PARENT HANDBOOK 2019-2020 2020-2021 107 Marlborough Street Boston, Massachusetts 02116 tel 617-266-8427 fax 617-266-3453 [email protected] www.learningproject.org Disclaimer The Learning Project Parent Handbook is published and distributed to members of the Learning Project community for the purpose of providing information on aspects of student and school life so that students may gain as much as possible from their experience with us. Students, parents, faculty, and staff should all read and be familiar with the contents of the Handbook, so that each member of the community knows and understands our community expectations. While policies in this Handbook will generally apply, the School may take actions that it determines to be in the best interests of the School, its faculty, and its students. This Handbook does not limit the authority of the School to alter, interpret, and implement its rules, policies, and procedures, before, during, and after the school year. This Handbook is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to create, nor does it create, a contract in any way between The Learning Project and any parent, guardian, or student affiliated with or attending the School. Learning Project may, in its sole discretion, add, revise, and/or delete School policies before, during, and after the school year. A Word About the Word “Parent” Many of our communications over the year, like this one, use the word “parent” as shorthand to describe a person who is involved in a special way in the lives of our school children. The huge variety of important adult relationships and family structures that exist in our society, and which we intend to recognize and honor in our school, are not easily captured in a single word. Even the word “parent” runs the danger of seeming to be less than inclusive. On the other hand, entitling this document, for example, The Handbook for Adults Fulfilling the Parental Role is a bit cumbersome. ​ ​ For us, the word “parent” is intended inclusively to refer to a variety of adult-child relationships—e.g., ​ ​ guardian, foster parent, grandparent, aunt or other relative, significant other, domestic partner, etc. Any adult taking responsibility (legal or otherwise) to love and to provide for a child, to share in the joys and obligations of raising and guiding that child to become all that they can be—that person is doing all the crucial work of parenting and, therefore, is ‘the parent.’ And, from our perspective, that person will be doing the job especially well if the child comes to school ​ ​ well loved and rested every day, with homework completed, a nutritious breakfast in their belly and a nutritious (green packed) lunch for later, with appropriate outdoor clothing, and a positive attitude about the school, the community and about learning and working hard. All of that, alone, is an immense job or ‘provisioning’ and we are grateful to our LP parents for sending us children of that description day after day. Table of Contents THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LEARNING PROJECT 1 STATEMENT OF PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES 4 Mission Statement 4 Diversity Statement 5 Philosophy of Education 6 Guiding Principles 6 ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 7 The Corporation 7 The Faculty and Staff 8 Parent Participation 8 Class Parent Coordinators 9 ENROLLMENT 9 Admissions 9 Conditions of Enrollment 10 The Elementary Model: Finishing the Journey 10 Outplacement: The Process of Transition to Seventh Grade 13 Re-registration 14 Tuition 15 Late Payment Policy 15 Financial Assistance 15 School Forms 16 Immunizations 16 Communicable Illness 17 THE SCHOOL YEAR 17 Top Priority Parent Events: September to December (or throughout the year) 17 Top Priority Parent Events: January to April Vacation 19 Top Priority Events: April Vacation to Graduation 19 Lesser Priority Parent Events 20 Optional Parent Events 21 THE SCHOOL DAY 21 Philosophy 21 What Your Child Needs to Bring to School 23 Drop-off /Pick-up and Double Parking 23 Arrival Time 24 Tardies 25 Walking Children Up the Stairs/Classroom Visits 26 The Attendance Policy 26 Some Background on the Attendance Policy 27 Notifying the School about an Absence 29 Recording of Absences 29 Doctor’s Appointments 30 Food 30 Nut Free Policy 31 Packaging Carefully/Lunch Containers/Pack-In Pack-Out 31 The ‘Green Packing’ Initiative 31 ​ Dismissal 32 Changes in Dismissal Plans 32 Other Dismissal Guidelines 33 Transportation and a Buddy System 33 AFTER DISMISSAL 33 After School Arrangements 33 Homework 34 How Much Help Should I Give? 36 Homework Tips 36 Why Homework is Often Drill and Lacking in Creativity 37 Consequences for Undone, Poorly Done, or Un-returned Homework 37 Assessments 38 Screen Time 39 Technology and Social Media 39 Bedtime 40 HEALTH ISSUES 40 To Keep Home or Not to Keep Home 40 Returning After an Illness or Injury 41 Social and Emotional Health 41 The Health Perils of Competition 41 Make-Up Work at Home 42 Medical Emergencies or Other Problems 42 Strep 43 Fifth Disease 43 Lice 43 Medications 44 Allergies 44 DISCIPLINE, ACCOUNTABILITY AND CONSEQUENCES 44 Anti-Bullying Policy 47 COMMUNICATION 48 Home-School Communication 48 Keeping A Healthy Perspective 48 Communication with Faculty from 7:30-3:15 51 Teachers and Social Media 51 Communication with Faculty at Home 51 Phone Calls from Children to Parents 51 Phone Calls from Parents to Children 51 Questionably Necessary Phone Calls to School 51 Cell Phones: A Matter of Courtesy and Good Parenting 52 Email 52 Narrative Reports 52 Weekly LP Bulletins and Other Notices 53 FUNDRAISING 53 Fundraising at The LP 53 OTHER MATTERS 56 Computer Protocols 56 Consultants 56 Dress Code 57 Hair 58 Outside Clothing/ Sneakers for Sports 58 Dress Occasions 58 Dress Guidelines for the Winter Concert 59 Dress Guidelines for Mayfest 59 Dress Guidelines for Graduation 59 Dress Guidelines for the Graduates 59 Dress Guidelines for Other Students 59 Additional Notes 59 Clothing as a “Teachable Topic:” Marketing, Fads, Competitive Dressing 60 and Values Toys 61 Library Books 61 Observations, Research, Etc. 61 Academic Support 62 Visitors to School 63 Parents Helping with Field Trips: Some Guidance 63 Religious Holidays and our Nonsectarian Tradition 64 The Class Fund 64 Gift Giving Guidelines 64 Class Parties 65 Birthdays at School 65 Weekend or Vacation Birthday Parties at School 65 Birthday Parties at the Playground on a School Day 66 Guidelines for Birthday Parties and Other Social Gatherings of Class Members 66 Snow Day and Cancellation Policy 69 Other School Closures 68 And When Our Children Are Not Caring Enough 68 A FINAL WORD: A SENSE OF COMMUNITY 70 THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LEARNING PROJECT The Learning Project began as an idea: the new school would be distinctly small. It would be of a scale where the children were known to all of the teachers and to one another. It would be a city school, spilling outside its doors and using the vast resources of Boston. It would be a school that served not just a privileged few but the broad middle class, and those on either side. It would honor and respect traditional academic skills and values and, at the same time, it would have a pedagogy that was creative, intellectually challenging, and engaging for young children. It would recognize the various ways that children learn and would seek to accommodate differences. It would recognize, also, the many ways that children teach and learn from one another, and it would create opportunities for children of different ages and grades to work and to play together. It would be a school that embraced progressive social values, while honoring the core personal values of honesty, respect, responsibility and gratitude. And, it would be a place that would care intensely about each child’s academic development and equally about the development of good character. Its name was selected to focus attention on the school’s commitment to purposeful activity and learning “by doing” and in the fall of 1973 the school opened. There were eight students, twelve by the year’s end (first graders, all but one), and two teachers. The new school was strengthened by an enthusiastic group of parents and a supportive, eleven-member Board of Trustees. During the first six years, the school rented space in the basement of the First Baptist Church where it returned in 2006 to open a kindergarten. By its sixth year, the school had grown to four full-time teachers and 43 students and, in June of 1979, the first class of eight graduated in a ceremony in the ‘meeting corner’ of the basement space where many of them had spent between four and six years together. In 1977, in the school’s fourth year, the Board of Trustees began formally to examine the school’s need for new space and simultaneously to look at the philosophical foundations that might guide our choices. Two committees of parents, staff and Board were formed, which met during the course of the year to discuss the school’s future. The consensus of these meetings was excitement about what we had accomplished and an affirmation of the school’s original and fundamental commitments. The school would, indeed, expand as planned to sixth grade, but to do so it would need to find a new location. With neither an endowment nor significant fundraising experience, a Building Search Committee set forth to look at available properties in the Back Bay. Eventually, the search led the groups a block from our original “home” at 110 Commonwealth Avenue to 107 Marlborough Street. A townhouse had been constructed at this address in the 1870’s, likely resembling the building at 105 Marlborough, but it was demolished in 1916 to make way for the school building we now occupy.