QUANTUM CONNECTIONS--2010 Gifted Summer Programs Brochure
March 7, 2010
"Quantum Connections," the Summer Gifted Program Brochure, is now available! Please click on the first document at the bottom of this blog entry. We are excited to be offering some amazing programs for students in grades 4-8 this summer! Please remember that Educare offers a wide range of summer programs to meet the needs of families here on the Peninusula. We have program offerings for kids of all ages. Should you have any questions about our summer program offerings, please contact Jenn Leydecker, Director of Educare and Summer Programs, at
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or you can call Jenn at (650) 508-7348.
Don't Miss the EARLY BIRD DEADLINE of March 31st in order to save money and to guarantee your child a spot in one of these exciting programs. Space is limited and it is filling up fast.
Also, please find attached at the end of this blog entry a brochure for the Educare Summer Camp Program and Enrichment Programs. SPace for these programs is also in short supply and it is filling up fast.
--Chris Mahoney, Director CLC
Last Updated ( Monday, 08 March 2010 10:41 )
Summer Programs 2010--Gifted and Talented Program and CLC's Traditional Summer Program
Jenn Leydecker, Educare Director, and I wanted to let you know that CLC's Educare Program will be offering some exciting and fun programs for the summer of 2010. Our brochure will be ready for the last week in February. I wanted to take this time to share with you some exciting "teasers" about what you can expect from Educare this summer:
1) Educare will continue to offer its nine week summer program that has been a tradition in the San Carlos community for the past sixteen years.
2) We will be offering a special fee based summer program targeting Gifted and Talented Children who live in the SF Bay Area in grades 4-8. The mission of this new summer program is: "The SCCLC Summer Gifted Program is an opportunity for gifted learners to socially and intellectually connect with other gifted individuals through inquiry based curriculum, emphasizing critical thinking skills, hands on projects, in depth exploration and creative problem solving."
We are focusing on high interest, challenging, project based programs designed to stimulate and engage children in the math and sciences as well as the Humanities. These programs will be offered from 9-12:30 Monday-Friday and we will be offering two sessions lasting two weeks in length. The Session Dates are July 19-30th, and August 2-13th. Full details on this exciting program will be available when our children return from February Break.
PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE FOR THE NEW BROCHURE NEXT WEEK!
3) We will continue to offer exciting "Interest Based" programs for children in grades 1-8 throughout the nine week summer session. Examples of some of these fee based programs that we will offer include: Cooking, Ceramics, Rock Band, Summer MathCounts, and an EXCITING SURPRISE PROGRAM featuring EMMA MOORE, our Famous "CLC Library Maven" etc. Full details on these interest based programs will be available when children return from February Break.
Please be sure to let others know about our exciting summer opportunities. We will be sending out our brochures at the end of February and they will all be available on the CLC website at the end of the month. Please do not hesitate to contact Jenn Leydecker, at
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or Chris Mahoney, CLC Director, at
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if you have any questions. For more information about our Educare program, please click on the "EDUCARE" button on the top banner of the website.
We are proud that Educare has continued to offer engaging and exciting year round program offerings for children on the Peninsula for the last sixteen years!
---Chris Mahoney and Jenn Leydecker
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 February 2010 21:06 )
California Public Schools' Hard Choices in 09-10 Mirror CLC's Hard Choices in 08-09
February 16, 2010
Dear Charter Community,
An interesting article in Education Week talks about how school districts around the country are facing massive budget cuts because they are running out of the much needed stimulus money that the Federal Government gave to school districts. The situation is especially acute in California according to Education Week:
School districts have already suffered big budget cuts since the recession began two years ago, but experts say the cash crunch will get a lot worse as states run out of stimulus dollars….The result in many hard-hit districts: more teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, smaller paychecks, fewer electives and extracurricular activities, and decimated summer school programs.
The situation is particularly ugly in California, where school districts are preparing for mass layoffs and swelling class sizes as the state grapples with another massive budget shortfall.
Does this scenario sound familiar? It should if you were a member of the CLC community back in 08-09. This is exactly what we were facing that year. We were facing teacher lay-offs, larger class sizes, reduced salaries for all staff, and fewer electives. Back then, we took a long hard look at our budget, at our expenses, and with the help of all the stakeholders, we were able to identify where we could reorganize and cut back in order to make it through that year as well as plan ahead for what we knew was going to be at least 3-4 years of very low funding. In that year, we decided to do the following:
1. Temporarily reduce salaries through a furlough
2. Raise class sizes in our early grades to 24 students in a class
3. Raise class sizes on middle school 28-30 in all grades 5-8
4. Cut back on funding for Enrichments and FAB where possible
5. Reduce support for Milestone Trips
6. Cut back daily custodial services in classrooms and Main Office
7. Significantly reduce expenses for non-classroom supplies where possible
8. Carefully save as much of the Federal Stimulus money as we were allowed
9. Reduce both Spanish and PE program
10. Eliminate the Library Program completely
These actions, along with the continued success of our Educare program and fundraising, helped us to maintain a balanced budget through June 2010. In addition, we were able to maintain our Spanish, Library and PE programs.
This balanced budget is based on the expectation that we will meet our general fundraising goals of 250k for this year. This is why the Run For FUNds is so important in sustaining our children’s full CLC educational experience. Every educator knows how much of a positive impact the parents and families have on our learners’ educational experience. And, our alumni and “Friends of CLC” know this as well. It is because we can reach out beyond our immediate community that events like Run for FUNds can be successful. Every member of our staff is committed to supporting and participating in this important community event weekend from May 15-17, 2010 because every staff member knows how they are directly impacted by its outcome. We will have different staff members committed to running each leg of this nearly 125 mile relay in support of CLC. And we will need not only runners from the community, but also volunteers and support people all along the way.
As a community, we can feel assured that everything possible is being done to shepherd us through these challenging financial times. And, though we continue to receive $578 less than other area schools from Sacramento, we will still find ways to bridge that gap. We will continue to do it through innovative programs, effective use of resources, and opportunities with alternative revenue streams.
To get involved with Run For FUNds, please attend one of the two organizational meetings:
1. Tuesday, February 23rd, CLC Library: 7:00-8:00 PM
2. Sunday, February 28th, CLC Library: 6:00-7:00 PM
I look forward to seeing you at that meeting!
---Chris Mahoney, Director CLC
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 February 2010 20:49 )
Charter Schools Criticized for Racial Inequalities --RESPONSE
February 5, 2010
Dear Charter Community,
Today, many area newspapers and media outlets are reporting some research just completed by the Civil Rights Project based out of UCLA. The research is based on an analysis of Federal Government data and an examination of public district schools as well as charter school across the United States. A link to this report can be found at the end of this letter. This report did not focus on the academic performance of charter schools. Instead, this research focused on demographics. According to today’s San Francisco Chronicle:
"Nearly 3 out of 4 black students who attend charters are in "intensely segregated" schools with student populations that are at least 90 percent minority, according to the study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That's twice the rate of regular public schools.
Almost a third of those black students are in what the researchers called "apartheid schools," where 0 to 1 percent of their classmates are white. Charter schools in the Bay Area and California have similar rates of racial isolation."
What is interesting to note in the research is that the study never makes note of the fact that charter schools, by their very nature are “schools of choice.” That is, parents and families choose to send their child to a true charter school. A report that blames society’s problems on the fact that families are self-selecting to attend charter schools for want of a superior education for their child miss the whole point as to why charter schools exist, how they operate, and the reasons why schools like CLC are so successful.
California charter schools are diverse, have open-enrollment, and offer innovative programs to meet student’s needs regardless of their race, ethnicity, or language of origin. Unfortunately, California Charter School Law requires that all charter schools offer a higher preference for enrolling at school to children who live within the district boundaries. This automatically makes it more difficult for a charter school to achieve the kind of racial diversity that this research would like schools to achieve. Charter schools like CLC believe that our first need is educational excellence wherever children may reside.
Speaking specifically about CLC, our families here in the SF Bay Area have the right to choose to send their child to a school like CLC because some parents want to have input in their child’s education. Parents here on the Peninsula deserve to have the choice to send their child to a school like CLC because they want a different educational experience for their child—one that is project based, focused on multi-age learning opportunities. Parents should be able to choose a school community like CLC because it allows them the opportunity to share in their child’s learning experiences by being an active participant in the classroom. This is what CLC offers and it is what differentiates us from other local public school options. Charter schools ought to exist and should exist to serve students wherever there is a need.
Some people have suggested that charter schools should only exist to serve students in communities where the local schools are not successfully educating their children. How do we measure this “success”? Anyone who has looked at any of the state tests that our kids take know that these standards used by the state to determine what is “successful” are woefully inadequate. I would not measure my son’s school based on earning a 650 API score. To me, this would be totally unacceptable. Yet, there are school district leaders who will object to a charter school in their district because their schools are all “proficient”. As we all know, a successful school is more than just test scores. It is also about a healthy community and a environment that is physically and emotionally safe for our children. A school with great test scores where kids get bullied and harassed is hardly an environment I would want for Emerson. Charter schools should not be limited to poor or disadvantaged communities. They should be options for all families who want them and charter schools should exist within any community where there is a need. Given by our long wait lists at every grade level, CLC is clearly serving an important need for families in the SF Bay Area.
Though most of the more rigorous research on charter schools demonstrates mixed success when it comes to educational achievement, there are many charter schools that demonstrate consistently high levels of achievement--one of them being Charter Learning Center. Since we started sixteen years ago, San Carlos Charter Learning Center provides not only a top rate educational experience, but also a warm, nurturing and caring environment for our kids that is also valued by our community. It is the reason why we all choose to be a part of it—parents, educators, learners, and even administrators!
--Chris Mahoney, CLC Director
Last Updated ( Friday, 05 February 2010 17:57 )
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BandWorks San Carlos 10.pdf
