The first week of 2010 at Janney was filled with holiday stories, new bulletin boards, the foundations of new friendships, and goal-setting for the New Year. As we head into week two, the daily schedule has begun to fill, and we are getting back into the full swing of things.

Last Wednesday, Mayor Fenty, Councilmember Cheh and Director Lew (Office of Public Education Facilities Management) joined several classes, the student council, and community members (including the fabulous SIT team) for the groundbreaking of Janney's modernization. Perhaps one of the few groundbreakings to actually occur indoors, complete with a sandbox for the ceremonial dig, we all enjoyed speeches celebrating Janney as a top elementary school and the building that will soon represent this high-quality institution. Our Janney students showed such a high level of respect during the ceremony that Mayor Fenty invited them to shovel alongside the visiting public officials! To see a partial video of the groundbreaking, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGz7dezWgZE&feature=youtube_gdata

We concluded the week with the annual Geography Bee for our fourth and fifth-grade students. Sarah Burch, Emma Buzbee, Akari Davidson, Sophia Ewing, Alessandro De Rosa, and Miles Mellott displayed their knowledge of U.S. and World Geography for an audience of third, fourth and fifth graders, with Miles moving on to the next round. Congratulations to all who participated for their effort, sportsmanship and desire to learn, and thank you to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Carrier, Ms. Hunter, Ms. Osterman, Ms. Seward and Ms. Young for their leadership.

This week, as a tribute to the upcoming holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., we will focus on a respect for service to others and to the community. Please see the MLK Service Project announcement from Shana Zallman in this newsletter for more information about how we will support this focus, as well as the list of community service opportunities for families - a great activity for next Monday's day off - that can be found at http://www.janneyschool.org/About%20Janney/Principal's%20Page/Principals%20corner.htm.

On the morning of Tuesday, January 12th (8:10am - 8:40am), I will hold a Principal's Coffee around grade-level expectations and DC Learning Standards. Tuesday also marks the first day of the DC-BAS for our third-fifth graders (Reading), which will also be administered this Wednesday (Math) and next Wednesday the 20th (Make-Ups). The full SIT team will meet on Tuesday evening at 5:45pm in the library where we will discuss the schematic design for the new building. Please visit www.janneyschool.org for more information or take a look at the current plans posted on the Community Board on the first floor. I will continue to inform you of any progress made around planning for construction, and the SIT Outreach team is currently compiling a FAQ sheet (to be released in next week's Take Home Tuesday) and a plan for involving students in the modernization process (likely to be launched in early March).

To conclude this week's letter, there are a few "loose-end" announcements. In order to accommodate prospective families, we will be holding weekly tours on Tuesdays at 9am. If you know of a family who would like to visit Janney, please inform them of this schedule (also posted on the Janney website); of course, we will continue to schedule individual tours as needed. On another note, DCPS has posted the data from last year's teacher and parent stakeholder survey and that data can be found at http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Satisfaction+Stakeholder+Surveys/2008-09+Survey+Results%3A+Staff%2C+Parents%2C+Students by clicking on Janney's PDF file. We will use this data as yet another source of information to plan for how we can grow. Finally, we are approaching a long weekend with the 15th dedicated to teacher professional development and the 18th slated to commemorate MLK Day.

Don't forget to send students with coats, hats, gloves and scarves as we brave the winter temperatures and do our best to hold outdoor recess on a daily basis. Stay warm!

Sincerely,

Norah Lycknell
Principal

Help Janney Participate in the MLK Day of Service

Janney will collect items for 3 different organizations up until Friday, January 22nd. Students and family members can drop off donations in the labeled boxes in the first floor hallway, to the right of Ms. Soribe's security desk. Thrive DC is in need of gently-used or new adult hats, gloves, scarves, and coats. The Washington Animal Rescue League and the Washington Humane Society need towels and blankets (no sheets please!), kongs, peanut butter, fake mice, and jingle balls. A digital camera would be greatly appreciated by the Humane Society to help them document cases of animal mistreatment and cruelty. (This would be better placed in Shana Zallman's box in the office to ensure its safety.) Finally, Janney Jaguars can help live jaguars in South American forests by dropping coins and dollar bills into the labeled jug. The money collected will be sent to the Rainforest Action Network to help them in their efforts to curb deforestation and climate change. Thank you for your participation!

Please email Shana Zallman at olmeg1@mac.com if you have any questions.

Art Volunteers

Thanks to all the parents who helped Ms Strulson during art class at Janney in the fall. Especially with pre-K and Kindergarten classes, an extra set of hands has been important to ensure that the kids can make the most of their limited time. Parents helped tie nots in yarn, refill glue tubs, untie nots in yarn, pass out paints, and even enjoyed creating a little themselves. Rennie Anderson called it "a nice little window into what your kids are doing in art, and a quick and easy way to be a big help. Plus it's fun!"

Please consider signing on to help this winter or spring. Just take a moment to pick a time spot on our simple online calendar, showing dates available from this week through June. Sign up for just one time, for one hour every week or month, or as often as you'd like.

Schedule is as follows-

Wed: Prek-Varner 1:15-2:00 pm; K-Gero 2:05 - 2:50
Thurs: K-Brudnick 9:50-10:35; 4-Anderson 11:05-11:50 am; K-Rockwell 1:15-2:00; 3-McClung 2:05-2:50
Fri: 3-Brill 9:00-9:45; Prek-Morgan Williams 11:05-11:50; 4-Carrier 1:15-2:00; 4-Young 2:05-2:50

1) Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/81-6214323185
2) Enter your email address. VolunteerSpot will then send you an invite
3) Open the email invite and click the link to choose your spots

Hope to see you in the Janney art room soon. If you have questions, contact Ms. Strulson at emilystrulson@hotmail.com.

Collection Case Sign-Up Coming Soon

The next sign-up sheet for the collection case displays in the front lobby will be posted in late January. Stay tuned for an announcement of the exact date in next week's newsletter. Many thanks to all who have shared thus far.

Reminder: Join the Janney Parent Listserv

A Yahoo Discussion Group has been created to facilitate an exchange of information between Janney families about issues of interest to Janney families. Such issues include, for example: DCPS news, Janney news, after school and summer camp opportunities, neighborhood events and fundraisers, and items of interest that are being given away such as karate uniforms or cleats.

To join go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janneyelementary/ and click on Join Group!

Safety Patrol Tip of the Week

At a crosswalk where there is a signal, please cross only on the proper signal.

Elena Bagnoli, Safety Patroller

Janney Shopping at Amazon!

Do you shop through Amazon? Earn money for Janney by clicking on this link or starting your search in the Amazon Search box on the Janney Homepage. Janney will earn up to 6 percent of your order every time you begin your search on the Janney site. Just think, no additional
cost to you, lots of additional funds for Janney.

In the Neighborhood

On Tuesday, January 19, the District of Columbia Public Schools is sponsoring a free parent workshop on how to talk to your kids about sex. Don't miss this opportunity to talk with Debbie Roffman, a nationally known author and sex educator. Topics include:

--How to give age appropriate information
--How to answer hard and tricky questions
--How to handle negative and competing influences from popular culture
--How to give clear messages about values to convey to your children

January 19, 6-8 pm
Kramer Middle School Parents Center
1700 Q Street SE

Free dinner, child care, and translation services available. For questions or to RSVP contact Andrea DeSantis at 202-442-5040 or andrea.desantis@dc.gov.

Contributing to the E-Newsletter

All submissions to the PTA newsletter should be emailed to Janneynewsletter@yahoo.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday at 3:15 pm. Because the newsletter is reviewed by several individuals before distribution, we must adhere to this deadline.

Material in the newsletter must be:
1) For the benefit of Janney students;
2) Related to activities or programs that take place on Janney school grounds, or for specific Janney-sponsored events or programs;
3) From and for not-for-profit organizations (unless #1 and #2 above are satisfied, and approved by both PTA presidents); and
4) Submitted by an official representative of the organization or program referenced.

Inclusion in the newsletter is at the discretion of the newsletter editors, the PTA presidents, and the principal. Please include all text in the body of the email (rather than as an attachment). Small jpeg thumbnails may be attached and can be included in the newsletter. All links or email addresses will be made active (clickable).

If a notice should be run for more than one week, please indicate the dates the notice should be run, or resubmit the notice by the Friday deadline for each week.

Please note there is no longer a box in the Janney office where hard copy newsletter submissions can be turned in. Prepared fliers to be included in the Take Home Tuesday envelope should be turned into the school office by COB Monday.

Thank you for your cooperation.

The Editors