March/April Newsletter

Greetings!

March is the month that brings newness. It launches a new season, Spring, and brings us into a period of unexpected discoveries as we encounter blossoming flowers and rainy adventures. With these bountiful blessings, comes the need for us to be compassionate, and so there are many significant observances during March, too. We observe Women’s History Month, HIV/AIDS Awareness Month, Developmental Disability Awareness Month, and Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent). April brings us into the warmer days of Spring and the final cycle of the school year. For our seniors and potential graduates, every second of this final cycle is criti- cal because it can mean the difference between “almost there” and “finished.”

For this reason, our grade conferences are extremely important activities for our students to participate in starting in mid-March because they are able to receive feedback from their teachers about their performance and to set goals they can accomplish before the end of the cycle. PULSE has an open-door policy, which means you can always contact us to discuss your student’s progress and to set up an appointment to review your student’s progression sheet with our guidance and attendance teams. We are only a phone call, a text, or email away. So, reach out to us as soon as you can. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely, 

Ms. Fletcher

IN THIS ISSUE..                                                            

·        

• College Now on Tuesdays & Thursdays

•  Living Environment Regents & Tuesday Labs

• Career Development Occupational Studies (CDOS) at PULSE

• Summer Youth Employment Program at PULSE

•  Attendance Outreach at PULSE

•  Parent-Teacher Conference Week

• New Clubs at PULSE for Cycle 3 & 4

•  REMINDER: Every PULSE Student Needs A School ID

COLLEGE NOW ON TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS

Mr. Menghi met with the PULSE Cohort of College Now students in Room 315 to launch their Spring course at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) on January 30, 2025. All students registered for the Introduction to Public Speaking class received goodie bags from BMCC, and they will receive college and high-school credit provided they fulfill both the high-school and college requirements for the course. The course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:10 PM—4:40 PM. The Spring ses- sion ends on May 22, 2025, but Mr. Menghi will begin to recruit students for the Fall class on April 21, 2025. If you would like to know more about the College Now course and the registration process, please contact Mr. Menghi at emenghi@schools.nyc.gov.

LIVING ENVIRONMENT REGENTS AND TUESDAY LABS

The final administration of the Living Environment Regents at PULSE will be on Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM. After August 2025, all NYC students using the Living Environment to fulfill the Science Regents requirement for their high school diploma will have to sit for a new exam, Life Science: Biology. If your student is currently enrolled in a Living Environment class at PULSE High School and needs the Regents for this course to receive their high school diploma, please stay tuned for all the updates regarding the opportunities your student will be receiving to prepare for the final Living Environment Regents exam. To sit the examination, your student must complete a required number of lab hours and they must complete specific labs that are mandated by New York State. Our Living Environment teacher, Ms. Stena, will be conducting labs on Tuesdays so that all students will be sufficiently pre- pared for their exams. If there is a change in the schedule for labs, we will inform you as soon as possible. For further information,

you may contact Ms. Stena at jstenam@schools.nyc.gov.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND OCCUPATIONAL STUDIES (CDOS) AT PULSE

Students at PULSE have the option to waive one of the Social Studies Regents by sitting and passing the CDOS course and com- pleting 54 hours of an internship or paid employment. After successfully completing the tests and receiving the 54 work hours, students will receive the National Work Readiness credential. This credential is verification that your student has demonstrated the foundational skills for entry-level employment. Your student must provide pay stubs verifying the number of hours they worked as proof of employment and completion of the required hours. Students may use hours from the Summer Youth Employ- ment Program (SYEP) to fulfill this requirement. To learn more about the CDOS requirement, please contact Mr. Leonard at

mleonar4@schools.nyc.gov.

ATTENDANCE OUTREACH AT PULSE

The PULSE learning community strongly believes in our school’s mission. According to our school’s mission, our purpose is to pre- pare our students for a better self, a better community, a better world, and better future. For that reason, we address students’ attendance needs from the first day we meet our students, parents and families during the admissions and enrollment process by partnering with our parents and our families. We begin our customized outreach for each student from the first day our new stu- dents attend PULSE. Our attendance team and support staff contact parents daily, and we have a specialized outreach on Fridays to encourage students to maintain good attendance and to complete their online assignments.

PLEASE CONTACT MR. FIELDS IN THE ATTENDANCE OFFICE AT AFIELDS14@SCHOOLS.NYC.GOV

·  IF YOUR STUDENT IS FACING CHALLENGES WITH THEIR ATTENDANCE

·  IF YOU NEED TO UPDATE YOUR CURRENT TELEPHONE NUMBER AND HOME ADDRESS

·  IF YOU NEED A SCHOOL LETTER, I.E. FACE-TO-FACE AND INCOME TAX

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE WEEK

Parent Teacher Conferences help you to understand what’s going on with your student’s academic and social- emotional progress, and how you can support them. At PULSE we have parent teacher conferences for one week so that all of your student’s teachers can conference with you via telephone.

OUR SPRING PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE WEEK IS SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 18-22, 2025.

Please know that you can always call your student’s teachers during the day and if he/she is unavailable to speak with you (because they are teaching), leave a message and they will return your call.

NEW CLUBS AT PULSE FOR CYCLE 3 & CYCLE 4

The PULSE learning community will be offering the following new clubs during Advisory on Mondays and Tuesdays:

‡ The Chess Club—Mr. Leonard ‡

‡ My Sister’s Keeper—Ms. Moore ‡

‡ Today’s Conversation—Mr. Nembhard ‡

‡ Origami—Mr. Dufour ‡ Study Hall—Mr. Menghi ‡

To learn more about our cubs or to offer suggestions for future clubs, please contact Mr. Nembhard @snembhard5@schools.nyc.gov

REMINDER: EVERY PULSE STUDENT NEEDS A SCHOOL ID

As we think about the progress of our communities, the state of our society and our nation, the PULSE community has elected to ensure that all of our students have a school ID as soon as they enroll at PULSE. If your student has not taken their ID picture, please contact Ms. Beck at hbeck@schools.nyc.gov.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND KEY DATES 

Dates to Remember in March/April 2025

March 5th—Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent) March 13th—Parent Meeting

March 17th—21st—Parent-Teacher Conference Week March 20th—Beginning of Spring

March 31—Eid al-Fitr. Schools closed. April 1st—April Fool’s Day

April 11th—Cycle 3 ends

April 13th—Palm Sunday (Beginning of Holy Week)

April 14-18—Spring Recess. Schools closed.

April 18th—-Good Friday. Schools closed.

April 21st—-Students Return to School. Cycle 4 Begins. April 24th—Parent Meeting