6-6-2017

Coming Up

Tuesday, June 6Talent Show 6 - 7 p.m.3rd - 5thASL Interpreters Provided

Wednesday, June 7Talent Show 6 -7 p.m.K - 2nd ASL Interpreters Provided

Saturday, June 10Brent Participation in Family Pride ParadeMeeting time sent via email to all registered participants

Wednesday, June 14Last Day of School12:15 p.m. DismissalReport Cards distributed

Talent Shows Tonight and To-morrow – Don’t Miss One of the Best Events of the Year!Tonight ( June 6 ) our 3rd-5th grade participants take the stage for a night of unforgettable perfor-mances. Tomorrow, kindergarten through 2nd graders have their turn to dazzle the Brent Com-munity. ASL interpreters will be provided for the event. Both per-formances start at 6 p.m.

65 marchers will show Brent has PRIDE!The Capital Pride parade is this weekend, Saturday, June 10th. Want to show your pride? Sign-up to join over 65 students, families and teachers representing our school. Join us! RSVP using the following link:http://bit.ly/BrentFami-lyPride2017 Keep an eye on your email! Gath-ering time and location will be announced this week.

Girls on the Run 5KOur spring season for girls on the run ended this past weekend with a celebratory 5k at Freedom Plaza on Sunday, June 4th. Each girl ran 3.1 miles past the Capitol Building with their buddy runners cheering them on! We learned so much about teamwork, compas-sion, and encouragement through out the last couple of months and our girls really demonstrated all of these values both in and outside of school. Hopefully, we’ll see most of you out for Girls on the Run in the fall season next year! Great job ladies! Coach Maschari, Coach Patterson, and Coach Kadash. See photo on front page.

Brent’s 2017 Recommended Summer Reading List is now available! Look for the 2017 Brent summer reading list attached to an e-mail from your child’s teacher, in the main office, and on the website (brentelementary.org) for you to access over the summer. It has lots of hand-selected recommendations for books and where to find them, and the cover features our 2017 theme: Summer Brain Gain!These are books we love, but of course the most important thing is to spend time reading. We know that summer reading is critical to maintain reading levels; kids that don’t read consistently over sum-mer lose about one month’s worth of learning before school starts back up. Not only does this waste learning time in the fall, it creates significant gaps between the kids that have read over summer and the kids that haven’t, since kids that read at their just-right level all summer long often come back to school ready to move up levels!Again this summer, students can log their reading on-line! There is

a Brent Summer Reading Log, and it can be found at:http://tinyurl.com/ BrentReading

Each time your child finishes a book, he or she can enter the title and a little information about the book there. That way, we can track the reading that is taking place over the summer! It’s quick and easy. The survey is live; you can start tonight! The link is also on the Brent website. We’re looking forward to hearing about all the great reading that your family does between now and next fall!

Kindersauruses Release But-terfliesThe kindersauruses in Ms. Santo-ra’s class released their butterflies on Friday as a closing to their mu-seum night exhibit. They studied bugs and insects and were very proud of the chrysalis hatchings.

Club Day SpotlightFor the final Club Day the Asian Culture Club hosted a wonder-ful demonstration of the Japa-nese martial art of Kendo, or “the

way of the sword”. Rod Faghani Sensei, the Founder and Head Instructor of the Fudokan School and 3 other instructors (sensei) introduced the spiritual practice of sword fighting to our students. Dressed in traditional Japanese uniforms and helmets for kendo the instructors looked much like Star Wars characters in combat with lightsabers. In fact, did you know that kendo and Japanese samurai were major influences for the Star War movies? Brent students were then able to practice the technique of swordsmanship using swords (shinai) made of split bamboo. Domo arigato gozaimasu (Thank you) to the Fudokan School for presenting such an ex-citing cultural activity. See Photos.

Photos: 2nd grade civil rights plays performances at Learning Show-case Night last week. The plays protrayed Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Ms. Kadash’s class), the Greens-boro 4 (Ms Swissman’s class), and Cesar Chavez (Mr. Berg’s class).

Announcing New LSAT Mem-bers for SY2017-2018Thank you to the parents who volunteered to serve on the LSAT in the coming years. There were three openings for two year terms and one for a one year term. Below are the candidate statements for each parent. As there were four nominations for the four positions, each candidate serves on the LSAT as noted below. Two year terms

Sarah CarrBrent Elementary Student Name: Xavier Master (rising 2nd grade), Kai Master (rising K), Eamon Mas-ter (rising ECE) Next year will be our family’s third year at Brent Elementary, and we look forward to eight more years

as part of the school community. I am running to be a member of the LSAT because I would like to contribute my time, energy, listen-ing skills, and analytical abilities to improving the quality of all of our children’s’ preschool and elemen-tary educations. While Brent is in general a wonderful place to at-tend school, it is currently facing a number of difficult issues, includ-ing a persistent achievement gap, a shortage of classroom spaces for the upper grades, the inability to accommodate all of the inbounds demand for preschool, and par-ent dissatisfaction with middle and high school feeder patterns. I have followed all of these issues for many years, and I would bring an open mind and analytical ap-proach to these issues and others facing the school.As a PhD scientist and a coor-dinator for a large professional networking group, I bring a con-sensus-seeking, data-driven, and practical mindset to this work. At Brent, I have previously served as the science classroom room par-ent for two years, co-organized the annual fall book sale for two years, and been an active member of the middle school committee for two years. I coordinated playdates for all rising preschool and kinder-garten students two years ago and will again this coming year to help forge connections between new and returning families. Outside of Brent, I served on the advisory board for my younger sons’ pre-school for three years and as the room parent for my eldest son’s classroom at Ludlow-Taylor El-ementary School for two years.Thank you for your support for my candidacy. It would be an honor to serve the Brent community as a member of the LSAT.

Brian KirraneBrent Elementary Student Name: Aidan Kirrane (rising 2nd grade), Shannon Kirrane (rising PK4), Erin Kirrane (entering PK3 lottery in 2018) My name is Brian Kirrane and I have been a Brent parent for two years. Currently, I have a son, Aidan, in 1st grade and a daughter, Shannon, in ECE. I have a third child, Erin, who will be entering the lottery next winter. I have also served on the LSAT for the past three years, the first year as the community representative and this past year as the Chair. My children have had a great experience these past two years and Brent’s teach-er’s and staff have been incredible. However, there is still more work to be done to address issues that have presented or will present in the near future including space issues, special needs education, departmentalization, our contin-ued achievement gap, and a very tight DCPS budget. Having worked on all of these issues the last three years, I believe I can bring that knowledge to help guide our new principal as he or she starts from scratch to learn about Brent and how his or her vision can resolve issues and take Brent to the next level.

Lastly, the DCPS budget is one of the critical areas for the LSAT to tackle. I work for the District’s CFO’s office and have a great level of familiarity with the District’s budget and can bring that knowl-edge to our local school discus-sions. Principal Young has been very flexible with our DCPS budget in the past and I can also help guide the new principal through some of the previous decisions

that were made and the impacts of those decisions.

Kim TaylorBrent Elementary Student Name: Charlie Taylor (rising 2nd grade), Ryan Taylor (rising K)

While education has always been an important value, it wasn’t until I became a parent that I truly realized its monumental impor-tance, how difficult it is to provide, and how far beyond what can be measured by standardized tests it goes, particularly in the elemen-tary setting. This was our family’s second year at Brent, and astound-ingly, neither of my kids has ever complained about going to school in the morning (despite how long it takes us to get out the door!). It’s a testament to a special school of which we feel very lucky to finally be a part. I believe a great school should provide a dynamic curriculum, in-spiring (and inspired) leadership/teachers, a safe and effective space for all kids, and be committed to the specific needs of each child. The establishment of open lines of communication between students/parents and staff go hand in hand with these elements. My back-ground in media and particularly my current role as an evaluation and implementation specialist in the federal government have pro-vided me with distinctive skills and experience relevant to the LSAT. One year termYael MerozBrent Elementary Student Name: Jonah Meroz (alumni), Dena Meroz (rising 5th)

My name is Yael Meroz and I’m a long-time Brent Parent. My son Jonah attended Brent from PS-3

thru 3rd grade. My daughter Dena is currently a 4th grader at Brent and will go to Brent next year for 5th. I am also a veteran of LSAT - I served for four years between 2012-2016, including one year as co-chair. I would like to run for the 1-year opening on LSAT because I care deeply about what goes on at Brent both on the day-to-day as well as in the long run. We are looking at huge staff turnover this summer, not the least of which is Principal Young. This is a moment of great vulnerability as well as great opportunity. The transition of a new principal is a crucial mo-ment in the life of the school, one that will set the tone for students, faculty, staff, and parents for years to come. With one year remain-ing as a Brent parent, I would like to contribute as much as I can to ensure continuity of the Brent strategic plan and school culture, and support the new principal as she or he transitions into the role. I believe my longevity at Brent and experience as LSAT member position me in a good spot to help shape Brent’s future.