Note from Pete

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Dear ICE Families –

With school well underway I wanted to review a few policies that are important to our staff. We try to limit the use of policies and approach people and situations as unique however we have all found it helpful to implement the following:

Vaping: Vaping and carrying a vaping device at school are both prohibited. If a student is carrying a device and it is visible it will be confiscated. We will inform a family member and that person can retrieve the device at a later date. Anyone caught vaping on school premises will first lose the privilege to go out during lunch, and subsequent violations will result in detentions and escalate from there. Given the pervasiveness of vaping among young people and the danger we now know it to pose I believe it is necessary to be clear and inflexible.

Cell Phones: Cell phones may be used in between classes and during lunch. During class time phones must be invisible and silent whether in the hallway or in a classroom. If a teacher feels it is necessary to confiscate a phone it will be returned to the student at the end of the school day. If the student refuses to hand over the phone parents will be notified and either Pete or Kristen will ask to collect the phone. We may create individual cell phone use plans if it becomes too challenging for a student to manage their phone use.

Plagiarism and Intellectual Dishonesty: Any time a student submits the work of another person and aims to receive academic credit it is plagiarism. Failure to give credit to the author of any quote or idea is also plagiarism. No forms of plagiarism are acceptable and will result in the student receiving an incomplete for the entire assignment. In addition parents will be notified and disciplinary meetings may occur. Any student who gives their work to a peer will be penalized for this form of intellectual dishonesty.

These policies have been discussed, some of them at length over years, and were not arrived at casually. I present these to you so that you can discuss them with your kids and be aware that there are certain values, and certain rules that we will uphold in ways that do not fit with our laid back school culture. I assure that we will not ever apply these policies randomly or with any goal other than keeping ICE a safe and pleasant place to come to school each day.

Thank you guys – see you all soon.

Pete

Looking for Parent Volunteers

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Here are a few projects/events for you to consider:
 
TOWN MEETING SCRIBE — Wednesdays at 10:05am - 11:39am (4 volunteers)
Several parents take turn attending Town Meeting.

  • It’s fun and gives you insight into the life of the school, not just your own kid’s class, which means it’s particularly nice if you have an uncommunicative kid. (Which is, y’know, MOST kids.) You can see musical performance, acting, guest speakers. The job involves attending Town Meeting and taking notes, then inputting them into a MailChimp template — not hard, I’ll show them how.

ICE 5K RUN WALK FUNDRAISER – October 12th, 2019, 10:00am
The ICE 5K is moving to Brooklyn! at Shore Parkway along the Hudson just beneath the Verrazano Bridge.Volunteers arrive at 9:00 am for set-up.

  • Registration & Signage placement, etc. (3 volunteers)

  • Course Marshall (3 volunteers)

  • Prepare & Distribute Goodie Bags (2 volunteer)

Snack Donations for runners/walkers:

  • Water (2 case – 24 or 48 bottles per case)

  • Healthy Snacks (health bars, bananas, apples, tangerines, etc.)

PICTURE DAY FUNDRAISER (Grades 6-11) – Friday, October 25th, 2019 8:00am - 3:00pm
Choose the shift that best fits your schedule:

  • Afternoon Shift (3 volunteers) - 12:30pm - 3:00pm

  • All Day Shift — 8:00am - 3:00pm

To volunteer visit the ICE Community Volunteers page on the school website located under the Parent Life tab then sign-up using the ICE Community Volunteers Form.

ICE PAC (Parent Action/Education Advocacy Committee

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On Tuesday, the City Council's education committee held a hearing on "Breaking Testing Culture." It prominently featured representatives (students, principals, the executive director) of the New York Performance Assessment Consortium ("the Consortium"), of which ICE is a member school. Consortium schools are the only schools in NY state that have a waiver from (most of) the Regents exams. (These are the "exit exams" that most NY state students are required to take for high school graduation.) The hearing began with testimony from actor/musician Anthony Ramos, who starred in the original cast of Hamilton, along with the high school teacher who championed him--even though he failed Regents exam after Regents exam, resulting in this clearly bright young man being labeled as "underperforming." The second part of the hearing, however, took quite a different turn, as representatives of the DOE confirmed that rather than trying to lessen the testing burden that had hobbled Ramos, they would be adding an additional test for our children...to be administered FOUR TIMES A YEAR. If you are concerned about this development, please consider joining ICE PAC so we can learn more, strategize, and fight back. You can reach us via 10th grade parent Kemala Karmen.

Here's a Daily News article about the hearing--the title pretty much sums it up.