Coming Together to Build a Dream

For over a year now, our Parent Council has been steadily working towards the dream of building a playground for our students. In a little over a year, they have raised $1,600!

Their hard work and dedication put Pride Academy in the perfect position for an amazing opportunity that recently became available to us. About four weeks ago, we were contacted by KaBOOM, a non-profit organization that connects corporate sponsors with great schools and organizations who need playgrounds.

Since then, it’s been full-steam ahead! The whole community has rallied to complete the application, sign petitions, attend interviews, and raise the remaining $7,000 needed to earn the grant and get our playground built. Our coupon book fundraiser was a great success, bringing in over $2,000. To date, we are about $4,000 short of our goal.

This week, we will launch our next big fundraiser. We will be hosting a “FUN-A-THON”, where all Pride students will be challenged to get sponsors for either jumping rope, hula-hooping, or dribbling a basketball. Families and friends will be asked to pledge flat donations or donations per minute of “FUN”. The fundraiser will culminate with a community celebration called “An Indoor Playground for Our Outdoor Dream” on Saturday, March 10th. Our common room will be converted into an indoor park, where students will jump, hula-hoop, and dribble basketball to meet their pledge requirements. Our indoor park will have hot dog stands, Italian ices, and more for sale, with profits going to the playground fund.

We look forward to your support in order to make this a successful community celebration to help us raise the funds we need and create a fun event for the whole Pride Academy family.

By Ms Dumenigo

GRIT = RESULTS

Last year, we worked with parents and students on defining EFFORT and we spoke about RESILIENCE and student capacity to stay determined and not give up because the work is hard or the answer to the problem is not immediate.

This year, we are working with students to track and use their assessment data to help them to set goals and create action plans for continued growth towards meeting their goals.


As a school community, we are now ready to talk about levels of HIGH EFFORT and PERSISTENCE, ideas that are captured in the word, GRIT.

During one of our Professional Development workshops last month, Steve Barkley, a master teacher consultant who has been working with us at Pride for the past 3 years, shared some important ideas that will help to propel our push for higher levels of student achievement and the development of our students as independent critical thinkers.

Mr. Barkley shared the work of an author, Martin Seligman, who writes in his book, “Flourish” , about the importance of self-discipline in academic success. He states that the “ultimate self-discipline character is GRIT… the never-yielding form of self- discipline, an extreme persistence that produces very high effort….

The more GRIT you have, the more time you spend on the task, and all those hours don’t just add to whatever innate skill you have: they multiply your progress to the goal.”(Seligman, 2011).

Mr. Barkley challenged us as teachers and leaders to think about what we need to do to increase student self–discipline and build GRIT:

• What kind of self–discipline will create the student achievement that we seek?
• What changes do we need to make in the rigor of our teaching to move students from “just doing what is necessary to pass or complete the assignment, or get an “A” to students setting goals and practicing identifying and committing to “what it takes to achieve it”. (Barkley 2012)

Ms Cenac’s recent DREAM HOUSE exhibition of students’ higher order thinking skills in science and the results of our math department’s X-FACTOR program highlighted in our February newsletter show how powerful this kind of teaching and learning can be.

We are excited about this next step in our thinking and action as a school community and we would like to invite parents and community members to join us as we begin our focus. We need you more than ever as partners in our continual evolution as a high performing school. We need your help to identify family and community actions that will support our mutual work in ensuring that our students continue to build their skills as powerful thinkers and problem solvers.

Please  reach out to Mrs. Thomas, Ms Dumenigo or Ms Cenac if you are interested in sharing your ideas and time to work on our GRIT Initiative.

Pride Parent Party!

On Thursday, September 29th, Pride Academy held its first Parent Party and it was a huge success with over 80 parents in attendance. The goal of Pride Parties is to give parents an opportunity to spend time with their children, learning and growing together.

The theme of our first Pride Party was a "Celebration of Gifts". We focused on Rev. Jesse Jackson's quote, "Your children want your presence more than they want your presents." This quote clearly reminds us all how valuable it is for parents to be present and involved in the lives of their children, especially when it comes to education.
Together with their children, our 80 Pride Academy Parents participated in a team competition which required them to come up with positive activities to do with their families that started with the letter "P". Families later made a commitment to participate in at least two activities that supported the academic goals of their children. There were twelve activities offered, which ranged from signing up for parenting workshops to attending free African Dance Classes.

We look forward to many more fun and educational Parent Parties in the future as we continue to develop more opportunities for parent involvement at Pride Academy.

by Rose Mary Dumenigo

Pride Lions Roar into Flag Football Action!

Pride Academy Charter School is excited to announce its newest addition to their athletic program for the 2011/2012 school year. On Saturday October 1st the Pride Lions began their inaugural Flag Football season versus Jersey City Community Charter School. Prior to their first game, Pride Academy hosted a pep rally in the newly renovated Common Room on Friday, September 30th.

The festivities began with an enthusiastic introduction from Pride Academy’s own Mr. Dunn. Over 200 Pride scholars were present to show their support for the Lions by cheering “Pride Academy, come on let’s hear it! 1-2-3, we have spirit!” First, the eight junior varsity players were introduced followed by the twenty varsity players. The varsity players received their numbers and were presented with their team jerseys. The team stood together wearing their new jerseys with pride, and the school’s excitement could be felt throughout the room.

The team practices on Mondays and Thursdays from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm at Elmwood Park in East Orange. Head Coach is Mr. Altamirano, Assistant Coaches are Mr. Geiger and Mr. Wilson, and Skills Coach is Mr. Dunn. Both the faculty leaders and the student athletes are looking forward to a fun and successful season!

By: Mr. Evan Geiger

Ms Dailey Receives Governor's Recognition Award

 We are very proud to announce that Ms Aimee Dailey, our 5^th & 6^th grade social studies teacher, has received The 2011 Governor's Teacher Recognition Award for "demonstration of excellence as a teacher by creating an environment that improves students' academic opportunities, workforce preparedness, and overall quality of life."

The award is granted in appreciation for the contribution of teaching professionals to the success of public schools and the important services they provide outside of the classroom environment. It is an acknowledgement of their efforts and provides an incentive to others to strive for excellence.

Grand Opening of the Pride Power Fitness Room

On Saturday May 21st, Pride Academy 8th grade students and staff were honored to be present at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the Pride Power Fitness Room at the Recreation Fellowship Civic Center in East Orange. As part of the Jerricho Junior Leaders Program, our 8th grade students worked on building and outfitting the fitness room. Due to the hard work of our 8th graders and the generous sponsorship of the Cotcherys, the fitness room now bears Pride’s name and will stand forever in the community as a legacy promoting and supporting the youth of East Orange in making healthy lifestyles choices and spending leisure time in a safe and productive space.

In its three-year relationship with Pride Academy, the Cotchery Foundation has financially supported our athletic program and created and implemented a mentoring program for our 7th and 8th grade students. This year’s endeavor is the Jerricho's Junior Leaders Program, a community service leadership program that continues the goals of the RESH 180 mentoring program that the students participated in as 7th graders. Through the Jerricho's Junior Leaders Program, students explore how serving others not only helps to create a better world, but also helps to develop them as leaders.

Over the course of the year, in addition to their work on outfitting and preparing the Pride Power Fitness Room at the East Orange Recreation Center, our 8th graders participated in a service project with the Adopt One Village Organization. Adopt One Village is a non-profit organization that collects, packages, and delivers clothing, medical supplies, and other materials to Ghana, Africa. Our students spent time sorting clothes for men, women, and children, as well as sorting toys and putting pamphlets together for Adopt One Village.

Jourdan Bowers, an 8th grader from the Gandhi Team, said that she had a lot of fun during the service project and that she would like to volunteer more in the future. Jourdan reflected on her experience and added, "I think that if I was a child in Ghana and I received a package from America, I would like to know that the package was put together by young people like me."

Ms Michele Chiles-Hickman, volunteer leader of the service projects and teacher with the Cotchery Foundation’s RESH 180 Program, added: “As the mother of teenagers myself and a volunteer teacher with the RESH 180 program, I know how challenging it can be to “get through” to youth of this age. It is always a pleasure to complete a service project like this one, at the warehouse, and know that not only have the children gotten something out of it – which they express now – but that some of these experiences will really stay with a lot of them into the future. It is nice for me to be able to work on the “Legacy” lesson that we speak about and it is nice for them to be able to start a “legacy” of their own. I really think that they feel that they are touching somebody's life and this is the essence of what we are doing at Pride and what we want to pass along…..like “paying it forward”. Michele Chiles-Hickman ABR, CRS

Lucky Lions 4-H Club

On Saturday April 16th, Pride Academy was successfully represented for the first time at the Essex County 4-H Fair. Our Pride Scholars had the opportunity to showcase projects they have completed as members of the Lucky Lions 4-H Club and work they have completed in class and at home for competition. In our first fair, we had over 50 projects representing 12 different 4-H members and won more than 60 awards for outstanding projects and presentations. Students submitted many projects related to our Community Garden, which we will be installing this spring, and displayed vegetables, herbs, and even writing projects about our worm composting program. Other projects included paintings, sculptures, movies, and candy that were completed in classes and during 4-H meetings.
4-H members who completed outstanding projects will be honored at Achievement Night in November and will be awarded division ribbons and monetary awards to acknowledge their hard work and dedication. Students will also have an opportunity in May to showcase their presentation skills in the annual 4-H Public Presentation Night where students develop and present a project or speech of their choice to improve their public speaking skills. Public Presentations are especially important to our Pride Scholars as they prepare for high school interviews and meetings to help develop strong and successful plans for their futures. For more information on 4-H events or to join the 4-H club please contact Ms. Kalenak or visit kalenak.pbworks.com

By Ms. Kalenak