Summer Packets

My grandson's newest little saying is "don't judge me"

This is his answer for everything.

Today, the 4th grader and 1st grader were trying very hard not to work on their summer packets for school. I asked my grandson, the 1st grader what his new Teacher would think of him if he did not hand in his summer packet completed.

He cocked his head to one side, raised his left eyebrow, touched his finger to his lips and asked a serious question.

"Are you trying to say that she is going to judge me, grandma?"

When I said yes, that is exactly what she is going to do, he started to work until he had only one page left. Whatever it takes.....because we all know that is exactly what the teachers are going to do.

To all teachers:
Make sure you collect those packets. That is the very first homework from your new young students. You are the one who ultimately makes homework meaningful. If you never acknowledge, collect, correct or just use check marks, they know that you place no value on the work that you are giving them to complete at home.

He sends this to his new teacher.

Will STEM Education Help Achieve Reward School STATUS?

#FullSTEAMahead - http://www.ed.gov/stem

Grants like this one from the NJSBA are totally ignored by EPSD. We pay a healthy salary to an Administrator supposedly to write Grants for the District. When is the last time we actually got a Grant that benefited all of Englewood's children?

Why do we continue to allow EPSD to avoid STEM Education? Last year, the idea was proposed by the DMHS Principal and a backlash ensued that created such an uproar, from out of town parents, that we had to re-focus our attention on preventing the Superintendent and the BOE from transferring this Principal to the Elementary School. All he did was make a proposal that benefits all Englewood children. That my friends is called "intimidation" in the real world.

Is EPSD a failure Factory? The entire Educational World is embracing STEM/STEAM Education, yet Englewood plods along using the same old failing strategies as for the last 15 years educating only about 15% of the children. Are your children in that 15%? Google STEM Education and you will see that I am not exaggerating.
Where does that leave our children?

It is time to demand STEM Education for children pre k - 12 for ALL Englewood children.

Everyone fights for a raise. Who fights for our children?

Answer: There is no invisible force out there fighting for our children. Parents cannot depend on EPSD employees to fight for our children. When one stands up one is put in a room with no windows (with the objective that one will quit and go away) and told to shut up and use some tact. Do we need tact or Academic success for all children? If we don't fight for our own children, no one will.

• Failure is inevitable. It is already upon us. Our high school is still a FOCUS SCHOOL. 
• Next step on the failure trail is to become a PRIORITY School. 

Becoming a PRIORITY School moves away from the positive, which is to become a Reward School. 

PRIORITY SCHOOL DESIGNATION means the state may come in and break up our high school like Weequahic in Newark. Last I heard, Weequahic is now 4 Charters. Students living across the Street from (Weequahic) their former high school must now apply to the charters. If refused, they must find another school someplace else to attend. Charters may refuse students. That is the main reason that it is unfair to compare Charters to Public Schools. Public Schools cannot refuse students who satisfy resident requirements. How many Charters do you think Dwight Morrow High School can accommodate?  Does anyone within yelling distance want DMHS to be taken over and divided into Charters?

Next Englewood Public School District

Board of Education Meeting
Thursday, August 13, 2015
8:00 pm
Grieco Elementary School

STEM Education for all. Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

Demand that our BOE support Success and NOT Failure.
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