New Page 0

Funding Crisis Has Arrived

By Jessani Gordon

Imagine yourself as head of a division of a major corporation. Your products are successful. Your bottom line is among the best in the industry. Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high. You could be spectacularly successful if you had money to expand production and hire key employees.

Have you earned this additional investment? Most businesspeople would say, "Of course." But if you're a charter school rather than a corporate division, and your "company" is the state of New Jersey , you're told: "Keep doing more with less."

Charter public schools have been in operation in New Jersey for just 10 years, and they've developed an impressive track record of student achievement. In the state school report card for 2006, most charter schools outperformed their sending districts on standardized tests.

For example, in Newark , four of the top six performing schools on the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) were charter schools. In Camden , students took the GEPA at two charter schools - LEAP Academy and Camden 's Promise Charter School - and both had an average composite math and literacy proficiency rate that exceeded the district average by more than 35 points.

There are 57 operating charter schools, serving approximately 16,500 students, with thousands on waiting lists. More than 80 percent of New Jersey’s charter-school students reside in so-called Abbott districts, where the state has identified the greatest need for additional educational resources.

Despite the positive results, and in stark contrast to the traditional public schools in our largest districts, the majority of which are severely under-performing, charter schools have faced staggering financial disadvantages.

The original law set charter funding at 90 percent of the traditional district school's program budget, which at the time seemed close enough to local per-pupil spending. Inexplicably, though, the "program budget" on which charter revenues are based excludes Abbott aid received by the local district school. It stays in the district school and doesn't follow the child to the charter school.

In the 2005-06 school year, Abbott districts kept more than $39 million in state aid that was designated for students who were enrolled in charter schools, representing about $2,600 per student.

Moreover, the program budget excludes the cost of facilities (averaging $1,500 per child), which charter schools are forced to pay out of monies that should be spent for educational programs.

The bottom line is that most charter schools get only 50 percent to 65 percent of what traditional schools get.

This is not what legislators intended when they passed the law, but so far, the state has taken only baby steps toward equitable funding.

Every day, charter schools are being forced to make painful, and often detrimental, decisions about what they are able to fund.

They must choose between equally critical educational programs and services: Do they lose an experienced teacher because of increasing salary disparity or cut a critical reading program? Do they reduce special education resources or continue to use worn and obsolete textbooks?

To avoid making such choices, charter schools have increased their reliance on voluntary donations of time and financial grants. But this cannot go on indefinitely.

Soon, tougher and more detrimental choices will need to be made to balance budgets, and the quality of charter programs will suffer. Excellent programs will become mediocre and eventually deficient as the funding gap widens. Some schools likely will become insolvent. And students will need to return to the district schools that failed them.

Since June, the Department of Education has held a series of meetings with education policy groups from around New Jersey on the new school-funding formula.

The chance to revise the formula comes around only once every decade or so. It is crucial for the department and the state Legislature to ensure that charter-school students have access to the same level of resources enjoyed by children at other schools throughout the state.

All it will take is to ensure that full funding follows the child to whatever public school the child chooses. It's fair and a smart investment.

Jessani Gordon is executive director of the New Jersey Charter Public Schools Association of which the Elysian Charter School is a member.

This, the third in aseries of letters to you about the music program, will be devoted to why games are an important educational

tool and why I specifically use musical games as a large part of our music program.

Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, Swiss Musician, theorist and pedagogue, suggested that a great deal of what we learn in schools ends up being “nonsense”. This state of being comes about when there is a lack of connection between the feeling and the idea, when sensation (visual, aural, touch or kinesthesia) does not connect to sensibility (thought or judgment). The reverse of this is true as well, when ideas and thoughts lack connection to feelings and physical sensations. This too leads to “non-sense”. Games are a way to help people, children and adults, integrate all the parts of them selves.

Children need games in order to grow and develop skills of attention, concentration, cooperation, social integration, and, in music clarity of expression, and the ability to notice and express the slightest variation in nuance (shading) of sounds, movements and feelings in order to react with clarity of expression.

Games are not only multicultural, but cross-cultural as well. Similar games are played in all parts of the world. The rules of games are authoritative but never authoritarian. They can be changed to make the game move more quickly or to increase the difficulty, necessitating the development of higher skills. Most important, games are never boring; each replay of the same game is really a new game with a fresh start and attitude (i.e. “I lost the last one but with more concentration and skill (practice) I can win the next.).

Games involving music, poetry and movement were (and are) sung because they create a flow between the brain and the central nervous system, which can be defined as a stream of pleasurable tensions between the senses of hearing, vision, touch and movement (kinesthesia).

Rhythmic Games develop objectivity. The players in a Rhythmic Game can observe their own behavior and decide if and when corrective changes are needed. They know if their activity is skillful or not skillful and can measure their own growth. This results in increased and realistic self esteem as practice produces skill. By allowing and encouraging self-correction, the leader reduces authoritarian behavior or external approval.

Rhythmic Games develop small and large muscle groups and a sense of balance by forcing the use of both sides of the body independently and in exercises of coordination and dis-ordination. The games also allow for skillful and conscious practice of swinging, throwing catching, walking, running, galloping, skipping, and hopping.

Rhythmic Games teach teamwork as well as flexibility of response to the changing demands of the game.

Rhythmic Games lead players to notice different degrees of skill in different players and develop a respect for individuality.

Rhythmic Games highlight growth as a process towards mastery. When players first play the games they are challenged to realize that skills need to be developed.

The Dalcroze Games are designed to help students of all ages to help students of all ages develop rapid and accurate connections between the ears that listen, the brain that analyzes and the body that acts to interpret the messages encoded in the music. As in all Dalcroze based work the music does the teaching and the teacher (or leader) simply acts as a model and a coach.

In my next letter I will tell you about the specific forms of the Dalcroze Games that I use.

* from Music as a Second Language and Rhythm Games for Cognition and Perception by Robert M. Abramson.

Kuumba Day Vendors Wanted!

During holiday shopping season!

Guaranteed turn-out!

Sunday, December 9^th, 2007

Noon-4 pm

Book your Table for Kuumba Day!

Elysian Families only $20/table

Outside Vendors $40/table

Let Pamela Strell know where you’d like to work, e-mail preferred, 201 222-0505, pstrell@optonline.net

Lose Anything at the Halloween Party?

Missing anything? We have a small post party "lost and found" pile. Email or call me, Sonya Chazin, 917-821-3981, ethanandsonya@optonline.net

Innisbrook – It’s never too late

We’re still accepting orders for Innisbrook: Register to receive prize credits for orders placed online by friends and relatives: www.innisbrook.com ; Elysian’s number is 120231. Questions? Call Mary Ann Bowen at 201 798-6137.

Computer Books for Sale, Elysian Mom selling computer books. $3.99 each, 3 books for $10. Subjects include: JAVA, Linux, Windows NT, C, PERL, Apache, Outlook, Access. E-mail Sherri, howieabob@aol.com for a complete list of titles, or call 201-452-6786.

Interested in volunteering to hang student artwork? Call Jessica @ OLG,795-4692.

Next PTSO Meeting: (Tues. November 13th at 6:30.) Don’t miss the opportunity to hear ECS music, art, physical education, and Spanish teachers discuss their plans for work with our students this year.

Boxtop Reminder. We continue to collect them during the school year. The next big drive is in April.

Applications for the 2008-9 School Year are now available. Elysian Families with siblings who begin Kindergarten (or other grades) next year need to complete and submit an application to Lynne Shapiro.

Cub Scouts in Hoboken

Aaron Kurland [Alyssa's 2nd grade] would like to remind the Elysian community that Cub Scouts have begun their weekly meetings and will continue through June. Hoboken has two Cub Scout packs. Pack 146 [Aaron's pack] meets every Monday at Sts. Peter and Paul, 410 Hudson Street, 7-8PM. Pack 18 meets every Sunday at United Synagogue of Hoboken, 115 Park Ave., 5-6PM. The Cub Scouts are for boys in 1st through 5th grade. For more information, please call 201-792-4055 or speak with Aaron.

· Carol Stock Walks in the Rag-a-Muffin Parade. Care to join her? Everyone welcome! Meet at the South Side of 11^th and Washington, 3:30 PM

· 8:30 AM Community Meeting at Rue Building. All students should be dropped off at Rue in the AM.

If you are interested in accompanying your child to the upcoming After School Performance or, sending him/her without you, please return the attached form

We have more children interested in clubs than clubs available. The more people who volunteer, the fewer children we have to turn away. Please join us. Bring your enthusiasm. For more information, please contact Carol Stock at 201-876-0102.

Ever thought about doing a club, but just weren’t sure of what to do? Let us help! Our club coordinators got together with the kids. Here are a few ideas that the kids thought would be good for clubs.

Feel unsure about doing a club alone? Consider asking another adult to co-lead with you. Read through these suggestions or come up with ideas of your own. Any and all club ideas will be appreciated.

African Heritage Club, Animal Club, Art Club, Book Club, Book-Making Club, Chess Club, Cookie Baking, Crochet, Cross Stitch, Dance Club, Dancercise, Doo Wop Shop, Dragon Gym, Drama, ECS Chorus, Eric Carle Club, Explorations in Science and/or Technology, Fencing, French, Future Teachers of America (Babysitting Club), Green Team, Harry Potter Read-Aloud, Homework Club, Jazz, Jewelry Making, Karate, Kite Making, Knitting, Making Potholders, Money Club, Mural Club, Newark Museum Club, Rocket Club, Sewing, Soccer, Songbirds, Spanish, Still-Life Drawing, Super Hero Comic Book Club, Test-Taking Readiness, Textile Club, Theater Games, Webmasters, Work Crew (service to Elysian) Club, and now, YOUR club!

Ice Skating, Cooking, Woodworking, Drawing, Art, Paper Airplanes, Magic, Dancing, Sports, Soccer, Language, French, Book Making, Making a Motor, Traveling, Costumes, Rockets, Space Club, Jewelry, Poetry, Science (Bugs), Spy Club, Jump Rope, Study Animals, Animal Puppets, Building Things, Math, Block City, Transportation, Careers, Magazines, Collage, Play- Doh, Board Games, Jigsaw Puzzles, Cars

Club Application: Copy and paste the form below into a word document, print it out, and send it into Lynne Shapiro

Doors open at 7:30 AM to allow students for the EARLY MORNING DROP-OFF program to begin entering. From 8:00 AM -8:30 AM, students who choose to do so, may go upstairs to eat breakfast. Students at EARLY MORNING DROP-OFF are escorted to OLG (as needed) by Elysian Staff at 8:30 AM.

All other students may begin entering the school building at 8:20 AM. Breakfast is available to all students who choose to eat breakfast at 8:20 AM. The doors to the kitchen close at 8:30 AM.

Classes officially begin at 8:30 AM. There is a five-minute grace period for students to arrive at class before LATE PASSES are issued. Anyone arriving after 8:35 AM must have a LATE PASS (issued from the office) to give to the teacher when he or she goes to class.

Students already eating breakfast at 8:30 AM have the same five-minute grace period, but must stop eating, clean up and be in class by 8:35 AM.

An Elysian staff member is at the front door beginning at 8:00 AM. The door opens for breakfast at 8:15 AM to allow those choosing to eat breakfast to arrive at the kitchen at 8:20 AM.

Students already eating, get a five-minute grace period (to finish breakfast and clean up), but must be in class by 8:35 AM.

PTSO Halloween Party
Thank You!

To the parents that volunteered to run the games in advance & those that got hijacked to help during the party.....

To the 6th, 7th & 8th graders that volunteered...and to the Elysian Alumni that showed up and helped run games and arts & crafts…

To the families that brought food and the die hard parents that managed the distribution of it…

To the families that donated “STUFF” from the list that allowed our mad scientists to experiment and our crafters to decorate bags... and our young costumers to get special prizes compliments of Macy's Parade Studio!

To all the “Setter Uppers” (including kids) that worked tirelessly Friday night to get everything decorated with lights and sculpture and webbing and stuffed pumpkin bags ... and those that
did clean up in RECORD TIME.

To all the parents, staff and students that came in costume and added to the fun.

To the volunteers that tied approximately 18 dozen doughnuts and those that delivered the umbrella and the base...
To the past and present PTSO board that painted faces, inventoried supplies before and after the party, made sure we had pumpkins, science tables, candy corn and prizes and went above and beyond the call of duty…

To one of our resident artists who created the ghoulish flying soul and his assistants that managed to hang it from the balcony.

To the creative parents that built our fortune teller tent, donated the monster butler and to our fabulous fortune teller with her assistants.

To Our dear Mother Goose who ran the costume contest and her wonderful certificate maker that couldn’t attend but made sure we had very cool certificates.

If you didn’t participate - You missed a great time - Don’t worry - We’ll get you next year!

	M.	T	W	Thur
Session 1	Nov. 26	Nov. 27	Nov. 28	Nov. 29
Session 1	Dec. 3	Dec. 4	Dec. 5	Dec. 6
Session 1	Dec. 10	Dec. 11	Dec. 12	Dec. 13
Session 1	Dec. 17	Dec. 18	Dec. 19	Dec. 20

Session 2	Jan 7	Jan. 8	Jan. 9	Jan. 10
Session 2	Jan. 14	Jan. 15	Jan. 16	Jan. 17
Session 2	Closed	Jan. 22	Jan. 23	Jan. 24
Session 2	Jan. 28	Jan. 29	Jan. 30	Jan. 30
Session 2	Feb. 4	Feb. 5	Feb. 6	Feb. 7

Session 3	Apr. 28	Apr. 29	Apr. 30	May 1
Session 3	May 5	May 6	May 7	May 8
Session 3	May 12	May 13	May 14	May 15
Session 3	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 22
Session 3	Closed	May 27	May 28	May 29