Merriam PTO N2K ( Need to Know)

From the PTO Board: Neena Arora, Kristina Rychlik, Dianna McNeish and Eleni Digenis-Bury

Week of 10/24/11

10/26 Wednesday – Early Dismissal

10/27 Thursday – Odds Bodkin Performance ( for students during school)

11/1 Tuesday – Professional Day, No School for Students

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon

11/2 Wednesday – PTO Meeting 6:00 PM (with sitter)

Topic: Funding of Teaching Assistants/Issues Update

11/8 Tuesday – School Council Meeting 6:00 to 7:30 PM

11/11 Friday – No School

11/15 Tuesday – Early Dismissal

11/16 Wednesday – School Pictures (retakes )

11/17 Thursday – School Committee Meeting, 7:30 PM at Merriam School

11/30 Wednesday – Teachers vs PTO Basketball Game 6:00 PM

We are very pleased to be able to offer Merriam Wear this year. Merriam Wear is NOT sold every year, so please order it now if you are interested. We are also offering clothing with AB and Acton Boxborough logos this year.

Please look for the double-sided flyer with order forms that were sent home via backpacks this Friday or go to http://www.merriampto.org/Merriam%20Wear%20Order%20Form%2019Oct%202011.ppt to print out a form.

Orders are due Oct.24 – please include the payment, a check made out to Merriam PTO, with your order. Questions? Please contact Nancy Depew (nancyldepew@hotmail.com).

Here is a chance for you to show your appreciation to the wonderful, amazing, dedicated teachers your children have at Merriam School! The Hospitality Committee is organizing a luncheon for the teachers on 11/1, which is a holiday for the kids but a work day for teachers. They are still looking for parents who can help out or contribute something. If you are interested in helping, please contact Ali Stanton and Claire McCarthy (merriamptohospitality@yahoo.com).

On Thursday, Oct 27th, Odds Bodkin, an award winning storyteller and children's author, will present his GOLDEN RULE (K-6) Anti-Bullying Assembly Performance. This program consists of four international tales comprising music and compelling character voices that teach how kindness works best. The program will be followed by three 30 min. grade level discussions that explore the four stories for themes about inclusion/exclusion, bullying and physical strength over others, what lack of empathy can mean and how refusing to be bullied can strengthen the school community. This program ties into October's National Anti-Bullying activities and is presented by the Merriam School Cultural Committee.

Thank you to everyone who sent an e-mail to the School Committee, attended the meeting or spoke that evening. Your presence, support and participation made a big difference. For those of you who were unable to attend, the proposal regarding the funding of teaching assistants was just a starting point for discussion, and was not voted on that evening. The members of the community asked many questions about the issue, and the School Committee and the Superintendent listened to concerns and answered questions. The Merriam PTO Board asked the SC to postpone their vote on Merriam's gift to the district to the next APS School Committee meeting so that we have a chance to inform parents about this complex issue. This postponement is not going to affect funding for classroom assistants this year. Please continue to stay involved in this issue so that we can ensure the continuation of the excellent Before/After School programs provided at Merriam School and funding for teaching assistants. We are sorry we did not have enough lead time to meet with you before the SC meeting to answer questions and provide more background information. We plan to do so at our next PTO meeting on 11/2/11.

Our next PTO meeting will take place on Wednesday, 11/2 at 6:00 PM. There will be childcare for school age children. Please RSVP to Neena Arora ( neenaarora@aol.com) to save your space in childcare. As noted above, we would really love to share with you what we learned at the School Committee meeting, in more detail. We would also like to explain how the funding of teaching assistants works and what the issues are so that we can all work toward our PTO goal of raising money to fund teaching assistants at Merriam School.

Merriam School Directories were delivered last week. If you ordered a directory but did not get one yet, please contact Hannah Bloch (hannah@newview.org)

If you did not get a chance to order a directory but would like one, there are some extras in the office that you can purchase from Joanne Mills. Please have ready a check for $3.00 made out to Merriam PTO.

Also, a big thank you to the directory team Hannah Bloch, Ginger Ting Chen, Eleni Digenis-Bury, Brooke Gould, Sara Lent, Dianna McNeish and Janie Shen for all the hard work that went into putting the directory together!

Scrip orders were delivered on Friday. Depending on what you specified on your order form, please look for them in your child’s backpack or pick them up at the office.