Free Homework Help Night Next Wednesday, Jan. 20

Here's a chance to come and meet some other families in the nabe: the Winthrop Street New Generation Block Association (between Flatbush and Bedford) is sponsoring a neighborhood "Homework Help" night on Wednesday, January 20, from 6pm to 9pm. Kids from kindergarten through grade 6 can come and get help with reading and math, or take part in an arts & crafts workshop. The event will be held at CAMBA, 19 Winthrop Street.

No Hawthorne Street Block Association Meeting This Week

The Hawthorne Street Block Association was scheduled to meet this Wednesday, but that meeting has been postponed. We'll let you know when there's a new date.

Update on the Lefferts Gardens Charter School

This morning at Brooklyn Public Library, Renee Ciccone led an information session about the soon-to-open Lefferts Gardens Charter School (LGCS). There were about a dozen parents in attendance, as well as a representative from the NYC Charter School Center who was also able to answer some questions about the rules and regulations concerning charter schools. Here is my report from the meeting for those that weren't able to attend.

Nuts and Bolts

• LGCS has been authorized to operate as a charter school for grades K-5 and will begin operations in September 2010. In the first year (assuming full enrollment) it will open with three Kindergarten classes and 3 first grade classes, with 25 students in each class for a total of 150 students. Each class will have 2 teachers for a teacher/student ratio of 12.5:1. Each year the school will add a grade as this year's first graders advance until there is a full K-5.
• LGCS applied to open as a K-8 school but only the elementary school was authorized. They anticipate applying to extend to middle school but will not be permitted to do so until they have been in operation for three years -- and there is no guarantee that the request will be granted.
• LGCS has not been told where it will be housed, but it has been assured that it will be located within an existing public school in District 17(map), which includes all of PLG and a large swath of Crown Heights. They have also been promised that once they are located, the charter school will be able to stay in that location as they grow to the full 6 grades.
• LGCS is currently accepting applications. The application will be available on the school website* as soon as it goes live. This is expected to happen in the next week or so, and when it does, we'll post about it here.
•  Applications will be accepted until March 31. If there are more applications than the school has seats, a lottery will be held on April 13 to determine who gets in and who gets wait-listed. Priority will be given to District 17 students. In future years, siblings of enrolled students will get pre-lottery priority.
• The school will have neither pre-K nor a gifted-and-talented program, as those programs are federally funded and the charter school is not eligible for that funding.
• The school does currently have office space, but it is not in the neighborhood. The Charter Center, at 111 Broadway in Manhattan, has generously given the LGCS an office to use. So don't be surprised when the application tells you to mail it to a Manhattan address.
• For parents of students who are too young to attend the school next year but are interested in future years, the school intends to have regular open houses and tours during the school year.

Lefferts Farm Food Coop Meeting on Thursday, Jan. 21

Plenty of people have weighed in our debate as to whether the planned PLG food coop should be workers-only or not, but regardless of where you stand on this issue, we urge you to start coming to the coop's planning meetings if you care about having a food coop in the neighborhood. The group is very young and needs all the community support it can muster.

Maple Street School
21 Lincoln Road
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Thursday, January 21, 7 pm

Details regarding the agenda are on the group's home page. Please don't go expecting to get into a debate about the membership issue. I posted that question only because I'm an argumentative a-hole and enjoyed the intellectual exercise. But coop organizer Karen Oh has many more pressing matters to discuss, and she is awesome so don't mess with her.

By the way, there will be another meeting on the following Thursday, January 28, for people who want to help out with communications -- spreading the word, creating coop literature, etc. Writers, designers, and creative directors should try to come to this one as well.

Lefferts Gardens Charter School To Hold Info Session at BPL Saturday

This just in from the Lefferts Gardens Charter School planning team:

The Lefferts Gardens Charter School is a new K-5 charter school opening in
District 17 on Sept. 2010 for K and 1st graders.

We will be having an information session tomorrow at the Central Branch of
the Brooklyn Public Library from 10 am to 12 pm. Please feel free to come
down and hear about our progress!

Lefferts Gardens Charter School
Environmental Science Program
Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 10 am to 12 pm at
The Brooklyn Public Library

See also: Update on Lefferts Gardens Charter School

How To Recycle Your Xmas Tree

Want to unload your Christmas tree in an environmentally friendly fashion? You've got two options. The easiest is to just leave it on the curb from January 5 to 15th. The Dept. of Sanitation will come pick it up at some point, though exactly when we can't say.

Your other option is to take it to the Parks Department annual Mulchfest, which will be on Saturday, January 9, and Sunday, January 10, from 10 am to 2 pm. Drop off points are at the 3rd Street entrance off of Prospect Park West and at Park Circle (Parkside Avenue and Prospect Park Southwest).

You can pick up free mulch there, even if you don't bring an Xmas tree. Be sure to bring your own bags, though.

Volunteers are needed to help with Mulchfest. You can sign up for that here.