April Peirce school Family Newsletter

Greetings Peirce Families,

This past week, I named Dr. Talyia Riemer as our new Assistant Principal. Dr. Riemer came to Peirce in the fall in the role of MYP IB coordinator and hit the ground running. She will continue to work as our MYP coordinator and oversee the operations in our middle school, ensuring a high quality Peirce-Senn partnership and MYP Program. Dr. Riemer will begin taking on additional responsibilities to support the entire Peirce community. Make sure to introduce yourself to Dr. Riemer when you see her. 

Last month I shared the 20 for 20 campaign, supported by CPS, encouraging families to contact state legislators and local officials to stress the importance of adequate funding of public education. Please visit this website to learn more about how you can be involved in the 20 for 20 campaign. Without the support from Springfield, Chicago Public Schools run the risk of closing early.

Attendance continues to be a challenge, with Mondays and Fridays being common days taken off by students. Please make sure that students are in bed early on Sundays and are at school Monday morning. Continue to help us with our declining attendance issue.

Happy Spring!
Lori Zaimi

March Highlights

• A HUGE thank you to Peirce Parent, Kathy Herwig for all of her work in getting our new website up and running. Kathy spent countless amounts of volunteer hours to get us to a place where we will save thousands of dollars each year while having a more functional site!
• Student Council & Life Service Action groups attended the annual “We Day” celebration of service at the Allstate Arena.
• 6th grade students, teachers and parents survived the one-night overnight field trip to the Indiana Dunes and reported two days of fun while working as a team and learning about survival and nature.
• Our 3rd grade team finalized their professional development cycle by studying the teaching and learning of fractions through “Lesson Study” a collaborative model where teachers plan together, observe teaching and discuss student learning. 
• Peirce Parent Rebecca Hendrickson hosted our first Math Parent Workshop - thank you to everyone who attended, we had a wonderful turnout! Our next Math Parent Workshop will be on Friday, April 28th at 8:15am.
• Students in K-5th grades participated in a performance by the South Shore Opera Quartet.
• We concluded our final round of IB Behind the Scenes tours for the year - we look forward to starting these back up in the fall!
• Elliott Topp (6th grade student) finished in 13th place out of 50 students in the citywide Spelling Bee - congratulations Elliott!
• Thank you to Peirce Parent Sara McGuire for organizing the Babes with Blades fundraiser, to support our 7th & 8th grade students Washington D.C. trip!
• Thank you to Peirce Parents Laura Meyer & Susan Boyle along with Friends of Peirce for organizing our Mom’s Night Out - money raised is going towards the purchase of new desks! Be on the lookout for upcoming parent gatherings.
• Peirce students and staff celebrated the International Day of Happiness by writing positive messages and participating in a school-wide flash mob at the end of the day.
• Office Friendly visited with our PK & K students!
• STEAM Night was a great opportunity for families to engage in STEAM activities. Thank you to the Peirce teachers, staff and parents who helped make this event happen!
• Peirce students showcased their talents in our end of the year Spring Show - thank you to Ms. Thompson & Ms. Moritz for making this event happen.
• We had a wonderful coffee with the principal - I appreciate all of the feedback and questions raised by parents.
• Our Bilingual Advisory Council participated in a parent workshop around IB education and supporting English Language Learners.
• 8th grade students are finalizing their HS Acceptances and we have students going everywhere! We are very excited to have over half of our graduating class continuing into an IB high school program, with the vast majority going to Senn IB!

Read the full newsletter in Spanish or English.