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Cornelia F. Bradford School PS16 Newsletter

November 7th, 2021

Did you remember to set your alarm clock back an hour?! School will reopen tomorrow, Monday November 8th! We hope you all enjoyed the break! If your child has traveled outside the tri-state area over the break we ask that you follow all protocols as laid out in the Safe Return Plan. This week at PS16 will be another busy one as we celebrate Diwali, Veterans Day and take school photos. We will also be kicking off our Spelling Bee Fundraiser!!! Word lists will be available of our website this week. Pledge forms will come home with your child too! We thank you in advance for supporting our Spelling Bee. Remember that there is no school on Thursday November 11th in recognition of Veterans Day.


We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Natalia Ioffe on being elected as a Jersey City Board of Education Trustee. Mrs. Ioffe served for many years on our parent council and we continue to benefit from the many programs she introduced to PS16. We wish her every success!


Our monthly CPA meeting has been rescheduled to next Monday, November 15th. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please sign up here to receive the Zoom link for our meeting.

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Mrs. Watkins Williams and Mr. Salgado with Dr. Galano. Thank you Dr. Galano for always showing up to support PS16!

The Second Annual PS16 Trunk or Treat was an astounding success thanks to all the efforts of our teachers and class parents. Just a few short weeks ago we asked our class parents to 'volunteer' to participate in the trunk or treat event. So much work went on behind the scenes as each grade designed and decorated their trunks with our "Under the Sea" theme. Props and costumes were beyond impressive and we hope our students had as much fun as the grown ups did!

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Unbeknownst to our class parents a secret panel of judges were checking out all the trunks for creativity, use of resources, costumes and dramatics. The fifth grade class parents and their "Jaws" reenactment took the prize. The boys and girls in fifth grade will be rewarded with an ice cream party!

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There are no words to truly express how appreciative we are to everyone who made this event possible. The joy and sound of laughter from our children (and the grownups!) makes all the planning and hard work worthwhile. Thank you to our principal, Mrs. Watkins Williams, for her encouragement, to Mr. Salgado aka King Triton, to our specials; Mrs. Bigger, Mrs. Hennessey, Nurse Brennan, Ms. C Nolan, Ms. Thomas, Dr. Manes, Senor Atencio, Ms. Gordon and Ms. Leiffel. Thank you to our office staff, Claudia, Noemi and Chassidy and to Ms. Duncan and Mr. Reid.Thank you to our class parents and our walking chaperones. Finally a huge thank you to our photographer Kareem!!

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PS16 doubled up on Halloween celebrations this year with two days of fun!! Our students enjoyed their classroom parties with games, movies, treats and PIZZA!!! What a joy it is to hear the laughter of our students in our hallways again! A special thank you to Pizza Los America's and Loradella's for making and delivering over 100 pizzas. And to Mrs. Tapia for coordinating the class parties in the Annex.

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Ms. Talalai's 4th Graders
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Ms. Diaz Second Grade Class
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Ms. Figueroa's Fifth Grade
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Ms. Isoldi's Kindergarten Class
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Ms. Payumo Gome's 2nd graders
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Mrs. Gauch's 2nd graders

The Halloween dance at PS16 is one of the most anticipated events of the school year. It is a rite of passage for our third graders as they get to attend their first of many school dances and for our fifth graders it is often bittersweet as it is their final Halloween dance at PS16. This year we were determined to see the dance happen for our fifth graders and when we approached Mrs. Watkins Williams she suggested taking the dance out of the gym and bringing it outdoors. Holding the dance in the courtyard meant we were able to invite 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students! When the weather looked like it wasn't going to cooperate we were worried that we would have to cancel the dance and disappoint almost 200 of our attendees. Thankfully the good people at City Hall worked their magic to switch our permits!

Holding two events on the same day was a scary thought but as usual the parents of PS16 stepped up to help out and make the dance just as successful as the Trunk or Treat. Much appreciation is owed to our decorators Darice, Fran, Amrita and Disha. And to our fifth grade class parents; Erica, Yndira, Shalinee, and Shaheen who came straight to the dance from the trunk or treat.

The dance was amazing! The chaperones really lit up the dance floor. The kids had some pretty good moves too! DJ Superfresh made sure he played something for everyone! Thank you to our many staff members who joined in the fun! And to our principal Mrs. Watkins Williams for showing our kids how to relax, have fun and be themselves! Outdoor dances may just become the new tradition at PS16!!

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Many congratulations to all our students in grades 2 through 5 who decorated pumpkins. We continued with the book character theme this year and were once again blown away both by the creativity of our students and by the wide range of books they read! Our judges really struggled with choosing the winners. Congratulations to our pumpkin winners!

  • Atharv Joshi (2nd/105) - If you give a mouse a cookie
  • Lisa Kasoff (2nd/103) - Where the Wild Things are
  • Aisling Kerr (3rd/201) - Ursula
  • Neha Arunkumar (3rd/204) - Fly Guy
  • Ananya Khandelwal (4th/307) - Wonder
  • Matheus Ribeiro (4th/307) - Jack the Pumpkin King
  • Daniella Fonseca Moretti (5th/303) - Cruella and the Dalmation
  • Rithvik Grandhi (5th/304) - Geronimo Stilton
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Even though our younger students were unable to participate in the pumpkin contest many of the classrooms in the Annex did decorate pumpkins with their teachers!

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Pumpkins by Ms. Nicholas and Mrs. Tapia's Kindergarten students

The successful "Gauchie's Garden" series that made its big screen debut last school year returned for a Halloween special edition. Check it out here

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Individual photographs will be taken this week. You can place your order via Lifetouch using the Picture Day ID EVT4T4SHW. Photographs will be taken at the Annex on Wednesday November 10th and at the main building on Friday November 12th. Those children taking school pictures can wear school uniform or Sunday best.

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This school year we have been trying to continue with our weekly CPA hour on Tuesdays between 9am and 10am. Weather permitting we have been outside the main building to address your concerns and assist with uniform purchases. We are putting a pause on outdoor CPA hour at this time. We are always available via email and are open to meeting up at one of our local coffee stores!

Due to the pandemic the USDA has extended the use of the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) which will allow all students to eat for free during the 2021-2022 school year. Later, when we get a la carte items for purchase, 'My School Bucks' will be used for students to keep money on their accounts. We encourage all parents to complete the Lunch Application as it helps our district receive much needed federal funding.


The breakfast and lunch menu for November can be found here.

The district calendar for the school year can be found here. School will be closed on Thursday November 11th in recognition of Veterans Day.

At this time both gates to Paulus Hook Park remain unlocked during the school day. Our staff are being extremely vigilant while overseeing outdoor recess. However we also need parent cooperation during drop off and dismissal times. Please close the Grand Street gate when you enter and exit. We ask that you allow our teachers to safely assemble our children at dismissal and refrain from permitting younger siblings to use the equipment until our security guard (assisted by CPA volunteers) opens the Washington Street gate at 2:45pm. Our students safety is always our number one priority. We must work together to ensure this.


Please also note that a Jersey City ordinance (Ord. No. 16-167) prohibits ALL dogs, whether leashed or unleashed, from Paulus Hook Park.

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Birthday Wishes to our staff members who are celebrating this week and who have recently celebrated

  • Ms. Theresa Mistretta - October 31st

  • Ms. Nidia Cartagena - November 5th

  • Mrs. Jamie Lynn DiFabrizio - November 6th

  • Ms. Megan Mulcahy - November 9th

  • Ms. Vidya Vittal - November 10th

  • Senor Jose Atencio - November 14th

The CPA Executive Team for 2021-22:

President - Leanne Kerr

1st Vice President - Shweta Bhatia

2nd Vice President - Jackie Cox

Secretary - Angela Park

Recording Secretary - Maeghan Robertson

Treasurer - Priya Rasquinha

Ass. Treasurer - Didi Roca

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Please support Concerned Parents Association of PS16, a 501(c)(3) organization, through your Amazon account. Login to Amazon Smile, link your account and select “CPA of Ps16 - Cornelia F Bradford” as your charitable organization. Through Amazon Smile, 0.5% of every purchase will be donated to CPA of PS16.


**UPDATE** You can now participate in Amazon Smile through the Amazon App on your phone! Update to the latest version of the Amazon Shopping app on your phone. Under 'Settings' tap on 'AmazonSmile" and follow the onscreen instructions.

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Boxtops for Education is online now! Download the Box Tops app, find your school as “Cornelia Bradford Elementary 16”. After you shop, simply scan your store receipts to find participating products.The app will automatically credit your school's Box Tops earnings online.

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