Parent Info Night

Greetings McKinley Families;

We hope your child got off to a good start. Our staff has come in September strong and we are looking forward to a great year! A presentation of this letter is available here: McKinley Parent Engagement Information Night 9/22/22 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11jqoiOM9u0iBxVTT-w1yUr-iAIkjvwd_cW8wq7kdtb0/edit?usp=sharing

Each morning our children are met and greeted by their grade Assistant Principal at the entrance doors. We streamlined the student entrance using the 74th street side/auditorium of the building for our 6th graders, 7th and 8th graders come in through the school-yard onto the plaza (schoolyard center entrance). School guidance counselors, social workers and SAPIS in addition to various other staff are available during morning line up to greet and address any of the childrens’ needs. In addition to serving breakfast in the cafeteria, we have grab and go breakfast available by each door and in the plaza where we have added additional picnic benches for our outdoor dining option.

Our 6th graders should have been provided a walking tour with their class to familiarize the locations of all key areas of our building and how to navigate. Our librarian will be inviting all 6th grade classes to get acquainted with our resources and online library tools, as well as introduce our borrowing and drop-off program. She will also introduce our digital book collection to your child. 7th and 8th grade ELA teachers will receive this information to present to their classes.

Great news and events!

• Our 4th floor gym has had a makeover. Opening day took place on the first day of school. We hope students will enjoy the new space!

• This is the 1st year that every classroom will have a class set of computers available to them. In the past rooms had to share computer carts causing a hardship and scheduling restrictions.

• Hope to see you cheering on our band, cheer and flag students at the Ragamuffin Parade on Saturday, October 1st. More information to follow.

• Looking forward to your support of our theater production of “Little Shop of Horrors” in November, and our winter concert in December. More information to follow.

And we have so many more good things to come.

You should have received this message from 2 sources that we are using this year for communication to parents. Typically, only one system will be used to communicate information; the other is a back-up. In order to assure you get all messages, this message might have been delivered multiple times to test our systems. We are using the new Department of Education (DOE) Grade, Attendance and Message (GAM) Application and an additional vendor SchoolMessenger. We are relying on the information you provide in your NYC Student Account (NYCSA). If you did not get this message twice, your email is not registered on one of the two systems properly. If you did not get the second email, please check your NYCSA to determine what email and phone number you provided there. Any questions please email Ms. Castignani the parent coordinator at dcastignani@schools.nyc.gov.

This year the DOE is rolling out a new online gradebook. Students' grades will be maintained in their Google Classroom; these grades will be accessible to parents in GAM. GAM Application will be made available to parents in November to access their child’s gradebook. In the interim, we ask that you review your child’s Google Classroom with them through their account. If you would like to have a parent’s view of the gradebook please email your child’s teacher with the email they should send an invite to.

Our curriculum teams prepared the following presentations for you to review. Please review this information with your child. If you have any questions, McKinley staff will be available via email during Curriculum Night on Thursday, September 22nd from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM to respond to any correspondence. Each presentation has teachers’ email addresses. At 6:00 PM you are invited to the 1st annual Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting. All administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals and related services staff will be in attendance. Join Zoom Meeting at 6 PM: https://nycdoe.zoom.us/j/92570950958?pwd=eGRyQVViUlBiVGs5d2s5NXVwdmFOUT09 more details below.

Hoping for a great successful year for all. Stay safe and be kind.

Regards,

Administration

Principal, Janice Geary JGeary@schools.nyc.gov

Parent Coordinator, Diane Castignani DCastignani@schools.nyc.gov

6th Grade, Science, Safety & Technology AP, Victor Iacovano VIacova@schools.nyc.gov

7th Grade, Special Education, Paul Parrella PParrella@schools.nyc.gov

8th Grade, Social Studies, ENL, Arts AP, Danielle Noto DNoto2@schools.nyc.gov

Math, Foreign Language, Programming AP, Elizabeth Urena EUrenaalvarez@schools.nyc.gov

English Language Arts, and Administration AP, Anthony DeBenedetto ADeBenedetto@schools.nyc.gov