Briarwood Newsletter

Transcription

1 Briarwood Newsletter Briarwood Family Newsletter briarwoodpta.org February 21, 2018 Message from Mr. Lash Student Transfers Briarwood is closed to transfers for the school year due to high enrollment. If you currently have a child at Briarwood on transfer and have an incoming kindergarten student you may apply for a transfer, but will need to call the office. However, this does not guarantee that the transfer will be approved. Sixth grade students wanting to transfer to a middle school other than the school in their home attendance area must complete an online transfer. Students must complete a transfer request when moving from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school. K-5 students who are currently attending Briarwood on an approved transfer should NOT submit another transfer request for Elementary students do not need to reapply annually. All transfer applications are submitted electronically from the district webpage. The online application opens March 1 at 8:00 am and closes April 30 at 5:00 pm. No allowance is made for transportation to/from school for transfer students. The students family must provide transportation. Barring unforeseen circumstances, transfer decisions will be communicated to parents by the District office no later than June 15. For more information about the transfer guidelines click on the link below. o Important Upcoming Dates Sat. Feb. 24: Trivia Night Mon. Feb Fri. March 2: Read-a-thon Fri. March 9-Fri. March 16: Spring Break No School Mon. March 19: School Resumes Fri. March 30: Professional Learning Day No School Mon. April 2: No School Thurs. April 5: Skate Party 4-6 pm Transferencias para estudiantes Briarwood está cerrado para hacer transferencias para el año escolar debido a la alta demanda de inscripciones. Si tu hijo tiene actualmente una transfererecia para Briarwood y tienes un hijo empezando kindergarten, puedes aplicar para una transferencia, pero necesitas hablar a la oficina. Esto no quiere decir que tu transferencia puede ser garantizada y aprobada. Los estudiantes de 6to grado que quieren hacer una transferencia a una escuela intermedia que no corresponda a su área donde vive tiene que completar una transferencia en línea. Los estudiantes deben de completar el transfer requerido cuando se cambien de escuela elementar a escuela media y de escuela media a escuela secundaria. K 5 to los estudiantes que están actualmente en Briarwood en una transferencia aprobada NO deberán someter otro transfer de Estudiantes de escuela elementar no necesitan aplicar anualmente. Todas las aplicaciones de transferencia tienen que ser sometidas en línea en la página web del distrito. La aplicación en línea se abre el 1ero de marzo a las 8:00am y cierra abril 20 a las 5:00pm No hay permiso o ley para transportación de/para la escuela. Tiene que ser proveído por la familia del estudiante.

2 Excepto para Imprevistas situaciones, Las decisiones de transferencia van a ser comunicadas a los padres por la oficina del distrito a no más tardar del día 15 de Junio. Como recordatorio, SMSD no aceptara cualquier NUEVA solicitud de transferencia fuera del distrito hasta que el estudiante: Tenga un hermano en el edificio como un estudiante de transferencia aprobado no garantiza que será aprobado para todos los estudiantes con la misma familia. Esto aplica para las ambas peticiones en distrito y fuera de distrito. Para más información acerca de la guía de transferencias dale clic a la siguiente línea. BULLDOGS ALL DOGS (AND CATS TOO!) This year, the Student Council community service project for winter will be collecting for the KC Pet Project and Lucky 13 Rescue. These are no-kill shelters that provide care for animals in the KC area. They are in need of donations. Some of the items they are in need of are listed on this page that I will leave with your class. (read some of the list) In the spirit of Valentine s Day, let s all work together to help KC Pet Project and Lucky 13 Rescue. Bring your donations to your class starting Monday. Let s see how many items we can donate from our Bulldog community to make other dogs (and cats) happy. This drive ends Friday, February 23 rd. There will be boxes across from the front door. When you bring in supplies for the animals put them neatly in the boxes across from the front door. Wish List Dog food dry and wet Puppy food dry and wet Cat food dry Treats dogs and cats Rawhides Pig Ears Collars with metal buckle $$$ for Spay and Neuter Program Toys no toys with beans or beanie babies Metal dog and cat bowls De-wormer Frontline/Advantage Products The chart below shows just how much Briarwood could earn! Parent Grade-level Parties: A Success! Thank you to all parents and hosts for successful grade level parties! Our fourth grade party on February 10 th raised over $2500! Thank you to our hosts Tracey and Rich Meyer, Sara and Ross Reda, and Denee and Brian Compton! And a big shout out to all our parents and hosts for raising over $15,500 for our school! Thank you for all your support for our students and PTA!

3 Briarwood Read-A-Thon: February 26 - March 2 Watch your for further details about a new Briarwood PTA fundraiser! The Briarwood Read-A-Thon will take place Monday, February 26th - Friday, March 2nd, the same time as Read Across America week. There are no minutes to track or books to tally - we are asking students to fundraise from friends and family to support an All-School Read-In and Pajama Day on Friday, March 2nd. Need a little extra motivation? Let's talk prizes! The student who raises the most money will win a Kindle e-reader! The winning classrooms AND teachers will also receive a prize! Every student who fundraises will be entered in raffle for more fun prizes - books, Briarwood spirit gear and more! Questions? Contact Molly Lund: mollylund@gmail.com Progressive Dinner is April 21st! Mark your calendars for the evening of April 21 it s Progressive Dinner Time! This annual fundraising event is a long-time Briarwood tradition, and a favorite evening among many. For those who have not participated, it s a fun way to meet and mingle with new and old friends: To kick off the evening, from 6-7:30pm, Briarwood parents convene at one of two designated homes for appetizers. (Ahead of the event, everyone will receive an invitation to their assigned appetizer house.) At the appetizer house, everyone will receive their dinner house assignments, which are assigned randomly by event organizers. At 7:30pm, everyone heads to one of 15 dinner houses for a great meal. After dinner, time to head to the dessert house for sweet treats and more fun. Cost to participate is $50 per person. Planning is underway now, and we are working to line up appetizer and dinner hosts for the evening s events. Please consider hosting - if you are not sure you want to host by yourself, grab another Briarwood couple and co-host. Questions? Mary Boomer (maryseltzerboomer@gmail.com) and Stacy Terril (theterrils@gmail.com) today! Be on the lookout for more about the Progressive Dinner, including sign-up info. Thanks!

4 Legislative Update Late last year, the Kansas Supreme Court issued its long awaited decision in the Gannon school funding litigation. It ruled once again that the state s school funding formula is unconstitutional in terms of adequacy and equity. Both the state and the plaintiffs supported the main provisions of the new formula adopted by the legislature at the end of the last session. The issues came down to several provisions that had the potential to affect equity and concern that funding levels were too low to ensure adequacy. The court did not order a specific amount of funding for schools, but said that the state did not meet its burden of showing that the amount it set was reasonably calculated to have all Kansas children achieve the state s standards. Notably, the court rejected the state s Successful Schools Model which had essentially used the average funding levels of 41 districts that performed better than expected based upon their demographics. The court noted, "Simply put, merely performing better than expected while perhaps a test for efficiency is not our Kansas test for constitutional adequacy. The court gave the legislature until April 30, 2018 to remedy the identified flaws and promised to rule upon the new plan s constitutionality by June 30. In response, the legislature formed the Special Committee on a Comprehensive Response to the School Finance Decision. They held three days of meetings in December which included briefings for the committee members on the history of the Gannon court case and current and projected budget issues for the state as it grapples with finding additional funding for schools which will likely be required by the Kansas Supreme Court. One possibility the committee discussed was pursuing a constitutional amendment which might remove or lesson the State s constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education. This would likely limit the court s ability to rule on school finance. While some legislators appear to support a constitutional amendment, passage would be difficult as it would require a 2/3 majority in both the House and Senate and then a simple majority of the public. The Kansas PTA Legislative Platform states, Kansas PTA will support efforts to preserve the Kansas Constitutional infrastructure for education. Last week, however, Secretary of State Kris Kobach s office began researching the financial and logistical issues related to holding a public election in April on amending the Kansas Constitution. The 2018 legislative session began January 8th. Please stay informed over the next few months as the primary issue this session will be how to fund our public schools. Earn Money for Briarwood While You Shop on Amazon Earn Money for Briarwood While You Shop on Amazon Go to and designate Briarwood as your charitable organization. Briarwood will earn.5%

5 Send Box Tops: Help Raise Money for Briarwood! Look for the Box Tops logo on your favorite products! Cut out the box tops and send them to school with your child. Briarwood earns money for each box top collected. The more we collect, the more we earn! All those Box Tops really add up. The chart below shows just how much Briarwood could earn!

6 Notes from the Nurse

7 PTA Executive Committee Co-Presidents: o Nancy Batdorf nbatdorf@gmail.com o Allison Taylor buckletaylor@yahoo.com Co-President Elect: o Erika Saleski esaleski@comcast.net VP Administration: o Kara Petrovic petrovickl10@gmail.com VP Community Service o Jill Rogers jillcrogers2002@yahoo.com VP Education/Cultural Arts: o Michelle Ingram mich_ingram1@hotmail.com VP Finance: o Amy Winter awinterkc@gmail.com VP Funding: o Brenda Manteufel bren723@yahoo.com Secretary/Corresponding Secretary: o Jenna Joplin jennajoplin@hotmail.com Treasurer: o Humaira Mirza humairaamirza@gmail.com Briarwood Foundation: o Heather Kimmel hkimmel1@me.com Public Relations: o Chelsea Hilton Chelsea.hilton@gmail.com Get Social with Briarwood Stay up on the latest Bulldog updates via social media! BriarwoodBulldogs Check us out on Instagram at Like us on Facebook at Briarwood Elementary Bulldogs BriarwoodElem Follow us on Twitter at