We hope everyone had a great time at the Fall Picnic! Thanks so much to Leslie Dembinski, Willa Morris and their team of volunteers for organizing such a big event. What fun to see the Janney community gathered together.

Here are three things we would like to add to your "to do list"!

First, please consider coming to the PTA meeting tonight in the all-purpose room at 7:15. You can learn more from Ms. Walters about how Janney teachers are integrating the arts into the curriculum. We will also hear about how you can support Janney through e-scrip and the Sally Foster fundraiser. The PTA meetings are your opportunity to ask questions about the school and find out what is happening in the school community.

Second, we have declared Friday, September 14th, "Mr. Hillyer and Mr. Adams Appreciation Day"! Principal Cartland described their work getting the school ready for our children as "heroic." They worked long days, nights, and weekends to get all the jobs done. We will gather at 3:00 on Friday, September 14th, behind the school to say thank you to them in person. We'd like a crowd to help us show them that their efforts on behalf of our school are appreciated, so please come! There are two thank you cards to sign on the front desk if you cannot make it in person on Friday afternoon. In the meantime, be sure to say thank you when you see them in the hallways.

Third, Back to School Night is coming up on September 25th, so mark your calendars for that. On that night, your child's teacher will ask for volunteer room parents. Signing up to be a room parent is a really helpful and fun way to be involved in your child's particular classroom. If you think you might be interested, ask your child's teacher for more information.

Sadly, Allie Hajian will be departing this fall, and the co-vice presidency of the PTA will be vacant sometime in the next few months. If you are interested in the position please contact us!

Thanks and have a great week!

First Touch Soccer
Soccer clinic for boys and girls ages 7 to 14. All abilities welcome. Mondays or Wednesdays from 4 pm to 5 pm for 10 weeks starting September 10 at Hearst Elementary School. Visit us at www.FirstTouchSoccer.org or call Mitch at 202-256-2558.

New Fitness Program for Kids
The first program of its kind in the D.C. area, the Y.E.A.H. program provides youth ages 10 to 14 with the tools they need to become healthy individuals. See your THT envelope for details.

MCRRC DARCARS Young Run
The Montgomery County Road Runners Club DARCARS Young Run is a noncompetitive running event for kids 12 and under. It's the largest event of its kind in the region and one of the largest kids' runs in the nation. It is designed for every kid to be a winner and to discover that Running is Fun! Races begin at 9 am on October 21 in Rockville.

For updated information about the DARCARS Young Run, call the MCRRC Info Line at 301-353-0200. For more information, contact dyr@mcrrc.org or visit http://mcrrc.org/races/DYR/index.html.

Ward 3 Back-to-School Barbecue
On Saturday, September 15^th, there will be a Back-to-School BBQ at Friendship "Turtle" Park from 11 am to 4 pm. Turtle Park is at Van Ness and 45^th Streets, NW. The event features moon bounce, raffle, free food and beverages, softball game, skate mobile, D.C. Nationals' mascot, music, free goodies from the D.C. Nationals, cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn.

In attendance will be Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh,representatives from the  Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, Department of Health,  Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of the Environment, Energy Efficiency Workshop, D.C. Firefighters, Friends of Friendship Park, and Verizon.
 
Please contact the Ward 3 Council Office for more information (202) 724-8062

Talia Primor tsprimor@gmail.com

 
It was great to see so many families at the Fall Picnic.Many thanks to Leslie Dembinski and Willa Morris for chairing the event and to the numerous folks who volunteered to make it so successful.

This Friday we are honoring our two custodians for their hard work, not only over the summer, but throughout the year.  There will be a short "ceremony" on the blacktop behind the school at 3:00 p.m. just before dismissal.Everyone is invited to attend and to show support for Mr. Adams and Mr. Hillyer.

As part of the changing relationship between our school system and the DC Government, all school system personnel who previously have had email addresses ending in "@k12.dc.us" are in the process of having their email service moved over to "@dc.gov".Therefore, my email address is now scott.cartland@dc.gov but there will be a short time period in which my old email address will still be active and emails will automatically be migrated over to the new.  However, sometime in October the "@k12.dc.us" will not be in effect for and DCPS personnel.

In the Take Home Tuesday envelope everyone has a registration flyer for a new after school activity that we are trying this year."Mad Science" will be holding after school science classes on Mondays for eight weeks beginning on October 15th.There is a fee for the classes and you can register your child either by turning the form into the main office or online at www.scienceafterschool.com.If you have questions about the program that can't be answered by the website, please feel free to contact me directly or you can contact our very brave parent volunteer, Liz Mozden at LMozden@nationalgeographic.com.The registration deadline is October 3rd.

For parents of returning students in fourth through sixth grades, you should find in your child's Take Home Tuesday, a sealed envelope with their long-awaited test scores from the DC CAS.Please feel free to contact either your child's teacher or me directly if you have any questions about the testing or results.

I'd like to finish this letter with an update on the latest developments regarding discussions of the possible Public Private Partnership (PPP).For those of you who are new to the discussion, you can research the basics from documents posted on the Janney Website (www.janneyschool.org) or the ANC3E website (www.anc3e.org).This summer, the DC Government Office of Planning decided that they would issue a "Request for Proposals" (RFP) for the project.This will allow other developers to submit ideas for consideration.  There has been one public meeting to gather input for the RFP and the city is planning at least one more before the RFP goes out.The Janney School Improvement Team (SIT) is currently drafting a letter that will seek to give input into the RFP.The input from the SIT will be fairly general in nature and will simply expand upon the ideas put forth in the letter we sent to Councilmember Cheh back in late July (also posted on the Janney website).Once the city issues the RFP, there will be a period of time in which developers can submit proposals.It will then be up to city government to decide whether or not any of the proposals are worth pursuing.  There will undoubtedly be more public meetings on the issue and I will do my best to provide notice of these meetings in advance so that all who wish to participate can do so.

At the same time, DCPS has generated a draft set of "Educational Specifications" (Ed. Specs.) for the school.This document is the beginning of the planning process for the proposed addition to the school.I want everyone to keep in mind that the city is planning to modernize the school and increase its size whether or not the PPP goes forward.The PPP may speed up the process but we as a school community need to begin now to plan for what type of addition and modernization we want to see happen.I don't want to rush the process of gathering input from the school community and so the SIT is planning to spend a couple of months at the least to communicate what's in the document already and the areas in which we can shape the process.  Once we've communicated the basics, there will be a period of time in which we will solicit feedback on the parts of the planning that we can give input to.This will probably involve one or more open meetings as well as posting information online and accepting feedback in various formats.All of this information will then be gathered and considered as the ed. specs. become more polished.  This is a vitally important process and I'm hoping that there will be a great deal of participation from a wide cross-section of the Janney community.Whether the ed. specs. end up being used as part of a PPP or as the basis for renovating the school through the DCPS Master Facilities Plan, community input will be critical in ensuring that the school meets the needs and desires of the community it serves.

Finally, I would like to make a quick comment about the tone of the conversations involving the PPP.This is a delicate issue and one that comes with a lot of emotion for many in our community.I have been pleased so far that there has been so much dialogue undertaken in such a civil fashion.It appears to me that folks are keeping in mind that there are a great deal of pros and cons on both sides of the issue and rational reasons for supporting or not supporting a PPP moving forward.I hope that this level of civility will continue as the conversation moves forward.I have had numerous conversations with Janney parents and staff members with a variety of opinions, and whether they are pro, con, or undecided, have appreciated the chance to talk and consider their point of view.I have been and will continue to remain open-minded and willing to converse about this topic and can always be reached by phone at 282-0110 or via email at scott.cartland@dc.gov.

Have a great week.