Happy Summer from the WBE PTA!

Greetings to all of you, on this final week of the 2016-17 school year!

As President of the PTA here at WBE AIA, I just wanted to send out a quick note to say THANK YOU to all of our wonderful parents, students, faculty, and staff for helping us make this year such a huge success. As you know, we started out with a ton of questions about how all of the changes to our school would affect us as a PTA… but with some AMAZING volunteers, a little imagination, a lot of hard work, we managed to make it through the year under budget and very well-positioned to tackle next year!

A quick review and some updates:

Moveathon

Under the leadership of our Moveathon Queen Jeaneane McNulty, we were able to make great strides with this event in 2016, raising more than $6,500! Jeaneane is already hard at work on next year’s event, with fun plans to make it even more fun for both kids and parents. We’ll be posting a note from her on the PTA web site soon.

Winter Fundraiser

We tried something new this year, offering items like notebooks, tote bags, and coffee mugs that featured artwork by our students. This was a fun experiment that tied in well with our Arts Integration curriculum – and we were very happy with the results. We learned a lot of lessons from this inaugural year and are excited to try it again in 2017-18 with some big improvements. Get your Christmas shopping lists ready!

Springfest

This year’s Springfest was a scary prospect, with so many fewer students (and volunteers) at our school – but we were able to pull off a very FUN and successful event, raising nearly $7,500 for the PTA! We had an incredible committee of parent and teacher volunteers, and could NOT have done this without them. Luckily, most of them will be with us again next year, and we’re hoping even more of YOU will come join us to make the 2017-18 Springfest even more amazing.

Yearbooks

Though the deadline for online orders has passed, we still have yearbooks for sale, so keep an eye out for them at pick-up this week!

School Supply Kits

You should have received an order form already, but orders for school supply kits can also be placed online. The deadline to order is June 9th. Just open the web site at www.shopttkits.com and enter school code #92949. Then select the kit for your child’s grade level in the fall (if they’re in 2nd grade right now, you’ll order a 3rd grade kit), and place your order. The supplies will be available for pick-up at Back to School Night in August. It’s as simple as that!

The money we raise from these programs helps us provide student field trips, scholastic supplies, equipment, and other items needed, as well as hosting events like the Reflections art contest, International Fair and Science Fair each year. We’re hoping to do even more to benefit our kids as we move into next year, and with such a successful year now behind us, we’re very excited about the possibilities! If you’d like to get involved in any of the above, or just have other input you’d like to share, PLEASE reach out to me, anytime.

Lastly, I’d just like to recognize our wonderful board members and volunteers, as well as the teachers and staff who do so much to help us. Ms. Cini and Ms. Clayton, in particular, are essential members of our board and have provided valuable information, feedback, and help at every turn. PTA is very much a partnership, and I can’t imagine having better partners. We are very lucky! Next year we’ll also have a dual language teacher joining us, to make sure we’re doing everything we can to include our Spanish-speaking families, too.

We’ll send more out over the summer as plans start to develop for Back to School, but in the meantime, let me just say THANK YOU again for all of your support, and have a terrific summer!

Best –
Blythe