CAPTION: Edwards School principal Jeff Riley.

As he looks back at his first year as principal of the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School, Jeff Riley is pleased with the school’s recent successes in and out of the classroom and remains optimistic that the trend will continue in the coming school year.
“The Edwards was once thought of as one of the premiere middle schools in Boston,” said Riley, who, between 1998 and 2001, served at the Edwards as a principal intern under former headmaster Chuck McAfee and then as the school’s director of education. “We’re striving to get there again, and we’re getting closer and closer.”
Riley is quick to point out, however, that he can’t take credit for the many recent strides that the school has made. Instead, he said, these achievements are due to the Edwards staff, including his predecessor Michael Sabin, who left the headmaster position after the 2006-2007 school year.
During Sabin’s final year at the Edwards, he helped implement Expanded Learning Time, a pilot program that bolstered the regular curriculum with additional academic, athletic and arts offerings. Riley said the positive results of the ELT program were evident in the significant improvement in the school’s overall MCAS scores from the 2006-2007 school year, particularly in the area of math. (The most recent MCAS scores have yet to be released).
Sen. Ted Kennedy also visited the Edwards in January 2008 to celebrate the success of the ELT program. “It was a total testament to the teachers and faculty’s efforts,” Riley said.
With the upcoming school year, the ELT program will be expanded with new offerings, including a swimming program that will partner the Edwards with the Charlestown Community Centers, a music program that will stage up to five productions and a theatre program that Riley hopes will offer participating kids a “professional theatre experience” by allowing them to perform at the Hatch Shell or another of the city’s premiere venues.
Edwards students will also engage in community service projects throughout Charlestown, such as cleaning up trash from neighborhood streets, delivering canned goods and visiting area senior homes.
“We really want to be a part of the community,” Riley said. “We appreciate the support of the community, and we want to give back.”
ELT at the Edwards received an additional boost when Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart served as master of ceremonies during a recent fundraiser in the Navy Yard, the proceeds of which will help supplement money that the state provides for the program, Riley said.
This year will see a spike in enrollment at the Edwards, which Riley believes is a direct result of positive attention that the ELT program and improved test scores have brought to the school. An additional 120 sixth-graders will join the school this year, bringing the total for that class to 200, and the school’s total enrollment this year will jump to 420 from 309 students last year.
“We’re most pleased because we’re getting more kids from the Harvard-Kent School,” Riley said. “{Harvard-Kent principal] Richard Martin does a great job, and it means we’re getting more kids from Charlestown.”
In fact, Riley said the Edwards School is so desirable that kids previously enrolled in private schools are now transferring there.
“We want to be one of the best middle schools in Boston,” Riley said. “We want to compete with suburban schools, and we think we can.”

Local non-profit organizations take note: The application process for the 2008 Charlestown Neighborhood Council Mitigation Funds has begun.
As of Monday, Aug. 25, application forms are available at the Charlestown Branch Library, 179 Main St., or can be received electronically by contacting CNC members Dave Whelan or Peggy Bradley; Whelan can be reached at 617-242-1604 or via e-mail at whelan.dm@gmail.com, and Bradley at 617 242-2039 or via e-mail at margaret_bradley@verizon.net.
Parties are eligible to apply for funding if they are non-profit organizations and at least 75 percent of the program’s beneficiaries are current Charlestown residents. (Applicants don’t have to 501(c)(3) entities, however).
Applicants must submit relevant financial records for the past three years and have a demonstrated record of programming, but an existing Charlestown non-profit organization can sponsor the applicant if this requirement cannot be met. Applicants who received funds from the previous Mitigation Funds cycle must also submit a progress report on allocation of the funds along with their applications.
A tutorial session will be held at the American Legion, 23 Adams St., Thursday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. for organizations that need assistance with the application process.
All original applications and two copies can be mailed to CNC Mitigation Funds, P.O. Box 397, Charlestown, MA 02129 and must be postmarked no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18. An electronic filing will also be required.
The CNC Mitigation Committee will meet with applicants who have been determined to meet criteria at public forums held on Oct. 2, 9, 16 and 23 to review their applications and discuss planned uses for the funds. All 21 CNC members are eligible to make recommendations for distribution of the funds, and award decisions will be announced at the Dec. 2 Neighborhood Council meeting.
In early 2009, the CNC will meet with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which acts as a custodial entity and holds the funds in the Charlestown Mitigation Trust. Pending the approval of the BRA, the CNC will then receive the funds and award them to the designated recipients.
The Mitigation Fund was established several years ago as part of an agreement between the BRA, the Massachusetts Highway Department and the CNC. In exchange for the disruption of the local community during the development of City Square, the CNC negotiated with each residential and commercial developer to create a formula for contributions to the fund, which totaled nearly $1 million. Approximately $90,000 in Mitigation monies will be distributed in the 2008 cycle.
For more information, contact CNC Chairman Tom Cunha at 617-242-3922; Dave Whelan at 617-242-1604 or via e-mail at whelan.dm@gmail.com; Peggy Bradley at 617 242-2039 or via e-mail at margaret_bradley@verizon.net; or Jack Kelly, Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Charlestown liaison, at 617-635-3549 or via email at Jack.F.Kelly@cityofboston.gov.

PHOTO 1 CAPTION: Winners display their ribbons.

PHOTO 2 CAPTION: Kids line up for the egg race.

“Cool,” “fun,” “awesome” and “hot” were the responses of more than 50 boys and girls, ages 4 to 16, who participated in the second annual Backyard Olympics on Aug. 10 on a beautiful summer day at the Charlestown High School athletic field.
Hosted by St. Mary–St. Catherine of Siena Parish, this one-day event was an opportunity for kids from all of Charlestown, regardless of religious affiliation, to come together for an afternoon of fun and games. Dozens of parents, parishioners and adult volunteers pitched in to help plan the event and run its many activities.
Sister Kathleen Carven, director of religious education, said, “This was a great community success. {It was] three times larger than last year’s. We hope that as the event grows and will continue to reflect Charlestown’s growing diverse ethnic and faith-based population.”
Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, Bunker Hill Council #62, the day consisted of races, contests and games, including wheel-barrel and three-legged races, sprints, relays, a water-balloon toss, an egg race and a tug-of-war. Winners received ribbons for first-, second- and third-place finishes. An ice cream eating contest and barbeque hosted by the Celebration Church of Charlestown wrapped-up the event.
The Backyard Olympics was first run last August as part of St. Mary’s youth vacation bible school program “Gods Big Back Yard”, a summer-long initiative that focuses on service and teaches children to serve God and their community. According to Charlestown Neighborhood Councilor and event volunteer George Morton, “To better address the program’s mission of building community, this year we invited faith-based organizations across Charlestown to participate in the Olympics. We hope that as the event grows, ultimately all denominations will join us on this special day to celebrate our children, faith and community.”

When lifelong Charlestown resident Noreen Rizzo takes part in the Run for Hope on Sept. 14, she will walk to raise money to help cure childhood cancer, a cause particularly near to her family who lost their 3-year-old son to the disease three years before Noreen’s birth.
Since 1977, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts worldwide have sponsored the annual Run for Hope, which raised more than $500 million for local cancer research organizations. Four Seasons Boston has raised $200,000 for cancer research to date and aims to raise $100,000 to benefit the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center this year alone.
Besides participating in the Run for Hope for the second consecutive year, Rizzo gets to see how the proceeds are used firsthand as a patient services coordinator working in the Pediatric Hematology Ontology Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital for Children.
“I’m the first person [patients] see when they walk through the door,” Rizzo, 34, said. “There’s a little piece of normalcy in their lives, which we can offer them. To me, it’s more personalized care.”
While the Run for Hope helps fund important research at the children’s hospital, Rizzo said it also ensures that each young patient receives individualized treatment. Every hospital room is painted and decorated to represent a particular theme, such as the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots or City of Boston, and comes furnished with its own television and video games.
The Run for Hope also benefits her department’s annual holiday party for patients and their families, which takes place at the Holiday Inn in Cambridge each January and typically includes appearances by Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster and assorted Disney characters.
“People who take part [in the Run for Hope] can see where their money goes,” Rizzo said. “It’s very different from anything else I’ve ever been involved in.”
Donations to the Run for Hope in Rizzo’s name can be sent to her home address: Noreen Rizzo, 5 Armory St. Charlestown, MA 02129. She has also launched a fundraising Web site for anyone interested in making a donation online at www.firstgiving.com/noreenrizzo.

CAPTION: Maria Hanna Joseph, founder of Joseph Mediation & Legal Consultation.

As a one-year resident of Pleasant Street and a new member of the Charlestown Business Association, Maria Hanna Joseph, founder of Joseph Mediation & Legal Consultation, is now ready to offer her services to the neighborhood.
“Through mediation, I help parties resolve matters on their own terms,” Joseph said, adding that she can often help her clients forego time and the emotional and financial costs of going to trial. “People are much more capable of reaching a resolution than they think they are.”
A graduate of the Whittier College School of Law in Los Angeles, Joseph had her own law practice in California, which handled primarily employment, discrimination and family law cases. She returned to her native Worcester County in 1999 before taking a contract with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in Boston the following year. In this role, she helped institute the commission’s mediation program and soon began offering mediation services on her own.
Joseph said mediation is a confidential process that helps her settle business, intellectual property and other disputes.
“Mediation is very people specific… and involves a methodical approach to working with the parties,” she said.
Divorce is another area in which Joseph believes mediation can often provide the easiest solution.
“It’s a transitional period,” Joseph said. “People need to look at where they are now and where they want to be and work through it piece by piece. It doesn’t have to be difficult.”
In divorce and nearly all other mediation cases, her primary role is helping parties to open the lines of communication.
“When people are in conflict, they have trouble communicating,” she said. “Mediation helps them get their point across… by distancing themselves from the entanglement itself.”
Joseph said Charlestown strikes her as a progressive community that is “often one beat ahead of where the rest of New England is heading” and therefore an ideal market for mediation services.
“In addition to working with individuals, my services may also supplement other practitioners’ work or offer them something unique,” she said.
For more information on Joseph Mediation & Legal Consultation, Maria Hanna Joseph can be contacted at 617-737-0800 or via e-mail at Joseph@JosephMediation.com, or visit www.JosephMediation.com.