CPS

September 2012 Dear Chappell Families:

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Eliza Chappell Elementary School * 2135 West Foster Avenue * Chicago, Illinois 60625 * Telephone (773) 534-2390 * Fax (773) 534-2638 Joseph Peila, Principal Elora B. Hayes, Assistant Principal

Welcome to the 2012-13 school year! The start of school is always an exciting time, but this year it is even more so. There are so many new and exciting things to welcome students back! School hours are 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. students in K-8. Students may continue to arrive 8:30 a.m. and gather in the courtyard. The first warning bell will ring at 8:40 a.m. Teachers and students will enter at 8:45 a.m. We will continue to offer the Morning Max free breakfast program for all students who want it. Our morning preschool classes will meet daily from 8:45 until 11:20 a.m. Afternoon preschool classes will meet from 1:10 to 3:45 p.m. In addition to twenty minutes for eating, students in kindergarten through eighth grade will now receive lunchtime recess (either before or after eating) for twenty minutes daily. Working together with Playworks, a non-for-profit agency that helps create successful recess activities for all children, we will provide a variety of structured and non-structured play activities on our new playground and turf field! All K-8 students will now receive physical education three times weekly for a total of 90 minutes. One of these periods will be a health education class. K-8 students will also receive Art for 60 minutes, Music three times weekly for a total of 90 minutes and Library/Tech Lab. Our students will continue to receive Spanish (four days per week in grades 3-8 and once per week for K-2 students). Our construction projects are almost all completed! We have new bathrooms, new classroom doors and an elevator in the original building, a wheelchair lift in the gym, bathrooms in our special needs classrooms, new drinking fountains, whiteboards in the classrooms and our eighth graders will enjoy a brand-new science lab!

You will notice an increased rigor in our classrooms as we begin to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which are replacing the Illinois State Standards. A new set of assessments will help us monitor student progress towards these standards, but for now students will still be responsible for the state ISAT test in the spring. Please visit http://corestandards.org/ if you would like more information about the CCSS. Mark your calendar for Chappells annual Back-to-School Night, which will be held on September 20 and keep your eye on the monthly Chappell Connections newsletter for more updates. My very best to you for a school year filled with fun and learning for all! Sincerely, Joseph Peila Principal