We are excited to have begun a new year and to be working with you and your children. The consensus among the staff is that we are going to have a great year! We are writing to let you know about some changes to CAS and about some of the things we are planning. (Please save this letter. It contains information you'll want to have later in the school
year.)
Welcome Picnic
This past Sunday, about forty CAS families and members of the CAS staff assembled at BHS for our annual "Welcome to CAS" potluck, organized by members of the Parent Coordinating Committee. We all had a good time meeting one another, breaking bread and talking about the coming year.
Much of what we discussed at the picnic is described in this letter.
CAS Leadership Council
This year, Amy Crawford and I (Phil Halpern) intend to build upon past successes of the Leadership Council. On Friday, September 14 from 4:30-7:00, I'll be hosting a potluck bbq for parents/guardians who are considering serving on this important body. The event will take place at my house, 3037 Fulton St., Berkeley, 94705. The bbq will give us a chance to get to know one another better and to discuss our objectives for the year. I hope you will be able to attend.
Please RSVP so we can plan accordingly.
CAS Staff ---------------
We are sorry to have said goodbye to several staff members. Last year's counselor, Elisabeth Sandberg, has taken a leave of absence, Bill Pratt, our long-time history teacher, is on sabbatical, Spanish teacher Alexander Klose has gone to teach elementary school in Tanzania, and Maggie Heredia-Peltz, last year's administrator, is now working with the World Languages department and Academic Choice.
New to our staff this year are Ana-Luisa Delgado, CAS Spanish teacher, Amy Frey, the administrator assigned to small schools within BHS, Hasmig Minnassian, US History, and our new CAS PE teacher, Michael McEvoy. We are thrilled to have these fine people join the CAS community. To contact one of your student's teachers, consult the email directory, below. (At back to school night, teachers may provide other ways to reach them.)
Name/Email
Appel, Dan -- dappel@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Crawford, Amy -- acrawford@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Delgado, Ana-Luisa -- analuisa_delgado@yahoo.com
Eisen-Martin, Biko -- em_biko@yahoo.com or Biko_Eisen-Martin@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Frey, Amy --afrey@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Halpern, Phil -- philiphalpern@mac.com
Katz, Leah -- leahkatz@earthlink.net
McEvoy, Michael -- Michael_McEvoy@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Martinez, Ingrid -- bookworm@troublemaker.com
Minassian, Hasmig -- hminassian@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Moran, Dana -- dana_moran@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Murphy, Mary -- mmurphy@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Quindel, Jessica -- jquindel@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Rasiah, Dharini -- drasiah@berkeley.k12.ca.us
Regrettably, CAS still doesn't have a counselor. Over the course of the last month, we have interviewed several applicants with whom we've been eager to work but in each case credentialing issues have prevented them from being hired. The process has been long and frustrating and we are really looking forward to working with BHS and BUSD administration to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, we have no choice but to rely on the generosity of the BHS counselors who have been incredibly generous with their time and energy. They've helped CAS with a variety of critical scheduling issues, often working eighteen-hour days to serve their students and CAS students as well. Because the time they can give CAS is limited, we are requesting their help with the most critical issues and asking students and families to wait if their issue is less pressing.