From auvpto at aol.com Wed Jul 9 22:13:24 2008 From: auvpto at aol.com (auvpto at aol.com) Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:13:24 -0400 Subject: [CabotCommunity] Message from the principal, and summer coffees Message-ID: <8CAB049AB026C80-734-3F32@webmail-de16.sysops.aol.com> Hello folks, we hope that you are enjoying time with your children and the summer. Some of you got a chance to meet with Mr. Jim Swaim when he visited Cabot in May.? But everyone did not get a chance meet him, therefore, we thought it will be nice to introduce him to everyone one more time. We have included, and attached, a copy of the letter from Jim Swaim to the Cabot community.? Please join me in welcoming Jim to Cabot and we hope that he will enjoy his tenure at Cabot. Also, he has been kind enough to offer to meet with parents in small groups to know the parents better and connect.? We are in the process of fixing time and hosts for three coffees.? The tentative dates are as follows: ?August 22: 8:00 - 9:00 AM; ?August 27: 7:30 - 8:30 PM (for SPED parents only); September 12: 7:30 - 8:30 PM. Please mark your calendars and we will soon send you the time and place for each coffee.? Hope to see you soon. ?Archana Vahalia Cabot PTO Co-President auvpto at aol.com 617-244-1435 SAVE PAPER. Please don?t print this email unless necessary. Greeting from Jim Swaim ? Hello Everyone!? I am very excited about coming to Cabot as the interim Principal.? I enjoyed my visit with the parents in May and look forward to working with all of you. ? As part of my entry to Newton, I would like to meet with as many interested parents as possible.? My goal is to do this by the middle of September.? I know the summer should be a time for you to refresh and reenergize so I don?t want to intrude.? However, if you have the time and the inclination to meet, I would welcome the chance.? You can send me an e-mail (jim_swaim at Newton.K12.ma.us) and we can schedule a time to talk.? I will return from my vacation on August 18th and will be in the Cabot office from then on. ? ? Just to give our conversation a bit of structure, I hope we can focus on the following questions: Tell me about your experiences at Cabot- whatever you want or think I should know, particularly as it relates to your child or children. What do you see as the most important needs in the school in the next year? How can I as principal help meet those needs? ? In the spirit of reciprocity, here?s what I think you should know about me.? I started teaching in 1969 right of college.? I came to Brookline in 1977 and was a ?looping teacher? of third and fourth grade until 2002.? I was then Vice Principal of the Pierce School in Brookline for two years and Principal of the Lawrence School for three.? Thanks to my Dad, I developed an obsession for the Red Sox at an early age.? To sustain this, I have had season ticket since 1977.? My wife, a literacy specialist at Devotion and I raised two daughters who went to the Brookline Public Schools.? I have run two marathons and still try to ?jog? whenever my body allows me to. ?On weekdays, I get up at 5:00 am, read for an hour, and then go to school.? I am a morning person and subscribe to a growth mindset. ? Given the changes which have occurred at Cabot, I think one of my main responsibilities would be to support and sustain the school?s sense of efficacy.? I know as a teacher what I appreciated most in my principal was the creation of the conditions which allowed me to feel I could be a good and effective teacher.? I also appreciated a principal who was legitimately aware of the needs of students, staff and the school and worked hard to meet them.? Given all this, what I cherish the most as a Principal is being in classrooms, developing relationships with students, teachers, and parents and talking to both about teaching and learning in a meaningful and enhancing way.? If I couldn?t do this, I don?t think I would stay in the job. ? Best wishes for a restful and satisfying vacation. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? Sincerely, Jim Swaim Interim Principal Cabot Elementary School 229 Cabot Street, Newtonville, MA 02460????? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://cabotpto.org/pipermail/cabotcommunity_cabotpto.org/attachments/20080709/67b10640/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Greetings from Jim Swaim.doc Type: application/msword Size: 32768 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://cabotpto.org/pipermail/cabotcommunity_cabotpto.org/attachments/20080709/67b10640/attachment.doc From auvpto at aol.com Tue Jul 29 12:03:43 2008 From: auvpto at aol.com (auvpto at aol.com) Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:03:43 -0400 Subject: [CabotCommunity] Important Updates - Budget Revisions In-Reply-To: <8CABF3B6F86C4F1-CA4-40F@WEBMAIL-MB01.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CABF26289308D3-1A94-15ED@WEBMAIL-MB01.sysops.aol.com> <8CABF2799599B47-1A94-168D@WEBMAIL-MB01.sysops.aol.com> <8CABF3B6F86C4F1-CA4-40F@WEBMAIL-MB01.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <8CABFABCD85C655-1854-9D2@WEBMAIL-MB01.sysops.aol.com> Hello friends, I am sure everyone is taking benefit of the beautiful summer and getting time to relax.? I am passing along some information about: ??? ?? School Committee Special Meeting ??? ?? Citizen Advisory Group meeting ??? ?? Summer coffee details ??? ?? Class-list mailings, and more School Committee - Special meeting: The School Committee will be meeting at the Ed Center on Wednesday, August 6th and Thursday, August 7th at 7:00 PM to discuss FY09 budget revisions. In the closeout of FY08 (still to?be signed off on by the city comptroller), the Business and Finance Office has identified some extra funds that could be used in FY09. There will be time set aside for public comment at the?August 7th meeting. Agenda and related documents will be posted on the School Committee website by noon on the day of the meeting.? We hope many of you will be able to attend? these meetings. ? Citizen Advisory Group meeting: There is an upcoming public forum by the new Citizen's Advisory Group.? I've included the link to the commentary by Chair Malcolm Salter in the TAB, which outlines the structure of the group.? There is a subcommittee about education and the school department.? The paragraph with the logistics is below. Fr om the commentary: Please join us at our first public forum on Wednesday, July 30, at 7 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chambers of City Hall. No formal agenda will be prepared for this forum; rather, this will be a time for us to listen to citizens? concerns and ideas for how best to improve the city?s economic prospects and to maintain a high quality of community life in Newton. Link to whole document:? http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/opinions/x223009156/Salter-A-new-economic-model-for-Newton Summer coffees:? As we had announced earlier, we will be having few coffees during summer.Please join us and meet Mr. Jim Swaim, interim principal,. We have planned two coffees to give opportunity to Mr. Swaim to chat and connect with the parents.? Please come and attend one of these. Date: Thursday, August 22,? 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - open house Place: The home of Archana and Uresh Vahalia, 53 Sheffield Road, Newtonville RSVP by August 15, email auvpto at aol.com, or (617)244-1435 or Date: Thursday, September 10, 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. -? neighborhood coffee Place: The home of Steve Seckler and Jenny Gamson,=2 031 Clyde Street, Newtonville RSVP by September 1, email jenny at seckler.com, or (617)244-7588 In the interest of time and everyone's benefit, these coffees are for grown-ups only. In the fall, there will be more coffees arranged, as and when needed. Class-list mailings:? The class-list for each class will be mailed out on August 22.? Please note that these lists will not be available before that and Mrs. Driscoll will not be able to give out any information prior to that. Need your help!! We need help with class list mailing - labeling, stamping, and? stuffing the envelops.? We also need help in making some packets of books for the teachers. If you are available for 30 minutes or so on August 22 at 1:30 p.m., please let me know so that we can plan accordingly. Miscellaneous:? If your child needs an IEP in the fall, please send an email to? Mr. Jim Swaim at jim_swaim at newton.k12.ma.us, so that he can arrange a meeting. The school nurse will be back on the first day of school, so please remember to bring all paperwork and medicines that day. If you have new people moved in your neighborhood, please encourage them to send us an email so that we can put them on our mailing list. Through out the city of Newton, there is a renewed effort to increase walking to school and reduce traffic around the schools.? There is a city wide task force formed for this effort.? So please arrange for "Walking Sc hool Bus" in your neighborhood during the summer and have a jump start on walking to school.? If you need help in forming one, please let me know and I can send you more information. Have a great summer! ?Archana Vahalia Cabot PTO Co-President auvpto at aol.com 617-244-1435 SAVE PAPER. Please don?t print this email unless necessary. The Famous, the Infamous, the Lame - in your bro wser. Get the TMZ Toolbar Now! The Famous, the Infamous, the Lame - in your browser. Get the TMZ Toolbar Now! The Famous, the Infamous, the Lame - in your browser. Get the TMZ Toolbar Now! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://cabotpto.org/pipermail/cabotcommunity_cabotpto.org/attachments/20080729/c16ca621/attachment.html