Wyandot Run Elementary PTO

January

Dear WRES Families,

Happy New Year!  I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and found time to rest and rejuvenate.  My family had a very relaxing winter break.  We stayed home and enjoyed time as a family, but I think everyone is anxious to get back to the old routines.

December flew by with very little PTO activity.  WRPTO did sponsor what turned out to be a very successful Candy Gram sale.  Students, families and faculty were invited to purchase candy grams (notes with a candy cane attached) for $0.50 each and have them delivered to friends etc. at WRES.  The sales were overwhelming and although the final numbers aren’t in yet, we sold over 2000 candy grams!  We hope the students and staff enjoyed receiving their holiday treats.  The winter parties seemed to be a whirlwind of activity as the students celebrated with classmates and looked forward to starting their vacations.

Our December PTO meeting took place on the 14^th.  We discussed the success of the fall book fair as well as a plan to make improvements to the kindergarten playground.  A committee is continuing to meet and discuss plans to create a safe and fun environment for our kindergarteners.  The PTO also decided to form a committee to discuss and edit our bylaws, which require updating every 3 years.  We will be meeting in January to begin the process for updating the current bylaws.

WRPTO has two events scheduled in the first month back at school.  COSI on Wheels on January 26th is a PTO sponsored event that brings the interactive COSI children’s museum to our students in first through fifth grades.  We need many volunteers to help run the event so be on the lookout for a volunteer flyer coming home soon.  Pasta dinner is being held on February 5^th this year and will combine a music presentation with a family dinner.  All proceeds from the dinner will be added to the WRPTO general fund.  Our music teachers work very hard to prepare the students for their performances on this fun and entertaining night.  So mark your calendars and watch for more information coming home soon.

Our next PTO meeting is scheduled on January 11^th at 9:15am.  The New Year would be a great time to join us at a meeting to share, learn, discuss or just mingle with fellow parents.  We will be also be saying goodbye to our beloved Assistant Principal, Justin Syroka.  Mr. Syroka will be leaving us on the 15^th to begin his new position as principal of Cheshire Elementary School opening next fall.  We wish him well.

As always, if you have any questions or comments regarding PTO sponsored events or activities, we would love to hear from you.

Here’s wishing us all health, wealth and happiness in 2010!

Regards,

Lisa Billings

dlbillings@columbus.rr.com

December

Dear WRES Families,

It’s hard to believe December is here.  These last few months are flown by for me.  I am thoroughly enjoying my role as PTO president and helping to support all the wonderful programs and services our volunteers provide.

There are a lot of thank you’s this month starting with a huge thank you to our Book Fair Chairpersons; Susan Coe and Danielle Pickard, all the wonderful volunteers who came in to help, Mrs. Murnane for giving up her library and all the staff, parents and students who purchased books.  We do not have the final numbers, but we do know that we met our goal and sales exceeded $14,000!  For WRES that means we received over $7,000.00 in books from Scholastic.  Our library, book room, and all the classroom teachers received new books.  This is a great service WRPTO provides to help bring more books into our school and we thank you for supporting our efforts.

I would like to thank Jill Fearon and all our Wyandot Reads volunteers for helping to get our Wyandot Reads program off and running.  Jill worked hard to coordinate the schedules of all our Reads volunteers and students.  This program helps support those students who can benefit from a little one-on-one time in reading.

We have heard from many staff members how much they appreciate the meals that volunteers provide during parent conference nights.  To Andrea Englehart and Jill Fearon for coordinating and all the volunteers who brought in food, thank you so much!  It would be a long night for many staff members without some good food to enjoy.

Our November PTO meeting took place on the 9^th.  We heard from Tom Fry, Director of Data, Research and Accountability for the school district about how WRES is doing academically.  The minutes from that meeting are posted on the website if you are interested in hearing about his presentation.  WRPTO was able to approve the purchase of a Smart Board that will be used in the Kindergarten classrooms.  We are excited to see our youngest students starting to learn from this awesome technology.

Our next PTO meeting is on December 14^th at 9:15am.  We will be discussing the PTO bylaws and also hearing from our newly formed Kindergarten Playground Committee.  If you have any interest in either of these issues or if you just want to check in and see what’s happening in the PTO please join us on the 14^th.

WRPTO will be setting up tables and selling candy grams December 14-17^th during lunch.  We sell candy grams, which are blank notes attached to a candy cane, for $0.50 each.  Staff, parents and students are welcome to buy candy grams and WRPTO will deliver them to classrooms at the end of each day.  This is a fun way to students and staff to send holiday greetings and helps support WRPTO.

If you have any questions or comments regarding PTO sponsored events or activities, we would love to hear from you.

I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season!

Regards,

Lisa Billings

dlbillings@columbus.rr.com

Walk-a-thon and More

Dear WRES Families,

I would like to start off with a HUGE thank you to all our Wyandot Run friends and families for a very successful Walk-a-thon. WRPTO raised over $17,000 from our walk-a-thon pledges and staff raffle baskets. We moved the event into the gym due to the wet weather and it was a very fun day. The kids had a blast walking, hopping, jumping and dancing around the gym. We even had a visit form a friendly green mascot. Thank you to our walk-a-thon chair, Julie Novak for organizing a successful and fun event. The committee members, Andrea Englehart, Jill Fearon, Liz Teed, Gina Weller and Tom Martinko all worked hard to plan the day and make sure everything went well. Thank you to Erin Brown for creating our Walk-a-thon sign and Mary Bates and Danielle Pickard for all your input and help. We also had many wonderful parents come in to sell raffle tickets each day and work on the day of the walk to create a fun and safe atmosphere, thank you all! We came very close to reaching our budget goal for the year. In the coming months we will be reviewing all the items on the budget to determine if any changes need to be made. In lieu of cutting back on funding for PTO sponsored events we will continue to look for ways to raise extra money this year and keep our current budget intact.

Our October PTO meeting took place on the evening of the 12th. We heard from Mrs. Murnane, our school librarian about the upcoming author visit. Roland Smith will be visiting our school on Monday, November 2. Parents are welcome to attend any of the three sessions Mr. Smith will be presenting. More information should be coming home with your child. We also discussed the possibility of changing the day or location of the Talent Show in order to eliminate the cost of paying for school custodians on a weekend. Our next meeting is on Monday, November 9th at 9:15am. Tom Fry, Director of Data, Research and Accountability for the school district will be presenting information at the meeting.

The cold weather may be upon us but we still have a few fall activities scheduled. On October 30th WRPTO will be sponsoring Football Friday Night and Tailgate at Liberty High School. The event is a fun family activity and a great way to cheer on the Patriots at their last home game of the season. Look for information coming home with your child(ren). Also on the 30th our classes will be having their Harvest Parties. Students will be allowed to bring a costume to school to wear during the party. If you have the time to come join your child(ren) they would love to see you there. Parties are scheduled from 2:45-3:15. The week of November 16th is our fall book fair. Your children will be visiting the book fair during the school day and our family night is scheduled for Thursday, November 19th. We hope to see you there!

If you have any questions or comments regarding PTO sponsored events or activities, we would love to hear from you.

Regards,
Lisa Billings

Welcome

Dear WRES Families,

I hope by now you have all moved into a comfortable school rhythm. In our house, fall is a busy time with back to school routines and sporting events keeping us constantly on the go. In some ways I look forward to November when I know things will start to settle down, but that also usually means the end of nice weather and playing outdoors.

I would like to take a moment to thank some of the wonderful volunteers who have played a role behind the scenes to help get the school year off to a great start: Denise All did an incredible amount of work and a super job on the school store making it a huge success; Amanda Lengal worked many hours this summer preparing nametags and signs for the kindergarteners first days of school; Denise Ibsen, Janora Hickman and Michelle Osmond worked long hours on ordering and selling our Logo Wear; Debbie Lehmiller is doing a fantastic job keeping our sign up-to-date, and Natalie Quelette handled our VIP training sessions seamlessly. Also, we have seen so many parents helping with kindergarteners especially, both coming off the buses and in the lunch room and we really just want to thank you for taking time to come in and help out.

Just a note, if you ever want to come in and have lunch with your child you are always welcome and they are sure to be thrilled to share that experience with you.

Our first PTO meeting took place on September 14th and was well attended. Our 2009-10 PTO budget was approved. If you have any questions or concerns about the budget you can contact me or Karen Anderson. We received some great ideas about a spring carnival that is in the works, with more details to come next month. The Product Rewards program is underway so send in those Box Tops, Campbell’s and Tyson’s labels. Classrooms will be rewarded for bringing in the most labels per month.

The PTO is looking to work with some local restaurants and kid-friendly businesses to run promotion nights. Keep your eyes out for a notice about this next month.

Walk-A-Thon planning is underway and is sure to be a big success this year. A few changes will take place in order to maximize the amount of time the children have to walk/run the “track”. Look for paperwork on this event coming home in the next week. Our Walk-A-Thon is scheduled for Friday, October 9th for M/W kindergarteners and grades 1-5, during their lunch recess. We will have a Walk-A-Thon on Thursday, October 8th for our Tues/Thurs kindergarteners also during their lunch recess.

Our next PTO meeting will be Monday, October 12th at 6:15 p.m. I hope to see some new, as well as returning, faces there!

Regards,
Lisa Billings

Welcome

Dear Wyandot Run Families,
Welcome back to school! My name is Lisa Billings and I am the PTO President for the 2009-10 school-year. This is my first year volunteering with the PTO and I am looking forward to working with the wonderful board and committee chair members on making this an exciting year for our students. The PTO has many fun and educational programs we are sponsoring this year. If you are interested in learning about the programs the PTO funds, please attend one of our monthly meetings. PTO agendas will be sent out prior to the scheduled meetings. Please note, agenda items can be suggested by any member of the Wyandot Run School community and there will always be an opportunity to discuss new business.

As we move into September and back into our school routines, I would like to take a moment to remind you of an upcoming event. Our BIG fundraiser this year will again be Walk-A-Thon. It is scheduled for Friday, October 9th, and is sure to be a great day. Volunteers will be needed to supervise and assist our walkers. Look for volunteer requests in the next few weeks. The walk-a-thon is very important to the PTO, as it is our main source of income. One hundred percent of the proceeds will be used to fund PTO events and programs. Every child at Wyandot Run will benefit from walk-a-thon funds, so please be as generous as you can when considering donation amounts.

I look forward to getting to know you and your child(ren) at school this year. Please feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions or concerns about the PTO.

Regards,
Lisa Billings
dlbillings@columbus.rr.com