I must say, with the feedback from staff and my interactions with our Cavallaro kids, we really do have a beautiful group of I.S. 281 students...thank you for putting your trust in us to care for your amazing children!
With all of the items on our “To Do” list finishing up and initial baseline assessments completed, our teachers and students are settled in and ready to dive in to implementing standards-aligned curriculum – ensuring that we are all focused on setting high expectations, developing rigorous tasks that will tap into the depth of knowledge necessary to support our students as they make progress throughout the year.
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As we move into October, there are a number of School Spirit Days to take part in as a school community, as well as our Open House and Fall Festival. Please see the upcoming events calendar below and encourage your kids to join in.
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Congratulations to Mr. Yodice and Mr. Baroutsos, who have been chosen to participate in the fall 2025 semester of Project Green Reach at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG). Project Green Reach is a science-focused outreach program for teachers and students from Title I schools in Brooklyn. The program aims to encourage scientific literacy and environmental awareness through hands-on, inquiry-based activities centered on plants and gardening. We look forward to hearing about how our students develop their scientific and environmental skills throughout the year.
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I am excited to announce that we will be resuming our Mandarin Dual Language partnership with P.S. 101. Special thanks to Ms. He, who will be coordinating and managing the monthly trips and activities. Our 8th grade 824 students will be traveling to P.S. 101 once a month to foster their language proficiency and promote meaningful learning and practice, serving as teacher assistants with the Dual Language children at P.S. 101. Students will take part in arts and crafts that align with monthly themes, reading stories and leading educational games.
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Congratulations to our newly elected SGO class representatives! Many thanks to Ms. Verdi, Ms. Pappalardo, Ms. Dougherty and Ms. Cardazone, as well as to the Social Studies department for organizing and facilitating the class rep elections. We have changed our SGO grade assemblies and cabinet elections from 9/30 to 10/3 due to the holidays. We wanted to give our candidates enough time to prepare and practice their speeches.
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Families, if you have not done so yet, please complete the school foods lunch forms using the following link: form online, . Just a note, the family income inquiry forms are ONLY used to provide schools with their Title I funding, which is used to support all of our after-school programs for our students.
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The District 21 Superintendents office is pleased to share their September 2025 Newsletter using this link
Academic Vocabulary Word of the Week:
09/29/25 – Determine, conclude
Spanish: Determinar, Concluir
Chinese: 確定, 結束
Russian: Определить, Заключить
Urdu: اس بات کا تعین, نتیجہ اخذ
Determine (verb): to establish an idea
Synonyms: establish, decide
Conclude (verb): to arrive at an idea, a judgment or opinion
Synonyms: infer, gather
Ms. Bender’s Quote of the Week:
"Peace begins with a smile." - Mother Teresa
Morphology Map:
Month: Sept
Week: 3&4
Word Part 6th Grade- Prefixes: sub-, ambi-
Word Part 7th Grade- Prefixes: co-, con-, com-, col-; syn-sym-syl-
Word Part 8th Grade- Prefix: di-, dis-, diff-, ad-
Social Emotional Focus: Goal Setting
6th Grade – Good Character
7th Grade – Serving Community
8th Grade – Striving for Excellence
Upcoming Events:
9/29 6:45am Soccer tryouts
S.G.O. Cabinet speeches due
9/30 School Spirit Day - Celebrate September: Dress Down
10/1 Vision Screening Begins
2:15pm Girls Basketball Tryouts
10/2 No School - Yom Kippur "G'mar Chatimah Tovah"
10/3 National Custodial Appreciation Day
pd. 3, 4, 5 SGO Assemblies and Elections
3:30pm Girls Volleyball home game vs. 238
10/6 3:50pm Boys Basketball tryouts
5:30 - 7:30pm Middle School Fair @ Boody
10/7 High School Application window opens
2:15pm Spirit Squad Tryouts
10/8 School Spirit Day: National Bullying Prevention Day-wear orange for unity or blue for kindness
2:15pm Spirit Squad Tryouts
10/9 2:15pm Boys Basketball tryouts
6:30pm President's Council Meeting
10/10 School Spirit Day: Italian-American Heritage Day-wear red, white and green
3:30pm Girls Volleyball home game vs. 226
10/13 No School - Columbus Day, Indigenous People's Day, Italian American Day
10/14 3:00pm SLT meeting
5:30pm PTA Meeting and Town Hall Safety Meeting
10/15 PRACTICE live at-home tutoring kickoff
6:30pm CEC Host @ IS 281
10/16 National Bosses Day
10/17 School Spirit Day: Celebrate Diwali Festival of Colors
Senior Day
3:30pm Girls Volleyball home game vs. 686
10/20 No School - Diwali "Shubh Deepavali"
10/21 Cavallaro Food Drive Begins
5:30-7:30pm Open House
10/22 9-12:30 Parent Coordinator Meeting
10/23 Pd. 2 Student of the Month Breakfast - Leadership
10:00-1:00pm Open House
NIA Lights Out After School Event
10/24 United Nations Day
School Spirit Day: Wear it Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Day
3:30pm Girls Volleyball game vs. 839
10/25 Saturday Title III program begins
10/30 3:30-5:30pm Fall Festival Dance
10/31 School Spirit Day: Celebrate October
SHSAT registration closes
Have a wonderful week ahead as we bid farewell to September and say HELLO OCTOBER!