中文学校每周简讯 - 9月26日

Posted Fri, 09/26/2014 - 11:27pm

中文学校的家长们，你们好！

中文学校进入第四周，注册基本结束。上个星期课程结束后，我终于有时间把教学区大致走了一遍。不走不知道，一走吓一跳。上下两层楼共三十间教室加走廊，我一共捡了8张糖纸，5根棒棒糖柄，以及其他一些食物垃圾。当然还有一些我没有注意到的，或是已经被捡起来的。也就是说我们一再强调在教学区不准带食物和饮料的规定并没有得到很好的执行，这给学校的管理带来了很多隐患。上个星期，我已经收到Colonie学区的反馈意见，基本和我的观察一致，就是大问题没有，小问题一串。我请大家引起注意，从自己做起，带动身边的家长，共同维护学校的清洁卫生。

其他一些学校的工作和大家通报如下：

1．青少年义工团选举结果
华社青少年义工团上个星期天进行选举，共有43人参加，包括三对6名候选人。每对选举人向大家做了自我介绍以及工作设想，并且回答了来自听众以及我的问题。所有候选人都对过去一年的工作做了回顾，一致认为今后的工作还可以做的更多、更好。在“更多、更好”的大方向下，每个候选人的思路和具体想法各不相同：Bill和Michael侧重于如何帮助中文学校和华社作更多、更细致的工作；Ryan和Jeffrey想拓展义工的范围，发挥华裔青少年的长处，走出华人的社区，更多的为全社会服务; Aaron和Bryan注意到义工团参与度不高的问题，想努力提高大家的积极性，包括作学生家长的思想工作，鼓励大家参与，改变社会上存在的“华裔青少年只知道读书用功”的一些片面印象。他们每个人的想法都是自己努力思考的结果，对问题以及解决方案的阐述有条有理。最后的选举结果如下：
Ryan和Jeffrey，17票，当选主席。
Bill和Michael, 13票，当选副主席。
Aaron和Bryan, 11票，当选秘书。
还有两票弃权。选举的结果是相当的接近，没有一个人获得半数以上的票，说明他们的提议和想法都是大家所关心的。在这里我祝贺他们并希望这三对候选人在工作中互动互补，把青少年义工团的工作上升一个台阶。

２．2014-2015学年预算
上个周末在董刚主席的召集下，开了本学年第一次董事会，主要是商议本学年的财政预算。根据上个周末的统计，今年的收入约为11.5万美元。开支主要分为三大块：老师以及校务人员的工资和补贴为65%，学校的固定开支（租金，保险，财务审计等）为21%，其他各种项目（故事会，期末庆祝，老师培训等等）为14%。今年的收入和去年持平，头两项开支也大致相同。主要的区别在于本学年学校将增加在老师培训、教育性讲座两方面的力度，主要目的是为了提高师资力量和促进家长参与，激发孩子们学习中文的积极性，从而提高中文教育质量。因为我们收入和往年一样，在老师培训、讲座上加大投入必然会影响到其他一些项目，比如期末庆祝活动的资金就会受到影响。在这方面，家长会代表们足智多谋，一致认为困难是可以克服的。所以财政预算得到全体董事会会员赞同，全票通过。如果你想知道预算细节或有其他问题，请联系我或董刚主席。

３．各班级家长代表
除去两个成人中文班，我们共有28个中文语言班。每个语言班，学校要求不论班级大小，必须推选一位家长代表，协助本班级老师工作，包括安排家长值日，作为家长会与家长之间的纽带，传递必需的信息等等。家长代表是学校管理当中核心的一部分，希望大家积极担任。作为家长代表，还可以免除学校PTA 值日。

本期简讯到此。谢谢大家关注，星期天见！

陈峰
中文学校校长2014-2015

Dear Chinese School Families,

The color of fall is unfolding before us. Every leaf is like a rose in the spring but differs in its own color. Many of you probably have started planning the annual foliage scenic trip. When you are out in such a trip, take the opportunity to teach your child what is “霜叶红于二月花”, and explain the scientific reasons behind it. Hopefully after the trip, you will become know-it-all daddy or mommy.

As the registration drew to an end this week, I finally had time to take a walk around the classrooms by end of the day and talked to the custodians who were cleaning up the rooms and hallways. During my walk-around, unfortunately, I was needed to pick up various garbage including candy wrappers, lollipop sticks, crackers etc. As we all have a
common understanding that food and beverage are not allowed in the classroom zone, it was not observed and followed strictly at least last Sunday. If I had to serve as the last guard, we have a broken system to keep the classroom zone clean, because I could not cover all the corners in five minutes. For the same amount of garbage I picked up, there were probably more left somewhere else. Only with help from each one of you,
especially parents on duty, either for school or classroom, we can accomplish the goal of keeping the rooms neat and clean. A simple remind to yourself or people around you will be a step forward. With that, I’d like to direct your attention to a few highlights of past and coming weeks:

1.      Youth Team Election Results
Total 37 youth members besides all 6 candidates participated in the Youth Team election last Sunday. Each running team had a few minutes to introduce themselves and presented their ideas of how to run the youth team this year. By end of their speech they addressed questions from the floor and me. All of them were well prepared so the competition was intense, which can be told by the vote counts below. In the end, the
members decided the team for this year with their votes as the following:
Ryan Guo and Jeffrey Shen       17 votes        Co-President
Bill Dong and Michael Huang     13 votes        Co-Vice President
Aaron Zhang and Bryan Zhou      11 votes        Co-Secretary
There were 2 invalid votes.

Please join me in congratulating them being elected to the leadership positions. Ryan Guo and the team have started to form the youth team community. Parents, please have your child forward contact information to Ryan Guo at rguo98@gmail.com at your earliest convenience. The first volunteering event planned is as soon as next week. Don’t miss the opportunity to work with your peers and help the needed.

2.      Budget Update
The school conducted first council meeting last Sunday mainly to discuss and vote for the 2014-2015 budget. Based on enrollment as of last Friday, the projected revenue is about $115K. The expenses include teachers and staff compensation (65%), fixed operational cost (21%) and program cost (14%). The revenue is almost flat compared to last year. Both teachers and staff compensation and fixed operational cost are stable. The only variable is in the program cost. As we plan to initiate and install new programs such as educational seminars and teacher’s training, inevitably we need to cut funding to other programs to balance the budget sheet. The school proposed to reduce year end celebration cost and the council members had a keen discussion as to how to minimize the impact while maintaining our traditions. PTA members made a commitment to keeping our tradition strong and the budget was approved unanimously in the end. We should all be grateful to PTA members who bridge many gaps when needed.

3.      Classroom Home Parent
By now every classroom should have identified a home parent no matter the size of the classes. Home parents serve a few critical functions and share the responsibilities with teachers for classroom maintenance such that the teachers can focus on teaching and education. All the home parents should send their contact information to PTA chair Jian Xu (jxuonline@gmail.com). If your classroom has not found a home parent, please consider volunteer this role. And you will be exempt from PTA duty assignment. As we encourage our children to participate in the Youth Volunteer Team, we can also act as a role model by participating in school duties.

Wish you all have a good weekend and see you on Sunday again.

Sincerely,

Feng Chen
Principal, Chinese School 2014-2015