditions attached to that approval, at
www.ci.newton.ma.us/SpecElec-012307/index.htm. The full set of plans is also
available for view or download.
Check out these Information Sources:
* City of Newton: Newton North High
<http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/HSTF/index.htm> School Project
* School Committee: Newton
<http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee/actions/nnhs.html> North High
School Building Project
* Ballot Question Committee against the site plan: Voters for a Better
Newton <http://www.betternewtonnorth.org/> North
* Ballot Question Committee for the site plan: Newton North Now
<http://www.newtonnorthnow.org/>
* Garden City Blog: http://thegardencity.net/
* Newton Tab Blog: http://www.townonline.com/blogs/newton/
* Newton Blue Ribbon Commission on Financing Blog:
<http://newtonblueribbon.blogspot.com/index.html>
http://newtonblueribbon.blogspot.com/index.html
* NewTV: Special Meeting Coverage: Conversations on Newton North, Part
1: The Site Plan, airing on the red channel (Comcast 9, RCN 13) . Check
program <http://www.newtv.org/schedule/redprogramguide.html> listings for
more times
MCAS schedule on blue sheet also on the PTO website
Recently, the blue sheet identified the MCAS schedule for this year for our
3rd, 4th & 5th grade students. If you have misplaced or lost the blue sheet
before you noted these dates in your own family caldenar not to worry. Check
out the calendar on the PTO website where all these dates and many more are
listed! www.cabotpto.org <http://www.cabotpto.org/>
This edition of the JabberLite has been compiled for you by the Cabot PTO
Jo Doherty
Cabot PTO Co-President
11 Leonard Avenue,
West Newton, MA 02465
617-332-1530
jcdoherty11 at comcast.net
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