Welcome from the Presidents
Welcome From 2009-2010 Presidents
September 9, 2009
Hello and welcome to all of our new and returning students, parents and staff. We truly hope that all of you have had a wonderful summer break. It went by so fast but what a beautiful summer we had-probably one of the best in years.
We are very excited and honored to be serving as the Co-Presidents of the McGilvra elementary PTA. We feel very fortunate to have such an energetic and enthusiastic team of parent and teacher volunteers working at our great school. We have a lot of new PTA board members that bring so much to the table and will work very hard for the benefit of our kids.
This year brings a lot of changes to our small school. First and foremost, we’d like to start by welcoming our new Principal, Ms. DeWanda Cook-Weaver. She brings with her great enthusiasm and we look forward to working with her this year.
Some other changes we will see this year: Our teaching staff: Both Carolyn Crinnion and West Keller, 2 outstanding Kindergarten teachers have left McGilvra. Their energy and positive attitude were an inspiration to so many of our young kids and the teaching staff as well. They will be deeply missed. Kelly Schuchart, former kindergarten teacher has also left us. We will miss her. Dena Voth, former 1st grade teacher will now be our new kindergarten teacher in room 7. We have a new teacher to welcome to our school, Patricia Evans and she will be 1st grade in P1. We are also very excited to announce that Jen McCullough, Kindergarten, Shelly Baker, 1st grade and Rebecca Pleasure, art, are all back.
Each year, the PTA Board sets goals for the coming year. Last year our main goal is to make McGilvra an inclusive, welcoming and academically challenging school for every child and their family – a goal that our board and parent community continues to work on. Our families come from 11 different zip codes and all have something to contribute. This year we will continue to open lines of communication between the parents, the staff and the administration. We will continue to focus on inclusion. Last year the family socials were a success and we’d like to continue that this year. Our writer’s workshop was very successful and that will continue. And something that parents have been asking for many years, we will finally have a Math Specialist program this year thanks to the support of the teachers and the PTA.
Additional goals include, supporting our wonderful music teacher, Kathryn Sur, who will be returning this year. We will continue to fund our fantastic art program with Rebecca Pleasure.
Fundraising will continue to be our most important effort. We feel very lucky in this struggling economy that we reached our annual fund goal last year. Thank you to Lisa Wicklund and Corinne Crabs for all that hard work. This year we have fund raising goals as well. Each year we raise money to pay for efforts the school district doesn’t cover, including: reduced class sizes; enrichment in the form of art, music, writer’s workshop; and this year we’re adding the Math specialist. We have successfully raised the dollars year after year, which proves the commitment of our parent community to McGilvra. This will be an “auction year” and we will also have our annual fund drive. In order to support some of the smallest public school class sizes in the state and continue our enrichment programs in the arts, sciences, and sports, we need to raise more than $250,000 each year. This challenge is a big one, but together we will make it happen.
We have a big agenda so please join with us and get involved. Anything you can do to help no matter how big or how small will be greatly appreciated. We would not be able to accomplish our goals without your support, talents, and participation.
Here’s to yet another great year at McGilvra –
Bob Steedman & Maria Bridge