LA CENTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Principal, Scott Lincoln Associate Principal, Bonnie Lock Elementary Office 263-2134 February 8, 2012

Greetings,

I hope this newsletter finds you and your family having enjoyed some of the recent great weather. It has been feeling less like Winter and more like Spring. Looking forward, and in line with our monthly theme of "Goal Setting," I would like to share just two of my goals.

Our PTO Needs You!

Our PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) has done so much to help our children in the past five years. But I am concerned for its future and its potential to continue in its support. Our last PTO meeting had a total of three in attendance and we are having difficulty finding volunteers to lead efforts. This can greatly impact our ability to support our students. Our next meeting on Thursday, February 9, at 3:10 in Ms. Sawyer's room (Room 305) will include a discussion on how we may attract more community members to PTO meetings and how to better support volunteers to lead important efforts. My goal for this meeting is to have at least seven in attendance (more than double the last meeting). I would also hope that we can find volunteers to lead efforts for the remainder of this year and next by the end of March. To help gain some understanding of our PTO's past efforts, the following shares just some of the areas our PTO has impacted our learning community in the last five years:

-Track installation

-Traverse climbing wall installation & extension in the gym

-Mobius 7 Panel Climber at field

-Painting playground games & problem-solving wheel

-Sand Pit

-AED (Automated External Defibrillator) outside the middle school gym

-JumpStart Backpack program

-Watch D.O.G.s

-Class supplies for students

-Assemblies

-Carnival

-Holiday Shop

-Book Fairs & books for our library

-Family emergency funds

-Field Days

-Playground equipment

-Brochures for our Parent Resource Center

-Bingo Nights

-Movie Nights

-Staff recognition

I know our families care and are very busy. Please consider what you could do to help our PTO.

Bobcat Chat

This month's Bobcat Chat will take place next Thursday, February 16, 6:30-7:30p.m. in the K-8 library. We had a total of two attend our January Bobcat Chat (one was paid to provide childcare). My goal is to have at least five attend this one. Please remember, this is not meant to be an advertisement for the school. Our Bobcat Chats are provided to give another avenue for communication and encourage collaboration to help our school improve. Those in attendance will have opportunities to ask questions, give feedback, offer advice, collaborate, etc. Even with only two in attendance at our last Bobcat Chat, we had some great discussion introduced by parents on how we can improve an underutilized portion of our playground's play structure. This will lead to a better recess environment for our children. Imagine what we may accomplish if we had five or more in attendance next week.

I look forward to experiencing all we learn and create together through our PTO and our Bobcat Chats. As always, please feel free to share any questions or ideas you might have.

Sincerely,
Scott Lincoln, Principal

NEW CLUB FOR GRADES 3 - 5

A new club is forming for students in grades 3-5 on Thursdays, from 3:00 - 4:00. Students will learn how to play chess, do science experiments, learn new concepts that help make math fun, and create a book. The first meeting is tomorrow, February 8, in the K-8 library. Students must have signed permission slips to attend. Extra flyers are available in the office.

K-3 BOBCAT WINNERS

K-3 students are given Bobcat tickets when they are "caught" following our Guidelines For Success. These students were winners in our weekly drawing the last few weeks: Wade Cox, Jacob Polachek, Jocelyn Darienzo, Nolan Koistinen, Christina Moore, Thatcher Lewis-Kuper, Amandamay Phillips, Tagen Salyers, Skylar House, George Hampton and Grace Clinton. These students each picked out two prizes.