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We have a new day at City High School this year. We are teaming up with our long-time partner VOICES to offer an Extended Day Program that provides a full complement of academics, arts, and enrichment activities for students from 7:45 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Mornings are a buzz of activity. Classes now begin later than in past years (at 9:00 a.m.); however, the school is anything but quiet during the first part of the day. Academic tutoring is available to all students. Hot breakfast is served. Teachers are in their classrooms meeting with students during our daily school-wide office hours from 8:30-9:00. There is a student-led fitness elective happening at the YMCA, and a number of clubs are meeting during the expanded morning time.

We're loving our new morning culture, and we're hoping it has good results too! The two biggest outcomes we're

Enrollment 2011 + new website.

Out and about in the world: learning in the real world.

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CITY HIGH SCHOOL

Using our minds well. Caring about one another. Engaging in our world.

cityscape: news from city high school december 2010 volume 8 :: issue 1

Inside

A new day.

Tribute to the TSSP Board of Directors, 2002-2010. 4

Tax credit time: countdown to Dec. 31! 8

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Out and about.

Students have been busy this semester with field study experiences and community projects that encourage them to engage in – and learn from – the world around them.

For the first time in seven years, we made major changes to the school schedule. Classes now meet every other day for longer periods (90 minutes) to allow for more in-depth activity time. The trade-off: letting go of the stand-alone City Works class with one designated day per week for community projects. The goal is to integrate more hands-on, place-based, and service-oriented activities into all classes – across the curriculum and throughout the week. It’s an ambitious goal and change is never easy. This partial list of student experiences from fall semester provides good evidence that we’re heading in the right direction.

We started the school year with our tradition of a whole-school retreat. This year all students and staff spent the first day on the University of Arizona campus. Activities included teambuilding with advisory groups, music workshops, and visits to the Arizona Historical Museum and Flandrau Science Center.

A variety of arts electives participated in Parking Day, an international event every September designed to raise awareness around open space in urban areas. Students turned parking spots along Pennington Street

Students take their learning beyond the schools walls, into the real world.

into “park spots” and performed live music and a puppet show, offered portrait sketches, and read poetry for downtown passersby.

Ninth graders headed up Tumamoc Hill earlier this fall, spending the day as “citizen scientists.” They recorded data on plant species and measured the slope at various points along the hike. On the same day, tenth graders headed south of town to San Xavier Mission as part of their unit on Spanish colonization in humanities.

The senior class visited Silver City, New Mexico for an exchange with our sister school Aldo Leopold in mid-October. Students had homestays with Aldo Leopold students, and spent their days exploring Silver City and the Gila Wilderness. Students conducted interviews as part of a multi-media documentary project, experienced rock climbing, and visited the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

Spanish classes participated in Tucson’s unique community event – the annual All Souls’ Procession – as part of their exploration of the Dia de los Muertos cultural tradition. They designed sugar skulls with visiting artist Johanna Martinez; created personal ofrendas in honor of a loved one; and orchestrated an installation in memory of the tragic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Their work was displayed at the

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Parade of Angels children’s event, and many students participated in the Procession with Spanish Teacher Leslie Cho Newman.

Global Studies Teacher Tom Moore connected with the international refugee community in Tucson as a way to heighten students’ interest and awareness in the global issues they were studying. The 12th grade classes hosted Abraham Deng Ater, one of the lost boys of Sudan, for a visit to City High School. A group of students later participated in a pumpkin gleaning day with Iskash’taa Refugee Harvest Network.

Students from Sarah Bromer’s radio class headed to Prescott, AZ in early November for a service-learning and leadership camp and produced “vox pop” recordings to share with other camp-goers.

Reading and Writing Workshop classes participated

in a book-making project with Sam Hughes elementary school students with our community partner, Stories That Soar. The younger students wrote stories, and the City High teens acted as book illustrators and producers for their elementary school counterparts. A highlight of the project was bringing together the authors and illustrators to share the finished products.

A few days after their awesome Wizard of Oz performance, the drama class visited the Arizona Theatre Company for an insiders tour. Juniors returned to the UA Flandrau Science Center to visit the center’s outstanding mineral collection. And the list goes on …

Talk with students about what they’re learning and creating. Join us for the 2011 Project Expo at the annual Pennington Street Block Party, on Saturday, April 9, held this year in conjunction with 2nd Saturdays Downtown.

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Carrie Brennan*

Maureen Cain

Dave Chandler

Carole Dehasse

Eric Dhruv

Suzanne Dhruv

John Dougherty (deceased)

Jerry Farnsworth

Mary Jo Ghory

Brett Goble*

Tom Groh*

Anne-Marie Hall*

Gary Hirsch

Nancy Linnon*

Roy Martin

Tyler Mathis

Dirk Matthias

We couldn’t do it without you.

Thank you. Tucson Small School Project’s Board of Directors has been an instrumental – and often behind-the-scenes – factor in City High School’s success. In this issue of cityscape, we pay tribute to all of the TSSP Board members, past and present, who have provided expertise, insight, time, and sheer effort on behalf of our school.

TSSP Directors 2002-2010.

Why and when did TSSP start? A group of educators and community members started TSSP in 2002 as a way to formalize the group’s big decision to establish a new charter high school in Tucson. What is TSSP? Tucson Small School Project is an Arizona nonprofit corporation. TSSP received 501c3 status in 2003, which means that the organization can receive tax-deductible donations. How did TSSP get its name? The name of the school had not yet been decided upon, so the nonprofit organization obviously couldn’t share the school’s name. The two main purposes of TSSP were 1. to start a small school in Tucson and 2. to share best practices in small school reform with other educators. So the name made sense at the time.

What is Tucson Small

School Project?

Rudy McCormick

Ann Modica*

Yvonne Montoya

Maria Moore

Leslie Cho Newman

Diana Olivares

David Olsen

Ted Ranney*

Eve Rifkin*

Bob Rodriguez

Mae Lee Sun

Caroline Tompkins

Al Wynant

Current TSSP Board in bold.

*Founding Board noted w/asterisk.

Photographs: Top row: Founding Board Members Brett Goble and Nancy Linnon, Vice President Gary Hirsch; Middle row: Board Member Roy Martin, Founding Board Members Eve Rifkin and Ann Modica; Bottom row: President Mary Jo Ghory, Board Members Rudy McCormick and David Olsen.

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Enrollment season is underway.

Join us: 2011-2012. We encourage all prospective students and families to join us for an upcoming Information Session on January 26 or February 16. Students are also invited to spend a day at City High School, shadowing a student ambassador to classes. More details about enrollment and visiting days, and an on-line application form, are all available on our website. Please share the news with 8th graders in the community who you think might be interested. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2011. Learn more: cityhighschool.org/enroll.

Visit our new virtual home. Info, links, and images for all at cityhighschool.org.

Our new website launched in September, and we’re loving it. The site is much more than a very cool brochure. It’s a hub. It’s a home. Come visit us.

Some of what you will find there:

> Regular news updates with convenient email subscription.

> Links to our social media sites and content sharing sites featuring student projects.

> Google calendar of school and community events updated daily.

> “Inside City High” section designed for daily use by parents, staff, and students.

> Photo galleries of school events, trips, and projects.

> Staff info section with bios and photos of all of our amazing staff members.

The new site is still a work-in-progress, and always will be. Send feedback our way!

Website Kudos go to Tim Bowen of Creative Slice, the TSSP Outreach & Marketing Committee, Art Teacher

Jason Marrano, and Executive Assistant Julie Richelson.

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Continued from page 1

aiming for include improved academic performance (better grades!) and fewer tardies to school.

Not all students who need to are taking advantage of the new offerings yet, but many are. Stroll around school on any given day at 8:30 and one will find lots of purposeful activity: a table full of students working intently with Tutor Keith Quillen; others nearby working independently on homework assignments; Julie Richelson with the caterers serving breakfast in the back area; clusters of students throughout the ground floor eating nutritious breakfasts, such as pancakes, breakfast burritos, or yogurt; and a handful of students or more in every classroom studying on their own, working with a classmate, or getting help from a teacher. Dean of Students Jeff Hartman is in all of these places, chatting with students and staff and keeping tabs on all of the hustle and bustle each morning.

The day does not end when school day classes wrap up at 3:00 p.m. The afternoon program especially builds on the rich history of collaboration between City High School and VOICES and the two organizations’ shared mission to engage young people in learning more about themselves and their communities.

Students have a myriad of offerings and ways to get involved. Afternoon and weekend activities for City High School students include:

♦ After-school documentary arts classes modeled after Voices’ award-winning program, 110°: Tucson’s Youth Tell Tucson’s Stories. Classes offered this semester included radio, poetry, video, photography, and the graphic novel.

♦ Enrichment and arts workshops on Friday afternoons; this semester featured chess with 9 Queens Chess and African drumming with the Dambe Project.

♦ Special events, such as the 3-Day Novel Contest over Labor Day weekend and the Made for Flight Remembrance Kite

We need to re-think how, when, and where young people learn.

“Nearly a third of America’s children, disproportionately from racial and ethnic minorities or from low-income families, are being left behind. … National concern about the serious implications for America’s future of this growing loss of human potential is causing many to question the dominant assumption … that school is the only place where and when children learn. This assumption is wrong. Forty years of research show that learning opportunities and support in the family, after school, and during the summer months are major predictors of children’s development, learning, and educational achievement. … Economically and otherwise disadvantaged children are less likely than their more-advantaged peers to have access to these out-of-school or “complementary learning” opportunities, and this inequity substantially undermines their learning and school success.”

Effective “out-of-school” learning programs:

Research says:

Engage and support families in the learning process.

Partner schools with existing after-school programs and community organizations.

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Offer an array of activities, including academics, arts, and youth development.

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Source: “The Federal Role in Out-of-School Learning,” Harvard Family Research Project, February 2009.

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(Continued)

Project in honor of Transgender Awareness Day.

♦ Nature outings with Ironwood Tree Experience.

♦ Weekly Family Pizza Nights for parents, siblings, and students.

♦ College Readiness Field Trips to University of Arizona and Pima Community College.

We launched the Extended Day experience this year with funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program. City High School received the competitive 21st CCLC grant through the Arizona Department of Education in July 2010, in collaboration with VOICES. Receiving the funding was great news. Even better news: it’s a multi-year grant, providing approximately $500,000 over 5 years! The multi-year nature of the funding allows us to think long-range and build the program strategically with student, staff, and family input.

Long-time Voices staff member Krista Niles is the Site Coordinator for the Extended Day program. She can be reached at 520.622.7458 or via email at krista@voicesinc.org.

Photos, top to bottom: 1. Students in the kite-making Flight Project with artist TC

Tolbert walk together in the All Souls Procession. 2. Laken Vogel and Danielle Enriquez, with team member

Rio Finnegan on right, shoot video and interview community members in front of Antigone’s Books on 4th Avenue. All 3 are participants in the afterschool video class.

3. Some of the student and staff writers who took part in the 3-Day Novel Contest share their writing and receive awards during a Whole School Meeting.

4. Guest artist Martin Klabunde leads an African drumming workshop after school during early release Fridays.

5. Treven Hooker, Grace Edgerton, Dakota Hall, and Matthew Shircore try their hand at chess during one of the 9 Queens afterschool workshops led by Jean Hoffman.

6. On previous page: Erica Gomez, participant in the photography class, ‘on assignment’ in downtown Tucson.

CITY HIGH SCHOOL cityscape :: december 2010

[a project of Tucson Small School Project]

CITY HIGH SCHOOL

48 E. Pennington St. Tucson, AZ 85701

cityhighschool.org

[Recipient]

Address Line 1 Address Line 2 Address Line 3 Address Line 4

Help City High School engage young people in an extraordinary hands-on learning experience. Please include us in your tax credit giving this year.

Tax credit dollars directly support many innovative and effective programs at City High School: field study trips, service learning, guest artists, mentoring, senior internships, real-world media and literacy classes, and family engagement nights.

The School Tax Credit Program allows Arizona residents to make a donation to a public school of their choice and receive a state tax credit*. Use our secure PayPal link to make to make your annual tax credit donation now: cityhighschool.org/support/tax-credit.

2010 tax credit donations need to be dated on or before Dec. 31. Happy Holidays to all of our friends and supporters!

*Couples filing jointly can donate up to $400 and individuals filing solo can donate up to $200, and receive a dollar-for-dollar reduction on state taxes.

Tax credit time.

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