PRINCIPAL'S PEN
September 28, 2022
Dear Parents and Guardians:
You are cordially invited to attend the Julian Curtiss Magnet School’s annual OPEN HOUSE meeting on Thursday, October 13 at 6:00 p.m. We are extremely excited to see you in person this school year!
Our Fall Plans with parents as partners includes the following:
Welcome Calls to every parent by October 30th to allow parents the opportunity to inform teachers about important characteristics and strengths of their children
Open House on October 13th when parents are informed about the grade level curriculum and specific procedures implemented by their child’s teacher
Parent teacher conferences at the end of the first marking period to discuss individual growth and achievement.
Open House gives parents the opportunity to visit their child’s classroom, meet teachers, and receive important information about the instructional program. The purpose of the Open House is to give general information to ALL parents, teachers will not be able to answer specific questions about your child’s progress. Such individual questions are best handled at parent/teacher conferences, which are scheduled for December, or another date, which you can arrange with the teacher. We would really love to have full attendance of our families on this first year back in person from the Fall 2019. The PTA will be providing babysitting for those families that need it. Due to limited space, we ask that you use the babysitting service only if you are unable to make other arrangements.
The schedule for Open House is as follows:
6:00 -6:30 p.m. Pre- K Visits
Grades K- 5
Visits to P.E., Art, Music, Library Learning Commons, World Languages, Reading, Math Interventionist, Resource Rooms, and Special Education staff.
Classroom teachers in grades K-5 will not be available until 6:30 pm. Rooms will be closed until that time. Specialists and Essentialists can also be visited during the 6:30-7:00 times below.
6:30-7:00 p.m. Grades K, 1 and 2 classroom visits,
ALP, ESL and Special Education for grades 3, 4 and 5
7:05 – 7:35p.m. Grades 3, 4, and 5 classroom visits,
ESL and Special Education for grades K, 1, and 2
Please fill out the following survey if you need to sign up for babysitting:
https://forms.gle/YK5dzZuVx6jobZW29
Trish McGuire, Principal
Matthew Hartigan, Assistant Principal
Yom Kippur
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Schools are Closed
Dear Parents,
As Julian Curtiss School’s psychologist and speech therapist, we work with a number of children to strengthen their social skills. We usually lead several groups during lunch time or snack time. In the past, students have been invited to meet with the school psychologist/speech therapist during these times to help classmates who need extra practice with social skills and peer interactions. The focus of these small groups, or Lunch Bunch, as we often call them, will be to assist children in relating to their peers in casual settings, starting and maintaining conversations, following directions, listening, problem solving, expressing feelings and building relationships with peers. Most students enjoy the small group setting as we do a number of fun and engaging activities.
The groups do not interfere with academics or specials and are usually scheduled at lunch, snack time or during centers. If you DO NOT wish to have your child participate in this group experience, please let us know via email.
We look forward to starting new Lunch Bunch groups this year and encourage you to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Best regards,
Abigail Side, Psychologist
Yaneli Avila, Speech and Language
Smarter Balanced Reports for Grade 4 and Grade 5 students are in the backpack today!
Dear Parent/Guardian:
Enclosed you will find your child’s Individual Score Report of the Connecticut Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment in English Language Arts and Mathematics administered in the Spring 2022. If your student was in 5th, 8th, or 11th grade last year, you will also find a score report for the Next Generation Science Standards exam administered in the Spring.
This report shows your child’s achievement on assessments based on the Connecticut Core Standards, which define learning expectations for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment reports scores as Achievement Level Descriptors (ALD) with a scale score reported in the thousands and span all grades 3 to 11. Scores fall between achievement level 1 (lowest) and achievement level 4 (highest). For details on the following Achievement Levels, please go to: https://tinyurl.com/sbalevels
Level 1
Does not meet the achievement level (expected for this grade)
Level 2
Approaching the achievement level (expected for this grade)
Level 3
Meets the achievement level expected (expected for this grade)
Level 4
Exceeds the achievement level expected (expected for this grade)
For students in Grades 5 -8 who have a test score from the prior grade (i.e. 3 through 7), the report will present two years of scores.
To assist with the interpretation of this Smarter Balanced report, the CSDE has created a video for parents to explain how to view the report. The state video is available at https://youtu.be/IhH3b0U-vdE
Additional explanatory resources for parents are available here. https://portal.ct.gov/SDE/Student-Assessment/Main-Assessment/Parent-Resources/Documents
The SBA is just one measure of your student’s progress through the year. For more information about how we assess student learning in Greenwich Public Schools, you may visit our website and look for Teaching and Learning/Assessment. http://www.greenwichschools.org/teaching-learning/assessments.
Sincerely,
Trish McGuire
Parent Guide to SBA Scores can be found at http://ctcorestandards.org/?page_id=32
Parent Guides are available in the following languages:
English
Arabic
Chinese
Creole
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
CSDE Resources for Parents and Students: https://portal.ct.gov/SDE/Student-Assessment/Smarter-Balanced/Smarter-Balanced-Results-Resources/Documents
Reportes de SMARTED BALANCED para grados 4to y 5to fueron enviados en las mochilas hoy!
Estimados padres o tutores:
Adjunto encontrará el informe de puntaje individual de su hijo del Connecticut Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment en artes del lenguaje inglés y matemáticas que fue administrado en la primavera de 2021. Si su estudiante estaba en 5º, 8º o en 11º grado el año pasado, también encontrará un informe de calificaciones para el examen de Next Generation Science Standards que fue administrado en la primavera.
Este informe muestra el logro de su hijo en las evaluaciones basadas en los Estándares Básicos de Connecticut, que definen las expectativas de aprendizaje de lo que los estudiantes deben saber y pueden hacer en cada grado.
La puntuación del Smarter Balanced Assessment refleja el Nivel de Logro con un puntaje de escala y abarca los grados de tercero al onceavo. Las puntuaciones se encuentran entre el nivel de logro 1 (el más bajo) y el nivel de logro 4 (el más alto). Para obtener detalles sobre los siguientes niveles de logro, visite: https://tinyurl.com/sbalevels
Primer Nivel
No alcanza el nivel de logro esperado para este grado
Segundo Nivel
Acercándose al nivel de logro esperado para este grado
Tercer Nivel
Cumple con el nivel de logro esperado para este grado
Cuarto Nivel
Supera el nivel de logro esperado para este grado
Para los estudiantes en los grados de quinto hasta octavo que obtuvieron un puntaje de examen en años anteriores (es decir, en el grado tercero al septimo), el informe presentará dos años de puntajes (p. Ej., 2019 y 2021, ya que no hubo SBA en 2020)
Para ayudar con la interpretación del informe Smarter Balanced, el CSDE ha creado un video para los padres para explicar cómo interpretar el informe. El video del estado esta disponible en https://youtu.be/IhH3b0U-vdE Recursos explicativos adicionales para padres están disponibles aquí. https://portal.ct.gov/SDE/Student-Assessment/Main-Assessment/Parent-Resources/Documents
Reconocemos que el año escolar 2020-21 presentó un conjunto único de desafíos para maestros y estudiantes. El SBA es solo una medida del progreso de su estudiante a lo largo del año. Para obtener más información sobre cómo evaluamos el aprendizaje de los estudiantes en las Escuelas Públicas de Greenwich, puede visitar nuestro sitio web y buscar Enseñanza y Aprendizaje / Evaluación. http://www.greenwichschools.org/teaching-learning/assessments
Atentamente,
Trish McGuire
Este documento de la Junta Directiva de Educación o de las Escuelas Públicas de Greenwich, cuyo original está en inglés, ha sido traducido al español a manera de cortesía. Cualquier contradicción entre los dos documentos es accidental. En caso de existir contradicciones, la información de la versión en inglés será la que prevalezca.
La guía para padres sobre las puntuaciones de la SBA se puede encontrar en: http://ctcorestandards.org/?page_id=32
Las guías para padres están disponibles en los siguientes idiomas:
Inglés
Árabe
Chino
Criollo
Polaco
Portugués
Español
Recursos de CSDE para padres y estudiantes:
UN DAY
Don't Forget to Show Your JC Spirit!
Please follow Mrs. McGuire and Mr. Hartigan on Twitter
@JCSPrincipal and @JC_EagleAP
Mrs. Trish McGuire - Principal
Email: trish_mcguire@greenwich.k12.ct.us
Website: www.greenwichschools.org/jcs
Location: 180 East Elm Street, Greenwich, CT, USA
Phone: (203) 869-1896
Twitter: @jcsprincipal