PTA @ WORK…

2/28 - PTA Meeting 9:30am

2/28 - PARP Kick-Off 10:00am

3/1 - PARP Begins

3/7 - Staff Recognition Day

3/14-15 - Spring Book Fair

3/18-19 PARP Mystery Readers

3/21 - Spring Photo Day

4/11 - PTA Meeting 9:30am

5/9 - Special Person’s Day

5/10 - Mother’s Day Plant Sale

5/21 - Spring Concert 7pm

5/23 – PTA Meeting 7:30pm

FEBRUARY 2013

VOL. 10, ISSUE 2

I would like to thank all of our committee chairs and volun-teers. Hosting these events takes a lot of hard work and can't be done without them.

There certainly is a lot to do, so please do not hesitate to volunteer a bit of your time and talent! Remember, if you forgot to sign up for a committee and can spare an hour or two, just come on down. We look forward to many other wonderful events during the second half of the

school year.

Its hard to believe we are already entering the second half of the school year. The first half was filled with many exciting events for our children. We have had Kids Bingo, Fall Book Fair, Holiday Boutique, and several Cultural Arts events. Our PARP committee chairs have already begun planning a memo-rable month of reading with our children, starting with a kick-off ‘Brain Show’ on February 28th for students in all grades during school hours, continuing with our reading log, and ending with

‘Mystery Readers’ week.

Our Spring Book Fair will be in March, which will be two days and one evening devoted to offering families an opportunity to purchase books from Scholastic

at a reduced price.

We will show our teachers, staff, and invited guests our apprecia-tion during Staff Recognition Day. We will also show-off our school, dedicated teachers, and talented children on Special Person’s Day. Our children will be given an opportunity to shop at the Moth-er’s Day Plant Sale in May.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE HOPE KRANIDIS

Happy New Year! As we begin the second half of the school year, in addition to concentrating on the academic growth of all our students, we continue to review and refine safety measures in the wake of the Sandy Hook catastrophe. We regularly practice lock outs, lock downs, shelter and evacuation drills, yet no one can be prepared for the type of intrusion that occurred in Newtown.

Each school has a Safety Committee and Crises Team that meets regularly to refine our school safety plan. In addition, table-top exercises that pose many “what if” sce-narios are conducted at regularly held Building Advisory Committee, School Aide and Faculty meetings. Following lock out, lock down and evacuation drills, which are attended by local police officers, central district administrators and a BOCES safety consultant for the district, debriefings are held with our school’s Safety Team to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each drill. Measures for improving and tightening up procedures are then discussed at faculty meet-ings. Periodically, I attend District Health and Safety Com-mittee meetings comprised of building and central adminis-trators, teacher and parent representatives, the district’s

safety consultant from BOCES, police and fire department representatives and insurance representatives. Building security issues are discussed and suggestions by outside consultants are sought.

We have always had a locked campus. Students are continually reminded not to open outside doors for any-one. At the present time we have a security person at the door for a majority of the day. When she is not at the Do-ver Parkway North door, the secretaries monitor the visi-tors’ entrance through camera surveillance. New security procedures require all visitors entering the building to state their intentions before being electronically buzzed in, report to the security person or the main office, show identification and then sign in.

District teams along with the Board of Education are presently looking into measures to upgrade building security to ensure an even safer learning environment for all students and staff. We greatly appreciate your coopera-tion in adhering to all security measures and welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Newsletter of the Stewart Manor PTA®

The Stewart Manor Spotlight

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE PAM MILINIC

to middle and high school level

students. October’s workshop

focused on eating disorders and

early detection. Notification of

these types of programs is not

always forwarded on a timely ba-

sis. Look for emails from PTA on

program topics and location. If

there is a question that you would

like posed to the Council, feel free

to forward your inquiry to:

StewartManorPTA@gmail.com

The delegates will report on the

responses.

The PTA board includes 3 Coun-

cil Delegates to attend monthly

meetings held throughout the Se-

wanhaka Central School District.

The purpose is to inform parents

of the events and programs held,

as well as to address concerns

expressed at the local high

schools. Delegates report what

has transpired at the SCC meet-

ings at our regularly scheduled

PTA meetings. SCC also spon-

sors the See Saw Program. The

program provides workshops on

various issues that are pertinent

THE STEWART MANOR SPOTLIGHT

FALL KIDS BINGO 2012

PAGE 2

SCC Annual Holiday Dinner

On December 7, 2012 the Stewart

Manor School PTA board attended

the Sewanhaka Central Council of

PTA’s Annual Holiday Dinner Meet-

ing. We had the pleasure of meeting

other members of our Interschool

PTA. A fundraiser was held to raise

enough money in sponsoring 2 schol-

arships for each H.S. in the Sewanha-

ka Central School District.

Sewanhaka Central Council (SCC)

This year Stewart Manor Kids’

Bingo took place on Friday, Octo-

ber 21st at 3:30pm in the school’s

gymnasium with the Fall Season in the air and a whiff of Halloween

on stage. The tables were all set

up for the children to just come in

and begin their fun – it was a full house of excitement, especially

when the prizes were won and

cries of BINGO were echoed.

Pizza and ice cream were served

and children even had trick or treat goody bags to take home. A

huge thanks goes out to Frank

Guglielmo for some fantastic

number calling and thanks to all parents who volunteered!

-Jen Cipolla & Nancy Gregory

The Fall Fundraiser was a big success, bringing in $9,166 as a total, yielding Stewart Manor School a total of $4,530. A huge thank you to all who partic-ipated, and a special thanks to Maureen Ogden for or-ganizing this fundraiser!

PRESTIGE FALL FUNDRAISER Fall Book Fair

This year’s Fall Book Fair took place on October 13th and 14th and was a huge success! PTA volunteers assist-ed children with finding the books they wanted. Students got huge dis-counts on their favorite sellers, such as The Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Big Nate, and teachers were once again able to submit their “wish lists” in order to expand their classroom collections. Thank you to our PTA chairpersons and many volunteers who kept the lines moving and the kids smiling! Watch for our Spring Book Fair coming in March!

Photo Day Chairperson Bee Cintron,

Joan Hurley and Diane Lisojo orga-

nized parent volunteers to ensure

that the photo process went smooth-ly on October 4th. We appreciate the

efforts of these volunteers who

helped to insure school photo mem-

ories of our children.

FALL PHOTO DAY

SUPERMARKET BINGO NIGHT

Even though Supermarket Bingo

Night had to be rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy, the event

chaired by Seana Bart & Barbara Zabatta, was a great success.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped. This fundraiser

helped raise $4,500 for our school.

CULTURAL ARTS

PTA fundraises for special events such as the workshops that our 4th, 5th and

6th graders participated in during these past few months. In November, our 6th

graders were mesmerized by the fantastic Greek Mythology storytelling of

Gerald Fierst. They loved it and remember the stories more because of the

wonderful theatrical animation of Mr. Fierst. In December, our 4th graders got

to experience life as the Native Americans did in the Native Life Workshop.

And in January, the 5th graders learned about how the colonists lived in the

mid-1800’s - using traditional tools, weaving wool, and coring apples the old

fashioned way in their Colonial Life Workshop. Thank you to Jennifer

Kightlinger and Estela Agudelo for organizing these wonderful events which

serve as extensions to curriculum studies for our students.

Parents as Reading Partners (PARP) is a statewide PTA program that encourages reading at home in order to develop good reading habits and a love of reading. PARP will commence on Friday, March 1st with a PARP kick-off Brain Show during school hours on Thursday, February 28th for all students. Join us as we Blast Off into Reading!

As part of the P.A.R.P. program, all children from K-6 are

given an opportunity to participate in a contest for the

P.A.R.P. T-shirt design. Each child will receive a free

P.A.R.P. T-shirt with this year’s winning design depicting the

theme Blast off into Reading! We are happy to announce

that this year’s contest winner is Sophia

Kasimatis (4th grade) with two runners-up:

Michael Dominguez (5th grade) & Tasheima

Johnson (6th grade). Their designs posters

will be displayed in school for all to enjoy

during P.A.R.P. month. Congratulations to

Sophia, Michael & Tasheima! One, two,

three Blast OFF!

P.A.R.P. T-SHIRT DESIGN WINNER

PARP Kick-off with The Brain Show ~Thurs., February 28th

THE STEWART MANOR SPOTLIGHT PAGE 3

PARP 2013 ~ Launch into Reading

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART & HOOPS FOR HEART

Student Manor School students, in 3rd & 4th grade, participated in the American Heart Associa-

tion’s ‘Jump Rope for Heart’ on Wednesday, February 6th, jumping rope and having fun for a

great cause. The 5th & 6th graders participated in the ’Hoops for Heart’ program on Wednesday, February 13th

for the same cause. Stewart Manor School is one of many schools that participates in this fundraiser for the AHA,

which supports lifesaving research and educational programs. This year the 1st & 2nd graders also participated for

the first time in fundraising as well. Congratulations to all the students for their fundraising efforts and heart

healthy habits!

Michael Dominguez

Tasheima Johnson

Sophia Kasimatis

SEPTA Meetings

3/4 & 4/29, 6/4

***********************

NEXT SM PTA MEETING

Feb. 28th 9:30AM

CAFETERIA **************************

BOE MTG @ 8pm

2/12 CA, 3/12 GA

4/9 CHC, 5/14 SM

Annual Budget Vote held 5/21

Spring Book Fair March 14-15th (School Hours)

March 14th - 6:30pm (Family

Night)

PTA Volunteers Needed Don’t be shy! Bring a friend and sign up to

volunteer for a PTA event. You are always

welcome and our school is better for it.

Contact Pam for details: 516-488-9272.

BLOOLD DRIVE

Upcoming Events

PTA Executive Committee Members

President ~ Pamela Milinic

1st Vice President ~ Barbara Za-batta

2nd Vice President ~ Ivy Belardo

3rd Vice President/Principal

Mrs. Kranidis

4th Vice Pres/Teacher Reps ~

Mrs. Kasprzak & Ms. Moculeski

Corresponding Secretary ~ Maureen Ogden

Recording Secretary ~ Jennifer Kightlinger

Treasurer ~ Joanne Dominguez

Central Council Delegates ~

Abbey Guglielmo, Lisa Bleeker, & Carolyn Brendel

PTA Committee & Chairs

Safety Patrol ~ Marianna

Sicignano

BAC Representative ~ Nancy Gregory & Carol Ann Albersten

Bulletin Boards/Decorations

Celeste Ramondi

Membership ~ Ivy Belardo

Supermarket Bingo ~ Seana Bart

Holiday Boutique ~ Joan Hurley, Michele Rullo & Lauren Giuffre

Cultural Arts ~ Estela Agudelo & Jen Kightlinger

Blood Drive ~ Joanne Dominguez

PARP ~ Barbara Zabatta & Pamela Milinic

PARP Mystery Readers ~ Joanne Dominguez

Spring Book Fair ~ Joanne Forte-Davidson & Barbara Torres

Poinsettia Plant Sale ~ Karen Martocci

Mother’s Day Flower Sale ~ Ka-ren Martocci & Joan Hurley

Staff Appreciation Day ~ Barbara Zabatta

Special Person Day ~ Pamela Milinic

The Stewart Manor Spotlight Ivy Belardo and Joanne Dominguez, Co-Editors

Pam Milinic, PTA President 38 Stewart Manor

Stewart Manor, NY 11530 516 326-5530

The Spotlight is a Nassau Region PTA® publication. PTA is a

registered service trademark of the National Congress of Parents

and Teachers.

Websites to check out: www.pta.org

www.elmontschools.org/schools/stewart/ www.nassaulibrary.org/elmont/

Thank Y

ou!

Thank you to the PTA Executive

Board, all the parents, students, and fac-

ulty who have volunteered for school

and PTA sponsored events. Your self-

lessness and enthusiasm embodies the

spirit and greatness of the Stewart Man-

or School.

A word of thanks to all the Class Parent

volunteers. Being a Class Parent is a

great way to be involved in your child’s

class and to assist the teachers with vari-

ous classroom festivities and PTA relat-

ed activities.

"Volunteers don't necessarily have

the time, but they have the heart." --

Anonymous

Volunteer’s Corner

Elmont Dads’ Service Club The mission of the Elmont Dads’ Service Club is to foster the bond between parents, grandparents, relatives and their children. The Club holds food drives, coordinates nursing home visits and holds fundraisers. The next club meeting dates are March 14th, April 20th, May 18th and June 13th. Contact the Elmont School District Main Office for more information on membership or check out the elmontschool.org website for more information and upcoming events.

Thank you to the blood donors that came out to give a little bit of

themselves to help others, and to the volunteers that helped make

this year’s Blood Drive a very worthy event! This year our Blood

Drive took place on Thursday, February 7th. We were able to

collect 28 pints of blood, which helped to save about 84 lives!

Thank you to Barbara Torres, Mirella Avalos-Louie, Ivy Belardo,

Shirelle Pearson and Alice Batting for coming out and volunteering

their time!

Mother’s Day Flower Sale May 10th (School Hours)