Dear Community,
You get an advanced notice of the Principal Notes that will be sent home tomorrow with the students. Please take a look at the items, and at the "Upcoming Events" section of today's Notes to make sure you're aware of some important events!
HAPPY WINTER BREAK TO YOU! See you when school resumes on January 7th!
MAPLEWOOD CHOIR ON THE RADIO - Our choir was recorded by KBPS radio 1450 am this past Wednesday. Their music will be broadcast at an unspecified time on Dec. 24th and 25th; KBPS will announce who will be performing at the beginning of every hour that day.
ANNUAL CAMPAIGN UPDATES –
1. REMINDER: This winter break is the last opportunity to get your donation logged to be eligible for the drawing for the "Blanck Check". A donation of any size will make you eligible for two hours of my time for any project! Donations postmarked during the holiday will be added to the drawing, to be done when we return from break!
2. I wanted to give belated thanks to the parent committee that has worked so hard for this year's Maplewood Campaign. Their tireless efforts (some of them have been active for several years on supporting the funds going to our teaching specialists).
3. At my last contact with the committee, we have had 63 Maplewood families contributing a total of $17,934 to this year's campaign. We still need $27,066 to reach our goal! I will be working with our committee to apply for grants and find ways to reach our goal - the more families that donate, the easier it will be to convince grant funders that our community truly does everything it can to support the educational programs for our children.
4. I received the news from the Portland Schools Foundation that they have changed their policy on how much of a donation goes directly to Maplewood; the PPS School Board recently voted that after the first $10,000 of donations each year to a school, 66% goes to the school and 33% goes to the PPS Foundation to help out schools with high poverty rate (prior policy was that the percentages would apply after the first $5,000 - this increases the amount that will go directly to Maplewood).
5. My thanks to all of you who have contributed so far - I conduct many tours of the school each year, and in almost all cases, people have heard of the reputation this community values a well-rounded education.
CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS TO THE PTA’S NEWSLETTER “BRANCHING OUT” DEC. 07
~ Fundraising Meeting date should read Dec. 10
~ jsmrdjan@comcast.net is correct email for Jelena Mrdjan (a letter was reversed)
~Third Restaurant Review should read: Acapulco Gold SW
~ Kudos should have included: Thanks to Charis Botek, Stacie Pacheco & Monica Sandoval for making the lovely red caps for the first graders mall performance!
~ We are currently providing the Reading Friends program for 43 Maplewood students. We had a tremendous response from volunteers, and we have 24 Reading Friends at this time. Unfortunately, we have a waiting list of 5 students in need of this wonderful reading enrichment program. I need at least five more volunteers that could start after the winter holidays. Parents, grandparents, and neighbors are encouraged to contact me if they have an hour of volunteer time that they could offer weekly. Training is provided. Contact Ally Burr-Harris at 503-246-4766 or burrharrisa@yahoo.com if interested in volunteering. Thanks!
~ Coffee orders are in and have been delivered. Happily, they are the full pound we have always enjoyed. (The order was taken by a new employee, and all was straightened out before it was filled.) The labels reflect the correct amount in the bag. Any questions can be directed to Diane F. Smith 452-6948.
RGMS PTA E-MAIL LIST - Robert Gray PTA invites Maplewood parents to join the RGMS PTA e-mail list, a periodic electronic newsletter. E-mails are informative and relevant and contain PPS news, updates on events, activities, and volunteer opportunities at Gray and in the community. All are welcome to join; just send an e-mail to graypta@gmail.com. For more information on the Robert Gray PTA, go to http://www.graypta.org.
A SPECIAL GIVING OPPORTUNITY - Friday Jan. 18th ~ By David Dacklin/Volunteer Coordinator
Around the holiday our thoughts tend to the appreciative side of things. The act of giving Thanks at Thanksgiving can be humbling when we recant all that we can grateful for. It can also instill us with a sense of duty to those in our community who don’t have quite as much to be thankful for as we do.
To meet that end the Parent Resource Committee has selected a Giving Opportunity for our community at Maplewood to enrich the Goose Hollow Family Shelter. For Friday night Jan. 18th we are actively seeking two families who would like to jointly cook a meal for 30 – 35 residents and to sit down and share the meal with them.
In addition, we are seeking 5 pairs of: 1 Maplewood Student and 1 parent/Guardian to serve the meal and do the clean up. The site will provide all utensils and cleaning supplies. Since this is a limited opportunity please only commit if you’re sure you can fulfill the obligation. Please contact David Dacklin at dacklind@aol.com or 503-244-5938 if you’d like your student or family this opportunity to give back and give thanks. The Goose Hollow Family Shelter is a homeless shelter for families with children in Southwest Portland. Their mission is to provide a temporary safe haven for homeless families, access to transitional services, and advocacy for social change that eliminates homelessness.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: PPS SCHOOLS CELEBRATE! – Interested in looking at school options for middle school, or want to find out about our kindergarten program? These are just some of the reasons to go to this annual event, where all schools and programs will have an information table. Where? - At the Portland Expo Center from 10 to 3 on Saturday, Feb. 2nd. Maplewood will have a table there, as well, hosted by myself and some of our staff, to give information about our programs here. Free childcare is provided for kids 4 and over. Go to http://www.pps.k12.or.us or call 503-916.6308 for more information.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: FAMILY MATH NIGHT! - Do you like mathematics? Do you wish you knew more about the mathematics your children are learning? You’ll enjoy our activities on Tuesday, Feb. 5th starting at 6:00 p.m. in our gym, where you’ll hear about the foundations of our math curriculum, and get a chance to have your children work on some math activities with you! Please bring the whole family!
KNOW SOMEONE INTERESTED IN KINDERGARTEN HERE NEXT FALL? – Pass the word that we are going to host our annual Kindergarten Information Session/Round-Up on Thursday, Feb. 7th at 3:00 (for adults). We’ll discuss what types of Kindergarten we will offer and give valuable information on our curriculum and approaches to a well-rounded education. It is a huge help to the parents, and to me, to have as many parents know about this as possible!
LIBRARY NEWS -
OPAC - You now have access to the Maplewood Library Catalog on line! Our Online Patron Access Catalog can be located at http://library.pps.k12.or.us (make sure to select "Maplewood" in place of "View Entire Collection".) Not all of of the features work yet, but you can see what materials we have! It's much easier for students to search and find things independently in the library, too.
BOB - Battle of the Books is gearing up again! This year third graders, in addition to fourth and fifth graders, have been invited to participate. Ask you child if they are interested. All classes third through fifth graders received an introduction to the program this week and last. A sign-up sheet will be sent home in the next week. Parents are encouraged to read the selected titles (16) aloud at home! The first battles will begin in February. The first statewide/regional battle is March 1!
Shelving Books - As always, I can use more volunteers to help re-shelve the books our students check out. Each week approximately 1,000 books are checked out and returned. Thanks to a steady crew of parents (thank you!) we are able to keep the library organized and keep favorite titles on the shelves. Even shelving only five to ten books makes a dent!
Lost Items/Late Items - Books are due weekly. Students wishing to renew books should bring them to the library for renewal weekly. If you lose or damage a book, please contact me (kordahl@pps.k12.or.us, 503-916-6308). Fees are negotiable and I'm mostly just pleased to hear from you.
Portaportal - Remember that students can use the websites they access at school at home. Visit www.portaportal.com and enter "elin" as the Guest Name. The new popular vocabulary-building site (Freerice.com) is on there, too!
As always, your children are a pleasure to work with. Their enthusiasm for reading and books is unbounded. -Elin Kordahl, Maplewood Media Specialist
MAPLEWOOD GREEN SCHOOL - Our students were very persistent, and creative, in their desire to make our school community be environmentally responsible. Their efforts last year helped our school be awarded a Green School designation. Their efforts will continue in January, with an energy challenge (to help our school keep our energy costs down), and with efforts to reduce the paper and copying costs for us. Congratulations to the students for this, as well as the incredibly successful Battery Recycling project coordinated by Mr. Novitsky’s class!
SIGN DESIGN HELP NEEDED -The PTA has graciously set aside money to help build a new, improved front yard sign for the school. They could use some help with the coordination of the design and future installation; know anyone out there with some talent to offer their efforts? If so, please contact me, or the PTA!
Dec 24 thru
Jan 4 WINTER BREAK!! – NO SCHOOL
Jan 7 - Welcome Back!!
Jan 10 - PTA Meeting – 6:15 pm
Jan 15 - Site Council Meeting – 2:30 pm
Jan 21 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday – NO SCHOOL
Jan 25 - Winter Family Art Night – 6:30 pm
Feb 1 - Professional Development Day – NO SCHOOL
Feb 5 - Family Math Night
Feb 7 - Kindergarten Info Session – 3:00 pm
