$10,000 Scholarship Application - No Essay, No Recommendations!

This is straight from the Student Loan Network blog. In these tough financial times, I felt it necessary to pass on.

Next drawing: March 31, 2009
http://www.studentloannetwork.com/10K/index.php?sp=Financialaidpodcast@gmail.com




Phone calls/emails in support of DC charter school funding

This came across the DC Web Women social listserv and I felt it was important to pass this along.

If you live in DC and support charter schools, please read on. When you make the phone calls, you’re basically leaving a voice message, so don’t be nervous about calling.
—————–

We need your help in having your trustees, parents and allies contact key city officials to let them know we don’t support cuts to the facilities allowance. Attached is a flyer you can share with your school communities to help us get the word out. And with the wonders of technology, and some help from our friends at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, you can now click on this link to send a customizable email message to the city officials working on the city budget.

THE REQUEST

Please help by calling or emailing one or all of the following individuals before Friday the 13th to state your support for maintaining the facilities allowance at its current level of $3,109 per student. You don’t have to engage in any conversation; it should just take one minute each to make the statement, say thank you, and hang up or to click on the link, customize your message, and hit send.

1. Dan Tangherlini, City Administrator, 202 727-4036, dan.tangherlini@dc.gov or dan DOT tangherlini AT dc DOT gov
2. William Singer, Chief of Budget Execution, 202 478-9200, william.singer@dc.gov or william DOT singer AT dc DOT gov
3. Victor Reinoso, Deputy Mayor for Education, 202 727-3636, victor.reinoso@dc.gov or victor DOT reinoso AT dc DOT gov

Paste the web address below in your email browser to send a customizable email message to these officials:
http://tinyurl.com/b7g7er

Thanks for your support and my apologies if you have received this message already.

BACKGROUND
The public charter school facilities allowance is similar to the DC Public Schools capital budget and it’s purpose is to allow schools to access and modernize school facilities. If you divide the whole DCPS capital budget by the number of students, then DCPS gets approximately $5,000 per student this year for facilities modernization and charter schools get $3109 per student. The facilities allowance covers not just rent/mortgage payments for public charter schools, but also:

Rainy Day Reserves. Schools have to put money away for unexpected expenses so when the boiler breaks or the roof needs to be replaced, these things can be addressed.

Lender Reserves. Lenders now require a certain percent of money in the bank in order for a school to get a loan. So on top of the loan payment, schools also need to have some % of the loan held in reserves.

Downpayment. In addition to rent payments, schools in temporary space have to be saving money for a downpayment on a permanent facility, at least 20%, probably higher in this market.
Renovation costs. Whether a school has a temporary or permanent site, in almost all cases, the school will have to make improvements to the building and those costs are on top of the rent/mortgage payment.

PHONE CALL SCRIPT (pick appropriate message)

Hello, may I speak to

Message 1 (Parent)
My name is ____ and I have _ child(ren) at ____ public charter school.
Our school needs a permanent building.

I am calling to request that the city not cut the charter school facilities allowance unless the city is going to give the charter schools closed DCPS buildings.

Charter schools are public schools too and all DC students deserve real school buildings.
Thank you.

Message 2 (Parent)
My name is ____ and I have _ child(ren) at ____ public charter school.
I am calling to request that the city not cut the charter school facilities allowance.

We need as much support as the DCPS schools need to get school buildings in shape for our kids.

Charter schools are public schools too and all DC students deserve appropriate school facilities.
Thank you.

Message 3 (PCS Staff/Trustee)
My name is ____ I work at/serve on the Board of ____ public charter school and I am a Ward _ resident.

I have heard in the news that the Mayor promised not to cut funds for DCPS as he prepares the City budget.

I am calling to request that the Mayor also promise to not cut any charter school funds, specifically the facilities allowance.
Charter schools are public schools too; make sure they are funded equitably.

Thank you.

Message 4 (DC Resident)
My name is ____ and I am a Ward _ resident.

I have heard in the news that the Mayor promised not to cut funds for DCPS as he prepares the City budget.

I am calling to request that the Mayor also promise to not cut any charter school funds, specifically the facilities allowance.
Charter schools are public schools too; make sure they are funded equitably.
Thank you.
———

Please call with any questions.

Thanks,
Ariana

–
Ariana Quiñones-Miranda
Deputy Director
Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS) 1530 16th Street NW, Suite 104 Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202 387-0405
Fax: 202 667-3798
Cel: 202 903-4609
aquinones@focusdc.org
aquinones AT focusdc DOT org
http://www.focusdc.org

Response to @Jasperblue Twitter Question on Potty Training Girls

Jasperblu about 10 minutes ago from TwitterFon
I’ll need to blog on this issue later; meanwhile, I have a Q for all my Twitter mamas: How did YOU potty train your kids? Esp your girls?

My response: I have two teenage girls and I used the same potty training method with both of them. When they hit around the 1 year and six months mark, I started putting them on their nice pretty potty’s all the time. I bought a colorful potty with book slots on the side of it and it also had a stick to put a roll of toilet paper on it and it had a flush button. Anyway, so I would let them sit on the pot all the time and I would make sure they had a book and a cuppie full of water (this made it fun for them). The most crucial step in all this was the fact I DID NOT USE PULL-UPS. The girls wore painties with training pants. YES, it was a lot of work and when I went out I had to carry a lot of extra clothing for them. But you know what? Little girls do not like being wet, so after a week of that wearing panties w/training pants; they realized going to the potty would relieve them of being wet and icky and the potty training job was complete.

We’re on Winter Hiatus

While on winter hiatus I’ll be thinking about whether or not I’m going to continue this podcast. I’ve been working on other projects that have been taking up a lot of my time and producing this podcast alone has become very cumbersome. So, the podcast may be going away, but I’ll get back to blogging over here on a regular basis.

During this winter hiatus, you can also read my main blog at http://www.digitalfangirl.com.

Video Question of the Week

The video question of the week will resume on September 21.

TSP Show #17 - Let’s Start a Holiday Budget

LISTEN TO SHOW #17

I know it’s still technically summer time, but now is a great time to start saving and starting a budget for holiday shopping. I know holiday shopping can be fun, but it’s not fun going into debt from holiday shopping and carrying over that debt into a new year. So, sit back and listen to show #17 and let’s make a plan to do some smart holiday budgeting, planning and shopping.

Grab Bag Items of the Week

BankRate

Amazon.com

Overstock.com

We’re Still Here

I know you think Tales of a Single Parent has died, but we”re still here. Sometimes life takes over and gets in the way. Tales of a Single Parent will be relaunching and getting back to the regularly scheduled program starting Saturday, September 21.

I hope your summer was wonderful. Ours started off wonderful, but kind of fell into the black hole. We (my oldest daughter and I) were hit by a drunk driver on July 29. It was a horrible accident and I sustained some pretty bad injuries (a broken hand and a 2+ inch laceration on my leg that resulted in 23 stitches), but thankfully my daughter did not walk away with anything similar to what I had. We are recovering and the healing is going well. We’re just thankful to be alive.

Here are a few photos of the damage:

I’m just getting back online and I still have to fix the RSS feed, which is how you all subscribe to the show. So be patient with me, I am trying to get that fixed ASAP.

Until September 7 - enjoy the rest of your summer and have a great first day back to school.

Photoshop Magic: this is so cool

Mobile post sent by GeekyCyberMom using Utterz.  Replies.

Bernie Mac dies at the age of 50

Tales of a Single Parent