Please don't forget that Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend, so set your clocks AHEAD by one hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning. We don't want anyone to be late for school on Monday, do we?
Development Information:
It's been a busy couple of weeks for the development team - here are some of the highlights of what we have accomplished:
- Alex Riviera was the winner of the Kindle Fire raffle, which raised $942 in profit for the school.
- Our top auction items were the Tom Brady jersey ($550) and the Lego robotics workshop ($500).
- We have two unclaimed prizes from the raffle: the Middle School Zentangle was won by ticket number 297931, and the Second Grade Zentangle goes to ticket number 510605. If you entered to win either of these items, check your tickets and contact Tanya.Reno@MenloParkAcademy.com if your ticket matches these winners!
- All together, the "From the Heart" fundraiser and concert raised more than $10,000 in profit for MPA.
- The Scholastic book sale was also a success, selling more than $5,300 in merchandise and raising about $3,000 in Scholastic dollars we can spend on books for the school. Thanks also to all those parents who stopped in before or after conferences to browse and buy.
- The annual fund pledges are still coming in (and we'd be happy to accept yours, if you haven't pledged yet!). Right now we're at about 74% participation, for a total of more than $62,000 pledged. Our goal for the year is to raise at least $70,000, so we're really close ... can you help us reach the goal?
Speaking of the annual fund, if you've made a pledge, please check with your employer to see if they have any sort of matching gift program. We've already received matching donations from Sherwin-Williams, Key Bank, Eaton Corporation, PNC Bank, and AIG. If you have any questions about the process, our development coordinator would be happy to help out: Tanya.Reno@MenloParkAcademy.com .
Our next fundraiser will be Quiz Night, which will be held the evening of Saturday, April 28th at Brennan's, which is located near MPA. Teams of eight adults will answer questions on a variety of topics and compete for prizes. Mark your calendar, and start getting together your teams (if you don't know seven other MPA adults, we'll be happy to help you make up a team). More information will be coming soon!
Student Information:
If you are having problems accessing your student's Progress Book account, contact Lynn.Wilson@MenloParkAcademy.comor Carol.Scheuer@MenloParkAcademy.com. They can confirm that you have the correct password and help you with the login process. Also, please remember to sign and return the envelope that enclosed the recent report card. We will be using those envelopes to mail report cards at the end of the school year.
Congratulations to the following middle school students for best representing the character trait "responsibility" for the month: Isabel Veloso, Owen Kranz, and John Antolik.
Congratulations to all the students who participated in CONSEF last week! It really was a wonderful day with more than 500 students from seven states participating. Out of 44 schools in attendance, Menlo came in second overall.Our students did exceptionally well. John Antolik got best in category (computer science). Nine students got gold medals - Sam Ammari, Hector Cummings, Andrew Beck, Emily Carroccio, Fraser Hamilton, Ojas Nadkarni, Grant Gibeault and Nick Hiti. Seven kids got silver - Patrick O'Malley, Isabel Veloso, Alexandra Harrison, Liam Kovach, Owen Kranz, Sophia Ross and Teresa Szczecinski. Three students got bronze - Sparsh Balabadrapatruni, Aidan Harrington and Quintin Kovach. Sydney Hofstetter got an Honorable Mention. So all the MPA students who participated won something. For more information about the CONSEF science fair, visit http://www.consef.org/Results.aspx
Mrs. Scheuer would like to remind families to send in a completed income survey (it went home in last week's folder). The information will help MPA take advantage of discounted phone and internet service and will only be viewed by our business manager. He will compile the data and submit it to Mrs. Scheuer without the family names. Please see the attached letter for more information and the blank form. Thanks for your support.
MPA's K-4 Math Night is just a week away! Join us on Pi Day, Wednesday, March 14, 2012, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.! Activities will include fun and interactive math-related puzzles and games, including bonafide Math Jeopardy! match-ups by grade level, flexagons, tangrams, and creative ways of calculating pi. We are lucky to have Math Monkey of Cleveland (www.mathmonkeycleveland.com) as a sponsor of some of our activity stations, including a math cornhole game, the popular ThinkFun Rush Hour game, and a math fishing game for the younger kids. Parents and students will also be able to have their pi and eat it too - look for yummy pies at the refreshment table! Specially created Math Night T-shirts and mini-pies will be awarded as door prizes! For parents interested in learning more about Singapore Math, a loop presentation will be available to watch at the event. We hope you will join us for some math fun! Questions regarding K-4 Math Night can be directed to Latha at LMS54321@gmail.com or Grant at granthens@gmail.com. SEE YOU THERE!
Parents, please be courteous of each other in the mornings and do not begin forming a car line in front of the building until 8 am. Parents who must park and escort students in to Edison Club in the mornings before the school is open to all students have been having problems finding parking spaces that weren't blocked by the car line. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation!
Speaking of Edison Club, families who participate in the program may be pleased to hear that we are working on installing a door buzzer on the set of doors nearest the gym, so that it will be more convenient for you to pick up and drop off your students. We'll let you know when it's installed and operational!
The US Chess Federation has just released its updated standings and Dominic Mayhew is now listed among the top 100 chess players his age in the country, and among the top 50 K-6 chess players in Ohio! Congratulations, Dominic!
One final note from the school administrators - thank you, parents, for your patience and understanding as we search for a person to fill the Operations Manager position. We're doing our best to answer questions and get the work done, but it really helps that everyone has been so flexible and patient. Thank you!
Volunteer Information:
We owe a GIANT "Thank You!" to the myriad of volunteers who helped to make the book sale and fundraising auction successful last month. Whether you worked the cash register, helped kids select books, donated an item or service for the raffle baskets, helped distribute or collect raffle tickets, or bid on an auction item - you were part of a ridiculous number of people who helped out! And thanks to all of your effort, these two events raised more than $13,000 in funds and book vouchers - money that helps ALL of our students. So, from the bottom of our hearts - THANK YOU!
We know that the MPA community is an amazing resource, so helping us find new members to serve on our Board should be no exception. This April, MPA’s Board of Directors will conduct our annual elections and are seeking to add members to the Board. More information on the requirements and process can be found on our blog at http://menloparkacademy.blogspot.com/2012/02/board-member-search.html. Thursday, March 8th is the initial deadline for applications, so get your papers together post-haste if you're interested in coming on board!
After the success of our boys' basketball team this year, we're excited about the prospect of putting together a girls' team for next year. In order to get started, we'll need to find a location that is willing to host five games for us. The location will need to have a regulation-sized court with bleachers and a scoreboard. If you know of any site that might be able to accommodate us, please pass the information on to Coach Littlejohn at wbl8305@sbcglobal.net.
Calendar Highlights:
- March 8 (Thursday) - Fourth and Fifth Grade field trip to Hanna Theatre; Board candidate applications should be submitted by this date.
- March 14 (Wednesday) - Math Night from 6:30-8pm
- March 15 (Thursday) - Prospective Board candidates are invited to attend a Question & Answer session with Board members at 6:00pm at the school.
- March 16 (Friday) - No school for students - inservice day
- March 19 (Monday) - Photo make-up, club and candid day; Strings and Band Concert at MPA at 6:30
- March 21-23 (Wednesday-Friday) - Fifth Grade field trip to Camp Fitch
- March 24 (Saturday) - Power of the Pen regional competition in Sandusky
- April 5 (Thursday) - New Board member elections will be held at the regular Board meeting
- April 6-16 - No school for students - spring break and inservice days
- April 20 (Friday) - Lego Olympiad at LCCC
- April 27 (Friday) - School-wide Spelling Bee
- April 28 (Saturday) - Quiz Night
- June 3 (Sunday) - Crushers baseball game
- Sept. (TBD) - Golf scramble fundraiser
If you've got something you'd like to share with the school - a need for volunteers for your school event, an exciting achievement your child has made outside of school, or anything else you think MPA parents should know about - send the information to Gretchen Woods at avonhokie@yahoo.com. The submission deadline for the weekly newsletter is each Wednesday at noon.
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