Calendar of Events
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Sept. 24: Reading in Schools Day, 9-11 a.m. If you want to be a reader, contact Mrs. Svarda in the library. Students will select books that they would like to have read to them. More information will be coming home in your child's backpack.
Sept. 25: Teacher/Staff Development Day. No classes!
Sept. 28-Oct. 9: Fall Break. No classes.
Sept. 30: Deadline to register and pay first deposit for the Washington, D.C., trip! See the details in this newsletter.
Oct. 15: PTA Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Conference Room
Oct. 22: Parents' Book Club: "Outliers: The Story of
Success," by Malcolm Gladwell, a book for parents to read as part of a
parents' reading program
Nov. 2: PTA Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Conference Room
Nov. 16: PTA General Membership Meeting with Chili Cookoff, time TBA
Nov. 19: Coffee with the Principal, 8:30 a.m.
Nov. 25-27: Thanksgiving Break. No classes.
Dec. 8: PTA Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Conference Room
Dec. 18: Last day before Winter Break. Abbreviated day for students.
Dec. 21-Jan. 8: Winter Break. No classes.
Jan. 11: Classes resume.
PTA Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Conference Room
Jan. 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. No classes.
Feb. 2: Writing assessment
Feb. 4: PTA Board meeting, 5 p.m., Conference Room
Feb. 4: PTA General Membership meeting, 7 p.m., gymnasium
Feb. 15: President's Day. No classes.
Feb. 18: Family Math Night
March 1-12: Parent/Teacher Conferences
March 2: PTA Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Conference Room
March 5: Teacher/Staff Development Day. No classes for students.
March 20-25: PTA Washington, D.C., trip for Discovery School families, administration and faculty. Please see the details in this newsletter.
March 22-April 2: Spring Break. Please note these dates are revised from the original Murfreesboro City Schools Alternative Calendar.
April 7: Coffee with the Principal, 8:30 a.m.
April 12: PTA Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Conference Room
April 15-22: TCAP Testing window
May 27: Last day of school for students (abbreviated day)
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NEW PTA WEB SITE LAUNCHES
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 The new Web site for The Discovery School PTA has launched! Please bookmark the site, housed at discoveryschoolpta.org, so you can keep up to date on all of the school and PTA news we have to offer. The site will include an updated calendar, links to archived newsletters, updated events information, links to school news, how you can get involved and much more. Please check it out!
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HELP SELECT THE NEW MURFREESBORO SCHOOLS DIRECTOR
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Our school board has initiated its search for a new director of schools. The current director, Marilyn Mathis, is leaving the post in a few weeks.
Our PTA has been asked to help the search firm charged with finding Mathis' replacement by identifying the leadership qualities we want in a new director. Discovery School parents can share your thoughts by answering this survey we have placed online. Confidential responses to the survey will be delivered to the search firm by a representative of our PTA during a meeting on Sept. 29.
Parents are also invited to a community forum to be held on Monday, Sept. 28, at 6:30 p.m., at Northfield Elementary School.
Please register your comments by Friday, Sept. 25.
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REFLECTIONS COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
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 The
National PTA Reflections Program is an arts recognition and achievement
program for students. The Reflections Program provides opportunities
for students to express themselves creatively and to receive positive
recognition for original works of art inspired by pre-selected theme,
while increasing community awareness on the importance of the arts in
education.
The 2009-2010 Reflections theme is "Beauty is...". Students may
submit an entry in any of the four arts areas listed below. Only
original works of art are accepted. Depending on state and local PTA
guidelines, students may enter more than one work of art. The four arts
areas are as follows:
- Literature
- Musical composition
- Photography
- Visual arts
The dates for the Discovery School competition are:
- Oct. 12: First day to submit Reflections entries
- Oct. 21-Dec. 9: Discovery School enrichment clusters focus on art themes
- Dec. 9: Final day to turn in Reflections projects
- Dec. 11: Reflections competition judging, winners announced and winners' reception.
Have a question about the competition? Contact Chair Molly Nemeth.
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THANK YOU!
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 The hospitality committee sends out a special thank you to all of the parents who helped with our first Teachers' Appreciation Luncheon, brought in food and sent in money. It was a great lunch and there were many leftovers for the teachers to eat on Monday. We are saving extra items for our next luncheon in December. Parents can pick up serving dishes in the PTA room or in the teacher's workroom.
Also, thank you to volunteers who brought in items and helped with our first Coffee with the Principal and Grandparents' Week. Our school is able to sponsor these great events because of our wonderful parent support and PTA!
If you would like to assist the Hospitality Committee with future events, please contact Tiffany Pippin.
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2009-2010 PTA BUDGET
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The 2009-2010 PTA budget is now posted on the PTA Web site for members' review. The budget will be presented for adoption during the PTA general membership meeting on Nov. 16.
You can access the Web site at http://www.discoveryschoolpta.org/. The budget is under the What's New section of the front page.
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WASHINGTON, D.C., TRIP DEADLINE IS SEPT. 30!
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The Discovery School Spring Break trip for families to Washington, D.C., will be Saturday, March 20 through Thursday, March 25, 2010.
The new dates were necessitated by the state's change of dates for TCAP testing. Murfreesboro City Schools amended the nontraditional calendar, which includes The Discovery School, to
reflect the dates of March 22-April 2 as the new Spring Break, in order to accommodate the state's new mandated TCAP testing dates.
The cost of the trip includes round-trip transportation on a
Grayline motorcoach, four nights hotel accommodations (one night in
Charlottesville, Va., and three nights in Herndon, Va.), a tour of
Monticello, afternoon tours of the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial
and World War II Memorial, a sightseeing drive along Embassy Row, a
visit to the National Zoo, evening tours of the Jefferson Memorial, The
Korean Memorial and the Roosevelt Memorial, a visit to the Smithsonian
Institute, four breakfasts, five dinners and one lunch. Group insurance
and all taxes are also included in the price.
The deadline to reserve a spot, which includes an initial down payment of $125 per person, is Sept. 30. The cost of the trip, based upon hotel room occupancy, is:
Students
$645 quad occupancy
$700 triple occupancy
$800 double occupancy
Adults
$660 quad occupancy
$715 triple occupancy
$815 double occupancy
Each student must have a parent or guardian accompany them on the trip. Also, families can room together on the trip to get the quad rate, so if two families want to team up to share a room to save costs, you can do that.
It was announced Aug. 27 by the Department of the Army that The Discovery School has been selected to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on March 24. We are also looking for any Washington, D.C., contacts that might be able to provide our students special educational opportunities while we are in the nation's capitol. If anyone can help, please contact Donna Abernathy.
Subject to availability, the trip may also include tours of the U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress, Supreme Court Building, Washington National Cathedral, the White House, Ford's Theatre and The Petersen House, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the National Archives, the Washington Monument.
Informational sheets on the trip are available in the school office. To reserve a spot on the trip, or if you have any questions, you may call Ms. Fleming or Donna Oliver at Thomas Tours at 615-292-0470 or PTA President Donna Abernathy at dlfcomm@bellsouth.net.
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HELP DISCOVERY SCHOOL WIN $50,000
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The Big Clip Contest
Box Tops is currently running a contest called "The Big Clip." The school winning the grand prize will win $50,000, and two first-place winning schools will win $25,000 each! All you need to do is register to support Discovery School at The Big Clip. Then, go online daily to enter our school in the contest from now until Oct. 31.
Please note that the Web site includes two entries for The Discovery School. It lists The Discovery School at Reeves Rogers, which is the entry you must choose for the school to receive credit. However, it also lists the old school, Bellwood. Please do not select that site, as it will not credit us.
In addition to the contest, The
Discovery School continues to collect Box Tops for Education. The school earns 10 cents for each box top collected, and the
school can earn up to $20,000 over the course of the year.
This year's Box Tops coordinator is Jennifer Kropog, and she can be reached at jckropog@comcast.net if you have any questions.
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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
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 If you'd like more information about any job, please e-mail Volunteer Coordinator Angela Blankenship.
Programs & Special Projects:
Co-chair needed for Green Team. This is a two-year commitment with the
first year spent learning the chair's job and then moving into the
chair position the second year. Contact Chris Bray for details.
Programs & Special Projects: Helpers are needed for Career Day next May. Contact Chris Bray for details.
Fundraising:
Smart Card team members are needed to plan next year's campaign and
conduct the program during back-to-school in 2010. Get details from
Fundraising Committee Chair Sara Trowbridge.
Volunteers:
Co-chair needed. This is a two-year commitment with the first year
spent learning the chair's job and then moving into the chair position
the second year. Contact Angela Blankenship, the current committee chair, to learn more about this position.
Communications: Co-chair
needed. This is a two-year commitment with the first year spent
learning the chair's job and then moving into the chair position the
second year. Elise Oppmann is the current committee chair.
Communications: Need volunteer to research and write grant applications and awards submissions. This is a one-year commitment. Contact Elise Oppmann, committee chair, for more details.
Hospitality:
Co-chair needed. This is a two-year commitment with the first year
spent learning the chair's job and then moving into the chair position
the second year. Tiffany Pippin is the current committee chair.
Legislation & Advocacy: Committee members needed. Vanessa Smythia is the current committee chair.
New Committee! PTA Treasurer Jill Smith is
seeking some savvy shoppers to research and evaluate proposed PTA
purchases. This new volunteer opportunity is ideal for parents who do
not wish to commit to regular meetings or activities during school
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| GREEN TEAM NEWS
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We need pumpkins! We'd like to decorate the outside of the school for Fall with corn stalks, hay bales and pumpkins. We've got donations for everything but the pumpkins, so if you can help us out, please contact Jessica Murray at 890-7579 or jandsmurray@msn.com. Thank you!
We will also recycle pumpkins for Mrs. Jones' garden on the Monday after Halloween and the Monday after Thanksgiving at the rear of the school where kindergarten picks up in the afternoon. It will be during drop off and shortly thereafter. Also, you may drop them at the side rear doors on the left side of the school any time on the weekends preceding those drop off times. If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Murray.
Please remember to recycle your aluminum cans and newspapers
at Discovery School!
The bin for the newspapers is at the back of the
school at the end of the driveway, and the bin for aluminum can recycling is in the front parking lot.
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MEMBERS AT LARGE
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Comments? Questions? Concerns?
Feel free to contact your PTA Member-at-Large representatives -- we're
here to help!
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Always stay informed about PTA happenings at discoveryschoolpta.org |
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