Wednesday, January 20, 2010

We had a large group this morning despite the rain and we had a lot to talk about! Here are the major highlights:

1) What is our policy regarding stolen property in terms of preventing it from happening on campus? We use our five standards (Respect, Responsible, Safe, Caring, Tolerant) in discussions and in connection with curriculum to teach students about being respectful of other people's property. We also teach students about being responsible for their own belongings. If we discover that something has gone missing and we can isolate the time and place, we can have a more direct discussion with students and this often leads to recovery of the missing items. As far as items put in Lost and Found - we do hang them up on the fence periodically and a majority of the missing items have been in the Lost and Found bin - which is accessible to students when they are on the yard - for a long period of time. During the holidays and at the end of the year, we donate unclaimed items to Goodwill.

2) Green Committee at MLC! We discussed the possibility of creating a Green Committee which emerged among talks of having a Compost Bin at MLC to accompany our efforts to recycle and reduce trash. We agreed that prior to having a Compost plan at MLC, we would need to educate the students (and ourselves) on the purpose and effectiveness of composting and the items we dispose of daily that are compostable versus recyclable versus trash. Andrea Milton shared a flyer with opportunities for purchasing compost bins and/or workshops to learn about how to compost at your home or business.

3) Rainy Days - We are learning new procedures this week of managing the campus during extremely hard rains which are rare around here, but very abundant this week! We have developed a plan for delivering lunches to classrooms for indoor eating and playing as well as a "hard rain" dismissal procedure which requires parents to pick up children in their classrooms so they are not standing outside in the rain. ESCAPE students will be picked up by staff members and brought to appropriate classrooms for their ESCAPE classes and snack will be indoors as well. ESCAPE will utilize classrooms such as the Library, Room 18 & 19 for ESCAPE dismissal at 6:00, 6:15 & 6:30pm. We appreciate the cooperation and patience of parents and staff during this time.

4) Gala - Debbie Allen has confirmed that she will be our special guest at the Gala this year and we are thrilled about it! Committees are in motion for 1) creating centerpieces; 2) collecting auction items and creating baskets; 3) event production; 4) invitations and rsvp's, etc. We even have a new dance class in ESCAPE for students who want to perform the night of the Gala! Thank you to all of the parents who are making this happen - you are wonderful! There will be a Gala Meeting following Second Cup next week if you'd like to meet some new people and get involved! If you've been wondering how to get involved at MLC, this is a fun opportunity!

5) MLK Event - If you missed the Martin Luther King Event on Monday and want to know about it or see pictures, check out the Multicultural Learning Center Parents page on Facebook or check out my Multicultural Moments Blog: http://multiculturalmoments.blogspot.com/