Family Newsletter - 4-1-25

• We have an exciting new programming change for next year, we will be offering Latin as our Foreign Language for the 2025-2026 School Year and beyond! Bay Academy has been offering it for years, so we have decided to follow suite. Not only will it fulfill the NYS Foreign Language requirements for middle school, but it will also have a direct impact on student success in ELA, as it correlates with morphology. 
   
• Please review Chancellor Aviles-Ramos April 2025 NYCPS Family Update letter (available in all DOE languages). The letter features important information for families regarding Summer Rising offers, the 2025 NYC School Survey, April’s virtual Candidate Forums for the 2025 Community and Citywide Education Council Elections, and key admissions dates for Upper Grade Gifted and Talented (G&T), middle school, and kindergarten programs. 
   
• Please see the attached “Know Before You Go - Water Safety Education Session” for high school students and their families. 
   
• Our 8th grade rooftop photo was a success last week and the weather was nice. Thank goodness for our tech-savvy photographer- she made it work around the scaffolding with her drone. We look forward to seeing how it comes out in this year’s Senior yearbook. Our seniors finished the week with a photo shoot day.
   
• We highlighted our academic scholars and honored all those who made the Silver, Gold or Platinum Principals Honor Roll last week. A special thank you to Ms. Emily, who completed approximately 375 individual student certificates to mark the occasions and send our scholars home with something special for the recognition. And Ms. Zambri did it again, transforming our auditorium into a beautifully welcoming and professional space for the honorees and their families.
   
• I want to thank our ELA team for their diligence and hard work with our AIS program, most especially, a shout out to Mrs. George for all of her AIS analysis and planning work. We know it is a lot to tackle, but the progress we are seeing with our Tier 2 and Tier 3 students is truly commendable. Refer to the chart below to see the growth made from the fall to the winter on iReady:

Academic Vocabulary Word of the Week: 

4/1/2025 – Analyze, modify

Spanish: Analizar, modificar

Chinese: 分析、修改

Russian: Анализировать, изменять

Urdu: تجزیہ کرنا، ترمیم کرنا

Social Emotional Focus Week 28:

6th Grade – Compassion: Engage with the vignette “Ice Cream Cone” and practice compassion; Evaluate students’ understanding of compassion

7th Grade – Determination: Apply determination in a project; Relate determination to academic success

8th Grade – Individuality: Engage with real-life scenarios and practice individuality; Read the vignettes “The Uniform” and “Sandwich Artistry”