[CabotCommunity] Jabberlite for April 8, 2008

[auvpto at aol.com]

 We present the "not so light" jabberlite for April 8th.  There is so much happening that we tried to put a lot of helpful information out there.  Hope you enjoy reading it.  Welcome spring!!!




Jabberlite for Tuesday April 8, 2008



This edition contains information about:

Interim Principal

Budget Related

NewtonSERVES/Cabot Clean-up Day

Artwork for Education

PTO/School Council Nominations for next
year

Cabot Fair Raffle, and much more….





Upcoming
Calendar - visit www.Cabotpto.org for the entire calendar anytime.




 


  

  
April 10, 2008

  

  

  
EARLY
  RELEASE DAY, 12:30pm

  

 

 

  

  
April 10, 2008

  

  

  
Artwork
  For Education Forms Due

  

 

 

  

  
April 12, 2008

  

  

  
Cabot
  Clean Up Day 9:00 - 12:00

  

 

 

  

  
April 13, 2008

  

  

  
Newton Serves/Cabot Clean Up Day 10:00 -
  3:00

  

 

 

  

  
April 14, 2008

  

  

  
School Committee Meeting,
  7:30 PM

  

 

 

  

  
April 15, 2008

  

  

  
Stand for Children Day on
  the Hill

  

 

 

  

  
April 15, 2008

  

  

  
CASP Play

  

 

 

  

  
April 15, 2008

  

  

  
Jabberwock Publication
  2007-08 Issue #9

  

 

 

  

  
April 15, 2008

  

  

  
5th Grade Parent Night at
  Day 7:00 pm

  

 

 

  

  
April 15, 2008

  

  

  
B.I.G. Ideas Expo

  

 

 

  

  
April 17, 2008

  

  

  
NNHS Student Showcase

  

 

 

  

  
April 19, 2008

  

  

  
Passover begins at Sundown

  

 

 

  

  
4/21/08 - 4/25/08

  

  

  
Spring
  Vacation, NO SCHOOL

  

 








Superintendent Dr. Young has appointed Interim Principal



You should have received a letter dated April4,  2008 from Dr. Brenda Keegan announcing the
appointment of Jim Swaim, an experienced principal to serve as interim
principal for Cabot School for the 2008/09 school year.  Please join us in
welcoming Jim Swaim into the Cabot Community and support him in his work with
Cabot next year.



Planning and arrangements are
underway for Dr. Quarcoo’s retirement party. If you would like to help us out,
please join us for a meeting at Mary Kathryn’s home (10 Worth Circle) tomorrow at 9:30 AM.



School Budget/ Override Information

For all those parents who have been closely following the
Budget related activities in the city, the School Committee is considering two
revised budgets--one if no override is passed (the allocation budget) and one
if the override is passed on May 20, 2008(the override budget).  A special
School Committee meeting was held last night and they heard public comment from
those who wish to speak about the proposed budgets. The School Committee then
voted on both budgets. For the latest information, go to their website at
www.newton.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee/. You can also sign up on this website for
the School Committee s new bi-weekly e-mail newsletter.



There will be a special Election on
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 for the override.





NewtonSERVES & Cabot Clean-Up Day - Let’s clean
up Cabot on April 12 & 13th!

WOW!! we already have more than 40
people signed upto help u sclean our school. 
We are still looking for volunteers for Cabot Clean-Up and
NewtonSERVES, please sign up.  The sign up times are:

Saturday April 12th  9:00am - 12:00 pm (indoors) 

Sunday April 13th from 10:00am - 12:30 pm  (indoors)

Sunday April 13th from 12:30pm - 3:30 pm (indoors & outdoors)



In conjunction with the City of Newton's NewtonSERVES Day, we are ready to
spruce up the school! NewtonSERVES is an annual day of community service
dedicated to cleaning up the Garden City.  The city will provide mulch and
pay for a permit for us to clean up the inside of our school as well.  We
have been receiving lists of project requests from faculty and staff at Cabot.
Our ability to get these valuable and much needed jobs done depends on YOU!!
The more volunteers we have the more we can clean up Cabot.  



 - Outdoor projects include spreading mulch, cleaning up
trash, re-painting the 4-square game on the black top and re-affixing
the painted tiles which fell off the side of the building during the
winter.  



 - Indoors we are going to paint, fix doors, fix shelves,
organize books, clean and scrub areas and we may even venture into the Cabot
basement! So far we have requests from:

Ms. Bellinger, Mrs. Cain, Ms. Magoveney, Mrs. Forseter, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Mann,
Ms. Stahl, Ms. Bargende, Mrs. Thonet, Ms. Vaswani, Ms. Gerson, Ms. Bennet/Ms.
Foster. Ms. Kerrigan and more. If you would like to come make a difference in
your child's classroom or anywhere in the building, please join us!!



ALL Families ARE welcome. Bring gardening gloves if desired, but all tools
supplied, and no previous experience needed. Cabot PTO will keep you
entertained and will provide snacks and water. The city will provide t-shirts,
water, snacks, and ice cream sundaes on the 13th! Interested?  The more volunteers we have, the more we can
make a difference!  Please let us know if you have any handy skills, such
as carpentry or painting, or if you are just willing to come and work.  If
you and your family are able to come lend a hand, please contact Mark
Geffen at markdgeffen at yahoo.com.
Please let us know if you prefer to work indoors, outdoors, or if you have no
preference and are willing to jump in and help out anywhere!  If you can't
come for a whole sign-up period, please still come by for as long as you are
able.  The City of Newton
recommends that children be 8 years or older to join in.  Thanks in
advance for your help!!



ARTWORK FOR EDUCATION



We are getting very good response for
the Artwork for Education notecards featuring your children's artwork. 
Thanks to all the families who have ordered the notecards so far. You can
also see a copy of the full brochure hanging on the Cabot Bulletin board.
 If you are interested in ordering notecards, please complete the order
form that came with the brochure and return it to your child's teacher or put
it in the PTO mailbox in the office by April 10th!!  There
are additional order forms in the PTO mailbox.  The PTO receives $8.00
from each box sold which we will use to purchase technology for the
school.  If you have any questions, please contact Susan Poole at silas01 at rcn.com




The Cabot Fair Raffle ticket contest is underway!!

The race to sell the most raffle tickets has begun on April 4th
with each student taking home their packets of raffle tickets to sell with
instructions. Back by popular demand the classroom that sells the most tickets
from April 4th up to 3pm on Friday May 2nd (the day before the Cabot Fair) will
earn themselves an ice cream party, and the class that comes in second wins a
cupcake decorating party! A new feature this year - during the contest we will
be awarding tickets (redeemable the day of the Fair for rides and games) to
classes that sell the most tickets during the middle weeks of the competition!
So get selling!! Please remember for your sold tickets to count towards the
contest the name of the student selling the ticket & their teacher must be
filled out on the ticket stub, as well as the details of the person buying the
ticket. All properly completed ticket stubs returned before the 3pm cut-off
time on May 2nd will count towards the contest. Any returned after that time
will be included within the raffle to be drawn from noon onwards on the day of
the Fair but will not count towards the 



contest. Remember that extra tickets are available from
Mrs. Driscoll in the school office and we’d be grateful if you could return any
unused raffle tickets to Mrs. Driscoll. This years raffle features a huge
variety of great prizes valued at more than $6,000 & remember you don’t
need to be present at the Fair to be a winner! Any questions concerning the
Cabot Fair raffle please contact Jen Abbott 



fiveabbotts at hotmail.com
or Claire Ryan-Robertson c_ryanrobertson at yahoo.com 



Commuting to and from School and Survey by 3rd
Graders



Now that spring is here and
weather is getting warmer, we hope you will start taking bus, participate in
“walking school bus”, just walk to school or plan a car pool.  If you have any concerns or questions, please
let us know if we can help.



 



Next week, the 3rd
graders will be collecting data on how each student commutes to school.  We will share the information with the
community and look for help to improve our programs in conjunction with the
programs offered by Safe Routes to School organization.





POSITIONS FOR NEXT YEAR – PTO & SCHOOL COUNCIL



PTO Committees



The
PTO needs you!  That’s right, we are starting to fill positions for
next year – we know you have hidden talents and whether you have a little or a
lot of time; actually who are we kidding, no one has a lot of time, but we’ll
take what we can get and we can use your help!  Here are just a few of the
positions open:




PTO Co-President

Advertising
     Committee

Community Supper Co-Chairs

Invention Invasion
     Co-Chair

Jabberwock Editors

5th Grade Committee
     Chairs




Check out our
web site, www.cabotpto.org  for a full list of
committees.  There is room in almost any committee for more members, so if
you see something that interests you, contact the committee chair for more
information!





School
Council Nominations 



2008 Cabot School
Council Nomination Process 



As part of the Education Reform Act of 1993, School
Councils were mandated for each school across the Commonwealth. The
Council offers a way for parents, teachers, and community members to work
together in an advisory capacity to the Principal to identify educational
needs, set educational goals, review the school building budget, and prepare
the school improvement plan. The Council consists of the
Principal, up to two appointed community members who are not Cabot School
parents, and an equal number of teachers and parents, representing our diverse
school community. The parent representatives are
elected by Cabot parents.



 



Nominations for three parent representative positions are
now open. Each
newly elected parent member will serve a two-year term of office. The
Cabot School Council meets 8 times during the school year and members are
expected to attend 80% of the meetings. Frequently subcommittees are formed
to research and provide recommendations about a variety of school improvement
issues.



 



If you would like your name to appear on the ballot, or to
nominate someone, please:



 



1. Write a brief statement (100 words or less) that
includes a biographical sketch (employment, family, etc), number of years you
have been a Cabot parent, grade levels of your children and why you wish to be
a School Council representative. Along with your statement, please
include your name, telephone number and e-mail address. If
possible, please write your statement in Microsoft Word and send it as an
e-mail attachment, along with a digital photo, to Virginia Dean at vrd1966 at comcast.net.



 



2. If you are unable to submit electronically, please put
your statement, and a small photo, in an envelope addressed to Virginia
Dean and put it in the PTO mailbox in the school office.



 



3. Nominations must be submitted by Friday,
April 25th.



 



An information packet about School Council will be sent to
all nominees.



The biographical statements submitted by the nominees will
be published in the Jabberwock during the month of May. If
there are more than three candidates, there will be an election. Details
regarding the election process will be published in early May, if one is
needed. The
new School Council members will be announced in the Jabberwock at the end of
the process.



 



You may also contact any of the following parents who are
the Current School Council Parent Representatives:



Term expiring June 2008: 



Liz Haas (617 969-5008), Lesley Roberts (617-630-1838),
Janet Hart (617-332-5411)



Term
expiring June 2009:



Virginia Dean (617 641-0878); Jay Schwartz (617 332-5538);
Jim Robertson (617 795-7061)



 PTO Co-Presidents (ex-officio members of School
Council): 



Mary Kathryn Fallon (617-244-1821)
and Archana Vahalia (617-244-1435)





Newton Schools
Foundation B.I.G. Ideas Expo

A great community supports great schools, and the Newton Schools
Foundation supports our schools professional and innovative curriculum
development through an annual awards program that funds grants in all 21 Newton
schools. Come and meet the teachers who make the difference in your child’s
life, with the support of your dollars. Join us for a great time of music, fun,
food, and much more. The 2nd Annual B.I.G. Ideas Expo (Brilliant teachers
Innovative ideas Great students) will be held on Tuesday, April 15, in the
Newton South High School Cafeteria from 3:30 to 6pm. For more information and
to make a donation, visit www.newtonschoolsfoundation.org.





Student
Showcase at Newton North

Newton North's Main Street will come alive with musicians,
jubilee singers, face painters, art exhibits, scenes from Grease and Hot
Mikado, and more, on Thursday, April 17. Check out a sport clinic and dine on
something tasty at Tiger’s Loft. Design a notepad, try an improv class, or
observe the skill of argument
at the Model UN debate. Student Showcase is an evening of entertainment for the
entire Newton
community, designed to celebrate the remarkable and highly varied talents of
our student body. It will be an evening of entertainment for the entire family,
including crafts for elementary-aged kids. A ticket to Student Showcase
supports student talent and the Educational Excellence Campaign of Newton North
High School. Admission costs $10 for adults, $5 for students, and $25 for
families. Tickets can be purchased online at www.nnhsedex.net, or at the door.





Internet Safety Presentation for
Elementary Parents

Are you worried about cyber-bullying? Do you wonder about social networks that
your child might be joining online? Do you have questions about what is
appropriate use of the Internet? Join other concerned parents at the Newton
Free Library, on Tuesday, May 13, from 7 to 8:30pm, for a presentation by Sarah
Sogigian, Youth Services Consultant for the Metrowest Regional Library System.

Sarah will be speaking about recent Web trends and innovations, and will offer
tips on Internet safety for children in grades 3 through 5. Her presentation
will include a question-and-answer opportunity, with time to share your
personal experiences and concerns. There is no charge for this event. Questions?

Contact Shelley Chamberlain, Director of Information Technology, at

mailto:shelley_chamberlain at newton.k12.ma.us, or call 559-6190. This program is
sponsored jointly by the Newton Free Library and the Newton Public Schools
Elementary Library Teachers.



Autism Spectrum Panel Discussion

April is Autism Awareness Month, and Countryside
 Elementary School is
hosting an Autism Spectrum Panel Discussion for elementary, middle, and high
school parents, whether or not their families are directly affected by autism.
Teachers are especially encouraged to attend. The event is open to the entire
community at no charge, and will take place on Monday, April 28, from 7 to
8:30pm, in the Countryside Auditorium at 191 Dedham Street, Newton
Highlands. The evening features distinguished experts
in the area of autism spectrum disorders: educators, medical professionals,
parents of children affected, and an adult living with autism. Reservations are
not required. Questions? Contact
 Countryside Elementary
  School at 559-9450.

In addition, the well-reviewed documentary "Autism: The Musical" is
being shown on HBO this month, and is available On Demand if you are a
subscriber. The film is both pertinent and moving, according to those who have
reviewed it.

Your Rights Under Special Education Law The Newton Parent Advisory Council for
Special Education presents Your Rights Under Special Education Law by Attorney
Daniel Ahearn on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30pm at the Education

Center, 100 Walnut St., Room 210. Dan practices
disability, special education, education, and children’s law, and is on the
faculty at Suffolk
 University Law
 School. He directs the
Landmark Outreach Program at the Landmark
 School, which specializes
in teaching students with language-based learning disabilities. He was the
Director of the Massachusetts Bureau of Special Education Appeals and has written
many articles on special education law. Please come to learn about your rights
and how to advocate more effectively for your child. The meeting is open to all
who are interested in education. For more information visit www.newtonpac.org.



Stand for Children s Day on the Hill



This spring, Beacon Hill lawmakers face decisions that
affect every child in Massachusetts.
On Tue delivering the funding and policies that can improve our schools. Join
hundreds of citizens from across

Massachusetts
as we converge on the State House from 9:30 to 11:25am, and call for relief,
reform, and innovation in public education. Make sure that legislators know
what s going on in Newton
s schools. 





Register soon and join us so that lawmakers hear our message and see us as a strong,
unified voice for kids. For more information, and to register, please go to
www.stand.org/ma/dayonthehill. Bus transportation will be provided for people
coming from Newton.
The bus will leave from Cold
 Spring Park
(1288 Beacon Street)
at 8:50am, and, because of the elementary school early release schedule, will
be leaving the State House at 11:25am. Please indicate in your online
registration if you plan to ride the bus. If you do not have to pick up your
child early, please join us for the whole event, which ends at 12:20pm.





Heartbreak
Hill Youth Race



The Newton Pride Heartbreak Hill Youth Race will be held
Sunday, April 20, from 12 noon to 3pm, starting from City Hall Drive. Runners may register
online at www.newtonpride.org. A pizza/pasta party will be held Friday, April
18, at 5:30 at War Memorial Auditorium, Newton City Hall.
For more information, call the Mayor's Office for Cultural Affairs at 527-8283
Gail Wintersteiner

at 965-1038 or mailto:g.winters at rcn.com.





Looking for something fun and exciting for your child to do during school
vacation? This April, the Newton
 Community Service
 Center will be heading to
Hale Reservation for a Spring Skills Team Challenge. Children in grades 3
through 6 will team up and learn essential spring skills in the areas of

rafting, building, compass, trail signs, archery, and more. For information or
to register, please call Jennifer Capello McAuliffe, NCSC Camp and Recreational
Director at 969-5906, x. 224, or visit www.ncscweb.org.

Meet New England Patriot Jarvis Green on Saturday, May 3, at Borders in Braintree, from 1 to 3pm,
and on Sunday, May 4, at Borders in Chestnut Hill Atrium Mall, in support of
the Jarvis Green Foundation, a non-profit organization to benefit single
working mothers in disadvantaged, low-income areas. Proceeds from the sale of
Upscale Living magazine will be donated to the Jarvis Green Foundation. For
more information about the Jarvis Green Foundation, please visit www.jarvisgreen.com.
For information about this event, please visit www.upscalelivingmag.com.







Time
for tennis!



Newton Parks & Recreation offers spring and summer
tennis lessons for kids and

adults of all levels. Most kids classes begin the last week of April, and adult
classes start the first week of May. Summer clinics begin during the last week
of June and continue through part of August. Kids may enroll for one or several
weeks, and may attend morning and/or afternoon classes. Please visit

www.newtontennis.com for more info
and to download a registration form. Questions? E-mail newtontennis at earthlink.net
or call 661-PLAY.





Compiled for you by the Cabot PTO.





 


 Archana Vahalia
Cabot PTO Co-President
auvpto at aol.com
617-244-1435
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