City Springs Student Wins National Boxing Championship

City Springs fifth grader Lorenzo Simpson recently took the championship title at the 2011 National Silver Gloves Tournament of Champions in Kansas City, Mo., one of the nation's largest amateur tournaments for young boxers. Congratulations to Lorenzo and all of the people who supported him in this outstanding achievement.

Read the Baltimore Sun article at: http://bit.ly/gl7i57

View the Baltimore Sun video at: http://bit.ly/fiT76Z

View a video of Lorenzo in the finals at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-SxsIngByw

McDonald's Supports Collington Square School

We would like to thank Brian Brown of the McDonald’s at 2001 N. Broadway Ave. and Kim Burrell of the McDonald’s at 2840 Greenmount Ave. for donating 80 apple pies for Collington Square School of the Arts' Fun Friday event on March 18, 2011.

The donation helped sweeten the celebration of our students’ successful completion of the Maryland School Assessment.

Hampstead Hill Fundraiser on March 26th

Hampstead Hill Academy will hold a fundraiser, B3- Bingo, Beer, & a Band, on Saturday March 26, 2011 from 7:00pm - 11:00pm at 500 S. Linwood Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224.

Admission is $15 and bingo cards, beer and soft drinks will be available for purchase. B3 is an over-21 event. Tickets are available from Cathy Wolkow (wolkowca@gmail.com, 443-803-6081) or Erin Taylor Bell (etaylorbell@gmail.com)

BCP Featured at Restorative Practices Conference

BCP President Dr. Muriel Berkeley and City Springs School Principal Rhonda will be featured speakers at the 2011 IIRP Summer Symposium, Tuesday–Thursday, August 2–4, 2011 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

TURNING THE TIDE: a participatory symposium on bringing restorative practices to schools, organizations, workplaces and communities will include three days of speakers, panels, videos, and restorative circles.

Dr. Berkeley will talk about the restorative practices implementations at BCP neighborhood charter schools. Principal Richetta will talk about the Whole School Restorative Practices implementation at City Springs School.

For more information visit: http://www.iirp.org/event_detail.php?event_id=NTY=

Canton Railroad Helps Hampstead Hill

Hampstead Hill Academy and the Baltimore Curriculum Project would like to thank the Canton Railroad Company for their recent, generous donation of school supplies. Canton Railroad President John Magness and Vice-President Diane Abate dropped off enough supplies to last the rest of the school year including filler paper, spiral notebooks, composition books, pencils, pens, glue sticks, and a host of other items.

The Canton Railroad Company is an Industrial Switching Carrier located in East Baltimore City and County, Maryland. They have a long standing partnership with Hampstead Hill Academy and provide significant support for the Spectacular Express Program, which celebrates good students deeds and citizenship.

Hampstead Hill Principal Helps Amplify Baltimore

On March 12th, 2011 Hampstead Hill Academy Principal Matt Hornbeck participated in a panel discussion about public education as part of Amplify Baltimore. Other panelists included former City Schools superintendent Walter G. Amprey and City Schools Chief Academic Officer Sonja Brookins Santelises.

Amplify Baltimore is a quarterly series of community conversations that explore some of the most challenging issues we face as a city.

About a dozen seventh and eighth graders from Hampstead Hill Academy attended the session and said they would like to see more creative curriculum and high school choices.

Read the AFRO article at: http://www.afro.com/sections/news/Baltimore/story.htm?storyid=4373

Learn more about Amplify Baltimore at http://www.civicframe.org/cf.html

School Board Acknowledges Impressive Achievement at City Springs

At Wednesday's City School Board Meeting, board members cited City Springs School's outstanding academic achievement (an increase in state math test proficiency from 34 percent to 64 percent in five years) and the pressure put on teachers by No Child Left Behind.

Read more at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bs-md-ci-alternative-governance-20110309,0,4059925.story

BCP President Muriel Berkeley Speaks at Kellogg Forum

On Friday March 4th BCP President Muriel Berkeley participated in a panel on school and community engagement at the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance's 2011 Forum. As a neighborhood charter school operator, BCP works collaboratively with schools and communities to improve public education. The panel was convened by Dr. Sam Stringfield and included representatives from diverse school reform advocacy groups.

For more information on the Forum visit: http://www.kfla.org/programs/?p=p&c=194

Hampstead Hill Academy Featured on DBFA Blog

Claudia Towles, Vice President of the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance (DBFA), shares her experience sending her son Sebastian to Hampstead Hill Academy on the DBFA Blog:

http://www.dbfamblog.org/blog/2011/3/2/school-days-hampstead-hill-academy.html

We'd like to thank Claudia and DBFA for everything they do to support BCP schools.

City Springs School Featured in Baltimore Brew

City Springs School's outstanding achievement is featured in yesterday's Baltimore Brew article: http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/03/01/a-new-day-at-baltimores-city-springs/