Running & College Scholarship Opportunity for 11th Grade Girls

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Young women are encouraged to apply for NYRR Run for the Future if they live in New York City; are in 11th grade at a public, publicly funded, or parochial high school in New York City during the 2019–2020 school year OR are working toward their New York State High School Equivalency Diploma; plan on attending an accredited two- or four-year college or university in fall 2021; are under 20 years of age; and have had little to no experience participating in running or physical activities.

NYRR Run for the Future offers a spring training season and a summer training season. Applicants may apply to both seasons but, if accepted, will only be selected to participate in one season.

ICE PAC (Parent Action/Education Advocacy Committee

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Mark your calendars for these upcoming education policy events!

DIANE RAVITCH BOOK TOUR. Tuesday January 21, Park Slope. Carol Burris, the director of the Network for Public Education, will be conversing with noted education historian Ravitch about her latest, Slaying Goliath: the Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools. Come learn and see for yourself why a historian has over 100,000 followers onTwitter! Details here.

OPT OUT FORUM. Thursday January 30, Harlem. State Senator Robert Jackson, Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, and candidate for City Council Johanna Garcia are hosting this event, along with grassroots parent and educator groups (which include some ICE parents). We speak openly about test refusal rights at ICE, but that is not the case in many, many schools. Let your networks know about this event, open to parents and students with Spanish interpretation available. Details here.

WHAT SHOULD NY DO ABOUT REGENTS EXAMS? Wednesday Feb 12, Bronx. (Go to the AM session bc our PTA meeting conflicts with the PM session.) At this past Wednesday's PTA meeting, a question was asked about whether there is pushback against the Regents exams (like there is for state 3rd-8th grade tests). ICE is one of a handful of schools statewide that has a waiver from (most) of these exams, but for other students they are unavoidable graduation requirements. HOWEVER, the Board of Regents (the state's governing body for all things education) is doing a "review" of the Regents exams which includes a statewide tour to hear what people think of these tests. The NYC event is on Feb 12 in the Bronx. Details are in this link. You might want to encourage families of children in non-Consortium high schools to attend this meeting and speak up. Among other things, exit exams like the Regents correlate with higher rates of incarceration. Although they have been around for a long time in NY state, they are an anomaly; our state is one of only about 12 that requires them. 

Last but not least: ICE PAC is hosting the Feb 12 PTA Meeting. We will have at least one special guest: Ann Cook of the New York Performance Standards Consortium. Ann is whip smart, a font of knowledge, and very engaging. Don't miss it! More details (including possible other guests) to come. If you would like to help plan this meeting or participate in ICE PAC generally, please get in touch with 10th grade parent Kemala Karmen. 

Two ICE MS Students Qualify to Run in the Prestigious NYRR Millrose Games

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Congratulations to Fiona Waters and Stella Addinsten, ICE middle schoolers on ICE's Rising New York Road Runners team on qualifying earlier in January to run in the NYRR Millrose Games. Held at the armory in Washington Heights, the Millrose Games in the country's oldest and most prestigious indoor track event. Fiona and Stella were among 15 girls selected to run in the 800M event that will be held on February 8th. You can read more about the event here.

ICE 2020 Spring Fling Needs Your Donations!

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This week you received a solicitation letter email asking for donations for the Spring Fling. We hope that you will give some thought to ways you could help us with this year's auction, the biggest fundraiser of our school. Whether you are a jewelry or clothing designer who can donate something fabulous; work in the theater or music industry and can offer us house seats; are an architect, interior designer, gardener, estate planner, or a closet organizer who can offer professional services, we need you!  Are you a loyal customer at a restaurant, cafe, camp, after school program, gym, yoga studio, pilates, boot camp? Ask for a gift certificate! It takes everyone thinking about who they can ask that makes this event so successful each year. If you have an idea and want to ask us some questions, feel free to email us.

ICE Thrift Shop

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~ Save the Date! ~

ICE Thrift Shop Friday January 29th - 2:30-5pm

In the Small Gym

Ready to clean up from the holidays? Have clothing that you're not excited about anymore, but someone else might be? Donate it for the ICE Thrift Shop! 

We will be collecting clothing in good condition starting on Friday January 24th and for the rest of the week. 
Directions: Please wash and heat dry all clothing, and drop off bundles firmly plastic wrapped together in Kristen's office. 

ICE students and families are welcome to come shop on Friday afternoon 1/29, each item will be $1! 

Questions: Please email Danya. 

Have extra hangers to donate? We'll take them! 
Have a portable coat rack you'd like to lend us for the day? We'll take that too! Please contact Danya! 

Parent Help Needed for 8th Grade Living Environment

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The 8th grade Living Environment classes are hard at work designing self-sustaining ecosystems and science lesson plans for our partner elementary schools as part of Project Ecobuild! We are looking for some parent help with the following:

1) We will be visiting partner classrooms the week of 1/28. If you would be willing to take a small group of students (+ their ecosystem) to a partner school the week of 1/28, please let me know your day/time availabilities.

2) We need community evaluators for student projects on 1/21 and 1/22. You would be responsible for scoring 3-4 student projects after viewing a 15 minute presentation from each group. Time of presentations is TBD, until Regents-week schedule has been finalized. 

3) We are in search of some resources to obtain critters for our ecosystems, such as salamanders or other small reptiles, and large insects such as ladybugs/crickets/ants. If you know anyone/resources that may be able to provide these for free/cheap, please let us know!

Contact Chelsea for any of the following. The students and I would super appreciate the help!! Thanks in advance for the support. 
 

Save the Date: Spring Fling on May 8th!

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It’s January and one of the biggest fundraisers for our school is coming up on May 8th, and we need your help! We have 4 months to get wonderful auction item donations from all of you! As soon as you have something in mind, please fill out this donation form. 

Here are some examples of previous donations: 

  • A gift certificate from your favorite restaurant

  • Tickets to a broadway show

  • A week at your holiday house

  • Free tutors or lessons

  • Or please be creative!

Also, if you are interested in joining the planning committee, please email us! We have some spots to fill and can always use the help!

If you have any questions, please email us at icespringfling@gmail.com

Thank you so much!

Spring Fling Committee

ICE Thrift Shop

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Save the Date

Thrift Shop January 29th - 2:30-5pm
Small Gym

Getting ready to clean up in time for the holidays? Have clothing that you're not excited about anymore, but someone else might be? Save it for the ICE Thrift Shop! 

We will be collecting clothing in good condition starting on Monday January 27th and for the rest of the week. Please wash and heat dry all clothing, and drop off bundles firmly plastic wrapped together in Kristen's office. 

ICE students and families are welcome to come shop on Friday afternoon 1/29, each item will be $1! 

Questions: Please email Danya. 

Have extra hangers to donate? We'll take them! Have a portable coat rack you'd like to lend us for the day? We'll take that too! 

Parent Action/Education Advocacy Committee (ICE PAC)

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THE FUTURE OF MAYORAL CONTROL 
This week the NY State Assembly Education Committee held the first hearing of a promised series of events about the future of mayoral control of our city's schools. Most of the people who testified at the hearing, including ICE PAC's Kemala Karmen, expressed frustration with the current system of school governance, speaking about how mayoral control led to a lack of transparency (financial and otherwise) and suppressed student and parent voice and participation. You can read the compelling testimony presented by noted education advocate Leonie Haimson on her blog. If you'd like to read Kemala's testimony, please email her at kemala AT yahoo.com The Assembly Committee will accept additional emailed comments until December 26, so if you have feelings about mayoral control, please send them to whylandf@nyassembly.gov 

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ON EDUCATION ISSUES
Last weekend MSNBC broadcast a forum where several of the leading Dem candidates answered questions about their education policy positions. Highlights from the forum and commentary can be viewed or heard here. For a written recap of the event, go here. 

ICE Senior Internships

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As the culmination of their ICE experience, all seniors will be interning for four or five days a week, starting January 28 until the middle of June. Every year, we rely on the ICE community to help find as many exciting opportunities as possible for our seniors, whose interests vary widely. This year, many seniors are still looking for internship sites in the industries they are most interested in, including:


sports management
psychology
auto repair shop
women's rights org
visual artist
recording studio (with the possibility of learning how to use recording equipment)
photographer
physical therapy, especially for athletes / sports medicine
fashion business
politics
animation studio
engineering
theater / acting
writing with focus on gender /LGBTQ issues
rooftop / urban farming
pottery
bakery
cosmetology
veterinarian office
criminal justice / law enforcement
LGBTQ rights / advocacy orgs
glassblowing
art / photography gallery
real estate
city planning
advertising
journalism
finance / investment house / banking
performing arts organization

If you or someone you know works in one of these or another field and might be interested in finding out more about the possibility of mentoring an exceptionally hard-working, mature, capable senior, please check out this informational sheet for more details about our program, and then contact ICE teacher and Internship Coordinator Josh Torpey. If you would like to submit your contact information via google form, please click here.


Thank you!  

ICE Community Lunch

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On Monday, the Community Service Club and I.C.E. parents organized the 2nd Community Lunch of the year. We were able to feed hundreds of kids thanks to the incredible generosity of families who sent in salad bar items, cornbread, chips, cookies, brownies and more chili than you can imagine! 

A huge thank you to all who participated. Keep an eye out for our next community lunch date and theme. If you have any suggestions or would like to volunteer please email.