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Hi Leopold Families. Sorry fro the delay in my weekly email. Here's an update on things going on at Leopold:
Get to Know Our Get to Know Each Other Nights continue next week with Grade 3. We have had a great turnout for these events and we look forward to meeting even more of you in the upcoming weeks. If you have not already RSVPd through the handout or email, please let me know if your family will be attending any of the following: October 1 - Third Grade October 8 - no Get to Know night - come to all-school open house and stop by the cafeteria for ice cream from the PFO! October 15 - Fourth Grade October 22 - Fifth Grade An Apple Affair Flyers have been sent home with all students this week for an exciting upcoming event. The Leopold PFO will hold An Apple Affair - an event to raise money to purchase iPads for Leopold, at Lilliana's restaurant on Monday October 7, from 6-8 pm. This is adults-only event for Leopold families and anyone in our community who would like to enjoy socializing, great food and drink, and exciting raffle prizes. You do need to purchase tickets for An Apple Affair. You can visit the PFO webpage for the event here: http://www.leopoldpfo.org/an-apple-affair.html Harvest Fest Excitement for our first-even Harvest Fest is growing. We are looking forward to many interactive experiences for our families. Classes will participate in pumpkin decorating ahead of the event and Harvest Fest activities will include a pumpkin launch, hay rides, cake walk, face painting, prize drawings, dunk tank, live music, food booths and more. Flyers with more details will be coming home soon, including information on how to purchase wrist bands and donate for the cake walk and grade-level prize baskets. Picture Day School picture day is next Thursday, October 3. Order forms are going home now if you would like to purchase pictures of your child. We need some parent volunteers to help get kids in line and ready for their pictures. This is a fun and easy way to volunteer at Leopold. The online sign up for volunteering can be found here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084AACAE2CA13-picture1/1062747 Upper Grade Academic Events and Celebrations Dates for this year’s important academic events and celebrations have been set. Our Geography Bee is scheduled forDecember 20, at 1:15PM in our cafeteria and will include the top four finishers of each fifth grade classroom competition. Our Spelling Bee will be held on January 16, at 1PM also in our school cafeteria and will include the top four students from each classroom spelling bee competitions in grade five. Fourth and fifth grade student teams for the annual Book Bowl will begin forming just prior to winter break. Students will be responsible for indicating interest in participating on a team. The school Book Bowl events are schedule to take place in mid-March. Our fifth grade Science Fair is scheduled for May 23 at 1:00PM and our fifth grade culmination ceremony will be on June 10 at 1:00PM in our cafeteria. Pick Up, Drop Off, and Parking at Leopold I've had some questions regarding parking and pick up at Leopold. Here is a brochure from the school that explains things. The brochure is posted on our website. http://www.leopoldpfo.org/uploads/1/2/5/5/12555908/leopoldtrafficsafetyplanbrochure20112012.pdf Ongoing Fundraising Efforts Remember all the easy and helpful ways to raise money for Leopold: Target RedCard BoxTops for Education Campbell's Labels for Education Mabel's Labels My Coke Rewards Amazon.com You can find details on these programs here: http://www.leopoldpfo.org/activities-and-fundraisers.html
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Hello Leopold Families. I can hardly believe it's the final week of school. I know that those of us with 5th graders feel like just yesterday was the first day of kindergarten for our kids.
Last Day of School If you did not already mark your calendars, please note that the last day of school, Thursday, June 13, is a FULL DAY. Originally scheduled as an early release, this is make up time for winter snow days and kids will not get out until 2:32. PBS Recognition I am please to share with our families that the Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction has again selected Leopold as a Wisconsin PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) School of Distinction. Leopold was one of 87 schools statewide to be recognized as a School of Distinction for the 2012‐13 school year. Congratulations to our staff for their hard work on this initiative. Summer Garden Help Jennifer Compton, Leopold VISTA, is looking for families to adopt the garden this summer! Ten volunteers are needed to adopt the garden for a week at a time. It can be as little work as watering it a few times during your week and as much fun as taking your family out every day for picnics, weeding, watering, etc. The dates are: 6/17-6/23, 6/24-6/30, 7/1-7/7, 7/8-7/14, 7/15-7/21, 7/22-7/28, 7/29-8/4, 8/5-8/11, 8/12-8/18, 8/19-8/25, 8/26-9/1, 9/1-9/8 (or every week Mon-Sun. starting June 17 and ending Sept. 8.) Jennifer will send a reminder e-mail to families the day before their week starts with a full set of instructions/information. Please contact Jennifer at (608) 204-4334 (o) or [email protected] to sign up! Bake Sale Leopold's UNITY Group will be holding a bake sale on Tuesday, June 11 from 7:20-8:30 am and 12:15-2:45 pm in the Leopold lobby. If you would like to make a donation or volunteer for the bake sale, please contact Billie Johnson at 658-4196 or Myra McNair at 204-4336. Mallards Game If you want to join Leopold families at the Pepsi Tailgate party at the Madison Mallards game on August 10, you can still order tickets. Please fill out the order form and return to school this week or mail with payment to: Leopold PFO Attn: Kris Aman / Madison Mallards 2602 Post Road Madison, WI 53713 If you need a form, please email me and I will send you one. Fundraising Please continue to support our school over the summer months! Remember:
You can find more details on all of these programs here. Summer Communication I do not have plans to send regular communications over the summer. I'm sure you're all ready for a break from me! I will drop those families from our mail list that have only a 5th grader at Leopold, but if you no longer have a student at Leopold and continue to receive my emails, please email me to let me know and I'll remove your address from my list. If you know of any incoming kindergarten families, please send them my way, I'd love to get names added as we can and welcome those new families to Leopold. PFO Board The PFO would like to welcome Sara Dawkins to the Board! Sara will work with Jill in transitioning into the Vice President role. We are so excited to have Sara join us. We are working on transitioning our treasurer position as well, and we will let you know when that is finalized. Our PFO Board has worked very hard this year to do great things for our school. We hope that both families and staff find our efforts beneficial. Just last week we added some new furniture to the school lobby to give it a warmer and more welcoming feel. We welcome any feedback you have and we look forward to another fun year ahead. Thank you! Kris 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 Good evening Leopold Families. It's been a tough weekend to be a parent of elementary school kids. I hope you were all able to squeeze in a few extra minutes with your kiddos this weekend. In the event you have not seen Friday's and Saturday's messages from Principal John Burkholder or Sunday's message from Superintendent Jane Belmore, they are both worth your time to read.
Leopold Staff Treat Day Please consider putting your baking, cooking, or purchasing premade snacks expertise to good use and help our teachers/staff get through the last crazy day before Winter Break. Leopold parent Kristi Buscemi is organizing the annual Winter Staff Treat Day, which will be held on Friday December 21. We would like to ask parents to bring in some special goodies for staff on Friday. Kristi will be at school by 9:00 a.m. on the 21st, you can drop your item off to her then, or send it in with your student. Be sure to label items "staff lounge". If you bring in items before 9 a.m. you can leave them with Jane or Emily in the school office. Some ideas of things to bring: cheese and crackers, salads, dips/chips, cookies/bars, crock pot casseroles, fruit trays, candies. If you are able to help out, please email Kristi with the item you think you'll bring. If you aren't sure yet what you'll bring, no problem, just let me know you're bringing something. [email protected] Also, label any dishes with name and teacher and I'll get it back to you via backpack express. Larger/breakable items can be picked up in the staff lounge. Open Schoolhouse Thursday will be the last Open Schoolhouse of 2012! Come grab a warm winter drink and check out the cookie decorating station. The ZUMBA instructor has a special surprise for all participants. Come anytime from 6-8 pm for a night of cozy family fun! Traffic Safety Please help keep all of our kids safe by obeying the signs and regulations regarding parking and traffic around school. Attached is a brochure that details safety and parking information. Fundraising During our recent BoxTop collection contest, our kids brought in more than 10,000 BoxTops! This is in addition to the 10,000 turned in earlier this year. This is AWESOME!!!! Classes are being totaled and the winners will be announced soon! Keep saving BoxTops for our next contest in the spring. Our Amazon earnings are already at $181 for the year! That is double our earnings from last year. Please continue to enter Amazon.com through the link on www.leopoldpfo.com so we can get credit for whatever you buy! We will also be using our Campbell's and My Coke Rewards points to buy some Giving Tree items for our staff. Giving Tree Speaking of the Giving Tree, remember to check teacher wish lists here. Consider adding to a classroom library for a holiday gift. Thanks everyone. Have a good last week before break, and enjoy the time off. School resumes on January 7. Hello families. Did you miss an email from me last week? A rare occasion - I had nothing to say! Don't worry, I'm going to make up for it.
Timberwolf Trample I know I've mentioned this before, but Leopld's biggest fundraiser for the year, our Timberwolf Trample fun run, is scheduled for Saturday, May 11. We are still in desperate need of organizers for this event. If you're the type that loves big projects, you can take it on in it's entirety, but if you like to help on a smaller scale, we can also organize by committee. We did this for FunFest and it worked quite well. This fundraiser brings in approximately $10,000 for our school so it is very important that we keep it going! You don't have to be a runner, you don't have to be a fundraiser, we can work with you to find the right role if you are willing to help. Please contact me, or anyone on the PFO, if you might be willing to at least consider this really fun, exciting and beneficial opportunity to support your students and staff! Easy Fundraising I'm going to keep hammering home these easy ways to make money for our school because I much prefer these options to having to send our kids out to sell wrapping paper or cookie dough! Many of these are especially helpful during the holidays: 1) BoxTops - keep 'em coming. The deadline for the first class contest is Dec. 4 (Tuesday) but we can take them any time. Send them with your child for their teacher to collect, or bring them to the office. We are on pace for a record-setting year! 2) Target RedCard - A debit or credit card option. No cost to you. You get 5% off all of your purchases, free shipping for online orders, and 1% of your total comes back to Leopold. Last we checked, there were maybe less than 20 families with the card, but we still make $1,500! Imagine the potential!! 3) amazon.com - if you need to order anything on amazon.com - from lotion to toys to books - first go towww.leopoldpfo.org and click on the amazon link right on the home page. Then, just shop as normal throughamazon.com. By entering through our ad, we automatically get a percentage from each purchase. Tell your parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, neighbors, anyone! 4) eBoxtops marketplace - start here for your (non amazon.com) shopping and leopold will get eBoxtops for your purchases. You can start here, go to target.com, get eBoxtops, 5% off, free shipping and 1% back for Leopold. Wow! So easy. 5) Continue to bring in your campbell's labels, pop tabs, and enter points from all coke products atwww.mycokerewards.com, as we use all of those programs as well. On the fundraising note, our election day bake sale was very successful, raising over $400. Thanks to Lisa Shebesta for organizing the sale, and to all of those who baked, volunteered, or bought treats! Our Little Cesars night was less successful than in the past, raising $100. We will work to improve communication so that our spring Little Cesar's night can be more successful. Little Cesars is a great community partner and we thank them for working with us! Giving Tree 'Tis the Season! To show our appreciation to the dedicated Leopold Elementary staff, the PFO is sponsoring a "Giving Tree." We have asked all staff members to share a wish list for their classroom/department. A “giving tree” will soon be put up on the wall opposite the main entrance, or check out www.leopoldpfo.org, to see which wishes you would like to grant. The PFO will be collecting the gifts and presenting them to the staff members on Friday, December 21st. Smaller items can be dropped off at the main office between now and December 20th. Please contact Erin to make arrangements for larger items. Do not wrap your gifts, but be sure to securely attach the recipient's name on the gift. Unless you would like to remain anonymous, include your name as well. Some wishes are time sensitive such as volunteering, custom-made gifts, or back-ordered items. If you are interested in fulfilling a request that will not be available by the 21st, please contact Erin and she will write your contact information in a card to be given to the recipient. Some of the wishes on the list have a hyperlink to show a specific item. These links are not intended to endorse a particular business. Online access to the wish list allows parents, family, and friends an opportunity to participate in the “Giving Tree”. To minimize duplication, once you have decided on an item to give, please contact Erin by e-mail or phone, and she will remove the item from the website and/or Giving Tree. Please direct any questions to: Erin Farrell Adamany Chair, PFO Giving Tree [email protected] (608) 513-9744 Thank you for your generosity! Note: District policy states that teachers cannot accept gifts of commercial value from pupils or parents. However, as a 501(3)(c) organization, the Leopold PFO can accept donations and, in turn, give those gifts to the classroom where they are requested. Gifts become the property of Leopold Elementary, and are marked as such. A receipt is available below for tax purposes, where applicable. Info from Leopold / MMSD Some new information from the district has been posted on the PFO website for easy access: Please visit here to read updated information on the district's policy on severe weather days. Please visit here to read about MSCR Winter 2013 Programs. Please visit here to read about changes to MMSD Summer Enrichment for 2013. That's all for this week. Thank you for your dedication to our school! Hello families! Sorry for the late email this week. I've had a sick one at home with me in need of some extra attention.
Remember, there is no school on Thursday and Friday this week because of Thanksgiving so be thankful for your wonderful kiddos and the extra time together with family. There will also be no open schoolhouse tonight. Attendance Breakfast A Family Breakfast to celebrate getting to school on time, and recognizing how important this is to learning will be held on Tuesday, November 27, at 7 a.m. Come eat breakfast with your child(ren) and join them for the first few minutes in their classroom to see how important it is to be at school on time. Approved Classroom Snack List MMSD has updated their list of Approved Classroom and Program Snacks for 2012-2013. You can see the new listhere. Salad Bars in Schools MMSD has applied for a grant with Lets Move Salad Bars to Schools. The founding partners for this group are National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, Food Family Farming.org, United Fresh Produce Association and Whole Foods. MMSD has applied for 39 salad bar units. If you are interested in donating to this effort, community members can donate to the school of their choice at www.saladbars2schools.org. Community donations can help us to move up on the list of requesting districts. The cost of the 39 units for MMSD is $102,375. PFO Meeting Thank you to everyone who joined us at our last PFO meeting. We had a fun and productive brainstorming session about ideas for our school in an effort to develop a three-year plan and then bring community partners together to make some of these things happen. As the plan is further developed, we will share it with everyone and look for assistance in accomplishing some of our exciting goals! Piano Keyboarding program coming to Leopold Leopold Elementary School will be adding opportunities for electronic piano keyboarding in the 2013-2014 school year thanks to a grant from VH1, additional support from the Foundation for Madison Public Schools, and MMSD. We look forward to adding this opportunity to our educational offerings at Leopold! Please see the following link for additional details. http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=38270 Shop amazon.com for Leopold If you're doing holiday shopping online, don't forget to enter amazon.com through the banner on leopoldpfo.org (on the main page and the fundraising page). All you have to do is enter the site by clicking on the banner, then shop as your normally would, and Leopold gets a portion of each purchase. We're off to a great start! Thanks go everyone who came out to support Leopold at Little Cesar's Night. They are a great community partner and we are fortunate to partner with them for fundraising opportunities. Have a great Thanksgiving. Kris Hello Leopold Families. It's a short but busy week at school. Enjoy some news from the PFO!
School Report Cards The State of Wisconsin has released School Report Cards for all public schools in our state. Please see below for a detailed explanation of Leopold's report card from principal John Burkholder. You can view the report here. PFO Movie Night at Open Schoolhouse As always, Open Schoolhouse is happening Tuesday night from 6-8 p.m. This Tuesday at Open Schoolhouse, the PFO is sponsoring Movie Night! The Muppets will be showing. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the movie will begin at 6:15. All kids need to be supervised by an adult and everyone is expected to keep noise to a minimum so all can hear the show. Popcorn will be served between 6:10 and 6:45. Check in at the front table when you arrive at Open Schoolhouse. Unity Fall Festival The Unity Fall Festival will be held Wednesday night in the cafeteria. No School There is no school this Thursday and Friday due to staff professional development. Election Day Bake Sale Tuesday, November 6, is election day. Leopold is a polling place and we will have many neighborhood visitors coming to vote at our school. The PFO will be holding an Election Day Bake Sale in the lobby. Baked goods of all kinds can be taken to school on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Individual and small quantity items are the best sellers – early voters can grab a muffin or donut on their way to work and noon-time voters take sweet treats back to their co-workers. Homemade (or bakery) baked goods are appreciated. A Sign-Up Genius email will soon go out to those who expressed interest in helping with the bake sale. Raise Money for Leopold When You Shop If you are ordering anything from Amazon in the days and weeks ahead, be sure to enter amazon.com by going to the "Activities and Fundraisers" page on the PFO website (http://www.leopoldpfo.org/activities-and-fundraisers.html) and clicking on the Amazon banner. Leopold earns money for each purchase made when shoppers enter Amazon through the link on our page (no other action needed!). In addition, on that same page of the PFO website, you will also find a link to the eBoxTops marketplace where there are links to hundreds of popular stores. Entering those online stores through the eBoxTops website will automatically earn Leopold BoxTops for each purchase made. You can bookmark the site here http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/marketplace/BrowseStores.aspx?WT.ac=Mktplce_HC_SeeAllStores. Just think - you can shop at Target by entering through the BoxTops Marketplace, then using your Target RedCard to make your purchases, thus earning eBox Tops and Target RedCard points for our school! Message from Principal John Burkholder regarding School Report Cards Today, the State of Wisconsin released School Report Cards for all public schools in the state. I suspect that these scores will result in a great deal of conversation in our community and in our State. This new ranking system, like many measures over the past several years, is but a single measure used to gauge the success of all schools. The ranking is required as the State complies with requirements within its waiver request for relief under the No Child Left Behind law. So how does the new School Report Card look for Leopold? Our Overall Score on the report card is 70.0, a score that places us in the Meets Expectations range. When considering the scores of all 47 MMSD schools, the score of 70.0 places Leopold 21st, or in the upper half of all district schools. Beyond the overall score, several sub scores are also given. In the area of Student Achievement, our school score is 53, and is the area where we appear to lag other district schools the most. Our Student Achievement ranking is 33rd out of 47 schools. Nevertheless, our achievement appears to be headed in the right direction as I am pleased to report that our Student Growth Score was 78, or 7th when compared to 40 other district schools (seven schools aren't scored in this area). To me, the Student Growth score gives credit to all the outstanding work that is and has been going on in classrooms and with our students! In addition, two other sub scores were given on the report card: Closing Gaps and Post Secondary Readiness. On the Closing Gaps measure, Leopold scored 63.6, or 19th out of 44 MMSD schools. While I know we can do better to close existing achievement gaps, I am pleased that our first score puts us above the mid-point in MMSD. Our Post Secondary Readiness score placed us at 34th among the 47 MMSD schools, a ranking that I suspect was influenced by our Student Achievement score. There are some other factors that can negatively impact our overall score and pertain to attendance, test participation rates, and drop outs, but Leopold, like the vast majority of schools in MMSD did not lose any points on these factors. I think that overall these new School Report Card scores are positive for Leopold. We still have much work to do, but we are clearly making progress. Please know that the entire Leopold staff is working extremely hard to meet the needs of all students. We are constantly evolving as a school, working to identify ways to increase the learning of all students, including those we have identified as being behind, those we see as on the expected course to success, and those who are achieving at a level beyond what is projected at any given grade level. We thank you for your support of your child, our students, and our school. If you have questions about Leopold Elementary, please feel free to contact our main office. Sincerely, John Burkholder Principal Thanks everyone. Have a great week! |
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