To identify and support the social-emotional growth of all children in our school, all DOE schools will be administering a strengths-based SEL screener, known as the Devereaux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA). The DESSA asks questions about areas of social-emotional functioning including decision making, relationship building, confidence, and others. This tool will be completed by teachers.

See the presentation below for more about the Socio Emotional Learning (SEL) and the DESSA Screening. 

Please be reminded that dismissal time is not the time to meet with your child's teacher. Teachers need to stay focused on dismissing their students safely. Even after their last student has been dismissed, teachers often have meetings to get to or are on their way home. If you would like to speak to your child's teacher, please send an email and the teacher will call you or set up a time for a meeting. Tuesdays from 2:40-3:15, teachers usually have time reserved for parent calls/zooms. 

Get an admissions overview. Learn how to find out more and stay engaged throughout the process.

The book covers all DOE admissions, from 3-K to High School. For parents waiting for middle school information, jump to page 45. There is not a lot of new information about the criteria this year or screened vs unscreened but it's a place to start. Once more specific information is shared with us we will have a meeting for 5th-grade parents. 

A few important things to remember about using the playground afterschool.

• There is no access to the school restrooms. The safety agents are not permitted to let children into the building once they have been dismissed, as per the DOE. Please do not ask Mr. Cairo and Ms. Rodriguez to make exceptions.
• When children get hurt in the playground, please do not bring them to the school nurse, even if she is still in the building. Even if still there doing paperwork, she is not on duty after school hours. 
• For their own safety, please do not let children climb on the scaffolding or fences. 

Please label all of your children's clothing, lunchboxes, water bottles, etc. Labeled items will be returned to the student's classroom. Unlabeled items will be left in the Lost & Found bin in the outer lobby of the building. The items in the bin will be donated to charity every Friday afternoon, beginning November 5th. If your child is missing something, please check Lost & Found in the lobby before Friday. 

The DOE has not yet released the middle school application or timeline information.  At this time, they do not have any updates regarding the admissions timeline, or the admissions methods that will be part of this year’s process. 
 
Later this fall, public school families will receive a personalized welcome letter in the mail, which includes a unique code to access your child’s MySchools account. Please make sure the DOE has your correct address so you don't miss your letter. The best way to do that is to check your NYCSA student account. What you see there is what the DOE system has on file. 

Please note that updating information on the blue card does not update the DOE system. You must notify the school with any changes in order to make them official. To change your address you need to submit two pieces of address verification. 

NYC has a map of locations that offer free food (food pantries, soup kitchens), as well as farmers’ markets and grocery stores.  Please visit a map of food resources across the city.

Arrival gates will close promptly at 8:20 AM. Students arriving after that time must enter through the main blue doors, where they will be given a late pass before proceeding to class.

While the DOE did not penalize lateness during the 20-21 school year, this year lateness will again be on students' permanent attendance records. To ensure your child is not late, please plan on dropping your child off by 8:15 AM each day. This gives them a chance to line up with their classmates and have an unhurried start to their school day. 

Remember,  late is late, whether it is one minute or one hour. Students who are not lined up with their class by 8:20 are late for school. Students arriving late because of a late bus are not marked late. 

Please do not pick up your children by car in front of the school. West 89th street is a narrow street and double-parked cars hold up traffic, including buses that must get through. If you must pick up by car, and cannot find a parking spot on West 89th street, please park on one of the avenues and walk down. 

Families can now access the new NYC Schools Account (NYCSA) portal, which consolidates several important parent-facing applications in one place. In addition to seeing information for MyStudent, such as grades, attendance, and transportation, families will also be able to access Parent University and the Bullying Reporting online form. 

Parents can reset the passwords to their student’s DOE email accounts through the Manage Account page; please note the change in URL from http://mystudent.nyc to http://schoolsaccount.nyc. Families who currently have a NYCSA account will automatically have access to new features in the portal.
 
Parents who have not set up a NYCSA account have all received a backpack creation code letter this week. If you don't know your child's OSIS ID, which is necessary to set up the account, you can find it on your Operoo account.  If  you did not receive a letter, you already have an account in the system. 

Shop for your family or purchase books for your child’s classroom using the Teachers’ Wish list*.
Use our Book Fair Code 12617072  when shopping online or in person & raise funds for PS166!   
*only available for in-person purchases at Barnes & Noble W. 82nd Street & Broadway.

Visit Barnes & Noble BOOK FAIR

If you would like to be a contact person that the PTA can reach out to help plan small socially-distanced or virtual gatherings with families in your grade/classroom, sign up here.

The chess program at PS 166 is a crown jewel at our school and one of the premier elementary school chess programs in the United States? Now in its 22nd year, the Manhattan Knights Chess Team boasts consistent top honors in all levels of tournament play. If your child is interested in participating in tournaments as a member of the chess team, please contact us to learn more.

Show your pride with our exclusive selection of uniquely branded products. 100% of the profit goes towards the PS 166 PTA to help sustain the resources and programs that benefit every student at PS 166.

Items may be shipped or picked up locally at Big Frog Custom T-shirts on the Upper West Side (80th/Broadway).

SHOP NOW

We are pleased to announce that this year all PS166 students in grades 3-5 who wish to, will have the opportunity to participate in the Noetic Learning Math Contest, a national problem-solving competition.

The goal of the contest is to encourage students’ interest in math, inspire them to excel, and develop students’ problem-solving and logical-reasoning skills. The Fall contest is in mid-November; students who participate will be given 20 math puzzles to solve in 45 minutes. If your child is interested in joining a PS166 math team, sign up here.

Thanks to your generous support, we were able to purchase guitar carts for the music room. Previously the guitars were stored in cases in a closet and it was time consuming and challenging to get them out for students to use. Now they are safe and easy for children to get out and put away. We can’t wait until our kids can get back in the music room to use them!

Our school community relies on parents like you!  Please sign up here to learn more about volunteer opportunities, and to let us know what skills and services you may be able to share!

Find out more about the fun events we have planned for this year here, and learn about volunteer opportunities. Email our VP of Volunteers, Tiffany Boyer, with questions or ideas, or to volunteer for an event!

We'd love to hear! We really do want to take questions from our parent community and get answers for you. We will be meeting with the administration several times in the coming days, so let us know!

Questions for the school? Submit Questions here

Pick a topic for our parent workshop Hosted by CMI: Vote here

Minutes for the June PTA meeting can be found here and we will vote on their approval at our next PTA meeting on October 21st at 9:30 am.

Congratulations to our new PTA Executive Board and newly elected parent SLT members! The following are the results of the May 25th parent elections:

PTA Executive Board
Co-Presidents: Kristin Savov and Annalisa Petersen
Co-Treasurers: Emilie Wang and Geeta Koolwal
Recording Secretary: Sarah Sevier
VP Fundraising: Simon Franceschi
VP Events & Volunteers: Tiffany Boyer
VP Grants: Radi Morris
Financial Secretary: Ken Connolly
Communications Secretary: Amie Ray

SLT
Christine Nuzum
Jenny Passero
Yael Swica

Please also consider supporting our very own PS166 parent-owned businesses!  If you’d like to add your own business to the list, please email us.