After four months of meetings, letter grades are out and numbers are in for elementary report cards for Dearborn students in kindergarten through grade five.

The switch, school officials say, comes after reviewing report cards from nine other districts, and considerable discussion the elementary report card committee, comprised of more than 40 teachers and administrators.

The goals of the committee were to create a report card that made understanding student performance easier, incorporate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts and math, and assign a grade-level for student performance in reading and math.

The first big change that parents will notice on the report card is the conversion from a letter grade to a number. The numbers on the report card correspond to the following: 1= Masters Expectations, 2= Meets Expectations, 3= Progressing, 4= Concern. A number will appear next to each Common Core State Standard listed on the report card to indicate a student’s performance in meeting that Standard.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and math have been adopted by Michigan. More information on the Common Core can be found at www.corestandards.org.

A new item on the report card is the reporting of student performance on two different computer-administered assessments, one in reading and the other in math. These assessments provide an indication of the grade level the student is performing at in these two subject areas. For example a score on the reading assessment of 3.2 is equivalent to third grade second month. The same holds true for the math assessment.

The test given in reading is the Scholastic Reading Inventory or SRI reading assessment. The SRI may be given up to three times a year. Starmath is the math assessment tool and may be given up to four times a year. Students in kindergarten and first grade will not receive an SRI or Star Math score on the first report card.

The report card also includes a section titled Life Skills and the objectives change from kindergarten through grade five. In addition there is a notes and comments section at the end.

Parent feedback and input is a valuable part of any change to the report card. Parents interested in serving on this committee may contact Dr. Chochol, Associate Superintendent of Elementary Education at 827-3026 or email at chochoj@dearborn.k12.mi.us .

The report card grades represent a summary of what students have learned during the marking period. Report cards are used by teachers as a tool to help them direct their instruction so they can support areas of concern or challenge in areas of mastery. As always, the teacher is the best source of information about a student’s progress. Parent attendance at parent-teacher conferences and utilizing other forms of communication with their child’s teacher is vitally important in the team approach to ensuring student success.

Dearborn residents are reminded there is still time to order a free 2013 City of Dearborn Calendar before this Wednesday’s, Oct. 31 deadline.

Residents can order online at www.cityofdearborn.org

Reserving a copy of the calendar online save taxpayers money and is a more efficient and accurate way of ordering.

As an alternative method only, residents without internet access may order a calendar by calling a voice mail box at 943-3003.

Residents who call are reminded to give their complete address, including individual flat or apartment numbers, in addition to the street address and zip code.

The city’s 2013 Calendars will be mailed to Dearborn residents who place their order by 5 p.m. Oct. 31, 2012. Later orders cannot be accommodated.

The Calendar and Guide to City Services includes information about programs, facilities and events, as well as provides Dearborn city government phone numbers and recycling week schedules.

As a cost-saving measure, the calendar is no longer mailed to every household automatically. In January a limited number of calendars will be available for pickup from Dearborn Public Libraries and other city buildings.

Residents will also be able to find the 2013 City Calendar at www.cityofdearborn.org in January 2013 and can view or print the entire calendar or individual pages at their convenience.

Those who order a Calendar should receive it in the mail before Dec. 31, 2012.

The United States Air Force Band of Flight Concert Band will present a free concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 7 in the Michael A. Guido Theater at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave.

To reserve a seat, please call the theater box office at 943-2354.

The largest and most versatile unit of the United States Air Force Band of Flight, the Concert Band will present “On Tour,” featuring a variety of new and well-known works, including marches, vocal selections and patriotic music.

The performance will spotlight an arrangement by Tech. Sgt. Scott Wise, a Quincy, Mich., native and Interlochen Arts Academy graduate. A live narrator will read excerpts from a 1940 radio broadcast by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during Sergeant Wise’s composition, “The Arsenal of Democracy,” which tells the story of Detroit and the United State’s industrial contributions to European allies during World War II.

The United States Air Force Band of Flight is one of 12 bands in the Air Force. The band’s purpose is to support the global Air Force mission in war and peace by fostering the national heritage and by providing professional musical products and services for official military, recruiting and community relations events.

For more information about this and other performances by the United States Air Force Band of Flight, please visit www.bandofflight.af.mil.

If you are looking for a pumpkin and want to help a good cause stop by the Dearborn Fire Safety House on Outer Drive this Sunday and next weekend and make a donation for a pumpkin.

The Firefighter Pumpkin Patch opened for business on Oct. 20 and will be open on Sunday and again Oct. 27-28 at the Dearborn Fire Safety House, 19750 W. Outer Drive. The pumpkin sale takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Families can choose any size pumpkin for $5, and all proceeds from the event benefit the Dearborn Firefighters Burn Drive.

Dearborn will start its annual collection of leaves raked into the street on Monday, Oct. 22.

Dearborn will start its annual collection of leaves raked into the street on Monday, Oct. 22 and will continue the program until Friday, Dec. 7, weather permitting.

Leaves raked into the street will be picked up on a neighborhood’s trash day, on the week that is not a recycling week.

Dearborn officials are reminding residents that crews will not always be able to pick up leaves from an entire district in one trash day. When that happens, crews will return where they left off during that district’s next trash day that is not on a recycling week.

Crews expect to be in every district collecting leaves raked into the street at least two times during the fall season.

For safety reasons, don’t rake your leaves into the street until it is close to the time when they will be picked up. Leaves that linger in the street can cause slippery conditions, or lead to car fires.

For a weekly leaf collection schedule, call the Leaf Hotline at 943-2444.

Dearborn residents are reminded about the preferred method to ensure your leaves are picked up promptly.

Jim Murray, the director of the Department of Public Works, says residents should put leaves in yard waste paper bags or 20-32 gallon containers with a City yard waste sticker and set them at your curbside every week on trash day.

Place the bags or containers on your easement by 7 a.m. on your trash day each week. They will be picked up that same day with your trash, recyclables and other yard waste, such as grass clippings.

Yard waste stickers are available at City Hall and Dearborn libraries.

Leaves in plastic bags or in cardboard boxes will not be picked up.

Dearborn City Clerk Kathy Buda is encouraging voters to apply for an absentee ballot for the general election because of expected large turnouts.

“I’m encouraging qualified voters to apply for an absentee ballot” said Buda. “That will allow them to feel less rushed and to thoroughly read the ballot.”

Residents who are registered may apply for and be given their absentee ballot at the City Clerk’s office in City Hall weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Absentee ballot applications and additional information are also available by calling 313-943-2031 or 313-943-2032.

The Clerk’s Office will accept absentee ballot applications until Saturday, Nov. 3. On that day, the Clerk’s office will be open from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6.

Buda says showing a government issued ID is encouraged to ensure accuracy but voters who don’t have their identification with them can still vote. They will be asked to sign a brief affidavit. Those ballots will be included with all others and counted on Election Day.

Residents may check their voter information and view sample ballots HERE

The League of Women Voters of Dearborn-Dearborn Heights announces the launch of the nonpartisan election resource www.VOTE411.org. This “one-stop-shop” for election information provides simple tools to help Michigan voters navigate the voting process this November.

VOTE411.org provides candidate information, voter registration tools, polling place locations and other helpful Election Day information.

Detailed candidate information, including candidates’ direct responses to issue-related questions, is available for 19th District Court, Dearborn Heights City Council, Circuit Court Judges, and State Representatives, and many other races.

Users can visit www.VOTE411.org and enter their address to find information from the candidates they will see on their ballot.

“As voters, we need simple, helpful tools to help us navigate Election Day,” said Mary Bugeia, President of the League of Women Voters of Dearborn-Dearborn Heights. “This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime, and each one of us has an important role to play in weighing in on the issues and priorities that matter most for our community.”

The dedication for a new playscape for Morningside Park in southeast Dearborn was attended by  Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., Severstal’s Vice President Bruce Black and assistant Judy Young; Dearborn Community Fund chair Karen Nigosian and Exec. Dir. EmmaJean Woodyard; Dearborn Recreation Commission Chair Johanna Seidel and Commissioner Louie Moussa; Dearborn Commission on Disability Concerns member Gary Filiak; and City of Dearborn Department of Recreation & Parks Director Gregory Orner and Deputy Directory Eric Peterson.

Children who play at Dearborn’s Morningside Park are enjoying a new playscape thanks to employees of Dearborn-based Severstal North America who pitched in with their employer and collaborated with the non-profit Dearborn Community Fund to purchase new playground equipment.

The $15,000 donation to purchase the playscape, complete with slides and a mini climbing wall, included $8,450 that employees raised through raffle ticket sales at Severstal’s open house last fall. The company contributed an additional $6,550 to fund the purchase of the playground equipment which is compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

Morningside Park is nestled in a residential community on Morningside Ave. near Wyoming St. in southeast Dearborn. Every day, dozens of children and their families visit the park which is maintained by the City of Dearborn’s Department of Recreation and Parks.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., joined Severstal Dearborn’s Vice President and General Manager, Bruce Black, Dearborn Community Fund Board Chair Karen Nigosian, Morningstar neighborhood residents, and members of the City’s Recreation Commission, on September 17 to dedicate the new playscape. At the ceremony, Mayor O’Reilly thanked Severstal and its employees for their continued support of the Dearborn community.

Severstal worked with the Dearborn Community Fund (DCF) to organize their fundraising raffle, determine how the funds they raised could be used to benefit the community, and order the playground equipment.

Working closely with other organizations and the City of Dearborn, the DCF raises funds and organizes volunteer support for arts, cultural and recreational programs that enhance the quality of life in Dearborn.

For more information about the Dearborn Community Fund, click HERE or call Executive Director EmmaJean Woodyard at 313-943-5478.

Plans fall apart for Dearborn’s Hyatt Hotel to become the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center.

The former Hyatt Regency hotel in Dearborn is once again on the ropes.

Just two weeks after the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group said it would take over management of the 772-room hotel in Dearborn, the deal has been cancelled for unknown reasons.

“Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and Royal Realties LLC have agreed to terminate the previously announced management agreement for the hotel currently known as the Hyatt Regency Dearborn,” Carlson Rezidor said in a statement.

The hotel was set to open as a Radisson at the end of October, the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, based in Minneapolisand Brussels, Belgium, said just two weeks ago.

This is the second time that Royal Realties LLC, which bought the 14-story hotel in May 2011, has failed to close a deal with a hotel management company. When Royal Realties bought the hotel, the Hyatt Hotels Corp. had agreed to manage the hotel. That never materialized.

What this means for the hotel, which has served as the site of hundreds of weddings, conventions and other special events, is unknown. Let’s hope that Royal Realties can find an upper, middle market hotel chain to manage this property . . . and soon.

Miller’s Bar in Dearborn has purchased the adjoining building and will soon add a new private dining room.

Miller’s Bar patrons will soon have a new reason to love one of Dearborn’s best burger places — the owners of the bar will soon be adding a new dining room for private parties.

If you’ve driven by Miller’s Bar on Michigan Avenue recently, you will have noticed that the adjoining building is now painted the same red oak color of the famous burger bar. That’s because the Miller family, which has owned the business since 1941, recently purchased the adjoining building, including the upstairs apartment units.

A new private dining room will be a great addition to one of Dearborn’s gems.

We wish the Miller family the best of luck with their new purchase.