Coming Up at the Capitol Hill Cluster School | April 30, 2010
A weekly digest of news, announcements, and events
* Free Family Event at Phillips Collection SATURDAY
* Volunteer for Staff Appreciation Week
* Cluster Students Performing in Oliver!
* Capitol Hill Classic – Sign Up Now
* Volunteers Needed Watkins Book Fair
* Middle School Meetings Update
* Fun Facts about Watkins
* Calendar | Coming Up at the Cluster
Sign Up for PTA newsletters and announcements, or submit your own news about upcoming school events by sending a message to announcements@chcspta.org
Did you know? All previous announcements and newsletters, as well as many useful files, are stored in the archives. Visit them at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CHCSPTA/ to browse through any announcements you may have missed!
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FREE Family Event with Cluster Arts Partner, The Phillips Collection
Teach with O’Keefe—Community Celebration
A private event for Cluster School families, especially of Stuart-Hobson and Peabody students, to see student artwork currently on exhibit at The Phillips as part of the Georgia O’Keefe exhibition.
Funded by the Cluster School PTA, Peabody and Stuart-Hobson teachers participated in workshops and then brought the O’Keefe experience to their students. The students’ art is currently being exhibited at the Phillips. Come check it out!
Saturday, May 1
11am – 1pm
The Phillips Collection
1600 21 st
Street, NW
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Staff Appreciation Week May 3 - 7
Help Show We Care – Volunteers Needed
Join with the PTA in showing our teachers, administrations, paraprofessionals (teacher’s aides and assistant teachers), and staff how much we appreciate all that they do for our children.
Volunteers needed on all three campuses to help with the Monday breakfast and the Thursday lunch. To volunteer, contact PTA President Amanda Bassow at abassow@gmail.com
(abassow at gmail dot com). Please put “Volunteer” in the subject line.

Monday, May 3 – Friday, May 7
Monday: PTA breakfast at all 3 campuses
Tuesday: Students bring flowers for their teachers
Wednesday: Students bring cards for their teachers
Thursday: Parents provide Potluck Lunch at all 3 campuses
Friday: Gift Surprise – Students create gifts for the staff – draw a picture, make a pencil box, give a gift card, show your appreciation however you like
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Cluster School Students Performing in OLIVER! At St. Marks
Congratulations to several Cluster students who will soon be showing off their singing and dancing talents in Oliver!
, a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist . Rudy
Schreiber, Sheina Crystal, and Aivas Humphries of Stuart Hobson and Madeline Morman of
Watkins join the cast of adults and children in this production for the whole family.
Oliver!
May 7, 8, 9 and 14, 15, 16, and 21 & 22
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
3 rd
and A Street, SE
Tickets: $15 - $20
Learn more and buy tickets at: www.stmarksplayers.org
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Classic Time
Sign Up to Run or Volunteer – Support Our School’s Biggest Fundraiser
Sunday, May 16, marks the 31 st
running of the Capitol Hill Classic—the only race to run through historic Capitol Hill and the Cluster School’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
The Classic raises tens of thousands of dollars for our school to support field trips, classroom supplies, teacher development, a technology fund, and facilities improvements. How can you help make sure it’s a success?
Sign Up to run or walk
Whether it’s the 10K or the Fun Run, sign up now online and guarantee your place in the race.
Invite friends, work colleagues, book clubs, church groups, any one you know to participate.
Consider forming a team. It’s fun!
Volunteer
Volunteers needed to sell t-shirts race week and to assist with registration at Peabody on Saturday and Sunday and to help with the race on Sunday. Volunteer sign-up details coming soon.
Buy a T-Shirt
Make sure everyone in the family has one of this year’s t-shirt. Collector items!

Cheer on the Runners
Pick a spot on the running route and show your support.
Sunday, May 16
10K @8:30am; registration $30
3K @10:30am; registration $18
Fun Run @11am: registration $10
Learn more and register at: http://www.capitolhillclassic.com
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Volunteers Wanted for Watkins Book Fair – May 17 - 21
Watkins Librarian Steve Webber is looking for volunteers to help him stage the spring Book Fair.
Volunteers needed to help set up the fair, work the cash register, and help children select books throughout the week during their library special – hopefully with enough volunteers afterschool shopping hours might be added too!
The Fall book fair serves as an important fundraiser for the library, but the fair in May is designed to give students an opportunity to purchase books for summer reading -- for each book purchased, students may select another book of equal or lesser value.
To volunteer, contact Watkins Librarian Steve Webber at Michael.Webber@dc.gov
(Michael dot
Webber at dc dot gov).
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Update on Middle Schools on the Hill Meetings from the Past Week
Thanks to Cluster parent Sandra Moscoso for these notes from the past week’s Cluster Town Hall
Meeting and DCPS Ward 6 event on Capitol Hill middle schools.
Cluster Town Hall Meeting
Friday, April 23, 6:30-7:30pm
Stuart-Hobson Auditorium
Cluster School parents, teachers, and administrators were updated on the Capitol Hill Middle
Schools initiative by Mandy Bassow, PTA President; Brandon Eatman, Cluster Principal; and
Sandra Moscoso and Clayton Witt, Cluster parents. They were presented with the Capitol Hill
Public School Parent Organization (CHPSPO) proposal (available at http://capitolhillmiddleschools.ning.com
) and explored how this initiative affects Stuart-Hobson
Middle School. Among the highlights:
Stuart Hobson:
- Continues as a medium-sized middle school that is part of the Capitol Hill Cluster School

- Formalizes the school’s Museum Magnet program (a formal partnership with the Smithsonian ended about ten years ago); strengthen professional development for teachers in museum-based studies
- Building Renovations (currently scheduled for 2011). In addition to the classroom renovations, renovate the gymnasium (currently two small adjacent gyms into one multi-purpose gymnasium), and build a 2nd story on top of renovated gymnasium that would allow expanded programming, e.g., art and music opportunities
- Move 5th grade classes to Watkins campus
Montessori:
- Add a fourth campus to the Cluster for the Montessori program
- Expand Montessori through 8th grade, and add additional classes at 3-year old through 4th
- High demand for Montessori education (389 applications for 26 openings this year warrants expansion of program)
- Identify new location for Capitol Hill Cluster School (Watkins campus) Montessori program
See the complete summary of the Cluster School Town Hall Meeting at: http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Cluster-Town-Hall-
4_23_10-Discussion-Summary.pdf
Ward 6 Middle Schools Meeting Hosted by DCPS
Monday, April 26, 6:30 – 8pm
JO Wilson Elementary
The purpose of this DCPS-hosted Ward 6 middle schools community outreach event was to solicit ideas and reactions to program options and identify short-term and long-term reform priorities. DCPS introduced their Secondary School Transformation effort and gathered input from the Ward 6 community on ideas that have been put forth by the engaged parent groups, individual parents and community stakeholders.
Here is the presentation: http://api.ning.com/files/id8pBTnWr70mEFClEsFIAAir59hbJSuWJ7ew*1vTZb*tkn5goR4KL9
My-TbieAvuXy067DZrEwN3bq1MGvUlTOaiNJXvGtJv/DCPSWard6MS4_26_10.pdf
Discussions, notes and feedback at: http://capitolhillmiddleschools.ning.com
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Watkins, did you know that … ?
Four of Watkins' 20 classroom teachers are "National Board Certified," the highest percentage of any school in the District of Columbia. Only 61 DCPS teachers have earned this "prestigious teaching credential," as the 1/11/2010 Washington Post reported in a Metro profile of Watkins teacher, Judy Bowers. National board certification is an intense, three-year exercise that not only qualifies a teacher to serve in any school district in the nation, but identifies the teacher as a national leader in mastering educational best practices.

See 20 more interesting facts about what Watkins has to offer at: http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/?page_id=351
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Coming up at the Cluster
Next Week
* Monday, May 3 – Friday, May 7 | Staff Appreciation Week
Monday: PTA breakfast at all 3 campuses
Tuesday: Students bring flowers for their teachers
Wednesday: Students bring cards for their teachers
Thursday: Parents provide Potluck Lunch at all 3 campuses
Friday: Family Freestyle -- giftcards, volunteering, however you like
* Monday, May 3 | Peabody Garden Work Afternoon, 4 – 6pm
* Wednesday, May 5 | Watkins Garden Maintenance, 9 – 10am
* Wednesday, May 5 | Incoming 5 th
Grade (2010-11) Parent Orientation at Stuart-Hobson,
5:30pm
* Friday, May 7 | Watkins Science Fair Projects Due
* Friday, May 7 | Stuart-Hobson Spring Dance
Week of May 10
* Monday, May 10 – Friday, May 28 | DIBELs End-of-Year Benchmarking
* Monday, May 10 | Spring Class Pictures
* Monday, May 10 | Watkins Science Fair
* Wednesday, May 12 | Watkins Garden Maintenance, 9 – 10am
* Saturday, May 15 | Peabody Garden Work, 9am – 1pm
* Saturday, May 15 | DC Hands On Work Day at Peabody
* Sunday, May 16 | Capitol Hill Classic
Week of May 17
* Monday, May 17 – Friday, May 21 | Watkins Book Fair
* Through Friday, May 28 | DIBELs End-of-Year Benchmarking
* Wednesday, May 19 | Watkins Garden Maintenance, 9 – 10am
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Keep up with the Cluster. Log on to: www.capitolhillclusterschool.org
Capitol Hill Cluster School
A child-centered, community-supported DC public school creating learners in pre-school through grade 8
Peabody Early Ed | SWS Reggio Emilia | Montessori | Watkins Elementary |
Stuart Hobson Middle School
Support the Cluster - Join the PTA www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/parents/pta.html