Dear Central Park East 1 Supporters: Thank you so much for the support you have shown us during these long months. The fight to save CPE1 is taking all we have and it is your support, along with the children’s faces, that give those of us in the midst of the struggle the strength to keep going. Thank you. We wanted to let you know of a fundraiser the Central Park East 1 Parent’s Association is having at Book Culture Bookstore, an independent book and gift store in Harlem and on the Upper West Side from Friday, Dec. 9 to Sunday, Dec. 18. These past 20 months have been difficult ones for Central Park East 1. The school has lost more than half of its veteran staff during the past two years. As you know the pedagogy of CPE1 is unique: if teachers have not been trained at CPE1 or schools with similar pedagogy, the learning curve is steep. The Parent Association is working hard to ensure that Central Park East 1 survives as Central Park East 1; that it is not lost in the manner of so many progressive schools, which fall prey to testing culture and limp along as shadows of their former selves. In recent months these are just some of the things the Parent Association has used its limited funds to do: • support professional development sessions for staff with CPE1 founder Deborah Meier and with parents who are unfamiliar with the pedagogy • provide childcare so that parents can attend as many community meetings as possible, so that they will feel like full participants in their children’s unique educational experience. • ensure that this diverse school, one of the few truly diverse schools in the city, with no one ethnic majority and a diverse socioeconomic population, stays as such. The PA provides discreet, question-free scholarships for camping trips; farm stays; and other activities so that all the children of CPE1 have the same enrichment and educational opportunities, at least at school, that wealthy children do. Through these efforts and those of our staff, Central Park East 1 builds a community of children who graduate having grown, thrived, learned and worked side-by-side with children of different backgrounds; CPE1 builds a community of tolerant, passionate children with a strong sense of self and the mandate and tools to take that into the world. We will leave you with a quote from Deborah Meier about what she and other founding teachers hoped for the children at CPE1. It seems particularly important in the current climate: We wanted them to care about each other, and by extension of their fellow beings throughout their lives. We wanted them to care about the world and do something in it." -- Deborah Meier Please visit http://www.bookculture.com/cpe1 and cite our code, GB-CPE1 in the comments, or the Book Culture locations at and cite Central Park East 1 at the register when purchasing. The Parent Association will receive 20% of any sales. One hundred percent of the PA’s funds go to the school. Book Culture Locations: 2915 Broadway (at 114th Street); 536 West 114th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam); 450 Columbus Ave (betw 81 and 82nd Street)