Flynn PTO Blog Post 9-28-14

Greetings Flynn Families!

UPCOMING DATES 

October 2- PTO meeting- 6:30-8:00 pm Learning Center- Free childcare and pasta dinner!
October 8- Walk or Bike to School Day
October 15- Early Release (11:30 dismissal)
October 16 & 17- No School- Conferences
October 22- Principal's Coffee- 8:30 am Learning Center
October 28- Book Fair and Pasta Dinner- 5:00-7:00 pm
October 31- Annual Birchwood Halloween Parade- 1:30 pm

We Need Your Feedback!
We have a new tool to help PTO gather constructive feedback from families on events and activities.  If you have specific feedback or suggestions, for example, on Open House or another event you attended, please take a moment to fill out this quick feedback form. Your input is valuable!  

PTO Meeting
The second PTO meeting of the year will be held this Thursday, October 2 from 6:30-8:00 pm in the Learning Center.  Free childcare and pasta dinner are provided!  Everyone welcome!  Click HERE to view the Agenda

Pictures
Picture retakes will be scheduled soon- please stand by!  If you were absent and have already paid, you do not need to bring in another form.  If you were absent and have NOT paid, please bring your form and check in on the retake day (extra forms can be found in the office)  

Walk or Bike to School Day
Our school is participating in Walk or Bike to School day on October 8, 2014- this is a national initiative to celebrate the benefits of walking and bicycling.  Join the fun! If interested in volunteering please contact Heather A Simmons at heathers@lundvt.org or 324-0939

Room Parents
We are still in need of room parents in the following classes:  Hodgson, Cronin, Lessard, Brown and D'Agostino.  If you have friends with children in those classes, please urge them to step up and volunteer! If you signed up at Open House, we will be contacting you soon! If interested, please email Sarah DeShaw or Heather Simmons to be notified about the Room Parent Orientation Meeting (to be scheduled soon!)

Fundraising
This just in....The Meadowfarm fundraiser brought in over $3,000!  Thanks to all who participated!  Didn’t buy wrapping paper?  Don’t want to have to sell anything? Don’t worry!  There is still an opportunity to support Flynn with the Pay It Forward fundraiser- write a check (to Flynn School PTO) and send it in to the office! We are almost to $750! Help us reach our goal of over a $1000!

Have you been to the Lost and Found already this year?  A good indication that your child's clothes need labels!  Help reduce the pile of Lost & Found items at Flynn School!  Order all kinds of labels through Mabel's Labels and a portion of each sale will go directly to Flynn School PTO: 

https://www.mabelsfundraising.com/f/33919

STEM
STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.   Students will meet with Courtney Asaro, STEM teacher at JJ Flynn, once a week for 45 minutes.  Please take a moment to check out her STEM blog to see what students have been up to!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
There was lots of activity at the volunteer sign-up clipboards at Open House. These will be up through October conferences- in the meantime- here are some of the important upcoming events that need volunteers.  PLEASE HELP!  

Book Fair

The Library staff is looking for volunteers:

Tuesday night, Oct 28th

4:00-5:00 p.m. setup

5:00-7:00 p.m. running the fair

7:00-7:30 p.m. pack up

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/homepage.do?method=homepage&url=jjflynn

Email Corey Wallace at cwallace@bsdvt.org or Cara Clopton at cclopton@bsdvt.org if you can help!

Pasta Dinner (@ the Book Fair)
A few volunteers are still needed for the following spots:

Tuesday night, Oct 28th

Before the event: Pasta Cookers (cook the pasta at your home and bring it to the event)
4:00-5:00 p.m. setup
5:00-6:00 p.m. dinner help (shift 1)
6:00-7:00 p.m. dinner help (shift 2)
6:30-7:30 p.m. clean-up

Email Janet Green at Janetsaragreen@gmail.com if you can help!  (If you signed up at Open House someone will be contacting you soon!)

Flynn PTO Blog Post - 9-21-14

Greetings!

 

There is some repeated information in this week's post due to the fact I sent out the previous week's link in our notification email last week.  It's all still relevant and includes info regarding fund-raising, kids' sporting opportunities and upcoming events.  Take a look and see if anything interests you. - Thanks!

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Box Tops for Education

This year, our school will again be participating in the Box Tops for Education™ program. Clipping Box Tops is an easy way for you to help our school buy what it needs. Box Tops are each worth 10¢ and they quickly add up to real cash for our school.

To help our school, just look for pink Box Tops on products, clip them, and send them to school. For more information on the Box Tops for Education program, including a list of participating products and our school’s progress, visit www.BTFE.com. Be sure to become a member by signing up/logging in to receive exclusive coupons and recipes and learn about extra ways for our school to earn.

We will also participate in Labels for Education.   Information can be found about participating products on LabelsforEducation.com ~basically, the campbells' soup labels and pepperidge farm goldfish are the most popular items that carry them, but many other products carry labels for education.  They are UPC labels that you can send in and then in turn exchange for supplies for the school.  We currently have around 5,000 points so we are trying to increase that amount.

Hannaford Helps Schools is a program where if you buy a certain number of products you earn a coupon worth cash for our school.  Our school is enrolled at the North Avenue Hannaford and you can drop your slips into the tower in the front of the store near the exit. 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at denihaggerty@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Denise Haggerty

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In other fund-raising news...

Mabel's Labels Fund-raiser:  Help reduce the pile of Lost & Found items at Flynn School!  Order all kinds of labels for your child's clothing and a portion of each sale will go directly to Flynn School PTO.  Our goal is to raise $400 from now until Halloween.  Check it out...

https://www.mabelsfundraising.com/f/33919

Thanks for your support and don't forget to share the campaign with all of your friends and family!

Flynn School Fundraising Team

The Meadow Farms fundraiser is ending this MONDAY!  Please make sure to get your orders in to the office- this is an important fundraiser for our school!  If you have any questions, please contact Happy Vail (whvail@comcast.net)

The PTO Pay It Forward fund-raiser has already raised $476!  Our goal is to raise over $1000.  There is a donation collection box on the table in the office- remember it’s not WHAT you give, its THAT you give!  Every little amounts helps!

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Open House

It was great to see so many wonderful families filling the halls at school!  Hopefully everyone had a chance to check out the PTO bulletin boards showing all the fun things that Flynn does and the clipboards with volunteer sign-ups.  In case you missed them, they are located next to the office in the 3/4/5 wing and in the hallway leading towards the Learning Center.  These will be up for the next few weeks so please take a moment to look at them and consider donating a little of your time to help make our school even more special for Flynn students!  Stay tuned for more opportunities to get involved!  Thanks so much for those of you who have already signed up to help!

Pictures

Everyone looked lovely on Wednesday for our picture day!  Thank you to Tammy Kuypers, Happy Vail and Sarah DeShaw for volunteering to help out with Picture Day.  You have until Monday to send in your order forms and checks.  Retake day has not yet been scheduled so stay tuned!

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From the Burlington School District...

Burlington Girls Mini Metro Basketball *Tryouts*

Grades 5th and 6th
Sept. 30 & Oct. 2
7 pm – 9 pm

Grades 7th / 8th
Sept. 23 & Sept. 25
7 pm – 9 pm

@ Burlington High School

For more information contact Coach Chris Johnson / 233-6967

Visit our website: www.vermontbreeze.com/minimetro

Each player is encouraged to bring their own basketball.

Mini-Metro is a competitive basketball league with teams from high school districts including Burlington, CVU,

Colchester, St. Albans, Milton, Essex, Mount Mansfield, Missisquoi Valley, Montpelier, Lamoille, and S. Burlington.

The dissemination of this material is intended to be of community service. Burlington School District does not endorse or sponsor this organization.

Burlington Amateur Hockey!Visit us at: www.bahabobcats.com for more information

OPEN HOUSE & REGISTRATION

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2014

10:00am – 12:00pm

LEDDY PARK ARENA

Kids 3+ and their parents are invited to skate with or just talk to current players, coaches & parents as well as BAHA alum from CHS, BHS, and RICE MEMORIAL. Meet members of the UVM club team and the VT Lumberjacks too!

Learn all about BAHA’s youth hockey programs and how rewarding youth hockey can be for players and parents alike!!!


FIRST TIME INITIATION SKATERS AGE 8 AND

PAY ONLY $75 FOR THE SEASON!!!

**REGISTER AT THE OPEN HOUSE FOR THIS UNDER SPECIAL RATE**

The dissemination of this material is intended to be of community service. BSD, CSD, and WSD do not endorse or sponsor this organization.

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Upcoming dates:

October 2      PTO meeting: 6:30-8:00 pm Learning Center- Free dinner and  
                      childcare

October 8      Walk or Bike to School Day

October 28    Book Fair and Pasta Dinner

Please check the school website for updates and other school information - http://flynn.bsd.schoolfusion.us/ 

Flynn PTO Blog Post - 9-15-14

Hello parents/guardians,

This year, our school will again be participating in the Box Tops for Education™ program. Clipping Box Tops is an easy way for you to help our school buy what it needs. Box Tops are each worth 10¢ and they quickly add up to real cash for our school.

To help our school, just look for pink Box Tops on products, clip them, and send them to school. For more information on the Box Tops for Education program, including a list of participating products and our school’s progress, visit www.BTFE.com. Be sure to become a member by signing up/logging in to receive exclusive coupons and recipes and learn about extra ways for our school to earn.

We will also participate in Labels for Education.   Information can be found about participating products on LabelsforEducation.com ~basically, the campbells' soup labels and pepperidge farm goldfish are the most popular items that carry them, but many other products carry labels for education.  They are UPC labels that you can send in and then in turn exchange for supplies for the school.  We currently have around 5,000 points so we are trying to increase that amount.

Hannaford Helps Schools is a program where if you buy a certain number of products you earn a coupon worth cash for our school.  Our school is enrolled at the North Avenue Hannaford and you can drop your slips into the tower in the front of the store near the exit.  

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at denihaggerty@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Denise Haggerty

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In other news...

Mabel's Labels Fund-raiser:  Help reduce the pile of Lost & Found items at Flynn School!  Order all kinds of labels for your child's clothing and a portion of each sale will go directly to Flynn School PTO.  Our goal is to raise $400 from now until Halloween.  Check it out...

https://www.mabelsfundraising.com/f/33919

Thanks for your support and don't forget to share the campaign with all of your friends and family!

Flynn School Fundraising Team

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From the Burlington School District...

Burlington Girls Mini Metro Basketball *Tryouts*

Grades 5th and 6th
Sept. 30 & Oct. 2
7 pm – 9 pm

Grades 7th / 8th
Sept. 23 & Sept. 25
7 pm – 9 pm

@ Burlington High School

For more information contact Coach Chris Johnson / 233-6967

Visit our website: www.vermontbreeze.com/minimetro

Each player is encouraged to bring their own basketball.

Mini-Metro is a competitive basketball league with teams from high school districts including Burlington, CVU,

Colchester, St. Albans, Milton, Essex, Mount Mansfield, Missisquoi Valley, Montpelier, Lamoille, and S. Burlington.

The dissemination of this material is intended to be of community service. Burlington School District does not endorse or sponsor this organization.


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Upcoming dates:

Wednesday, Sept. 17th - Picture Day AND the Flynn School Open House will be hosted from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Thursday, October 2nd - Flynn PTO Meeting at 6:30 in the library.

Please check the school website for updates and other school information - http://flynn.bsd.schoolfusion.us/ 

Flynn PTO Blog Post 9-7-14

Greetings Flynn PTO Members!

A final reminder for the initial school play meeting on
Tuesday Sept. 9:

If you have a child in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade interested in the play come Tuesday, September 9 at 7pm in the library to the Parent Play Informational Meeting!  Flynn School, in collaboration with Very Merry Theatre, is once again putting on another wonderful play performance! We will be doing The Marvelous Land of Oz! this year, different from past years, the performance is happening in the fall, in November. So join us, your co-production managers, Kim Hunt and Tammy Kuypers, and director, Don Wright, to learn more about Marvelous.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Last Thursday we had our first PTO meeting of the year.  Meetings are held throughout the year on the first Thursday of every month.  Please join us - we need more volunteers and greater involvement.

Minutes from the last meeting can be found here.  The current adopted budget can be found here. 

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In other news...

Mabel's Labels Fund-raiser:  Help reduce the pile of Lost & Found items at Flynn School!  Order all kinds of labels for your child's clothing and a portion of each sale will go directly to Flynn School PTO.  Our goal is to raise $400 from now until Halloween.  Check it out...

https://www.mabelsfundraising.com/f/33919

Thanks for your support and don't forget to share the campaign with all of your friends and family!

Flynn School Fundraising Team

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Finally, this announcement was forwarded to the PTO ...

 

CITY OF BURLINGTON LAUNCHES OPEN STREETS BTV

First annual event to take place in the Old North End neighborhood this fall

The City of Burlington announces a new initiative called Open Streets BTV, presented by Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin (VHB), Inc., in partnership with Local Motion, the Vermont Department of Health, and the Burlington Walk/Bike Council. Open Streets BTV is a celebration of one of the city’s largest public spaces ­­ our streets!

Open Streets BTV will kick off with its first event on September 21, 2014 between 9:00 AM and 2:00PM. Come and celebrate the vibrant and eclectic Old North End, a neighborhood with community spirit, artists, remodeled parks, tree­lined streets, and successful magnet schools. Organizers hope to hold events in different neighborhoods throughout the city on an annual basis.

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Upcoming dates:

Thursday, Sept. 11 - Principal's Coffee will be hosted from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 17th - Picture Day AND the Flynn School Open House will be hosted from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Thursday, October 2nd - Flynn PTO Meeting at 6:30 in the library.

Please check the school website for updates and other school information - http://flynn.bsd.schoolfusion.us/

Flynn PTO Blog Post 9-1-14

Welcome Back to Flynn!

Just a few quick items to start the year.  First is in regards to the school play this fall.  Second is an update on the scheduled PTO meeting Thursday.

From Kim Hunt and Tammy Kuypers to Flynn families:

If you have a child in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade interested in the play come Tuesday, September 9 at 7pm in the library to the Parent Play Informational Meeting!  Flynn School, in collaboration with Very Merry Theatre, is once again putting on another wonderful play performance! We will be doing The Marvelous Land of Oz! this year, different from past years, the performance is happening in the fall, in November. So join us, your co-production managers, Kim Hunt and Tammy Kuypers, and director, Don Wright, to learn more about Marvelous.  Look forward to seeing you there.

On Thursday we will have our first PTO meeting of the year at 6:30 in the school library. We will elect this year's officers, discuss by-law amendments, and attend to other beginning of the year business. All are invited and there will be pizza!

Other dates:

Sept. 11 - Principal's Coffee will be hosted from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Sept. 17th - Picture Day AND

Sept. 17th - Flynn School Open House will be hosted from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Please check the school website for updates - http://flynn.bsd.schoolfusion.us/

Flynn PTO Update 6/9/14

Hey there Flynn Families - Last blog post of the school year - Have a great summer!  As my youngest is moving on to the middle school (ack!) I will be retiring my PTO responsitbilites...  Jon Dorwart will be taking over the blog for the next schoolyear, so there will be no break in PTO/home/school communication.  (in case you were worried...)  I encourage families to get involved and/or stay involved with classroom and schoolwide events.  Investing in the Flynn family is an investment in your child's education and in their future success - we are all responsible for this next generation - families, students, teachers and community members.  Flynn is a great place to lay a solid foundation- please take advantage of all the school/PTO has to offer outside of the classroom - chess club, theatre programs, family events, math club...  It is what you put in to it!  Finally, thanks so much for the PTO note/parting gift last week - while I was not able to make the last PTO meeting, I was treated to a big bag of kale!!!  Someone was paying attention -thanks!   Kate B.


Bylaws Update Meeting  Since our PTO bylaws are very outdated, we will be working on updating them this summer. If you are interested in providing your input and helping shape the bylaws, please join us! The first meeting is Thursday, June 19 at 7:00 at Betsy Ward and Jon Dorwart's house, 14k Sunset Cliff Road. (Sunset Cliff is the gravel road at the end of Starr Farm Road.) 

If you have questions, contact Betsy at 540-1067 or betsy.ward4@gmail.

SAVE THE DATE

June 9 -5th Grade Bridging Ceremony - 6pm




June 11 - Last Day of School - Early release and parade at 11:30

June  27- Flynn School Lake Monsters Game - get your tix!!!

August 27 - Back to school...

Flynn PTO Update 6/2/14

Hey There Flynn Families - Sorry for the late post - the weather was just too beautiful and the day too short to fit in the blog...  The big news this week is VOTING. Tomorrow is the big day!  

All other Burlington elementary schools will have parents out at drop-off and pick-up today and tomorrow, helping to get out the vote.  As far as I know, Flynn had no takers...  It is not too late.  If you have 15 minutes to spare at pick-up or drop off to talk to other families about voting, that would be fabulous.  Every single YES vote will make a difference and we all know that best intentions don't always make it on the TO DO list...

Please Vote Tomorrow - June 3rd.  

Ward 7 - vote at Miller Center

Ward 4 - Vote at St. Marks

In case you missed this in the Free Press: 

 Common ground in school budget vote

Erik Esckilsen12:07 a.m. EDT June 1, 2014

(Photo: EMILY McMANAMY/Free Press )

 68CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE

As the signs have gone up in my neighbors' yards — "Schools, kids, community, vote yes" — and as I've read the commentary about the June 3 vote on a new Burlington school budget, I've found myself living in two parallel Burlingtons.

One is defined by a strong sense of community. The other is defined by polarized discord. I prefer the former — and not just because it's friendlier. It more accurately reflects what the school budget vote is about — common ground.

That common ground is Burlington's cherished, multifaceted quality of life. It's why most of us are here, although not every facet holds equal value for every Burlingtonian. For example, before I had kids, school funding didn't mean as much to me as it does today. But I still understood maintaining good schools to be among my obligations as a city resident.

Looked at this way, the upcoming school budget vote is not a question of whether we think the budget is too high, but of whether we think the quality of life that we all enjoy is worth the cost. Approaching the matter from this common ground might cool the rhetoric and compel voters to consider the budget more analytically and less emotionally.

This means ceasing to criticize people hesitant to open their checkbooks for yet another increase. Burlington has become, for many people, a prohibitively expensive place to live — common ground of a regrettable sort. Failing to acknowledge the school budget's role in this is naive at best and narrowly self-interested at worst.

If the school budget were to blame, however, an end to Burlington's problem of increasing economic exclusivity would be in sight. It's not. Look at home prices, our weathered infrastructure, insurance premiums, myriad taxes — all add to the cost of living. The school budget has become a financial scapegoat, in part because the benefits of education are difficult to quantify in the short term, and they affect school employees and taxpayers with kids in the system most directly. Unfortunately, the students will bear the greatest cost if the budget is rejected.

Voters might be surprised by how well our students are doing currently. Remember the bold experiment with "magnet" elementary schools that the city launched six years ago? Those new schools are thriving, reportedly trending upward on assessments and some winning national accolades for innovation.

Our teachers win awards too, and our high school graduation rates are among the highest in the country. But that's old news.

Our schools' increasingly diverse student population is another laudable distinction. Serving students with wide-ranging cultural backgrounds honors the city's longstanding commitment to inclusivity while enriching the educational experience for all. Burlington kids are coming of age in a time when multicultural understanding is essential to success — a critical job skill and a requirement for conscientious global citizenship. Our schools get that — big time.

This picture of resourceful, progressive education is clouded by inflammatory rhetoric about fiscal mismanagement and failed programs. Notwithstanding the recent tumult over district leadership, the facts about what the new budget will accomplish, and what our schools accomplish each day, contradict those distorted narratives.

Our schools are a facet of our shared quality of life of which we can all be proud — whether or not we have kids in the system. Schools are not parks, bridges or housing developments. They're not improvements to our quality of life. They're the essence of it.

What's more, our schools are the means by which we fulfill our moral obligation — as citizens, not just as parents or guardians — to prepare our youth as best we can for a tomorrow we can scarcely imagine.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I know that a yes vote on the school budget on June 3 will enhance students' ability to face it.

Erik Esckilsen lives Burlington

PTO- Last meeting this Thursday at 6:30 in the library.  Come a little early to settle the kids into childcare and have a light supper.  Hope to see you there!

SAVE THE DATE!!!

June 3- Vote on School Budget 

June 5 - Last PTO meeting of the Year! - 6:30 in the library

June 9 - Flynn  Olympics (am- grades 4-6, pm - grades K-2)

June 9 -5th Grade Bridging Ceremony - 6pm

June 11 - Last Day of School (note date change due to last snow day...) Early release and parade at 11:30

June  27- Flynn School Lake Monsters Game - get your tix!!!

August 27 - Back to school...