Jan. 1-2	Winter Recess - No School
Jan. 5	Building Level Compact Meeting 6PM
Jan. 6-16	Kindergarten Sibling Registration
Jan. 13-16	NYS Grades 3-5 ELA Test
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To: All Unlimited Horizons Families
From: Mr. Barbero
Regarding: Fund Raiser

I am writing to reintroduce the Cartridges for Kids program to Unlimited Horizons Families. The Cartridges for Kids program incorporates both recycling and fundraising. By collecting USED CELL PHONES, LAPTOP COMPUTERS, PDA’S, EMPTY INKJETS, LASER, FAX, AND COPY MACHINE CARTRIDGES, we will not only save our nation’s valuable natural resources, but we will raise money for our school. The Cartridges for Kids program will reimburse our school for every cartridge or cell phone that we send to them. Reimbursement ranges from $.025 to $144.00, depending on the item.

Although we will be able to raise money for our school by recycling cell phones, cartridges, laptops, and PDA’s, we will be able to raise MUCH MORE by contacting area businesses and asking them to recycle these items for us. Ask neighbors, relatives, friends, area businesses, and anyone else to participate in our program.

Whenever you collect one of the aforementioned items, send it in with your child. Your child should then pass the item on to his or her teacher, who will pass it on to Mr. Barbero. Teachers, please put the items in my mailbox or in the collection box in the staff room. I will pick them up, pack them, and then send them to the company for reimbursement.

I hope that this program will earn money for our school as it has in the past. If you have any questions or ideas on how to improve this program, please contact me at mbarbero@newburgh.k12.ny.us or 563-3725. Thank you for your assistance.

Regards,
Mr. Barbero

“Poetry Out-Loud PRESS RELEASE”
In celebration of National Poetry Month and to showcase student poetry, Horizons-on-the-Hudson students recited their own original poetry at our recent “Poetry Out-Loud” inaugural evening literacy event at the Newburgh Free Library and the Board of Education Auditorium. This event was born out of our building compact committee early in the fall as one way to accomplish our annual goal of involving more parents at our school. The building compact committee wanted to have more parents involved with the school and realized that student performances are a wonderful way to attract parents to the school for a positive showcase of our students’ academic achievements while simultaneously providing information on how to become more involved at the school. Knowing the large turnouts at our winter and spring music concerts, the committee knew that a literary performance would attract many families to the event. The building compact committee decided to hold the event in the community as opposed to the school as we felt that the library would be a great place to showcase students’ literary talents while exploring the services that our wonderful library has to offer.

In preparation of the event, teachers worked tirelessly with their students on poetry units throughout the month of April. Some classes teamed up and worked on group poems. In addition to students reciting their poetry, each student submitted an original poem and a “Poetry Out-Loud” book was assembled and published for our families to pick up at the performance. During the event, the building compact committee had tables offering information on how to get more involved with the school and a sign up sheet for both our building compact committee and parent teacher association. Some grade level teams organized fundraisers at the event to raise monies for class field trips and special events.

The event was a huge success and we had standing room only for both our K-3 and 4-6 poetry performances. All of our teachers attended the event and it was a positive venue for parents to communicate with teachers about all the wonderful achievements of HOH students. A guest poet from the Newburgh community, Danielle Jasmine Nordlund, performed at both performances and was well received. The library staff at the Newburgh Free Library was extremely helpful and set up a beautiful display of poetry books for our parents to view during the event. It was wonderful to see students, parents and teachers interacting in the library and some students signed up for their first library card on that evening. It was such a great school event that we are having a repeat day performance for the whole school and parents at our school on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 9:30am.

We are grateful to all the hard work of our teachers, students, parents and building compact committee for their continuous support to meeting the goals to improve student achievement at our school. We look forward to planning our second annual “Poetry Out-Loud” event for next year and invite all parents interested in joining our building compact committee to help us continue to meet our annual goals of improving student outcomes for all our students.