November 2, 2007

Calendar November 6 Kindergarten Tour 9-10 a.m. PTA Meeting 6:30-8:00 p.m. Childcare provided 7 Picture retake day 9 No School for Students Teacher Planning Day 12 Veterans' Day - No School 13 Kindergarten Tour 9-10 a.m. 14-20 Scholastic Book Fair 17 Grandparents/Special Friends Day 9:30 a.m. 19 No School for students - Parent Conferences 20 No School for students - Parent Conferences 21 No School for students - Parent Conferences 22 No School -Thanksgiving Day 23 No School Auction News Look for the "Auction Newsletter" sent home with your child today. Lots of exciting information for you to ponder over the weekend! The auction needs many volunteers and there are many small jobs within each position. Contact the head of each Chair Position directly. They could use your help. Each classroom has the opportunity of doing a classroom project to be auctioned off at the auction on March 7th. Would you like to help organize the project for your child' s classroom? If so contact Megan Barrett at barrett.megan@gmail.com. Or talk with her on the playground. She and Megan O'Rouke are this year's Classroom Project Chairs. Yahoo! There are many ways to be a part of the auction, here are a some of them: * volunteer your time helping with organizing the event * Be a "family sponsor" by donating money to help with the underwriting costs. Have your business or solicit a business to be a sponsor to help with the underwriting costs * Help procure items to be auctioned off the day of the event * Volunteer your time on the "day of" the event For more information, contact Rachel Reich at chrisandrachel@mac.com We need your contacts: Do you work in a restaurant? Does your neighbor own his or her own business? Does your family/friends have a weekend house? Does a relative work for a hotel? Is there a service (beauty, lawn, medical) that you provide for others or use regularly? These and many more items are needed. Please check the auction board at the front hallway for procurement forms. You can turn in completed forms, plus any gift certificates or small items to the office. To make arrangements for any items, please contact Rachel Carlson at 503-281-5861/ rachelabra@msn.com Do you like to P-A-R-T-Y? Or better yet, do you like to host parties? Then we need your creative party or outing ideas for the auction sign-ups! It could be anything - Kid's Pizza Pajama Party, a Knitting Class, or a Sky-Diving Adventure. Call or email Rachel Carlson at 503-281-5861/ rachelabra@msn.com with ideas. The Auction Procurement Committee needs volunteers to make follow-up calls to businesses that have been sent a donation request letter but have not sent in a donation. We need follow-up phone calls in November + January. You might not think you have it in you to be a salesperson, but you would be amazed at how giving our community is and how generous! The Auction Committee also needs a few volunteers to do auction donation database entry. You should be comfortable with the computer, with databases and have imaginative writing skills to beef up descriptions for the catalog. Work at home on your own computer. It takes only minutes to learn how. Contact either Rachel Reich or Colleen Walker pcwalker@hevanet.com PTA CORNER How Much Money does the PTA have and How do They Spend it? By Ed Shearer, Irvington PTA Treasurer So, you have bought all your gift wrap, use only scrip, had a garage sale, attended movie night and are ready to buy tickets to the auction. How much money does all this raise and what are we spending it on? That is the topic of this week's PTA Corner. The PTA engages in several fund-raising activities throughout the year. Although the Auction raises the most money, all of the fundraising activities are critical to paying for the many programs the PTA undertakes. In total, fundraising (auction, garage sale, gift wrap, scrip, interest we earn, misc. contributions, movie night, etc.) will provide about $156,000. During the budget process each spring, the funds are allocated to various projects and programs. Here is how we anticipate that these funds will be spent this school year: * Music, Art and After-School Programs, Scholarships, etc... $41,000 * Classroom fieldtrips and school staff support ...$25,000 * Library improvements, carpet, bike racks, misc. equipment... $45,000 * Garden, playground and field improvements and maintenance... $19,000 * Community Building Programs (Black history, climbing wall, etc)...$ 5,000 * PTA Administration and overhead...$ 3,000 * Reserves for new programs and next year...$18,000 Total $156,000 As you can see, there is a lot going on!! So, come and be a part of the process. Help us raise and spend the money on the programs you feel will help the school, the kids and the community. Scholarships for Extracurricular Activities Irvington's extracurricular program is expanding. Any student who qualifies for Free or Reduced meals and wishes to participate in an extracurricular class that requires a fee qualifies for a scholarship toward a portion of the tuition. Scholarship request forms are available on the PTA bulletin board across from the school office. Completed scholarship requests should be put in the PTA mailbox in the school office. Funds are available for students who qualify. Gym Volunteers Needed Fitness testing will be starting soon. Katie and I are looking for parents to help with this testing, starting Tuesday, Nov 13th. If you are interested in helping with the testing, scoring and marking, please call me or stop by. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Help is needed : Mon/Wed 12:00-3:00 Tues/Thurs 10:30-12:00 Tues/Thurs/Fri 12:30-3:00 Classes are anywhere from 30 - 55 minutes long. Any questions? Call or stop by. 503 916 6185.--Karen Movie Night Notes A big thank-you to all the volunteers and movie-goers who made movie night happen! Over 100 tickets were given out, with over 90 people attending. In addition to being a fun time, we also raised over $300 in donations for the Irvington PTA. Due the great interest in this movie night, look for a repeat performance this spring! Also, a special thanks to Kate Quisling for organizing our first ever Movie Night. Everyone had a great time! DANCE DAY WITH THE GENDRILLS Calling all K-8th graders to join in a day of dance with the Grant High School Dance Team! The annual Dance Day will be held at Grant High School on Saturday, December 8th from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Registration starts at 8:00 a.m. The fee is $35 (this includes a t-shirt), payable at the door. Registration forms are available at your child's school, in the office. Call Chris Onchi for more details at 503-293-1120. JOIN IN RAKING THE LEAVES The first of the neighborhood leaf pick-ups is next Tuesday, November 6th and we've got a lot of leaves "down" on the school grounds. If we can get those leaves to the street this weekend, our "yard" will be better for it! If you can take an hour or two SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4th, that's this weekend, please join the Grounds Committee to rake leaves at the school. Bring a rake and gloves. Your children and neighbors will very much appreciate it. Questions: Contact Grounds Chair, Miles Woofter at miles@ygh.com HELP PLANT REPLACEMENT TREES ON THE SCHOOL GROUNDS On Friday, November 9th from 9:00-12:00 ("yes", the In-Service Day!) In conjunction with Friends of Trees, we're ready to dig some big holes and put trees in the ground along the western side of the school building and also a couple more along Thompson Street. With our beloved Cherry trees having perished we are looking to replant with some Sugar Maples to provide fall colors, shade for western classrooms, and some sweet sap in our children's future. This is nice, simple work with many hands on an "in service" day. Just when you wondering how to spend the time! Questions: contact Grounds Chair, Miles Woofter at miles@ygh.com

Last updated by callbaugh on Nov 01, 2007 at 03:36 PM

All items purchesed from Amazon after clicking on one of the links below help fund Irvington's school programs