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Elysian Charter School
Weekly Newsletter
A Positively Different Public School
January 23, 2017 Vol. 12 Issue 20
The school newsletter is sent out on Mondays. When there is a holiday, the newsletter is sent the following day.
Please note: From January 3 to February 10 send news to deb.rosner@ecsnj.org by 10:00 AM on Mondays.
The weekly newsletter is archived on Elysian's website, www.ecsnj.org, so that you can always access both the most recent newsletter as well as all previous ones.
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| From Ask the Janitor by Dr. John B. Muciaccia
In a just published book, Dr. Muciaccia looks at options for children’s education spanning the gamut from district schools to charter schools to private schools. During his research he visited Elysian (just before we moved). Below is the section on Elysian, which leads off the Charter Schools chapter. Dr. Muciaccia is a retired New Jersey teacher and administrator and is a Hoboken resident.
Parents are malcontent with public schools and now that there are other options like charter and private schools, they are looking elsewhere to educate their children, supporting charter schools in particular. The entire charter school system was created to compensate for the fact that too many parents and students were disappointed in their neighborhoods' public schools. Charter schools looked to fill the educational void and were a direct response to the failing public school system.
In an attempt to understand the rising number of charter schools, I visited the Elysian Charter School of Hoboken, New Jersey. The school's director is Dr. Harry Laub, a seasoned administrator who is proud of his school and its students' accomplishments.
Elysian was founded in 1997 and has an enrollment of 288 students chosen through a lottery held each January. It has an average class size of 16 students, a big plus for any school. According to Dr. Laub, the most important difference between Elysian and other Hoboken public schools is that it offers parents a choice of progressive and community building education, oriented towards project work, problem solving, and innovative ways of learning. For example, Elysian students do not sit in desks. Instead, they sit at tables where the focus is on team work. Dr. Laub considers Elysian his dream school and enthuses, "What we are doing works!"
At Elysian, the staff and the board of trustees are fully committed to progressive education. The school's climate is uplifting and energetically positive. Dr. Laub guided me on a tour of the school where I observed highly motivated students with faces full of enthusiasm hard at work on classroom projects.
I asked Dr. Laub what he would say to parents who asked why they should send their children to Elysian Charter and without hesitation he responded, "We are a school that focuses on the growth of each individual child, not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. Our classrooms are structured to represent real world situations in which children learn to problem solve issues both individually and as a team. Skills learning, which is carefully planned, is an
outgrowth of these projects. We also develop a warm and nurturing atmosphere that is conducive to taking the risks that support learning."
During my visit, I was introduced to some of the teachers, and observed students both in the classrooms and out in the halls. After a lifetime in public school education, I concluded that what the Elysian Charter School offers is an intelligent and hugely viable alternative to the public school experience.
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| FEBRUARY LUNCH MENUS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR ORDERING
DEADLINE: MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2017
ALL ORDERS MUST BE PAID BY THIS DATE IN ORDER TO BE PLACED IN THE SYSTEM!
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| PTSO Corner
10TH ANNUAL CHILI COOK-OFF! - Saturday, February 11th at the Elks Club in Hoboken from 5 pm – 9 pm. Get your taste buds ready and your chili pots shined, because the 10th Annual Elysian Chili Cook-Off is just around the corner! Come one, come all, and invite your friends to the Hoboken Elks club to compete or just to relax and enjoy great chili. There are prizes for judges’ choice and people’s choice and NEW THIS YEAR – judges’ pick for the most UNIQUE chili, so bring on the veggie, turkey, chicken, curry or whatever you consider UNIQUE!!
Amenities include a supervised kids' room, live musical entertainment, a wine and beer cash bar for adults, and, of course, all the chili you can eat. Look for the sign-up list this week in a separate email to register as a cook, a baker of sweet treats, or to help with set up/clean up. Any questions can be directed to elysianchilicookoff@gmail.com.
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| Save the Date...Elysian Summer Camp
Does the thought of figuring out your child's summer camp plans each year put you in a state of anxiety? Is your child destined to sit in front of video games all summer because you missed the deadline to sign up for summer camp... If the answer to either of these is yes, we invite you to SAVE THE DATE!! For the first time ever, Elysian will be running its own summer camp (for 2 weeks this coming summer)!!!
**The camp will be open to Elysian children currently in kindergarten (2016-2017) through 5th grade.
**Daily activities will include science, arts & crafts, sports, woodworking, field trips and much more.
**The camp staff will be Elysian employees.
**For our kick off year, there will be 2 one week sessions -- the weeks of July 31st and August 7th.
You can sign up for one or both weeks.
Hours of fun, air conditioned classrooms, familiar counselors...and no 1 hour bus ride there and back! Stay tuned for more information, registration and pricing.
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| Friends of Elysian
AUCTION PLANNING MEETING
Tuesday, January 24 @ 5:45 pm
At the School Building
We need your help to make the 2017Annual Fundraising Party & Auction (Friday, March 10, 2017) event a rousing success! We are having a planning meeting on Tuesday (tomorrow), January 24 at @ 5:45 pm in the school building in Room 232 (Melissa’s room by the stairwell).
If you can’t make it right on time, though, please feel free to still stop by. If at all possible, please email us at friends@ecsnj.org to let us know if you’re coming. However, if you can’t be there and would still like to help, please also email us as well.
Thank you so much for your support!
MORE DETAILS ON THE AUCTION ITSELF THIS WEEK!
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| Auditions Attention 3rd to 5th graders! Auditions for Shrek, Jr., are this week. Tuesday, January 24 at 11 (Bring your lunch.)
Wednesday, January 25 at 12:20 (Bring your lunch.)
Ask your teacher for an audition packet if you are interested.
WANTED:
A person with the skills, time, and inclination to build one or two platforms for the school play. They would need to be built by Tuesday, May 23rd. Please contact diane.murray@ecsnj.org if you are interested. THANKS!
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| Student Dress
Parents, please be sure to dress your children appropriately for winter weather. When we have our monthly fire drills, students do not have time to get their coats.
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Upcoming Parent Forum
Save the Date: January 30th at 6:00 p.m. There will be a parent forum where Dr. Paula Rust (from Spectrum Diversity) will report on the results of the 2016 School Climate and Bullying Prevention Student Survey.
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| Elysian Collects Box Tops and LABELS for Education: Look for the container near Deb's desk in the office! Thank you!
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As per state law, we no longer publish the exact location of trips for security reasons.
Please read the calendar weekly, as changes are updated regularl JANUARY CALENDAR
Monday, January 23 - Basketball: 6th Grade at Wallace, 7:45 PM GAME CANCELLED
Tuesday, January 24- Basketball: 5th Grade Green team at Wallace, 7:45 PM
Wednesday, January 25- 7th Grade trip 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
- Chess 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
- Basketball: 7th and 8th Grade at Wallace, 6:45 PM
Thursday, January 26- Basketball: 7th and 8th Grade at Multi, 6:15 PM
Friday, January 27- Basketball: 5th Grade Green team at Wallace, 8:45 PM
Saturday, January 28- Basketball: 3rd Grade White Team at Wallace, 1:00 PM
- Basketball: 3rd Grade Green Team at Wallace, 6:40 PM
- Basketball: 4th Grade at Wallace, 7:30 PM
- Girl's Basketball at Multi, 3:00 PM
Monday, January 30- Parent Forum: School Climate/Bullying Prevention, 6:00 PM
- Board of Trustees meeting, 7:00 PM.
Tuesday, January 31- Basketball: 6th Grade at Wallace, 7:45 PM
FEBRUARY CALENDAR
Wednesday, February 1- Half day of school for report card writing, 12:30 dismissal. After School Program available as usual.
- Basketball: 7th and 8th Grades at Wallace, 6:45 PM
Friday, February 3- Community Meeting
- Basketball: 5th Grade White Team at Wallace, 7:45 PM
- Basketball: 6th Grade at Wallace, 8:45 PM
Saturday, February 4- Basketball: 3rd Grade White Team at Wallace, 12:10 PM
- Basketball: 3rd Grade Green Team at Wallace, 1:50 PM
- Basketball: 4th Grade at Wallace, 2:40 PM
- Girls Basketball at Multi, 2;00 pm
Monday, February 6- Basketball: 5th Grade Green Team at Wallace, 6:45 PM
- Basketball: 7th and 8th Grade at Multi, 7:15 PM
Friday, February 10- Basketball: 5th Grade Green Team at Wallace, 6:45 PM
- Basketball: 5th Grade White Team at Wallace, 7:45 PM
Saturday, February 11- Chili Dinner, The Elks Club
- Basketball: 3rd Grade Green Team at Wallace, 5:00 PM
- Basketball: 4th Grade at Wallace, 5:50 PM
- Basketball: 3rd Grade White Team at Wallace, 6:40 PM
- Girls Basketball at Multi, 1;00 PM
Tuesday, February 14- Basketball: 6th Grade at Wallace, 6:45 PM
Thursday, February 16 - Tuesday, February 21
- Elysian closed for February Break
Thursday, February 23- Basketball: 5th Grade Green Team at Wallace, 6:45 PM
Friday, February 24- Basketball: 5th Grade White Team at Wallace, 6:45 PM
- Basketball: 6th Grade at Wallace, 7:45 PM
Saturday, February 25- Basketball: 3rd Grade White Team at Wallace, 3:20 PM
- Basketball: 3rd Grade Green Team at Wallace, 5:00 PM
- Basketball: 4th Grade at Wallace, 7:30 PM
Monday, February 27- Board of Trustees Meeting, 7:00 PM
Tuesday, February 28- Basketball: 5th Grade White Team at Wallace, 6:45 PM
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1460 Garden Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Harry Laub, Ph.D., Director
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harry.laub@ecsnj.org
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Phone:201.876.0102
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Fax:201.876.9576
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