Spring Fling Volunteers 

/


Get into the Party for FREE as a VOLUNTEER

ONE HOUR SHIFTS BARTENDING (aka pouring wine)

TWO HOUR SHIFTS HELPING WITH FOOD

ONE HOUR CLEAN UP SHIFTS

SPRING FLING DONATIONS  

/

Museums, Music, Art, TV shows - Cultural activities, whether a private museum tour or a night at a jazz club raise lots of money for our school and your kids.  Can you drum up a donation for:  

  • tickets to a musical event - any genre!

  • seats to a Broadway show

  • Beautiful, often handcrafted jewelry & bags are big favorites at the Spring Fling auction.

  • Vacation homes - ICE families love travel! Donate a vacation home for a few days or more - local or international

  • Restaurant donations - dinner for two or four, a bottle of wine to accompany a dinner or complementary appetizers and/or dessert
     


    Use the Online Donation Form  or the Printable Donation Formwhen asking for donations. Be sure to give your donors the Merchant Letter which includes our tax id number for those who are donating.

Free NYC ID Cards 

/

Do you want to go to the Bronx Zoo for free this summer? How about the Museum of Natural History? MoMA? The aquarium? 

The City of New York is currently offering photo ID cards free of charge. City residents can gain entrance into a wide variety of cultural institutions for free as well as get discounts at businesses around the city. Cardholders have access to one-year free membership all of these incredible places! For more information on how to apply, please visit the website here. Anyone over ten years old can get a card - including adults! Photo ID cards also valid to apply for working papers

To make an appointment at an enrollment center and learn more - click here. 

ICE Community Lunch 

/

Our community lunches have been a huge success this year! Thank you so much to all of you who have so generously contributed food! Kids from all grades and advisories have come together to eat beautifully cooked food and spend time in community. Thank you so much for all your support in making these happen! 

If you would like to contribute for an upcoming meal, please fill out (the very short) form. 

Thank you as always for your time, commitment and love! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Marlyn Gomez. 


ICE PAC

/

ELA tests are over! At ICE 89% of eligible students refused the test. Many school districts around the state very actively tried to suppress opt out this year, leading the state's highest education officials, Chancellor Betty Rosa of the Board of Regents and Commissioner Elia of the State Education Department, to issue a statement today affirming opt out rights. We at ICE PAC are happy that our school needed no such reminder and view our work in the context of another statement, released earlier this week by the grassroots group Jackson Heights People for Public Schools. An excerpt (it's long!) appears below.

In a system of school choice championed by Trump, DeVos, and leading Democrats, middle and high-income parents will almost always choose the schools with higher test scores, which enroll wealthier students and fewer students learning English. Zoned schools that accept all students face intense pressure to raise test scores and resort to excessive time for ELA and math classes at the expense of a well-rounded curriculum. On the other hand, students at schools that serve disproportionately wealthy and white children are offered a more balanced and arts-enriched curriculum.

Jackson Heights People for Public Schools rejects state tests that are used to further segregate our schools, and unfairly evaluate children in our community and the educators who serve them. 



Free Feminine Products in ICE Girls' Bathroom  

/

Around a year ago a group of young women who were soon-to-be graduating 12th graders gathered at ICE to talk about ways to improve the experience for other girls at ICE. One of the important recommendations that arose from that meeting, was suggestion that the ICE Girls' Bathroom should always have a supply of feminine products available to students for free. The group felt this would be helpful for many reasons, and for students of all ages. 

Since that time, our school has been committed to keeping a steady supply available. If you would like to help us in this effort, please see our amazon wish list here. Contributions of any size are welcomed and appreciated! 
 

URGENT:  Chaperones Needed for Wednesday April 10 - High School Community Service Day 

/

On Wednesday April 10th, all of our high school students will be leaving the building to participate in a variety of service projects around the city. We are partnering with sixteen organizations including senior centers, urban farms, soup kitchens, food pantries, the billion oyster project, the parks department and more. 

Students will be divided into groups of between 10 and 25 kids. Each group will be accompanied by a teacher. A few of the larger groups need a couple of extra chaperones. We're looking for parents interested in spending a few hours chaperoning one of these groups, along with one teacher. Middle school parents are MOST WELCOME to participate. You do not have to accompany your own child's group (students will not be assigned groups yet).

Please use this link to sign up for one of the slots available:

Thanks for your help to make this day a success.

Letter from Pete 

/

Dear ICE Families –

At this time of year our school is abuzz with energy – students of all ages are busily working on cycle projects, including our 11th graders who are fully immersed in research and data collection for two graduation requirements. It’s a great part of our culture that 11th graders gather students from classrooms to take part in their Neuroscience research projects. Along the way the younger kids learn about scientific investigations and see the models of focus and intensity in the older students. It becomes a rite of passage for all children here that they conduct professional scientific research.

On that note I want to congratulate our current 12th grade students on an amazing year of college acceptances. This cohort of students may be our most successful yet as they are accepted into elite public and private universities at an unprecedented rate. Additionally 7 of the 8 12th graders who entered the New York Science and Engineering fair made it to the final rounds – outperforming all other NYC high schools including the specialized high schools by a large margin. In the final rounds ICE students received a total of 11 awards – including one “First Award” – the highest possible honor.

Academic achievement is something I constantly encourage along with the ICE teaching staff, but we also focus on community engagement and activity whenever possible. I want to highlight the recent community lunches that the ICE Community Service Club has organized. Each week we serve fresh, healthy and homemade lunches to 75 to 150 students in a large classroom. This activity has been a highlight because it brings students together who normally would not sit and share a meal, and it encourages our kids to eat healthy home cooked meals.  Special thanks to Marlyn and Danya who have organized this event and all of the parents who have prepared and donated food to the cause.

Parent engagement has always been a linchpin that keeps ICE a cohesive community that thrives beyond all expected limitations. It is the time, money and effort donated by you parents that enables Mark and I to send every child on every trip, to fund improvements in technology, to hire additional music, art and theater teachers and to keep ICE operational as a school using a small administrative team.

Thank you for giving – and for choosing to make ICE your community.

Pete

State ELA Test for 6th, 7th & 8th graders starts Tuesday

/

Last call! If you plan to opt your child(ren) out of the test you can: 

  • use this form OR 

  • email Assistant Principal Mark  & your child’s advisor  (Subject line: Opt Out 2019) OR

  • write a note and send it in with your child

We, the parents of ICE PAC, believe there is no neutral or default position on the NYS testing program: you either value a system that uses test scores to rank and sort students and schools and so choose to opt in, or you don't and opt out. If you are not sure why so many of us at ICE opt out (85% the last few years--and hoping to exceed that!), see the notes from February's ICE PAC PTA meeting or the 2018 ICE PAC event, A Standardized Test Is A Poor Substitute For Justice. You can find even more info at here, including a whole section on race and high-stakes testing and another on admissions policy and testing. (Spoiler alert: There’s a social justice angle to test refusal and it's a myth that students need state test scores for NYC high school admissions.) 

––This message brought to you by ICE Parent Action/Education Advocacy Committee



Chaperones Needed for Wednesday April 10 - High School Community Service Day

/

On Wednesday April 10th, all of our high school students will be leaving the building to participate in a variety of service projects around the city. We are partnering with sixteen organizations including senior centers, urban farms, soup kitchens, food pantries, the billion oyster project, the parks department and more. 

Students will be divided into groups of between 10 and 25 kids. Each group will be accompanied by a teacher. A few of the larger groups need a couple of extra chaperones. We're looking for parents interested in spending a few hours chaperoning one of these groups, along with one teacher. Middle school parents are MOST WELCOME to participate. You do not have to accompany your own child's group (students will not be assigned groups yet).

Please use this link to sign up for one of the slots available:

Thanks for your help to make this day a success.

Looking For Parent Volunteers 

/

EXECUTIVE BOARD POSITIONS:

TREASURER-IN-TRAINING
Treasurer-in-Training – This is a shared role for which we need 1 more volunteer. You will share all the treasurer stuff which includes two hours a week at school during school hours; attending monthly meetings to present reports and attending fundraisers. Everything else can happen at home using QuickBooks Online and PayPal. We will show you everything you need to know.

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
We are in need of a few more volunteers to join the fundraising team to help with our current fundraisers and bring in new fundraisers. Fundraising Committee Team Members  (3 volunteers)
 

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
Volunteer Coordinator – Call for volunteers for event as needed, update volunteer page on the website; all online work.


SPRING FLING VOLUNTEERS
Get into the Party for FREE as a VOLUNTEER

ONE HOUR SHIFTS BARTENDING (aka pouring wine)

TWO HOUR SHIFTS HELPING WITH FOOD

ONE HOUR CLEAN UP SHIFTS

 

Wine Pull 

/

The Spring Fling Wine Pull STILL needs more wine!


The more wine that is donated - the more money we make for the school.

So, look through your wine cellars! Or when you're at your local wine shop, ask the owner if they would be willing to donate a bottle (worth $20 or more) for our great school fundraiser!

Email Wine Pull Donations if you're interested in donating a bottle (or more), or can help get wine donations from local vendors.


SPRING FLING DONATIONS  

/

Hey Families,
 
The Dining Challenge continues!   2 restaurant donations per grade for this week for a total of 14 gift certificates.  
 
The gift certificate can be:

  • dinner for two or four

  • a bottle of wine to accompany a dinner

  • complementary appetizers and/or dessert

Restaurants love impressing new diners and more likely than not, the place you approach will say "Yes!"  

Visit or call your favorite restaurant today and ask for a donation.  


Use the Online Donation Form  or the Printable Donation Formwhen asking for donations. Be sure to give your donors the Merchant Letter which includes our tax id number for those who are donating.


Family Contribution 2018-2019 

/

Dear ICE Families,

ICE is a unique public school, that is likely why you chose to enroll your child. 

The small classes, the individualized attention, the clubs and enrichment activities - these elements contribute to the package that educates your child, encourages him or her to be a life-long learner and lover of knowledge.

These elements come at a price, not covered by our allocation from the DOE, so we turn to families to pitch in, to help pay for a great education for all. 

If you have not made your family contribution of $700 per child (give more or less, depending on your ability) we ask you make a one-time payment or enroll in the payment plans. Click 2018-2019 Family Contribution to make a payment or visit Giving to Our School on the ICE Website.
 
Your support is greatly appreciated,
Fundraising Committee

Parent/Guardian Surveys 

/

Parent/Guardian surveys were distributed to your child to backpack home on Tuesday, March 5, 2019.  Surveys can be completed and mailed back in postage-paid pre-addressed return envelopes or survey can be done online using the eight digit survey access code that appears on the bottom right-hand corner of their survey.  

Surveys must be completed on line or mailed by APRIL 3, 2019.

ICE encourages families to fill out the surveys which play an essential role in the feedback process in supporting school improvement. Surveys are completely confidential.

Thank you.

ICE Community Lunch 

/

Our community lunches have been a huge success this year! Thank you so much to all of you who have so generously contributed food! Kids from all grades and advisories have come together to eat beautifully cooked food and spend time in community. Thank you so much for all your support in making these happen! 

If you would like to contribute for an upcoming meal, please fill out (the very short) form. 

Thank you as always for your time, commitment and love! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Marlyn Gomez.