The Special Interest Fair is an annual event held in the spring in which students of all grades have the opportunity to create projects on topics of their choice and display their work for other students and families to view. Topics are wide-ranging, dependent on student interest and experience, and have included the following in recent years: Tornadoes, Geysers, Biography of Duke Basketball’s Coach K, Great Apes, Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mexico, Works of Shakespeare, Volcanic Eruptions, Balloons, Ballet, Plant Growth Experiments, Dolphins, Dinosaurs, and many more.

Mark your calendars! The Special Interest Fair is Tuesday, March 24, 2009.
Registration form attached below.

For those of you not familiar with the fair, it is similar to a science fair, but almost anything goes. The purpose of the fair is to encourage students to pursue a topic of their interest and provide a showcase for their efforts. This year, we are encouraging students to make projects that relate to our multicultural focus on Treasures and Wonders of the Arab World (Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria).

To help our students get started with research on Africa for the Special Interest Fair, we’ve developed a list of books and other resources in conjunction with the PTO’s Multicultural Committee. These books are available from the Burns Park school library (media center), and the call numbers are listed at the left of each item. Check it out!

At the PTO’s general meeting on April 17th, we heard a presentation from the Citizens’ Millage Committee about the two school tax proposals on the May 6th ballot. In response to that presentation, the PTO members present agreed unanimously that the PTO should take a public position supporting the proposals. They also approved the following resolution by a unanimous vote:

Walk & Talk is a special Burns Park activity developed to complement our annual Burns Park Run. Interested students in grades 1-5 have the opportunity, three days a week during the fall and spring, to walk or run around the school’s adjacent field for fun and physical activity. Parent volunteers supervise students and keep track of miles walked/ran. Volunteers are needed weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, during lunch recess (11:48 am – 1:20 pm) from late September to early November and again during March and April.

With the run-up to the November elections and the (muted) buzz about Proposal 5, I thought this would be a good time to wax eloquent a bit about how our schools are funded.

Why can’t we?

One of the comments I hear most often about programs at our public schools goes something like, “We’re such a well-off community, why can’t we have…” and insert your preferred item: smaller classes, more teachers, foreign language, more enrichment, or any of a dozen others. Another thing I hear, more quietly, from many families at Burns Park is, “Do we have to have all the PTO fundraisers?”

The answer to the second question is “Yes,” and the reason for that answer has a lot to do with the answer to the first question. And for that answer, we need to go back in time a bit – thirteen years to be precise.

Lifetouch Photography takes individual photographs of students each fall. These photos, plus other ones taken by parent volunteers throughout the year, are arranged in a yearbook which is distributed to students in June.

Wondering what the fundraisers are for? Find out here!

The following is a brief overview of what your PTO dollars supported during the 2006-2007 school year.