Calling all Music Parents!  A city-wide committee of parents/guardians of music students in grades K-12 is forming. Our mission will be to advocate for music in all our schools, and also to provide a forum for the sharing of resources and information. We will have our first meeting on Monday, November 10th from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM at the United Parish of Auburndale (at the corner of Grove and Woodland streets in Auburndale). If you'd like to join us, please contact Lisa Rucinski, at lisa@rucinskis.com or (617) 965-0375.

November is the Final Month of Free Walking Tours of the Arnold Arboretum:  From flowers and fragrance to fruits and textures, the Arnold Arboretum is a dynamic landscape throughout the year! Explore the collections on a free guided tour led by the knowledgeable volunteer docents.
Tours are geared toward the general visitor and include Arboretum history and topics of seasonal interest.  11/1 (Sat) at 10:30am, 11/5 (Wed.) at 12:15pm, 11/9 (Sun) at 1pm, 11/15 (Sat.) at 10:30 am, 11/19 (Wed.) at 12:15 pm., 11/23 (Sun.) at 1pm.  All tours begin in front of the Hunnewell Building Visitor Center and last approximately 60-90 minutes. There is no need to pre-register. For more information or cancellations due to inclement weather, please call (617) 384.5209.

Cutler & Millennium Park Hike, Sunday, November 23, 2:00 PM: Starting at Cutler Park, we will explore Cutler Park and Millennium Park and will complete the tour by way of the Wells Avenue Charles River Pathway. These areas have been improved for recreation over the last several years and now provide a wide variety of trails, river landings and playing fields. This approximately 5.5 mile hike will be steady but not fast, and participants should be in sufficiently good shape to keep up with the group. Hikin g boots or heavy all weather shoes are recommended.  Meet at the Cutler Park entrance, a quarter mile south of the Charles River Bridge on Kendrick Street in Needham, at 2:00 PM.  Trip leader is Henry Finch (617) 964-4488.  Visit www.newtonconservators.org for more information.

Survey on School Safety:  The School Committee has appointed a subcommittee to review system-wide security policies and to make recommendations to the School Committee on how to deal broadly with security issues. That subcommittee has prepared a draft policy and had discussions about how specific security measures then might be implemented. The School Committee is scheduled to vote on the policy in November. This survey is designed to seek community input on some of the areas under discussion. We hope to get a lot of survey responses from PTO members.  The survey is at: 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1GvcCRWDVAVu20DGi3MgjQ_3d_3d.

Newton Teen Issues are the focus of a series being broadcast on local cable TV.  This series is appropriate for parents and children of all ages, including middle schoolers.  It airs each Monday evening at 6:30 through November 24th on the Blue Channel of NewTV: Comcast: 10, RCN: 15 and Verizon: 34.  Feedback is appreciated to Martha Hadeler, co-President of the NNHS PTSO: martha_Hadeler@yahoo.com or Laurie Mokriski, former PTSO co-President: lmokriski@rcn.com.

Newton Open Studios - Juried Art and Craft Show and Sale:  November 22 & 23, 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Free.  Newton Cultural Center 225 Nevada Street, Newtonville.  Featuring 35 artists and craftspeople, chosen by a DeCordova museum curator.  Special preview exhibit featuring 10 of the artists at Newton TV Art Gallery, 23 Needham Street, now through November 20. www.NewtonOpenStudios.com or contact info@NewtonOpenStudios.com or (617) 872-0228.

Donations Needed -- Dare Family Services, a private, nonprofit foster care agency, is hosting a holiday party on December 9, 2008 for their Dare foster children and their families. Santa comes and hands out gifts to each child. The need is finding presents for Santa to hand out to the teenagers. Most teenagers will ask for gift cards to places like Best Buy, Target, FYE, etc, but mostly the gifts that are donated are for the young ones (toys and such), leaving the teenagers with no gifts. As about half of the kids are over age 10, this produces a great need. If anyone is able to donate gift cards ($15-20 dollar limit to make gifts fair to all) to the agency to make this holiday brighter for kids in foster care, please call Janelle Moore at (617) 628-3696 or email at jmoore@darefamily. org. (You will receive a receipt with our nonprofit tax id number so you can deduct the donation on your taxes next year.)

Public Meeting:  Newton, MA - On November 19, 2008, the Citizen Advisory Group will release a draft report on potential strategies for increasing the City's revenues.  This report's recommendations will be summarized and discussed at a Public Meeting scheduled to take place at 7:00 pm at the Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street, Newton Centre 02459.  The City currently relies upon two principal sources of increased revenues: (1) property tax-related revenues and (2) user-fee related revenues. Going forward, a basic choice facing Newton residents is whether or not, and how much, to change the traditional balance between these two revenue sources.  A collateral choice involves how much to tap into other, less established sources, such as sales of unutilized municipal buildings and the incubation of private foundations and public-private partnerships.  The Citizen Advisory Group has studied each of these revenue options. For the purposes of this draft report and current public discussion, we have set aside detailed consideration of an additional Proposition 2½ override or various debt exclusion strategies.
 
For further information on the Citizen Advisory Group, please visit the website at http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/CitizenAdvisoryGroup/index.html or contact either Malcolm Salter, Chair, msalter@hbs.edu or Ruthanne Fuller, Vice Chair, damc3@aol.com.

Community Preservation Committee:
PUBLIC MEETING Wednesday 12 November, 7:00 PM, City Hall Room 209  Agenda includes: updates on current recreation projects and potential historic resources proposals, possible new funding priorities; possible new proposal deadline.

Public Hearing:   Wednesday 19 November, 7:00 PM, City Hall Cafeteria Future Funding Priorities for OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION.  Come share your ideas for how Newton should spend its CP funds.  Find out more from our website or  here: why are we holding these hearings?  If you can't come in person, share your ideas through our 2008 Community Survey or by emailing Alice Ingerson at aingerson@newtonma.gov.

Project News:
HERITAGE LANDSCAPE INVENTORY - Draft inventory based on 4 community meetings and online comments should be posted by Monday, 10 November 2008. Watch for new link at www.ci.newton.ma.us/cpa/ and send comments or questions to Amy Yuhasz at ayuhasz@newtonma.gov or (617) 796.1122.

WEBSITE RE-LAUNCHED - www.ci.newton.ma.us/cpa/  To see the new site, CLICK "REFRESH" in your browser.  Check out the new REPORTS page for status of current proposals and projects and currently available funds; funding forecast; cumulative maps & lists; and annual reports.
Other main pages:

• CALENDAR & COMMITTEES
• GUIDELINES & FORMS for CPA in general and Newton's program, including deadlines & proposal form
• PROPOSALS & PROJECTS