Hello families. I hope everyone had a great spring break, even though it wasn't very spring like for those of us who stayed in Madison. But, as the weather warms up, we can all look forward to the May 11 Timber Wolf Trample!
Timber Wolf Trample Update
Registration Forms are coming home Friday. The forms include a section for kids to collect donations from friends and family and earn prizes, register for the race, and a waiver for participation. If you need to download the form, you can find it here in English and Spanish.

In the coming weeks, we will have Spirit Week, a Trample pep rally, and other fun activities leading up to the big event.

Lunch Buddies
Our Leopold counseling staff is looking for some adult volunteers to be lunch buddies for some special students. Lunch Buddies is a program designed to give select students social and emotional support, and provide these kids with more positive role models. Adult volunteers spend lunch and recess with their student buddies once a week. Volunteers can choose any of the three lunch periods (11- 11:40, 11:40- 12:20, 12:20-1) and are assigned a buddy based on recommendations from our school social workers.  Of course, parents are also asked first to give an ok.  Kids love the chance to show off their school and friends to special adults.  For recess, they can choose to go outside, or stay in and read or do a special activity with their buddy. For forty minutes once a week, the amount that students appreciate this extra attention is incredible. Being a lunch buddy is a great way to get more involved in Leopold, meet staff and students, learn about the school day, and grow a positive connection with kids that can really influence what they think of themselves and their school. Here is what one of our adult lunch buddies said about his experience:


"I can sum up the Lunch Buddy program in one word: powerful. What started out as him barely making eye-contact with me has transformed into his eyes lighting up every time he sees me coming down the hall, and eager hopes that I’m coming back next week. The Lunch Buddy program provides an easy access point to invest time and words of affirmation into the next generation of leaders, and I am confident the seeds planted today will bare awesome fruit tomorrow. It has become a highlight of my week, and I give it my highest recommendation!"
~Josh

Private School Vouchers in the Madison Metropolitan School District
The PFO Board and the MMSD School Board are hoping to enlist your help in our advocacy efforts regarding the governor's recent budget proposal.  In the budget proposal, the implementation of private school vouchers in Madison, coupled with money targeted toward independent charter schools and NO increase in funding from the state will be financially devastating to our school district.

Information is linked.  https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/node/10455

We need your help to advocate for 3 things:

1.   Remove the voucher and independent charter school expansion from the budget

2.   Require accountability

3.   Restore funding to public education

On the second page of the linked document, there are ways to contact the legislature.  In addition to contacting our Madison legislators, please also spread the word to any family and friends you have in other areas of the state.  All legislators must hear from their constituents on how negative this budget is for public education.

Please share this information with your parent groups.  If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact the Board at board@madison.k12.wi.us   

A Message for Parents of 5th Graders from the Cherokee PTO 
I'm Co President at Cherokee MS PTO and we are in the process of finding great parents from Thoreau and Leopold that have kids moving to 6th grade. We have openings on the PTO Board and lots of volunteer opportunities (dances, magazine sales, ultra zone nights, etc….). I would love to make personal connections with incoming 6th grade parents that might be interested! We also have an opening for VP!

If you are interested, please contact Beth Dohrn at edohrn@gmail.com.

Get Fit In Fitchburg

Please see the attached flyer regarding the upcoming Get Fit in Fitchburg event at Leopold Elementary.

Thanks everyone. Have a great weekend!

Hello Leopold Families!  Lots of news to bring you this Thursday night!

Important Dates
The 4K registration for MMSD residents is February 04, 2013 from 1:00-6:00 PM at all MMSD elementary schools except Lincoln, Randall and Marquette. Although Leopold is not a 4K site for next fall, students in our attendance area can register at our school for the program. I will post the full announcement for this on the PFO blog.

If you have an incoming kindergarten student (like me!), kindergarten registration is March 4, 2013 from 1:00-6:00 PM. Please share this information with friends and neighbors. If you know someone who would like more information about Leopold, or to take a tour of our school, please have them call the school office at 204-4240. 

On March 12, 2013 Leopold will hold a meeting for all incoming kindergarten parents at 6 p.m. This will be an informational meeting to learn more about our school and the kindergarten options available (dual immersion, traditional classrooms, etc.).

If you have a 5th grader headed to middle school next year, please join us on February 12 at 7 p.m. in the library, for a middle school informational night. Principals from Cherokee and Wright middle schools, as well as our COPS officer, teachers and a parent panel will all present.

There is no school next Monday, January 21 in honor of MLK day.

Report cards are scheduled to come out on February 1.

Book Fair
Leopold’s annual book fair will be open from Monday, January 28 - Thursday, January 31. We are looking for parent volunteers to help at the book fair. Volunteers help students identify books they like, and when open to families, help shoppers find books and check out. This is a fun and easy way to get involved at our school and there are shifts available at all times of the day. Please follow the link to sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-2013

Leopold Night at Qdoba
Qdoba Mexican Grill, located at 5401 Caddis Bend Road in Fitchburg, will host a fundraising night for the Leoopld PFO this Tuesday, January 22, from 5-9 p.m. For this fundraiser, you MUST bring a small flyer in to show you are from Leopold (saying you're from Leopold isn’t enough!). The brightly colored flyer will go home with students next Monday or Tuesday, and is also attached to this email and will be posted on the website. If you don't get one home from school, or want to give one to friends and neighbors, feel free to print on out yourself. We will try to have extras available wherever we can but we are prohibited from handing them out at the door.

Box Tops and Fundraising
Our wonderful BoxTop cutting extraordinaire, Jessica, submitted 11,554 box tops last time around (this is UP from previous reports!). Another collection is underway, with BoxTops due March 8. Congratulations to Mr. Langer's 5th grade class on their extraordinary collection last time around with 1,356 BoxTops collected!

As a reminder, you can also visit the BoxTops marketplace (http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/marketplace/Default.aspx) to earn eBoxtops when you shop online.

Another way to collect BoxTops is to visit http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/clip/Projects.aspx for ideas on how to make a collection container to put in your office break room, church lobby, grandma’s senior center, or other place where others can stick their box tops for us!

Please remember to apply for a Target RedCard, either credit or debit, to support our school; shop through the amazon.comlink on our PFO website; collect My Coke Rewards points and donate them to our school; and keep turning in Campbell’s labels and pop tabs. All of these are easy ways to use what we do anyway to easily earn money for our school!

Timberwolf Trample
Planning is underway for the 8th Annual Timberwolf Trample, which will be held on May 11, this year. We are still in need of many volunteers. As the time gets closer, you will be contacted for specific tasks, but if you are interested in helping with the planning or the fundraising, we very much could still use the assistance. Our PFO meeting this week generated some great new ideas, so the more fresh ideas we an bring to this event, the better it will be! We have some fun changes in store for this year’s Trample to both increase involvement and simplify the day.

New this year - we will be holding a student design contest for our Trample t-shirt. All students are welcome to participate! We are finalizing details now, and we will get everyone involved in the fun of designing this year’s tee. Watch for more details to come.

Thanks everyone.
Kris

Welcome back, Leopold families, from an extended winter break. After 18 days away from school, it's definitely time to get back to routine!

Timberwolf Trample Key Roles
In the next week or so, you will see a flyer come home with your student asking all parents to consider volunteering for one of two key positions for our Timberwolf Trample fundraiser. We are very much in need of an overall event chair and a fundraising chair. These two important roles are needed so that we can begin work on this wonderful annual event. The event normally generates around $10,000 for our school, so without it, we will definitely feel the pinch!

Grade Level Grants
Speaking of fundraising, if you've ever wondered how the PFO spends some of our money, a key expenditure in our budget is our annual Grade Level Grants to teachers. This year, each grade was given $1,000 to purchase items of their choice. Sometimes items are purchased for an entire grade, and sometimes teachers choose to divide up the money for individual classroom needs. We are currently in the process of purchasing the items from teacher lists, and working with the school to purchase some of the requests for classroom supplies that came through on our list. This year, the PFO went through the many books teachers requested, compared prices from various online stores, and saved about $150 ordering many of the books through amazon.com (plus we get back a percentage of the sales through our online ad!). We want you to know we spend the PFO's money wisely and do what we can to get great resources in each classroom!

School Directory
Our school directory is now complete, and for the first time it is posted online, on a password-protected page. You can visit www.leopoldpfo.org and click on "Leopold Elementary School Directory" and then enter the password: 2602PostRoad (note the caps and no spaces). This will allow you to access the directory from wherever you are, and will saves the PFO significant printing costs.

Middle School Transition Meeting
If you are the parent of a current 5th grader, mark your calendar for Tuesday, February 12, at 7 p.m. We will be hosting Cherokee principal, Dave Watkins and James C. Wright principal Angie Crawford, who will each give an overview of their schools. COPS officer Tom Gross from the Madison Police Department, as well as a parent panel, will be available for questions you have as we prepare for this important transition.

Thanks everyone. Have a great week back!