CHARTER PETITION
Our charter petition - all 700+ pages of it! - was submitted to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) at the end of October. We recently received initial feedback from the staff at LAUSD's charter office, and as we expected, we are now in the process of supplementing and clarifying some details in our petition according to their requests. After we submit our revised petition, the next step will be a "Capacity Interview" of our school leaders and entire Board of Directors, and the final step is our public hearing before the school board. While we can't definitively predict the timeline or when our charter will be approved, we will keep you posted as things develop.

FACILITIES SEARCH
Our application to LAUSD for a facility from the district under Proposition 39 was accepted as filed - meaning all that hustling that our wonderful army of parent volunteers did to get a sufficient number of signatures was worth the effort! A formal offer of space will not come until March.

In the meantime, we have been working closely with a real estate broker who specializes in school facilities, and have looked at several potential locations throughout the Hollywood area already. Several of these options would involve a considerable amount of renovation and construction (e.g., converting an office building or production space into a school). We are considering all our options - short-term and long-term, and will again keep everyone posted as news develops. We know everyone is anxious to know where the school will be - as are we!

PRINCIPAL SEARCH
We have received several very impressive applications for our Founding Principal position (you can see the job description on our website: www.citizensoftheworld.org). We are engaging in a very detailed and thorough screening process including multiple rounds of interviews, hypothetical exercises, and background and reference checks. We will send you news about our selection as soon as we can, and of course ensure there are opportunities for you all to meet our school's instructional leader.

FOUNDING PARENT STATUS
Many of you are curious about the status of the Founding Parent list. We wish we could include everyone who is interested as a Founding Parent - there is such wonderful enthusiasm and energy for our school! We do encourage all interested families to attend our outreach events and volunteer if you're interested - as a start-up school, we truly appreciate all the assistance you can offer.

We are limited to just 6 spots per class for "reserved" admission for children of Founding Parents or Board Members. Our FP list includes 10 children per grade, as some of the children will get in via lottery and not need the reserved spot. At this time, our FP list is full for both Kinder 2010 and Kinder 2011. Please don't be discouraged from entering our lottery. We do have some openings for Founding Parents for 1st Grade 2010, Kinder 2012 and Kinder 2013 (we're not yet making our list for K2014!). If you are interested in potentially being a Founding Parent for one of those class years, please send an email to: tara@citizensoftheworld.org and we will explain more to you.

APPLICATION FORMS
We expect to post our formal application form on the website in January. As a public school, admission to CWC is by lottery. ALL FAMILIES WHO HAVE ALREADY EXPRESSED INTEREST IN THE SCHOOL WILL BE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE APPLICATION FORM, even if you have completed other "interest" forms already. The Application form will be posted in English, Spanish, Korean and other languages.

TRANSLATION HELP NEEDED
We need several dedicated volunteers to help us translate several things: our entire website (we will divide it into smaller pieces), the application form, outreach fliers, and more to come. Please email outreach@citizensoftheworld.org if you would like to help, or know someone who would be able to volunteer some assistance. We need translation in the following languages:

• Spanish
• Korean
• Armenian
• Thai

OUTREACH
If you are interested in assisting us with outreach efforts, including translation of written materials, visiting area preschools/day care centers/churches/community centers, etc., distributing materials, planning small events for local parks, wrangling some PR, and generally spreading the word (especially in languages other than English!), we will hold an Outreach Meeting on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 from 7-8:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at 579 North Gower Street, one block east of Larchmont, between Beverly and Melrose. We will divide up responsibilities and make sure everyone has what they need to hit the pavement to do some intensive outreach in the months of January and February. You need NOT be a Founding Parent to help - all volunteers welcome and most appreciated. Please email outreach@citizensoftheworld.org if you plan to attend, or if you would like to be involved in outreach but can't make it to the meeting.

PARENT INFO SESSION
Due to some scheduling constraints, we unfortunately will not be hosting a Parent Information Session in December. We will, however, have at least two sessions in January and two in February. We will email the dates/locations of those sessions at the beginning of the new year.

We so appreciate the interest you all have shown in our new school. We truly believe that Citizens of the World Charter School - Hollywood will be one of the very best schools in Los Angeles, and help to demonstrate that innovation in public schools can be resoundingly successful.

Best wishes to you and your families during the holidays. - Tara Kelly, Executive Director