MLS PTO

Serving the children, families, teachers, and staff of
Meriwether Lewis School.  

Put on your party pantalones people. This is NACHO typical book fair!  Returning to Meriwether Lewis on February 25 - 27, the book fair will serve up a zesty concoction of adventure, mystery, humor, fantasy and fable for readers of all ages!

Be sure to save the evening of Wednesday, February 26 for Family Book Fair Night, featuring a pizza dinner starting at 5:30 and story time with a mystery reader at 6:30.

Volunteers are needed to help children with their book selections and purchases. To learn more about volunteer opportunities, please visit our sign-up page. 

Questions? Contact Mary Chinn at marychinn@comcast.net or Jane Jackson at mcqueen@pobox.com.

Your support of 2014-2015 ACPS school funding request needed at B.O.S. Public Hearing Feb 24th at 6pm (Lane Auditorium - Corner of Preston and McIntire):

The ACPS Superintendent, Dr. Pam Moran, has presented the 2014-2015 school funding request to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. At current funding levels, there would be a deficit of $6.98 million for the 2014-15 school year.   A large portion of this deficit is caused by a state mandated contribution to the VA Retirement System (VRS) and increase in student enrollment. Neither are avoidable or negotiable. The result of a severely underfunded budget would likely be a reduction in at least one teacher per school (per MLS Administrators), among other cuts. Our goal as a PTO is to support enough budget funding so as not to loose teachers, programming, or the quality of our children's education.

We invite you to attend the Board of Supervisors budget hearing on Monday, February 24th, 6pm, at the County Office Building.  Many of us on the MLS PTO board will be in attendance to represent the parents of our school. However, in this fight to fully fund the school budget, numbers/supporters are needed, and the Supervisors need to know that parents elected them to support our schools. Please help convey this message by joining us at the meeting. To show unity, we are asking supporters to WEAR RED SHIRTS so that our numbers are easily visible. If you would like to speak, please sign up. If not, please attend and support those that speak for this cause (by standing).  We are told that supporters present at the meeting are counted and are a factor when the board votes on the budget.  

We are working to prepare a bulleted document providing some background information on the budget and the funding challenges we face.  We will send this out in the next day or two. We hope it will help you understand why it is particularly important that, this year, we show our strong support of Dr Moran's school funding request.  Additionally it may help you with some talking points if you choose to speak at the 2/24 meeting.  Please do email us with any questions or concerns.

- Laura Steenburgh & Kristina Parker

MLS PTO Presidents  

Kids Night Out - Feb. 21st

 Due to all of the snow, the Box Tops classroom contest will be extended until Monday, February 24.  Any Box Tops turned in before the end of that school day will be counted.  This will be the final update before the winning classroom is revealed next week!  The winning classroom will be rewarded.

Five classrooms have turned in over 1000 Box Tops so far.  Mrs. Kirtley's 3rd grade is currently in 1st place with 1578, and Mrs. Benoit's 1st grade is in 2nd with 1349.  Mrs. Kuhn's 2nd grade class is in 3rd with 1251, Mrs. Straume's 3rd grade is in 4th with 1175, and Mrs. Franco's Kindergarten class is in 5th with 1063.  Last year Mrs. Benoit's class won the contest with 1676 Box Tops - will any of the classes collect more this year?

Thursday, March 13th 12:45 p.m.

1st Grade Patriotic Show

Star-Spangled Banner - America, the Beautiful - God Bless America - You're A Grand Old Flag - Yankee Doodle Dandy - America and many more!!!!

Wednesday, March 19th 5:30pm

ACPS Honors Choir

Ten of our 5th grade students will be singing with the 150 voice ACPS Honors Choir. The event will be held at the Monticello High School Auditorium.

Thursday, March 27 9:00am

"Sing A Song of Aesop"

3rd Grade Show: Five of Aesop's beloved fables come to life with scripts and catchy songs!

Tuesday, April 29th 9:00am and 6:30pm - 

"Small Part of the World" 

4th and 5th grades are busy working toward their combined-grade Spring show.  The show will feature a variety of music from around the world!

School cancellations and early closures have affected most of our Spring Session I EZ classes. Parents have been emailed with the make-up dates, and the information is also available at the MLS PTO Enrichment Zone webpage. Or email ez@mlspto.org for information.

Spring Session II course registration will remain open until Monday, March 10th and you can sign-up online now at Spring 2014 EZ Registration. Visit the MLS PTO Enrichment Zone webpage for the complete spring schedule, course descriptions and additional program details. Thanks for your continued support of the MLS PTO EZ Program!

SOL Testing Dates 

Community Events

Dana Quist, Communications Coordinator

Meriwether Lewis School PTO

please email mlsmatters@gmail.com. 

Community events are listed by request as space is available.  The MLS PTO does not endorse or have any additional information regarding these events.