Don Calder writes…

Well, folks, we’ve moved from start to finish in fairly short order. As many of you know by now, Dr Edwards announced her final decision last Friday in parallel letters to Clairemont and ECLC families. Trailer(s) will be added to the ECLC — not Clairemont — to accommodate the 60 pre-K kids who were displaced from DHS and Oakhurst.

This, of course, is comforting to some and disappointing to others. There were very strong arguments for and against additional kids and trailer(s) at Clairemont, and they had the potential to be divisive and damaging. I am not aware of matters degenerating into any sort of neighbor-vs-neighbor, Thunderdome sort of thing. Great, huh? It appeared everyone simply wanted CSD to make a fully-informed and timely decision, based on a fair and open review of all the options.

As I wrote in my last post, Dr Edwards deserves much credit and praise for reconsidering her initial decision. She single-handedly tamped down a lot of the community’s frustration by speaking openly, sincerely and candidly of factors under (re)consideration…Many weighty decisions are in the offing, including reconfiguring attendance zones when Glennwood is repurposed as a K-3 school, choosing and effecting plans to relieve K-3 overcrowding in the long-term, and forming an advisory committee to review if, when and how Westchester should be redeployed as a school.

Thanks again for your ongoing support of an open, respectful and constructive dialogue with CSD.

Aaron sends in this announcement…

The PTA’s Nutrition Committee is thrilled to present the 2010 College Heights Cook Book — “From A to Z.”  This year’s cook book is filled with great holiday recipes, summer treats, kid-friendly eats as well as a new section of activities you can do with your kids!

With the success of last year’s 2009 Cook Book Fundraiser, the PTA was able to implement a learning garden for our students and kitchen-skills workshops for the kitchen staff.  In 2010, we hope that you can continue to help support our endeavors in improving the nutritional value of our children’s meals and snacks and providing continual culinary and nutrition education for the staff by purchasing cook books for your households, friends and family members.

We have made it even easier by providing a Pay Pal account for you to make your donation through by following this link.   After you make your Pay Pal purchase you can pick up your cook book at the front desk or if you would prefer to pay cash via the front desk at school, as well.   Here is pricing information for the cook book.

• 2010 Cook Book — “From A to Z” — $10 per unit

If you have any questions or would like to be a part of PTA’s Nutrition Committee efforts in anyway, please contact Aaron Marks at amarks2[at]gmail.com.  Again, thank you for your support!

Angie forwards details for College Heights’ upcoming silent auction at Palate…

College Heights/Frasier Center Silent Auction Event – Friday, February 26th at Palate Café in Oakhurst

Please join us for our 3rd Annual College Heights/Frasier Center Silent Auction – Friday, February 26th at Palate Wine Bar in Oakhurst from 7-10 pm. Everyone is welcome and admission is free! There will be live music, cash bar, snack food and both a live and silent auction featuring artwork, vacation rentals, and tons of great items from local merchants and families.

All money raised at the auction will directly support the school’s PTA activities, which promote quality educational services, healthy and safe environments and artistic opportunities for our City of Decatur children.

College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center/Frasier Center is a unique public-non-profit partnership offering City of Decatur families the opportunity to start a quality educational path for their children from birth. Not just a typical daycare or pre-k, the Center promotes a safe, positive and diverse learning environment for Decatur’s tiniest citizens.

Jim Pomfret writes in with details for the annual Decatur 5k run, which benefits the CdLS Foundation…

One Love, One Heart 5k Benefitting the CdLS Foundation

The 6th annual 5k benefiting the CdLS Foundation is being held at Medlock Park on February 13, 2010 at 10:00 am.

Maya Pomfret was diagnosed with CdLS at birth and has brought on the inspiration of this Decatur 5k every year. Maya attends Pre-K at College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center. To learn more about CdLS you may visit www.cdlsusa.org. To sign up for the 5k visit the link at Run Georgia for the application.

Contact Jen Pomfret: pomfretj@comcast.net

The Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation is a family support organization which exists to ensure early and accurate diagnosis of CdLS, promote research into the causes and manifestations of the syndrome, and help people with a diagnosis of CdLS, and others with similar characteristics, make informed decisions throughout their lifetime.

The run is now in its sixth year.  Here’s a link to the sign up page.

Heads up College Heights parents!  The rest of CSD may still be on a normal schedule, but you may need to leave work a bit early.

Nellie writes in a comment…

College Heights parents: We are closed at 5 today!!

Michael and an anonymous tipster report that a letter was sent out to parents from College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center principal Suzanne Kennedy announcing that the pre-K program had received a grant to add additional spots to the current Head Start preschool program and open an Early Head Start (birth to 3) program at the school.  Kennedy sees the need because CSD still is striving to close the achievement gap between blacks and whites and provide equal opportunities to infant and toddlers from low income families.

But as is often the biggest challenge in little ol’ Decatur, in order to expand, you need room to expand.  And in order to accommodate expansion needs quickly, we must call in the trailers…or as they’re referred to in the letter, “learning cottages”.

The principal has called an open meeting to help decide how to use the trailer, umm learning cottage, to implement the Head Start and Early Head Start programs while “keeping our goal to blend the Decatur-DeKalb YMCA with the PCA program”.  The meeting will be held next Tuesday, September 29th from 5p-6p in the school’s cafeteria.

You can read the full letter, provided by Michael, HERE (pdf).

Lynne writes in with details about a new annual Decatur/DeKalb YMCA 5k run/walk in Oakhurst, branded the “Fall Five”, which will help provide funding for College Heights’ after-school and camp scholarships.  Here are many of the details, straight off the website.

The Decatur-DeKalb YMCA will host its first ever Fall Five, a 5K and Tot Trot on September 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. to benefit it’s Partner With Youth program with proceeds going directly to College Height’s Early Childhood Learning Center in Oakhurst.

The YMCA Fall Five will provide partial funding for College Heights’ after school programs and scholarships for sending children to camps.

Race route begins and ends at Harmony Park at the intersection of East Lake Drive and Oakview Road in Oakhurst. The route runs through residental streets in Oakhurst and is mainly flat with rolling hills. Water stations are located along the route.

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