House Bill 156 / Senate Bill 172 (Public Charter School Facility Fund) was announced by Governor Larry Hogan on January 23rd. This legislation would create a fund for public charter school facilities, allocating up to $1,600 per pupil to public charter schools like City Neighbors to obtain and maintain their facilities. Unlike 16 other states, including Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, Maryland law does not provide per pupil funding or other programs to assist public charter schools in obtaining and maintaining their facilities. Accordingly, unlike traditional public schools, public charter schools are responsible for finding and paying for their own facilities using their per pupil operating revenue, diverting much needed money from our classrooms and students. If passed, this legislation could provide somewhere between $200,000-$400,000 per year in additional revenue for us, allowing us to add staff and programming back to our school model. Even if one cannot attend, with 15-20% of facilities funding on the line...please start engaging and spreading the word. Feel free to let CLF or let MAPCS know how many folks plan to go. This is grassroots. Not a clf "event" but rather a call to action, a way for committed members to let us know they plan to attend to support equity in facilities funding to all public schools, not just regular ones, but public-charters, too. Again, the MAPCS Charter School Facilities Lobby Night is set! February 19th, 5:30-7:30 in Annapolis! We would like participation from any willing supporters of equity in facilities to public schools. Mobilizing statewide, MAPCS says they need between 150-200 people in that room to make an impact. They also suggest folks should arrive in Annapolis at the East Room of the Miller Senate Building by 5:30 pm. During the event, MAPCS will have a few speakers and legislators coming through the room to talk with constituents about this issue. Unfortunately, we are not allowed food in the room. Therefore, please be sure to grab a bite to eat on the way down (or keep a snack in your pocket). Also, MAPCS is asking charter operators and schools to write a letter to your legislators, and get your partners, neighbors, and colleagues to write one too! ***template avail.*** Encourage our community to come to the hearings in Annapolis (dates 2/26 and 2/28 at 1PM). You don't need to say anything; you just need to show up! BODIES MATTER! You are welcome to contact Mark Sutherland (I plan to be in Annapolis on 2/19) with any Community Partnerships inquiry or feel free to reach out to MAPCS directly for info on how you or your team can become more involved. Hope to see you on Feb 19th in support of Facilities Legislation but even if you cannot attend, do please reach out to your Delegate & Senator. With 80-90% of the MD population in support of school choice, if we all help continue the conversations on how best to bring equity to our Public Charters in MD, I believe we can gather the necessary community support to pass this legislation. More Information, please contact: Mark J. Sutherland Community Partnerships Director Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation 6151 Chevy Chase Dr. Laurel, MD 20707 T. (301) 776.2300 x.104 E. msutherland@clfmd.org www.clfmd.org

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"The" CMIT PTO Board

Hello STEAMazing Superstars! CLF Black History Month is here! This year, we were astonished by the tremendous increase in participation! CLF received over 350+ posters and 45 essays on January 25th! With so many unique submissions, we need your help! CLF invites all its staff, parents, teachers and seniors to participate in the poster evaluation process! Come to the CLF central office, grab some tea or coffee and check out the colorful projects on display. We are also encouraging visitors to take photos of their favorite projects and post them on social media. Don’t wait to evaluate, our staff will cycle through projects on display to keep the exhibit fresh and fun! CLF will also select posters throughout February to highlight on Twitter. Visit @CLF_CLF or @CLF_PR to check out posters in the social spotlight or tag us on your favorite posters! Let's celebrate the "A" in STEAM together! A special thanks to all the parents, students and teachers that contributed to this year’s Black History Month! I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap Ani DiFranco

CLF Community Partnerships

Greetings CMIT South Families! Great News!!! CMIT South ES officially has a permanent school Nurse! Please join me in Welcoming NURSE RENADA HALEY!!!! Nurse Renada Haley joined our staff in January and we are thrilled that our students now have access to her medical expertise and experience! Please feel free to contact Nurse Haley via email Nurse@cmitsouthes.org if you have any questions or would like to share any pertinent information regarding your student's/s' health. WELCOME TO CMIT SOUTH ES NURSE HALEY!

Lucy Waters-Sutherland Registrar/Secretary CMIT South Elementary Lwaters@cmitsouthes.org 240-767-4820 http://cmitsouthelementary.org/

Parents, Getting your child here to school on time is vitally important. Arriving late to school can also mean that students miss out on activities designed to build connections with their peers, potentially impacting their social interactions and creating a greater sense of alienation from their classmates. Source: https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/the-effect-of-student-tardiness-on-learning. The door in the back for the cafeteria closes at 8:00 a.m sharp!!!! We start letting the student's into the building through the Main Office at 8:00 a.m. We will not let student's ENTER the building in the front until 8:00 a.m unless you have a conference or meeting with a teacher/admin that works at CMIT South ES. Please remember that your child is considered late to school at 8:06 a.m. A parent/guardian MUST come into the school to sign their student in on the late arrival sheet when your child is walking through the doors at 8:06 a.m. It's IMPORTANT that ALL parent's sign their child in when it's after 8:06 am. We will start documenting all students entering the building after 8:06 am without a parent present. Front Desk Staff

Stacy Williams, Receptionist swilliams@cmitsouthes.org

Hello STEAMazing Superstars! CLF Black History Month is here! This year, we were astonished by the tremendous increase in participation! CLF received over 350+ posters and 45 essays on January 25th! With so many unique submissions, we need your help! CLF invites all its staff, parents, teachers and seniors to participate in the poster evaluation process! Come to the CLF central office, grab some tea or coffee and check out the colorful projects on display. We are also encouraging visitors to take photos of their favorite projects and post them on social media. Don’t wait to evaluate, our staff will cycle through projects on display to keep the exhibit fresh and fun! CLF will also select posters throughout February to highlight on Twitter. Visit @CLF_CLF or @CLF_PR to check out posters in the social spotlight or tag us on your favorite posters! Let's celebrate the "A" in STEAM together! A special thanks to all the parents, students and teachers that contributed to this year’s Black History Month! I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap Ani DiFranco

CLF Community Partnership

Greetings parents, This week, kindergartens continued to build up an ice- hockey team member that is good at long shots. Students worked gears and used science-engineering. They turned the handle on the back of the ice hockey player to make sure the arm swings freely. First and second graders started to build up a Buddy Dog. Students worked with pulley wheels and used science and engineering. They placed ribbon belts to the pulleys and observed the Buddy-Dog's eyes how they giggling in the opposite direction. Third, fourth and fifth graders built up a single, fixed axle model device and separate axles model device. Students worked with different types of axles and observed the models how it was steering and effected from friction. They used science and engineering. ... I received the FLL students photos from CLF. Thanks to them. I sticked the photos on my window and the students showed interest to it. I'm looking at new students who are interested in robotics and coding, like to search and to learn, has cooperation skills and with good behavior. I re-do a pre-test next week. I'm also looking at new students who are interested in math, like to learn and to study, has cooperation skills and with good behavior for Math Club. My club days have changed as follows: FLL Club: on Mondays at 3 pm - 5 pm on Fridays at 3 pm - 5 pm Math Club: on Tuesdays at 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Lego Club: on Thursdays at 3:15 pm- 4:15 pm Have a great weekend!

Esra Keskin

As we are beginning the 3rd semester we have realized we are running very low on certain supplies: GLUE STICKS, CRAYONS, and TISSUES. If possible please send some in with your child to help replace our supply. Thanks so much!! UPCOMING EVENTS: 100th Day Project We will celebrate our 100th day of learning on Wednesday, February 13th. Please work on your projects and bring them in by Wed. Valentine’s Day Students may bring in 25 Valentine’s cards for their classmates. Please only have your child write their own name on each. Students will decorate bags and deliver their Valentine’s cards on Thursday, February 14th. Field Trip to Science Museum We are still getting details together but mark your calendar for March 22. If are available to chaperone, please let us know. RELA We are at the end of our 5th Unit. Students have been learning about the parts of the trees. They are labeling, writing sentences as well as learning to research. Students are also getting stronger with their sight words. Science This week in science we talked a bit more about how plants grow and what they need in order grow. We learned a bit more about how a plant is a living thing! Lastly, we each started our very own project growing a lima bean in a bag! We are watching every day for changes and keeping track of what it needs to grow! Very exciting! Math We just finished our review of shapes. We will continue learning about them and reviewing them throughout the year. Try to point out and find shapes with students everywhere you go! They love being little shape detectives!! Social Studies This week we completed our Then and Now Unit. We have learned that history is the story of our past. Next week we will begin our unit on Geography. Oh the places we will go!

Kindergarten Team

Happy Friday! This week in Science we started our Life Science unit and will continue with that next week. In Math we have officially launched our Directed Study program which includes students being active participants and captains of their own education and I am excited to say that it went remarkably well! Prodigy will continue to be a required at home assignment to increase math fluency. The third quarter is off to an excellent start and I am so excited to see how these scholars progress and prep for the sixth grade! Thank you for all that you do!

-Ms. Libebe

Hello Parents! This week, I wanted to give you ways to keep the creativity that occurs in the art room going when your children come home. There are many ways that students can make art with basic materials found in our homes. Try this one for example. Marbled Paper This is a fun experiment that children will love. First, apply a layer of shaving cream to a baking sheet. Use a spatula to spread the cream evenly across the sheet. Third, create various drops of food coloring on top of the shaving cream. Then, take a chopstick and create swirls through the colors, making them mix together. Here comes the fun part! Take sheet of paper and lay it flat on top of the swirled shaving cream (let it sit for 2 minutes. Now remove the paper and lay it flat. Take a flat edge object (Credit card, ruler) and scrap off the shaving cream. This will give you a unique, marbled sheet of paper! https://happyhooligans.ca/marbled-paper-shaving-cream-food-colouring/

Brittney Frei

Dear Parents/Guardians/Family, This week in P.E. class the older grades finished up their dance project and I was truly proud to see how each group was able to come together in a short time and create a unique dance in rhythm to music and syncronized with the whole group. The younger grades completed their cognitive post-test. ARRIVAL SAFETY RULES: When in the arrival car lanes, even if your kid is already out of the car you STILL can not move until a staff member waves you ahead. This is because if the first or second car start moving, the rest of the line follows. This creates an UNSAFE AREA for all students who are trying to cross the lane of cars. It also goes against everything we are trying to accomplish by this new procedure. If any car is deemed hazardous due to high speed coming around back of the school or moving ahead without being waved ahead by our arrival staff, we WILL record the make and model of your car AND/OR license plate numbers to give to the school administration who will come out and deal with the issue first hand. We want the safety of ALL students to be first priority. We have received much praise for the new system and its safety and we would like it to be run as directed in the DOJO message sent and by my announcements. As always, it is a few cars who are not following procedure, but it only takes one moment to have an accident. Thank you to all parents/guardians who follow the procedures each day and keep the process a success.

Garrett Loomer P.E. Teacher - Department Chair CMIT South Elementary gloomer@cmitsouthes.org

Once again we've opened up our Spirit Wear sale with two new designs! We'll be implementing Spirit Wear Days in the spring of this year. Get yours today! Orders will close on 22 February 2019. https://cmit-academy.itemorder.com/sale

"The" CMIT PTO Board

View our newsletter here! https://conta.cc/2DxMMob

"The" CMIT PTO Board

The CMIT South PTO continues to remain informed with our elected officials. On Saturday February 2, 2019 we met with Sonja Williams, District 9 Board of Education for an informative Parent Leaders Meeting. Sign up for her newsletters here https://mailchi.mp/5b5fb4a8f0f1/pgcpsd9rocks and put on your calendar to attend her next coffee event scheduled to occur on February 16, 2019, more information about "Coffee with the School Board Member" . Hashtag: #PGCPSD9Rocks Facebook: SonyaWilliamsPGCPS.D9 Twitter: SonyaD9PGCPS Coffee with Your School Board Member: Every 3rd Saturday (except July & December) from 8am to 930am at the Safeway in Brandywine.

"The" CMIT PTO Board

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"The" CMIT PTO Board

Hello Thee CMIT Family This week we celebrated Professional School Counselors' Week. Thanks for my gifts! However, this week my focus was on diversity. What does it mean to have diversity? The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual. Definition of Diversity It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along. the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. Some parents may be wondering why I am writing about diversity. Well, this week I learned there are several scholars who do not understand how to interact with others who are different from him/her. Nor do they understand the importance of respecting the difference shared by others. Young scholars say negative and inappropriate comments to those who may have differences, with no regards to the other person's feelings (https://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuomca/diversityinit/definition.html). I am requesting your assistance and partnership in ensuring all scholars are educated in the importance of respecting each other's differences. Parents, with the growing diverse population in today's society, it becomes even more important to ensure young scholars are educated on the proper way of communicating with someone who may be of a different religious background, different cultural upbringing or even different family dynamic. As young scholars become adults it is even more important for him/her to learn there are laws which prohibit discrimination against others who are different. Differences are worth learning about and respecting! Reference: https://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuomca/diversityinit/definition.html https://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuomca/diversityinit.html

DM Davis, Professional School Counselor, CMIT South ES, ddavis@cmitsouthes.org