February 2015 PTA School Newsletter

Letter from the Principal...

Dear Parents:

As the calendar marches on toward the end of February, a variety of annual events have been ongoing at Royal View Elementary. On Thursday, Feb. 12th, the district’s three elementary buildings hosted the 21st annual Third-Grade Square Dance at North Royalton Middle School. All third grade students have been learning to square dance in music class and this event was the opportunity for them to show parents what they have learned. As a former middle school principal, I always love the opportunity the event gives our students throughout our district to come together for a night of family fun at a building where they will meet up again in two short years as fifth graders.

I would also like to thank Mrs. Lesil Brihn and her army of PTA volunteers for making this year’s Donuts with Dad program another outstanding event at Royal View. The event, which ran for four straight mornings from Feb. 3rd through Feb. 6th, attracted over 450 participants this year. Highlights of both of these events can be found on our building’s Facebook page, which can be accessed at www.facebook.com/RoyalViewElementary.

This past week, Miss Kleem, Royal View’s school counselor, and I wrapped up the year’s Royal Lunch program. The purpose of the Royal Lunch is to invite all of our students, one classroom at a time, to dine with us in Room 4 during their lunch period. In preparation for this special dining time, the room’s atmosphere is transformed to include tablecloths, flower centerpieces, silverware, glasses and classical music. A lesson on manners and the proper technique of setting the table is presented so students feel eager to show off their skills at the family dinner table.

Lastly, we are proud to be hosting a new event this year in celebration of our building’s commitment to high quality literacy instruction. On Monday, March 2nd, Royal View will participate in Read Across America Day with a Family Literacy Night program from 6 to 8 p.m. Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2nd, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.

Royal View plans to celebrate the program by inviting guest readers from all over North Royalton to read their favorite Dr. Seuss stories in classrooms across the building. Students and their families will enjoy a night of traveling from classroom to classroom, listening to stories and filling up a specially designed punch card for every stop on their tour.

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There will also be an opportunity for students to take home a Dr. Seuss-related prize at the end of the evening.

Thank you again for your continued support of the North Royalton Schools and of our students here at Royal View Elementary!

Sincerely,

Kirk Pavelich

Letter from the PTA President…

Dear Royal View Families, The winter weather may be frightful outside, but we are staying warm and having fun inside! The Jump Yard fundraiser was a wonderful success, thanks to Barb Davis and her crew. Everyone who attended had a great time and many left with fantastic prizes. Two weeks ago, we spent the week serving donuts and coffee to all our favorite gentlemen during our annual Donuts with Dads event. Thanks to Lesil Brihn and her crew of volunteers for braving the winter weather for all the dads at our school. Last week, our physical education teacher, Mrs. Dylong, coordinated the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser with all of the classes. Thanks to everyone who sent in money for the AHA fundraising campaign and also to those parent volunteers who helped out each of the classes. Last Friday, some of our classes celebrated Valentine’s Day, so thank you to those parent volunteers who ran games and donated food for the snack. Coming up very soon is the Shamrock Shaker. It will be held on Sunday, March 8 from 1 – 4 pm at the Middle School. Watch your student’s backpack for the flyer with all the details. This family social is a favorite every year so don’t miss it! Contact our chairperson Cortney Bokoch cbokoch@gmail.com if you have any questions about the event or to volunteer. Also, the Malley’s chocolates fundraiser is in full swing. Flyers were sent home last week. You can submit your order online or by sending in the paper order form to your child’s classroom. See Gina Mitchner gmitch4591@gmail.com for more details. Continued...

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The Nominating Committee presented the following slate of officers at the February PTA meeting: President Nellie Wislocki 1st Vice President Melissa Crowe 2nd Vice President Jen Kramer 3rd Vice President Lisa Adcock 4th Vice President Kim Marcum Treasurer Lesil Brihn Secretary Alexandra Geffert Council Delegate Heather Fialkowski Council Delegate Jami Haley Alternate Council Delegate Michele Aini We will vote on the slate of officers at the March PTA meeting. If you would like to nominate someone for one of the offices, please contact me no later than March 5. If you haven’t had the opportunity to volunteer yet this year, there are still many events and committees that need help. Watch your email for more details! Let’s get poppin’ with the PTA! Nellie Wislocki Royal View PTA President

Upcoming Dates to Remember

March 5 Malley’s Fundraiser Orders Due 8 Shamrock Shaker 12 PTA Meeting 20 End of Grading Period 23 Malley’s Pick-Up 25 Royal View Art Show 27 Report Cards Sent Home 30 Last Day for Malley’s Online Orders April 3 No School – Spring Break Begins

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Library News…

We are expecting two changes coming soon to your child’s Library class.

During part of their weekly Library class time, first and second grade students

across NRCS should be accessing RAZ Kids, a computer program that helps

your student master reading skills. Our goal is to provide reading material in a

variety of formats that is “just right” for every child’s level . Please check that

your child’s headphones work correctly. Children need them for a variety of

learning activities at school.

Third and fourth graders’ OverDrive barcode numbers were placed in your

child’s planner (probably on page 119). These user numbers allow your child

to borrow from NRCS’s digital collection. Our school’s online book collection

can be accessed through the school website. Choose ‘Our School’ then

‘Media Center and Learning Tools’. The OverDrive information is in a blue

‘Using eBooks’ box near the bottom of the Media Center page. Third and

fourth graders continue to work with additional print an online reference

sources to increase their research skills.

Royal View PTA Meeting Minutes

February 12, 2015

CALL TO ORDER—9:35am

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

WELCOME

APPROVAL OF MINUTES—There are no corrections, so the January minutes will stand as posted.

TREASURER’S REPORT – Lesil Brihn

Income--$4,609.70

Expenses--$699.94

CORRESPONDENCE – Alexandra Geffert

There were many thank you notes this month.

For Poinsettia plants for Christmas: Cheri Rourke, Cathy Rush, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Hassel, Mary Boyer, Mrs. Lumpkin.

Mr. Pavelich for Panera birthday gift card and for NR coasters for Christmas.

Mr. Gurka on behalf of Board of Education for $3,000 donation toward the purchase of iPads.

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PRINCIPAL’S REPORT – Mr. Pavelich

Read Across America Day/Royal View Family Literacy Night will be Monday, March 2, 6-8pm at Royal View. There will be guest readers in various rooms throughout the school who will read Dr. Seuss stories and do related activities. Students move room to room with a punch card, and at end of the night can choose prizes for punches earned. If interested in a t-shirt, please return form to school by tomorrow.

Thank you to Barb Davis for all your hard work with the Jump Yard Fundraiser. It was a great event and well done. It ran very smoothly. The baskets all looked great!

Jump Rope for Heart is going on this week with Mrs. Dylong.

The Third Grade Square Dance is tonight at the Middle School. I love this event! This is one of the first events where all the NR 3rd graders come together as one group. It starts at 6:30 tonight, and I’ll see some of you there!

Donuts with Dad was last week. Thank you to Lesil Brihn for another great job. The kids love this event and having a dad or special buddy come out to be a part of it. Despite the Monday snow day, Lesil still did a great job accommodating the guests on the other days.

Royal Lunches wrap up this week. Today is the last day for the year. Each class has a fancy, restaurant-type setting for a nice lunch period. This is a great event that we enjoy doing with the kids.

Moving Kindergarten and Preschool back to this building has been proposed. So far, a discussion was had with the Board members to get their initial thoughts on it. The more formal aspect of moving forward with this will occur at the March board meeting. The move would bring Kindergarten and Preschool into the elementary schools. I believe we would have an all-day, everyday class, and a M-W, and T-TH class. When I came here to Royal View, we had 18 grade level teachers from first through fourth grade. With retirements and shifting around in the district, we could be down 3-4 teachers from when I started here. So that is where some additional space comes about to make this possibility feasible. We will be packed in, but it will be possible.

We would have the entire preschool at our building.

Modular units have been talked about. I could see that potentially being some of the support staff that need small areas. I anticipate all of the classrooms being in the building.

My sense with the planning that is occurring is that the chances are pretty good that this will happen for next year.

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TEACHER REPRESENTATIVE REPORT – Mrs. Morris

I brought some forms for the literacy night. They are on the table.

SCHOOL BOARD REPORT – Jackie Arendt

Couldn’t be here today.

EXECUTIVE BOARD REPORTS

PRESIDENT – Nellie Wislocki

Valley Vista still has some Elite socks from their fundraiser if anyone is interested in purchasing them.

1st VP – Stephanie Kostyack

Door prize drawing

2nd VP (Book Fair) – Jen Kramer

BOGO book fair will start the night of the art show, 3/25, and will run 3/26-3/27 during the day. I will probably need some help. It will be similar to our regular book fairs, but if you buy a book, you get one free.

3rd VP (Pictures) – Lisa Adcock

Spring Photos scheduled for 3/23. They are prepaid, but otherwise will run like fall photos. This is a more casual, fun photo. Likely to get 25-30% of the student body. Flyers should arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Yearbook is coming along. Did ask that third grade moms take photos at the square dance tonight. Also, if anyone can take photos at the Jump Rope for Heart events.

Candid day was hard this year due to scheduling difficulties and conflicts. I didn’t even get all of the groups photographed. I will make arrangements to come back again at some point, but next year it would be good if candid day is the only thing scheduled for that particular day!

4th VP (Malleys)—Gina Mitchner

Forms are home and fundraiser is underway.

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Council Delegates – Jami Haley and Melissa Crowe

Snow Days/Cold Days—snow days are given based on the safety of the roads; cold days are temperature driven. 0 degrees with wind chill of -15 is what they are looking at. Change from number of days in school re-quirement to hours in school? We are still on days in school under an existing agreement with the teachers. We will stay on number of days until the existing agreements expire, then we will turn over to hours. But Mr. Gurka feels we won’t be able to utilize the option of the 2 hour delay due to transportation issues (busing and bus drivers who leave for other jobs during the day)

PARCC—discussed the “opt out.” You can’t have your child opt out. If you skirt the testing, it won’t say your child “opted out,” but rather will show a zero—that your child failed the test. If you are upset about testing, parents need to band together and make our voice heard. This is the way to truly make a change. Tell your representatives. Be vocal to Columbus.

Re-doing the strategic plan. Make your voice heard!

New safe school tip line. State of Ohio is offering this as a new service to place anonymous tips of concerning information.

Car Raffle, 2/20. Giving away a Chevy Cruise. Call the Board Office or HS athletic office for tickets.

Night at the Races, 3/28.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Art Show – Mary Ellen Watrobski—Wednesday 3/25, 6-8pm. Artwork will be framed for purchase. Order forms will be coming home soon. We make around $5/frame which goes to the art department.

Collections (Box Tops, Campbell’s Labels, Sunny D) - Michelle Cutright—Box Tops collection at end of February. We have had over $1000 of Box Tops so far. Campbell’s collection at the end of March, early April. Collecting Tyson labels as well, so send those in.

Cooking/Baking – Jami Haley—Sign ups filled up quickly---thank you. Please have food here by 3:30 on conference night, 2/19.

Cultural Arts/Reflections – Stephanie Kostyack—The following are the Royal View winners who won at district and will move on to the state competition: Emily Hain in Dance, and Brooke Kostyack in Photography.

The theme for next year is something along the line of “If you could fly. . .” So, you can start thinking about the topic in advance.

Donuts with Dads – Lesil Brihn—The event went well, thanks for all of your help. We had 451 people attend.

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Grounds/Landscaping – Jen Osborne—concerning the woman whose sister died while a student at Royal View—perhaps we can purchase a brick for the high school bell tower in memory of her? But they are around $100, so I am not sure how you feel about this? Or maybe something in the courtyard? We will continue to follow up on this.

Health & Wellness/PHNR– Marla Lucarelli—

Hidden in Plain Sight presentation was last Monday. Gave examples of where kids stash things they don’t want their parents to find, etc.

Parent and student information session on heroin in the community will be coming up.

Jump Yard – Barb Davis

The event went well. We made $2,684.34.

Newsletter Editor – Mary Ellen Watrobski

If you have anything, please get it to me by tomorrow.

Scholarship – Alexandra Geffert

Our packet of applicants should be available in the next week. I need a committee to assist in ranking our applicants.

Mary Ellen Watrobski and Lesil Brihn will assist.

Shamrock Shaker – Cortney Bokoch

Coming up next month, on 3/8. Cortney has plans well under way, but really needs help with clean up afterwards.

Curriculum and Assessment meeting—Gina Mitchner—

Chrome Books—High School and Middle School have full carts, the elementary schools need to get them—these are apparently the way to go with technology purchases, and will be used in conjunction with PARCC testing, etc.

New elementary computer program—Learning.com. It’s a nice curriculum that will roll out in full next fall. Helps with computer literacy at the elementary level. Mr.Hrin has started it with the students. There will be parental access, and it is linked to common core.

District PARCC test trial. District is ahead of the game compared with other districts. We have one dedicated server for the PARCC assessments in the district.

Graduation requirements keep changing. Current freshman will be last to take OGT’s. Then it will switch to 7 end-of-course exams (state assessments).

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OLD BUSINESS

The Nominating Committee met and has selected their candidates for the 2015-16 Slate of Officers. The proposed slate of officers, to be voted on next month is as follows:

President—Nellie Wislocki

1st VP—Melissa Crowe

2nd VP—Jen Kramer

3rd VP—Lisa Adcock

4th VP—Kim Marcum

Council Delegates—Heather Fialkowski, Jami Haley

Secretary—Alexandra Geffert

Treasurer—Lesil Brihn

NEW BUSINESS

Ohio PTA Achievement Award Nominations—Nominations are being accepted for candidates for this award. Candidates may be community members, teachers, staff, or a parent who you feel deserves to be recognized for the outstanding job they do and goes the extra mile for our students. The person submitting the nomination is expected to present the award to the nominee, without them knowing, at Founder’s Night on Thursday, April 23rd. Nominations will be accepted until one week before our March meeting, so they would be due to me no later than Thursday, March 5. If there are nominations today, we can vote on them at this meeting. Otherwise the last opportunity to vote on award nominees will be at the next meeting, March 12.

Anyone slated as a new officer should think about attending Founder’s Night, 4/23 at 7pm. It’s nice, and your name is announced.

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Lego Night – I heard about a company called Bricks 4 Kids a few weeks ago, and thought I would look into hiring them to come to Royal View for a Lego Night. I have spoken with Mr. Pavelich about the PTA hosting a Lego Night. He gave us the ok, so I have reserved Fri. April 17 from 6:30 to 8 pm in the Multi-Purpose Room. The company Bricks 4 Kids sets up stations around the room, such as mosaic building, robotics, stacking, ramps for cars, Duplo blocks for younger siblings, etc. Stu-dents can stay for as long as they want at each station. They charge $5 per person (children and adults) with a minimum of 100 attendees. I would like to propose that we turn the event into a fundraiser to offset the Newsletter budget. Back in the fall, PTA Council decided to hire a newsletter company to produce all the PTA newsletters and to solicit ads for the benefit of each PTA unit. We estimated $500 revenue and have received only $18 to date. By increasing the price of admission to $7, considering the company requires a minimum of 100 attendees, we would be guaranteed at least $200. May I please have a motion for Royal View PTA to add a Lego Night as a fundraiser?

Motion to add Lego night as fundraiser, Mary Ellen Watrobski; 2nd, Stephanie Kostyack. Motion carries.

Adjourn 11:10am

Alexandra Geffert