Spring Break and We're Still Buzzing!

This week is spring break here at FirstLine Schools - which means our students and teachers are taking a well deserved break.  Our network employees are working away this week, keeping some things moving and taking the opportunity to do some work in the schools.  Additionally, we have some other things going on this week:

1. LHA was hopping on Monday when Annette Sisco of the Times-Picayune stopped by.  We had students preparing a play for performance at Jazz Fest, teachers & leadership preparing for the yearly Jazz Fest parking fundraiser, and a whole committee of people working on LHA's annual Jazz Night fundraiser on May 2.
2. Tuesday morning found some of our Green students on WGNO ABC-26 performing a dance routine while their Dance Team teacher spoke about the new "Inspire" campaign going on throughout the city.  Check out the interview here and the dance performance here.
3. Today (Thursday, April 26), Langston Hughes Academy hosted an official visit from the US Department of Education, a Town Hall on Community Engagement in Education.  The panel discussion included Mike Jayes, our AmeriCorps VISTA at Clark Prep who works exclusively on community partnership building at Clark Prep.  Together for Tomorrow is the program that was discussed, its purpose is to spotlight and foster partnerships among schools, families, national service programs, and community-based organizations in order to propel improvement of our lowest-performing schools.  This year we are fortunate to have two AmeriCorps VISTA working on community partnerships.  In addition to Mike, Paul Kramer is at Green this year.

Panel (L to R): Michael Robbins, USDOE (moderator); Erich Caulfield, New Orleans Federal Lead for Strong Cities, Stong Communities; Michael Pizzoltao, Sr Program Mgr, Tulane Center for Public Service; Mike Jayes, AmeriCorps VISTA Member at Clark Prep; and Cheryllyn Branche, Principal, Banneker Elementary & Middle School.