Hello and welcome to the 2010-2011 school year at Burr!  September can be a lot to handle with the flood of paperwork arriving from the school, but hopefully things will settle into a groove for us all soon.  The Burr PTO has already started our schedule of fun and informative events aimed at building a closer school community and improving the school experience of all students and parents. Our annual Welcome Back Coffee, Back to School Picnic, and First PTO meeting were all well attended and successful. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of entertaining events scheduled throughout the coming year for the enjoyment of you, your children and the whole community. This letter is aimed at introducing you to the PTO and how it works as well as an invitation to get involved in any way that you can.

 

The Burr PTO is an organization of Parents, Teachers, and other school personnel working together to provide resources and opportunities to improve and enrich the school experience of all Burr students. Students are directly impacted by PTO activities that bring a wide variety of interesting speakers and activities right into their classrooms, as well as several school- and community-wide events that are fun for everyone. All families should have received a flier from the PTO listing the many activities that the PTO is responsible for, also available by clicking HERE. 

 

It is easy to see that the variety of these activities is very impressive, but even more impressive is the dedication of the large team of people involved in making these activities possible.  You can easily become a part of this great group of people by simply contacting any of the committee heads identified in the flier, or by sending an email to pto-board@burrpto.org , and indicating your interest.  There are opportunities to volunteer for ALL levels of interest and for ANY amount of time that you have available.  If you are interested but unable to commit to a set amount of time, please contact us anyway and let us know of your interest. Very often, a committee will need a team of people to do a quick bit of work and a list of potentially interested people is hugely helpful to have.

The Burr PTO is governed by a PTO Board consisting of two Co-Presidents and 6 other officers covering Communications, Fundraising, Education Support, Community Building, Treasurer, and Secretary duties.  The Co-Presidents each serve a 2 year term, overlapping by 1 year, with the aim of having one returning Co-President with a year of experience and a second Co-President new to the job.  This year, our returning Co-President is Steve DeJesus.  Steve is a graduate of Boston University where he studied Physics and Biomedical Engineering, and is currently employed by Infraredx, developing cardiology diagnostic equipment.  Steve's interests include metal sculpture and playing in a rock band.  Steve is the father of one girl, Emily, in fourth grade.  He and his wife, Chris Turner, have lived in Newton since 1990.  Our new Co-President this year is Tracy Carter.  We are lucky this year because, despite being new to the Co-President role, Tracy has been strongly involved in the Burr community for years already and so comes in as a more experienced player.  Tracy is a graduate of Northeastern University where she studied Chemical Engineering.  She and her husband Matt have been residents of Newton since 2006 and have three children at Burr, twin girls in first grade and a son in third.

We both share an interest in making the Burr school community a vibrant, exciting, and inclusive place where all parents and students can learn, grow and have fun together while supporting the schools goals for development and enrichment.  We invite all Burr parents (and you are all automatically members of our PTO!) to join us in our mission this year.  PTO activities are already underway and here are some highlights:

Many thanks to all of the parents who joined us for the Welcome Back Coffee on 9/10.  It was fun to meet old and new friends in a relaxed environment and to get a welcome back message and update from our new Principal, Ms. Mindy Johal.  Through an exemplary group effort, our major start-of-the-year mailing was assembled for every student in the school in record time. 

Thanks and congratulations go out to Vicky Gifford and her large group of parent volunteers for making the annual Back to School Picnic a great success this year.  Though threatened by thunderstorms, we had a great turn out of both new and returning Burr families for some fun, games, and popsicles in the field at Burr.  Food was supplied by a new vendor who did a good job providing good food, despite the long line.  (We are discussing ways to improve this for future events.)

Drop-off and dismissal times in the Blue Zone have been running smoothly thanks to all of our parents learning and following our guidelines. In particular, we are most appreciative of Tricia Bombara's efforts in working vigilantly to prepare the Blue Zone communications we've seen over the past couple of weeks.

Coordination of Room Parents and Library Volunteers have been handled by Pam McVey and Jan Shoyer.  Many thanks to them and all of the volunteers who have signed up so quickly to help support our Burr staff in the earliest days of back-to-school.

Finally, thank you to all the parents who attended our first PTO meeting of the year last Thursday evening.  The Burr Hospitality team provided yummy treats to warm us up on a rainy night - thank you!  Many thanks in particular to Burr PTO treasurer Weiqun Shi, who provided a terrific summary of our then-proposed (but now approved!) PTO budget for the '10-'11 school year.  For those who missed our PTO meeting, check our website www.burrpto.org  periodically for updates and/or past meeting minutes (we try to keep all of our online materials up-to-date, but, of course, sometimes it takes a little while to refresh the contents).  Parents who attended also had the opportunity to sign up for PTO activities of interest.  This is true at all times, of course, so just contact the committee head of the activity or send a message to pto-board@burrpto.org for further information.

Upcoming dates of interest:
Wed 9/22 Curriculum Night
Thu 9/30  Early Release day
Fri 10/1 All School Meeting
Wed 10/6 International Walk To School Day
Mon 10/11  No School - Columbus Day
Fri 10/15  Parent/Principal Coffee
Sat 10/23  Halloween Family Fun Night
Thu 10/28 Early Release day

Remember, all Burr parents are automatically members of the Burr PTO.  We look forward to working with you on various PTO activities this year!  Again, we can never stress this enough: we can use ALL parents' gifts and talents on the PTO.  Whether you have 15 minutes to help make photocopies or do data entry at home late at night or whether you would like to "dive in" to help a committee chair run an event or program, we need YOU.  Not sure how to get started?  Please just send an email saying you'd like to get involved, but aren't sure just how to pto-board@burrpto.org .  We PTO board members are great matchmakers and can help you find just the right activity for you to help out with! 

See you around school,
Steve & Tracy

Burr PTO Officers and Coordinators '10-'11
Colette Burke, Communications, colette_burke@bose.com , 617-308-9630
Tracy Carter, Co-President, tgunrud@hotmail.com, 781-956-2869
Nancy Caulfield, Fundraising, caulfieldn@aol.com, 617-964-6644
Steve DeJesus, Co-President, sdejesus13@gmail.com, 617-834-3637
Diana Fisher-Gomberg, Secretary, dfgomberg@gmail.com, 617-308-2968
Maren Oslund, Community Building, Marenoslund@gmail.com, 951-733-9858
Weiqun Shi, Treasurer, weiqun_shi@yahoo.com, 617-244-7225
Jason Wong, Education Support, jasonwong910@gmail.com, 617-388-6533

Many thanks to all of you terrific coupon-clippers. Last month the Box Tops for Education program made $300 for Burr! Let's keep up the good work! Please keep sending in Box Tops in your child's folder through the end of the year and we will get them ready for our next deadline.

 

Some helpful things to keep in mind: 

Visit  Box Tops for Education for a complete list of participating products, and keep on clipping! Thank you!

Questions?  Please contact Sherri Sonia at jimjack123@hotmail.com   

Unfortunately, Shaws has discontinued their Community Rewards program. But good news!  Stop & Shop still runs a terrific program that allows a portion of every purchase to be sent right to Burr School. Just email your Stop & Shop rewards card number to Margaret Crook at gmcrook@rcn.com and she can sign you up, or click here to learn more.  If you've never been to Stop & Shop, we honestly find it's a better shopping experience, so consider giving them a try! Thank you!

The Burr School Store is a fun place for students and parents to shop for school supplies, novelty items and more...all proceeds support the 5th grade end of year activities, including Graduation, a farewell party and a class gift to Burr.  The Store is located in the main hallway in front of the library and is open every Tuesday morning from 8:20 - 8:35 a.m.  Prices range from .25 cents to $3.00.  Featured items for the Grand Opening include PENCILS (.25/each), BIG MISTAKE ERASERS ($1.00), PEN KEY CHAINS ($1.50) and ever-popular MOOD RINGS ($2.00).

If you forgot to send in your check last Friday, don't worry! You can still go online to order your child's school picture by credit card. Just visit Coffee Pond Productions to select your package. A retake day will be offered later this fall. Questions? Email Johanne Campbell at johanne.campbell@gmail.com

 

Many thanks to Dana Hanson for creating the amazing classroom garden. Each year the garden gets better and better, and this year it is a towering success of 9-foot sunflowers and climbing vines. Jessica Avery wrangled a talented crew of garden helpers to take care of it over the summer months: Youngok Lim, Tricia Marucci, Molly Hoult, Gretchen Becker, Rose Dieffenbach, Maren Oslund, Colette Burke, Maggie Yang, Tracy Carter, Rachel Freed, Phil Chapnik, Allison Sharma, Marni Goldstein, Lisa Pagana, Judy Hogan/Donovan family, Margaret Crook, and Kelly Brown. Eric Bobby planted vines along the fence, which in the course of the summer developed into a serious "wall of flowers". Finally, in a special category all her own...many thanks to gardener-of-all-trades, Stephanie Mamis for not just taking care of the classroom garden but also doing everything else landscape-wise at Burr!

 

 

Otherwise known as pediculosis capitus, head lice infestation is common in the United States among children 3-12 years of age. Head lice are not a health hazard, a sign of poor hygiene or responsible for the spread of any disease. However, because young children come into head-to-head contact with each other frequently, it is possible for
head lice to be transmitted from one person to another. Routine head screening should be done in the home where privacy can be maintained and adequate lighting is available. The most common symptom of head lice is itching.

 

In the Newton Public Schools, if a child is found to have head lice, the parents will be notified and treatment options will be discussed. Re-entry to school will be allowed once the student receives treatment and is seen by the school nurse.

 

The school nurse will notify parents if a student in their child's classroom has head lice. This is an important reminder to check your child's head regularly and teach your children not to share hats, scarves or personal hair care items.

 

Parents should report cases of head lice to the school nurse.

 

The Head Lice Policy, with instructions for treatment, is available on the School Health website at http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/Health/school_health.htm

 

For more information, contact the school nurse or visit these websites: National Pediculosis Association at www.headlice.org  and the Harvard School of Public Health at www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html

The Newton Public School system, in concern for the students, has a life-threatening food allergy policy. Some highlights of this policy include: no food sharing or trading at school, avoiding the use of food for classroom and school-wide functions, limiting the
use of food for curriculum instruction, notifying parents of identified food-allergic students when food will be used, eliminating the sale of food in the school store and prohibiting food on routine school bus routes. Please contact the school nurse if you have any questions about life-threatening food allergies at school.

elementary school lunch program is operating. These practices are

different from past years. Families with children who have life-

threatening food allergies may want to review this information

with their child.