Weekly Email June 8, 2006

Dear Parents,

The last weeks of school are always a blur of activity as we wrap up this year and plan for the year ahead. I continue to bask in the glow of last week's terrific Senior Project Presentation Evening; and, of course, students in grades nine through eleven have been hard at work completing projects and taking exams. It is such a privilege to be able to walk around from room to room seeing how far students have come in all subject areas since September. This trimester's Final Exam/Presentation week is, appropriately for the end of the year, tilted a bit more toward the former, and I am pleased to report that our students are equally skilled at getting up and presenting in front of a roomful of their peers, and at sitting a string of exams, as they will need to do when they move on to college.

I am also thrilled to report on the activities of the High School's signature community service activity, the Community Service Roundtable. As many of you know, the Roundtable petitions for and receives block grants from outside foundations, then accepts petitions from worthy volunteer activities and service organizations in the community. This year, the Roundtable made seven grants for a total of $8000. Grants went to: Family Focus, Foster Pride, Go St. Lukes, Stop, United Community Center/East New York Farms, SEED Artists and Outside the Dream. The activities of the Community Service Roundtable demonstrate that the school's long tradition as an incubator of tomorrow's leaders in community service is alive and well.

We will have four new faculty members join us in September (actually, one of them has been working with us since the middle of the year):

* Peter Bonfanti comes to us after fifteen years of mathematics teaching experience at a variety of schools, most recently the Nightingale-Bamford School uptown. He has a BA from Princeton - major in Architecture, minor in Mathematics - and an MA in Secondary Education from LaSalle University. Peter is also an accomplished soccer coach and piano and guitar teacher, and he wrote the Mathematics section of The SAT I For Dummies. Peter will be teaching mathematics across all four grades.
* Ben Rubin joins us after three years at Packer Collegiate as a teacher of mathematics and physics and as an assistant track coach. He has a BA from Oberlin with a double major in Mathematics and Physics, and he will be teaching both subjects next year.
* Our new Biology teacher next year will be Stacy Goldstein. Stacy has a BS in Biology, with a concentration on Cellular and Molecular Biology, from SUNY Binghamton, and an MA in Secondary School Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Stacy's specialty has been using technology, including Smartboards, special science software and the Internet, to enhance science education. Stacy comes to us from Blind Brook High school in Westchester.
* Finally, Sunny Kim, who began leading the High School Chorus in the middle of the year, will continue to do so and will teach at least one if not two music classes during the year as well. Sunny is an extremely accomplished teacher of voice and choral conductor, having conducted choral groups of all sizes everywhere from Malaysia to South Korea to Colorado to Boston, and having taught vocal music both to individual students and to groups in schools and other settings to varied to list! A frequent performer at local clubs, Sunny has a BA magna cum laude in Jazz Studies and Voice Performance from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver and a Master's of Music in Jazz Studies and Voice Performance with an education concentration from the New England Conservatory of Music. Sunny has done a great job with the Chorus so far and we look forward to years of the same.

Along with these new faculty members, I am pleased to report that the increase in curricular opportunity continues apace. Next year's Seniors will have, in their two trimesters, a remarkable 388,800 (!) different ways to sign up for classes. These include a new Senior Precalculus course, designed for students who are not yet ready for Calculus but who may wish to study subjects such as Economics or Science in college; "Experimental Science in History," a new science elective that will delve into the history of significant scientific ideas and look toward the future; and potentially a vocal music offering in the Winter. The English and History Departments continue to expand their offerings; just to give you a taste, the first trimester's offerings in History are: Japan, China, Korea, India; Gotham - The Global City; Government and Politics; 20th Century Europe; American Culture and Ideas in the Twentieth Century; and Wealth and Poverty: The American Economy in the 21st Century. The English Department counters with Dangerous Language; Latino/a Literature: Voices of the 20th and 21st Century; Creative Writing: Short Fiction; Shakespeare Revisited; Discovering the Self: Writing Memoir and Personal Narrative; and American Writers and the American Dream - the 19th Century. To think that just a few short years ago, the choices were 12th Grade History and 12th Grade English! Meanwhile, the highly successful Chinese program will grow to include the Tenth Grade, and the Foreign Language Department will have impressive new language lab facilities at their new digs over on Macdougal Street.

Some additional notes on the end of the year:

* Summer 2006 Building Projects--Have you seen our exciting new plans for the high school and the gym? Are you looking for a hands-on way to participate in our summer renovations? We need your help to pack up the Charlton Street Library. Come lend a helping hand at Charlton Street on Monday, June 12 from 2:00PM - 7:00PM. By using volunteers we can save $15,000 on the High School renovations! JUST SHOW UP!

*The summer reading list is ready and online. Note that rising ninth, tenth and eleventh graders will have assigned books from either the English or History Departments (or both) - which will be given to the students by the school - along with choices from the list.

* If your children have school textbooks, they need to return them or you will receive a bill from the school!

* An upcoming event: Family Picnic: Sunday, June 11th
Welcoming families touched by adoption and the friends and classmates who support us. A chance to celebrate LREI's diverse community of families. ALL ARE WELCOME!
Time: 1AM on, throughout the afternoon
Place: Hudson River Park (just north of the World Financial Center)
We'll set up on the grass just across from the playground. Look for lots of balloons! Bring your own lunch/snack/beverage and something to sit on. There are sprinklers for younger kids so bring bathing suits and towels.
Rain Date: Sometime in September
Sponsored by the LREI Adoptive Families Committee
For more info, contact Susan Glass at: sglass9@nyc.rr.com or Mamie McIndoe at: mmcindoe@marblechurch.org

* LREI celebrates Gay Pride: Sunday, June 25, 2006. Be a part of a worldwide movement for freedom and equality, and march with the LREI banner in the 2005 NYC PRIDE parade. It's fun and festive, and kids are very welcome. High School students may earn three hours of community service credit. Three years ago, we were the first school ever to march, and we proudly wore our Elisabeth Irwin T-shirts. The crowd went wild! Come and join us, or come out and cheer us on. Please check the school web site, where the meeting place and time will be posted shortly.

* Schedule for the remainder of the year (8:45 AM Homeroom each day):
- Thursday, June 8, 6:30 PM (Tonight) - Senior Banquet
- Friday, June 9, 1:00 PM - Graduation at NYU's Skirball Auditorium - Ticket Required
* Monday, June 12, 8:45 AM - Homeroom, Locker Clean-up, Student Government Field Day
* Monday, June 12, 2:00 PM - Community Service Boxing/Clean-up Afternoon - ALL STUDENTS IN NEED OF COMMUNITY SERVICE WILL BE EXPECTED TO ATTEND
* Tuesday June 13, 8:45 AM - Homeroom, Mini-classes/Exam return, Final Thank-you Assembly
* Tuesday, June 13, 12:00 PM - SUMMER VACATION BEGINS!!!!

On a personal note - thanks to all faculty, parents and especially students for the time we have spent together over these three years, and thanks to so many of you who have extended your warm wishes as I move on to a new life in public education. Have a great summer!

Take care one and all,

Tony


As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

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