Your chance to learn about the school budget and have a voice!

Ann Arbor Public Schools Budget Forums
Superintendent Todd Roberts and Deputy Superintendent Robert Allen will be hosting two sessions to give staff, parents, students and community members an overview of the district’s budget planning for the 2009/2010 school year.

Thursday, March 5
7:00-9:00pm
Forsythe Middle School
1655 Newport

Tuesday’s meeting at Scarlett was very lightly attended: let’s see if we can get more concerned parents to this last meeting!

The Ann Arbor Public Schools has prepared draft policies regarding three important issues relating to elementary schools. These are:

• Attendance
• Acceleration (moving students up one or more grades)

• Retention (holding students back to repeat a grade)

Superintendent Todd Roberts has requested PTO Council to assist in soliciting comments from interested parents regarding these proposed policies (see attached PDF files). Copies of these proposed policies are also available from the school office. All parents are encouraged to review these proposed policies.

The academic committee along with teacher, parent and student input plans and implements enrichment activities related to various subjects. These activities are for one or more grade level and are before, during or after school. The committee is always looking for new ideas!

We will voting on changes to the PTO by-laws at the May PTO meeting. The by-laws, with the changes, are available for download as a PDF document at the end of this article.

The main changes are adding the position of Fundraising Coordinator to the PTO Executive Committee, and changing other items to reflect current practice (e.g. changing “Vice President” to “President-Elect”).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly or through the reply form on this web site.

Lynda Norton and Wendy Burke
PTO President and President-Elect

Our thanks to everyone who came to the used book sale and to those who have bid on items in the collectible book auction, benefiting a fund established in the memory of Burns Park parent Karen Thomas.

We sold more than $1,000 worth of books at the used book sale, and collected additional contributions. The Burns Park PTO and the AAPS Educational Foundation collaborated to organize this used book sale and online auction of collectible books from the collection of Karen and Andy Thomas. One thousand dollars of the proceeds of the book sale go to the PTO and are earmarked for the school library; proceeds beyond that went to the Karen Thomas Fund and were matched by a generous donor. All proceeds from the book auction, and any direct contributions to the Karen Thomas Fund made by 12/31/08, will also be matched up to a total of $25,000.

Please join us for a used book sale, and collectible book auction, to benefit a fund established in the memory of Burns Park parent Karen Thomas.

The Burns Park PTO and the AAPS Educational Foundation are working together to organize this used book sale and online auction of collectible books from the collection of Karen and Andy Thomas. The sale itself will take place at the Burns Park school Auditorium this Saturday, October 18, from 9 am to 1 pm.

In addition to the used books, thirty lots of first editions and other rare and collectible books will be on display during the book sale. These books are being auctioned on our PTO’s auction site (http://www.burnsparkpto.org/auction), and the auctions will remain open at least until midnight, October 31st.

All proceeds from the rare book auction will benefit the Karen Thomas Memorial Fund at the AAPSEF, which is dedicated to help fund literacy programs for at-risk children in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Proceeds from the used book sale will be shared between the Karen Thomas Fund and the Burns Park media center (library).

Please note that contributions to the Karen Thomas Memorial Fund made by the end of this year will be matched up to a total of $25,000. Here is how the Educational Foundation describes the fund:

The Karen Thomas Memorial Fund of the AAPSEF was established by her husband, Andy, in early 2008. The Fund honors Karen’s profound love of reading, and her belief that literacy is essential to a successful and fulfilling life. The Fund will sponsor literacy and academic retention programs for children at the elementary level with an emphasis on academically at risk students. Karen loved to read, and especially loved reading aloud to children. On just about any school morning, you could find her sitting on the bench outside the office at Burns Park Elementary, reading to her son Jonathan. She never missed an opportunity to volunteer as a reader during “March is Reading Month” — even while undergoing chemotherapy.

To promote literacy, the books on tape committee makes voice recordings to accompany books that are distributed to students in lower elementary grades. This project is ongoing thoughout the year and volunteers work on their own time at home using books, tapes and instructions provided by the committee.

It’s audition time for the Burns Park Players! Initial auditions will be held on Monday, October 15th at 7:00 p.m. in the Tappan auditorium with callbacks held on Tuesday, October 16th. If you would like to audition but are unable to make the audition day, please notify Susan Hurwitz, susanh22@aol.com or call 994-3508.

It’s that time of year again!

Bulletin board displays in the front hallway are created by the PTO to provide information about upcoming events and fundraisers.