Raising funds for our local library branch is usually accomplished by an annual mail solicitation put together by the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL), or by FOSEL making a special request from a generous donor here or there who loves libraries. As an unexpected and  happy addition to this admittedly ho-hum fundraising arsenal, a local realty firm, the Steve Cohen Team of Keller Williams Realty, has now organized  a community event in which panelists hope to explain a complicated new assignment system to public-school parents for a $10 admission ticket, the proceeds of which will benefit the South End branch library.  In an informative article on school assignment in the Boston Globe this week,  an education advocate was quoted as saying that it’s "not the easiest system to understand."

The November 12 event intends to help elementary-school parents  wade through the new process that began this month for the coming school year of 2014. Topics are new tools being made available for school-choice research and what is being done to improve the quality of public-school education. Panelists include local education and government representatives like Mark Kenen, Executive Director of the MA Charter Public Schools Association; Bill Linehan, Boston City Councilor, Distirct 2; Lee McGuire, Chief Communications Officer, Boston Public Schools; Mary Tamer, Member, School Choice Advisory Committee; Ann Walsh, Chief of Staff for John Connolly; and Josh Weis, Hurley School & Boston Latin Parent, an expert on New Choice & Assignment Policy.

South End culinary lights, Myers & Chang, will provide refreshments. It starts at 5:30 PM at the South End's Ben Franklin Institute of Technology located 41 Berkeley Street. For further info and registration,  click here.

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