News Flashes:  (Click on blue underlined words or the words or pictures to your left for more information or pictures.)

Last day of 2007-2008 school year June 6th. 

Summer plans: 

       1) Jump Ahead Reading Program and Teacher Training.

       2) Summer bookmobile.

       3) Acoustic ceiling spray

Facility News: School facility was dedicated May 16th: The school building dedication to "the children of Putnam County and their search for wisdom and knowledge" was a beautiful event. There were about 150 dignitaries, officials and friends of the Charter School present. The children were perfectly behaved. They sang wonderfully and as a climax performed a dedicatory Chinese dragon dance -- "In pursuit of the pearl of wisdom" -- using an authentic parade dragon brought from China.

It has been a long struggle getting this building and there were lots of people to be thanked. Literally too many to mention on this page.  And,  just as the school remains a work in progress, so does the school facility.  Future projects include getting a flag pole, further acoustic ceiling treatments, cabinets for our geography center, a processing center for our library, grass planting for our athletic fields . . . the list seems to go on and on, but what really seems great is that since moving into the building in January, we have already seen how it  is opening up all sorts of educational opportunities.

These start with the library. Because we believe that literacy development is the foundation to learning success,  it is appropriate that the library is right in the middle of everything. But this is not all.  We now have better space for art, music and science.  In fact we think that the science-technology dome represents a unique space for an elementary school and one that should help our hands-on science program reach its full potential.  Even our PE program has not been left behind.  Thanks to the leadership of the PTO a modern playground emphasizing upper body exercise is already in place. 

During the last week of May our 3rd graders had a live video chat with three students from the University of Science and Technology in Kunming, China.  The Chinese students answered questions from our third graders about life in China.

Library named for William L. Townsend, Jr. Esq.: by decree of the CRC Board.  Honoring Mr Townsend's life long dedication to education of Putnam County Children and in particular his service to the CRC both as an original board member and as its long suffering board attorney who guided the CRC through its establishment as a not-for-profit, through the creation of the Charter School and through the vagaries of working with the USDA Rural Development for construction of the facility.

CRC is an A school with AYP for 2006-7.  (Due to an initial Department of Education error it was incorrectly reported in the Palatka Daily News that the CRC CS had not achieved AYP.)     Although the CRC Charter School refuses to accept the state standardized tests as a full measure of what elementary education should be and therefore tries to de-emphasize it to our students, we recognize that the government and much of the public only pay attention to test scores.  So, we accept that the rising scores of our students may be considered by many as support for our approach of integrated skill and content learning.   We do not need state test scores to confirm the growth we see in our students daily, monthly and yearly.

The Florida school grade for elementary schools is only based on the achievement test levels and growth of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  It does not measure Art, PE, Music, Science Lab, foreign language or computer skills. It does not include kindergarten, first or second grade assessments.  Perhaps at this point congratulations are especially in order for our 1st grade students who tied with another school in Putnam County with the best reading and math scores for 2006-2007.

Click here for photos of land and construction work

New:  Frequently Asked Questions about our new facility 2007 An information sheet.

Apology:  Due to the disruption caused by the in year move into our new facility and the demands that the closing process placed on staff, there has been some neglect in updating awards, class pages and even monthly calendars over the last 6 months.  We will be working on this problem starting with an extensive review of the current content. Please have patience.

THE CHARTER SCHOOL:

The Children's Reading Center Charter School is a privately owned and operated comprehensive public elementary school established according to Florida State "Choice" legislation.

1. No student can be assigned or in any other way required to attend this school by the local school board or the State of Florida.

2. The school is a public entity that accepts students and hires employees on a fair and equitable, non-discriminatory basis. No tuition is charged.

3. The school operates under a contract with the Putnam County School Board in which some of the services required of a public elementary school are provided by the district.

4. The school is focused on literacy development but is meant to be a model of a complete elementary school in full compliance with Florida State Standards.