Dear Students and Families,

As we embark on summer break, we wanted to extend warm wishes for a safe, fun, and restful vacation. We encourage everyone to take time to enjoy the break while also utilizing the SummerBridge bags provided on the last day of school. These bags contain grade-specific practice workbooks in Spanish or English, flashcards, reading books, and more, designed to maintain and strengthen academic skills over the summer and prevent the summer slide.

We eagerly anticipate reconnecting with you at our "Summer Splash" event here at Full Service Community School #15 on August 19, 2024, from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM (The new date for the event is Monday, August 26th, at the same time). Join us for free book bags with supplies, a uniform sale, health clinic enrollment, water activities, popcorn, and more! Parents or guardians MUST have a student enrolled at School #15.

Warm regards,

Principal Garcia and Vice Principal Williams

Fifth-grade students experienced a memorable school-wide clap out as they walked the hallways together lead by our fifth grade teaching team Colon, Pinkett, Griffith, G. Jimenez, Davis, Romero and Hernandez. The entire school community clapped, cheered, and displayed posters with well wishes, balloons, and genuine smiles. Emotions ran high as students extended their final farewells, culminating in an exit where friends and family greeted them with additional cheers. The school spirit was palpable, making it a truly special send-off.

Celebrating Student Leadership! Our Safety Patrol Team members were honored with certificates awarded by Head School Security Moore. These students successfully trained and performed their duties, ensuring organized school arrivals, greeting everyone with high-fives, setting line-up cones, selecting calming music, distributing water, and providing overall student support. Their hard work and dedication were crucial. We also thank their families for ensuring they arrived early and maintained their belts and badges. We couldn't have done it without them! Special thanks to Vitale for generously providing monogrammed safety patrol wallets to students.

More than 50 Girl Scouts celebrated their final journey of the school year, gathering to honor sisterhood and receive certificates. We are grateful to Julie Martinez, Melissa Virula, AmeriCorps Volunteers and St. Pauls' Community Development Corporation (SPCDC) for their collaboration, making this powerful experience possible for the girls at Full Service Community School #15.

Our bilingual students recently completed a year-long reading competition, where their progress was monitored through guided reading sessions. With dedicated support from teachers, students increased their reading levels and English proficiency. The top three students with the most growth were celebrated in a special event. Teachers Diaz and Gonzalez expressed their joy in fostering a love for reading and encouraged continued summer reading. We are incredibly proud of these students and their achievements!

Owl Pride! Field Day was an exciting and memorable event. Organized by our specialists (Jones, Quintero, Merkel, Dale, Flores, and Arbuckle), the day provided a safe and fun environment for students from Pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade to showcase their sportsmanship and skills. With support from our maintenance staff, security, Full Service Community, and teachers, classes visited various activity stations throughout the day.

The highlight was a friendly tug of war between the staff and fifth-grade students, which brought everyone together in a spirit of unity and friendly competition. The event successfully highlighted physical abilities, teamwork, and school spirit, making it a day to remember.

Our elementary students had a fantastic experience at the Scholastic Book Fair, which was designed to promote a love of reading in our school community. Their enthusiasm for exploring new books was inspiring. Special thanks to ESL Teachers Veloz and Nunez for their efforts in setting up and working the fair, making it a resounding success.

Career Week at our elementary school, organized by guidance counselors Campo and Jones, was an enriching experience for our students. They were exposed to a variety of career presentations, including a makeup artist, violinist, police department and fire department. Student participation in Career Week included dressing for interviews and portraying what they aspire to be when they grow up. This week-long event inspired and broadened their horizons, fostering excitement for their future careers.

We deeply appreciate our entire staff, especially retiring Special Education Teacher Colon and Nurse Pini. With decades of dedicated love and support for our school community, their impact is beyond measure. They will be greatly missed, and we wish them a happy retirement. Owl for life!

Full Service Community School #15 prioritizes the implementation of restorative justice practices to ensure that our elementary students and their families have ample opportunities to engage in constructive conflict resolution and community building. This approach fosters a culture of empathy, accountability, and understanding, which are essential elements for a safe and supportive learning environment. By embracing restorative justice, we empower our students to learn from their mistakes, repair harm, and develop valuable social and emotional skills that will serve them well throughout their lives.

The purpose of the Restorative Justice in Education is to implement trauma-informed restorative justice practices in public schools. “Restorative justice,” as defined in the legislation, means “a system of dispute resolution tools that allow all parties of a dispute to be involved in defining the harm and devising remedies while giving the necessary attention to community safety, victims’ needs, and the need for offender accountability.” Restorative justice practices include, but need not be limited to, student or community court, restorative circles, mediation, and conferencing. A “trauma-informed approach,” as defined in the legislation, means “an approach that recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in students, families, staff, and others, and which responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices for the purposes of promoting resiliency and healing, resisting the recurrence of trauma, and improving educational outcomes.”

Conditions addressed:

1. Reduce racial disparities in school discipline which result in an inequitable loss of classroom time among certain student groups, thereby boosting the academic outcomes of these students.
2. Improve the socioemotional and behavioral responses of students through more appropriate and less punitive interventions, thereby establishing a more supportive and inclusive school culture.
3. Reduce recidivism rates among students who violate the school district code of conduct through more effective and targeted restorative justice interventions.