TRCS Monthly Newsletter
September 2015


 


back-school-bus.jpg
 Welcome to the 2015-16 School Year at Renaissance!

We hope you all enjoyed your summer vacation and hope all of our students are rested and ready for another productive and fun year at Renaissance. We have several new staff members we will be highlighting here and in future newsletters.  There are also new programs at the school, including music for our elementary grade students.

We will once again have 82nd Street Academics here to administer our 5th-10th grade after school programs, as well as the Wednesday MS YMCA program.  Please make sure to check your emails regularly for important news and read the newsletters to keep up with everything going on at Renaissance, as well as the calendar of upcoming dates & events.

We wish everyone a happy & successful school year! 

Renaissance Again Named Top NYC Charter High School
Renaissance has again been named one of the top High Schools in New York City by the New York Daily News!  On Thursday September 17th, the newspaper sent a reporter and photographer to the school.  Principal Stacey gave them a tour and was interviewed about Renaissance, particularly about all the programs that are part of the success of our high school. 

We will follow up with details as to when you can read about Renaissance in the Daily News.  For now, this is a great way to start the new school year.  Congratulations to all!

First Day of School
Thursday, September 10th was the first day back to school for all of our students.  We had two special visitors greeting our parents and students back, Senator Jose Peralta and Assemblyman Michael DenDekker. 
PreK students had their first Spanish lesson!

Last year's kindergarten class moved up to the 3rd floor for 1st grade.  Leah, who taught 3rd grade last year, will be their teacher.

Middle School spent the day getting organized


New Looks Around Renaissance
 Over the summer our building is carefully cleaned by our great custodians and teachers come in to set up the rooms to make them fun and engaging.  But this year we also had some great updates to two areas - the elementary common area and the PTA office.
 
The 3rd floor elementary common area has been repainted with a beautiful nature scene by art teacher Robert Evangelista and students Ella Shea, Camilla Cheng and Alice Yoshida.  This will make a great place for our young students to let their imagination go wild!

 Our PTA office is under renovation to be outfitted as a Parent Engagement Room.  We were fortunate to have a few parents who volunteered to help with painting,including Nestor Miranda - dad of Naidym, and Chima Houston & Iris Vega - parents of Elijah and Elisa. 

While the room will function for various uses, we hope to have a schedule when families can use the room for resources, a lending library, as well as computer/internet access and a printer. 

Thanks to Lowe's  for funding this project through their
Toolbox for Education Grants  and thanks to all the parents who offered their help! 

Curriculum Night
This year's Curriculum Night began with an Open House Tour of the school.  This was a great chance for families who cannot always come up to the school to see some of the improvements made recently, as well as get a taste of our cafeteria fare.  Chef Mo and his staff prepared samplings of some great food including fresh soup and wrap sandwiches.

The general presentation featured introductions of the School Management Team and PTA Executive Board. Parents and guardians then went to the respective areas assigned to meet with teachers and advisers. Each grade's curriculum was covered, giving parents a better understanding of what will be expected in the coming school year so they can help keep their students on track to success!  There were also presentations on some school initiatives, such as Urban Science, Families for Excellent Schools and Pupil Path.

If you were unable to make it, please visit our website as we are updating it with the curriculum packets from teachers: http://www.renaissancecharter.org/parents.html/notices/curriculum.  Also log-on to Pupil Path regularly to check your child's progress!  

Renaissance Gardeners Receive Recognition
In our last newsletter we gave you an update of the great summer program we had at the school this year.  But we also recently learned that our summer gardeners were named Queens People of the Week by NY1. 

Check out the coverage of their work at the Jackson Heights Post Office here
 
(students with Len Maniace of JH Beautification Group) 

Families for Excellent Schools
Founded in 2011 through a partnership between schools and families, Families for Excellent Schools (FES) has built power in communities by engaging parents in the transformation of their schools.  Their mission is to ensure that every child attends an excellent school by building coalitions of families and their allies and running campaigns that change education policy, envisioning schools, community organizations and government leaders working together to guarantee a great education for every child.

Renaissance hopes to work with FES this year to address serious issues facing charters schools, especially the inequality of funding.  We are hoping we can count on you, parents of charter school students, to join us and make your voices heard.  We will be participating in a short rally on September 30th that will be receiving a lot of press coverage.  Bus transportation from Renaissance, as well as lunch, will be provided.  Please contact [email protected] for more information or to reserve your spot on the bus! 

Spotlight On......  New Staff!

 
The College and Career Office at The Renaissance Charter School is pleased to introduce Derrick Patterson, our new Leadership Program Coordinator/College Bound Associate.




 Derrick has 14 years experience in increasingly responsible and diverse roles in schools and education companies. In his most recent position, Derrick served as a program coordinator for direct instruction and professional development departments at an international test preparation and educational services company. His experience is enhanced by his training in social research and previous roles in education programs development both domestically and internationally.
 
As Leadership Program Coordinator and College Bound Associate, Derrick is responsible for the overall management of Leadership Program activities in addition to assisting with the services and functioning of the College Bound Office. He reports to Ana Falla-Riff - College Adviser/HS Coordinator. Derrick looks forward to working with the school community to help our young people reach their goals. You can find him in the College Bound Office, Room 314. He can be reached at dpatterson@renaissancecharter.org

TRCS Sports Desk
sports
Our High-school Student-Athletes are getting  ready for our fall season. Our HS Boys and Girls Soccer teams are preparing for the start of the season, which is about two weeks away .  Check  out www.trcsknights.com for the latest news .   

Also, check out the TRCS Knights Team Store: 
http://spiritstore.olinesports.com/index.php?school_url=trcsknights.olinesports.com  


     Lady Knights Helena & Ruilaha (an alumna)  were given
        free book bags from NY Liberty and Adidas
 
 

PTA News
 
The PTA invites you all to attend it's 2015-16 school year Meet & Greet.  Please join them on Wednesday, September 30th at 6:30 to meet your class cluster representative, as well as all the PTA Executive Board members.  Help share ideas on how your PTA can better serve Renaissance and it's families!  Click here to see a list of PTA contacts.


Alumni Corner
 
 






Class of 2015 graduate Emily Sugrue is attending SUNY at Cobleskill in upstate New York.  She is in the agriculture program and is studying animal science.

Emily is happy to be spending a large part of the day outdoors, involved in hands-on learning.  And the animals look happy, too! 
 


UPCOMING DATES
Wednesday, 9/23 - Yom Kippur, School Closed
Thursday, 9/24 -Eid al-Adah,School Closed
Wednesday, 9/30, 6:30-8PM - PTA Meeting
Wednesday, 10/7, 6:45PM - Board of Trustees Meeting
Monday, 10/12 - Columbus Day, School Closed
Thursday, 10/15, 6-8PM - High School Unwrapped


HELPFUL HINTS AND COOL LINKS
 

Check out the new link on the Parents page of our website called "Supporting Your Child."

http://www.renaissancecharter.org/parents.html/support_child.com  


 This page includes many helpful documents and resources to support your child both academically and emotionally, from experts in the field and our own staff. Currently, there are several documents that will help you help your child, by understanding our discipline code, our commitment to an anti-bullying culture, and by understanding what our communication protocols and our philosophy of student counseling. Here are some additional resources:

  

NYUL Parents Guide to STEM http://www.nyul.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/NYUL-Parents-Guide-to-STEM2.pdf 

  

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/people-skills/201008/cyber-bullying-defenses�  

http://eyeguardian.com/ 

   

Read the following document for tips on internet safety:

Internet Safety  

  

Elementary Math: 

Make an investment in children, education and the future of our world.  Safer, better-educated communities are great for business; they improve the quality of life for everyone. Renaissance's hard-working, high-achieving students strive to make that happen and with your help that goal is closer to being a reality:  Please visit our website for more information, and lick on the red DONATE button on the bottom of each page: http://www.renaissancecharter.org/.  Thank you!

Sincerely,

The Renaissance Charter School

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The Renaissance Charter School | 35-59 81st Street | Jackson Heights | NY | 11372