March 10th, 2013
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Dear Walnut Acres Parents, I can hardly believe that March is already here! This Friday, March 15th, is the night of our "Havana Nights" Auction! This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year, so we hope you will join us as either a volunteer or a guest and celebrate and fundraise for our childrens' education. It's always an amazing evening, and special thanks go out in advance to all of our Auction volunteers who are working so hard to make this night a success. Please check out their webpage on our Walnut Acres PFC website for more information. Additionally, as March rolls in, we are focused more on our 2013-14 school year.
Planning is in full swing on our 2013-14 calendar, budget and nominating
process.
That said, I would like to focus on our nominating process
and what it means to each of you and your children. Nominating is the process
by which we fill our Parent Faculty Club Board each year. The Board is
comprised of Committee Chairs who lead all of our PFC sponsored fundraisers
and activities. Very little would happen on behalf of the PFC at our school
without these volunteers.
You have received a consistent message throughout the year that
participation by 100% of our families, however they can, is our goal. It is
imperative that you understand that Committee Chair positions are open to any
and all parents at Walnut Acres, making these positions the ideal place for
parents to be an active part of their child’s future.
Maybe you aren’t sure how to get involved or where your talents
or expertise fit in. Maybe you don’t necessarily want to be on the Board but
would like to help in some capacity. Maybe you can only commit certain days
or timeframes. All of this is welcome and workable. Let us help you find the
place where you can create a win-win scenario for yourself and your kids –
you are rewarded by giving back and our kids benefit from your effort.
We need your time and talents more than ever. Please respond today by going to our Nominating webpage for
details on available positions and who to contact for more information.
Many thanks to our volunteers who make Walnut Acres a fantastic place to educate children each and every day. Best, Nicole Padoan Walnut Acres PFC President
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January 7th,
2013
Happy New Year and welcome back to what is sure to be an exciting
beginning to 2013 here at Walnut Acres! I
hope the holiday break was both exciting and relaxing all at the same
time. While the holidays are a time for
get-togethers and being with family, I also found it to be a time for
reflection. One thing I kept going back
to was my thankfulness for all of you and how your presence here as a part of
our community impacts our school and its staff and students in such an
important way. I continue to be amazed
by your involvement and by what it increasingly takes to support the activities
and the learning here at our school. We
are making meaningful progress towards our goal of 100 percent participation at
ANY LEVEL by all families in PFC activities and fundraisers. We have a ways to go though, and I want to
remind you that it is never too late to donate to the Jaguar Fund and to
contribute to our Auction which is fast approaching in March.
Please join us for our next PFC meeting on Tuesday, January 15th
at 7 pm in our Walnut Acres Library. We’ll
be discussing important issues which pertain to our kids and our school. Everyone is welcome and all parents are
automatically members of our PFC. This is
the time for you, our PFC members to learn and be heard. In the upcoming months we will be talking
about how we wish to spend our money (Strategic Planning), looking to fill
vacancies for next year’s PFC Board (Nominating) and looking at ways to support
our activities and events, including this year’s Science Fair and our
Auction.
There is much to look forward to…..our grade level performances
and the eagerly anticipated 5th grade play starting the 22nd
of February. Be sure to come and see
both the London and New York casts perform this year’s musical, Aladdin.
Thank you to the following Committee Chairs for so much of their
time and effort over the past several months:
Community Announcements – Lisa Leong-Carlson
Enews – Amy Hiatt and Melanie Kracht
Read a Thon – Anna Halverson and Monica Skopec
PFC Holiday Party – Christina Contreras and Julie Connolly
Toy and Clothing Drive – Cheryl Sendaydiego and Naomi Hughes
Directory – Doris Kawakami, Thea Friermuth and Misa Siemons
Affiliate Marketing – Tania Vanderbeek
Enrichment – Leigh-Ann Andrada
My dedicated Executive Board and Dr. Dowd
And thank YOU to ALL our parents and staff for all you do,
Nicole Padoan
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posted Oct 28, 2012, 9:47 AM by Nicole Padoan
[
updated Nov 6, 2012, 8:19 AM by Anna Saunders
]
This is a very exciting time of year and we have several
events going on at Walnut Acres which promote our kids as readers this
month. Our Book Fair is this last week of October,
running from October 29 until November 2nd, and is the perfect
opportunity to get wonderful books into the hands of your readers.
Following the Book Fair is also our annual Read A Thon, one
of our seven fundraisers for the year. Our goal is 100 percent participation on any level from every single
Walnut Acres family. We hope you will
consider participating and walking beside your child as they set about to get
lost in the world of books. Kelly
Gallagher, an educator and the author of many books in Education, including “Readicide,”
notes that the greatest indicator of whether a student will go to college is
how well and how often they read. That
is a sobering statement, but even more powerful than that is what books and
reading can do for our kids. Books allow
our kids to take a deliberate stance toward engaging and responding with their whole
hearts and minds. Enter the reading zone
and stretch their imagination, live other lives, and learn about their own,
find prose and poetry so well written it knocks them out, experience and understand
problems and feelings they might never know, find stories that make them happy
and feed their soul, consider how writers have written and why, acquire their
knowledge, ask questions, escape, think, travel, ponder, laugh, cry, love and
grow up.
To round out these next few months of reading, we as a PFC
also recognize the need to support not only the kids, but our parents as they
raise 21st century readers.
Supporting our children in their reading goes beyond having them read aloud
to us or asking them questions about the plot of the book. That said, join us for the first of what we
hope to be several topics of discussion which will allow us to “dig deep” as
parents into ways that we can build our students’ reading lives for the 21st
century. This discussion will take place
at our next PFC meeting on November 13th at 7 p.m. in the Walnut
Acres library. We are hoping to pack the
house and take our first steps in this together. See you there!
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posted Sep 30, 2012, 10:33 AM by PFC President
[
updated Oct 22, 2012, 9:54 AM by Anna Saunders
]
It is hard to believe that it is already October and school is in
full swing. It’s one of the most exciting
times for a school and its students and this year is no different than any
other in proving that we, the parents, staff and community surrounding Walnut
Acres are devoted to educational excellence for each child at our school.
In order for us to be up and running as we are, many committees
and parent volunteers have completely mobilized to bring our kids the funds and
experiences they deserve. Volunteer shifts have been filled with hundreds of
volunteers and the Jaguar Fund has begun its year long journey towards 100
percent participation from ALL of our families, at any level.
During a time when both funding and volunteers are in short
supply, thanks are due to so many parents and staff members. Our school benefits in too many ways to name
from contributions of time and money. I thank each and every one of you for all
you do.
In particular I would like to thank the following people who have
started us off “right” with a warm welcome to new and returning families:
Jaguar Registration
Day – Monica Chang and Marita Louw
Jaguar Fund – Melissa
Sunbury and Fran Doggett
Back to School Coffee
– Julie Connolly and Christina Contreras
T-shirts – Jen Watson
Ice Cream Social –
Valerie Nagel
New Families Welcome –
Lori Woodworth, Anna Saunders and Alison Brassinga
Room Parent Chairs –
Cecilia Santiago and Karen Williamson
Directory Layout and
Advertising – Doris Kawakami and Misa Siemons
Gift Wrap – Traci Olson
and Yvonne Ortega
In closing, I would like to thank all of those families who have
generously contributed to our Jaguar Fund campaign. For those who have not,
please know that it is never too late, and no amount is too small. The number
one goal of the PFC this year is to see 100% of our families contribute time
and financial resources to our school.
Remember that membership into the PFC (Parent Faculty Club)
is automatically granted to the parents of children attending and faculty of
Walnut Acres. We need each and every one of you to stay committed to excellence
for our kids.
Warmly,
Nicole Padoan
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posted Aug 2, 2012, 12:04 AM by Nicole Padoan
August 1st, 2012 PFC President's Message It is hard to believe that August is already upon us! As you can see, many
are already deep into
planning for the 2012-13 school year! I look forward to
seeing
all of you at Jaguar Day (formerly known as Kick Off Day) on August
23rd. Please make sure to register
here. As you register, make sure to fill in your directory information online and
take a look at our "All In One" form. This year, we are proud to continue to
acknowledge in our published Donor List
those families who contribute any
amount to the JAGUAR FUND (formerly known as the Walnut Acres
Education Fund
(WAEF), 100% of which benefits every child at Walnut Acres.
I hope you also consider joining us for our first PFC meeting of the school
year on
August 22nd
at 7 pm in the Walnut Acres Library. As a parent of a child at
Walnut Acres,
you are a member of the PFC. Choose to be informed about
your
child's education by attending all PFC meetings. Click here for the
2012-13 school calendar. For answers to
"Frequently Asked
Questions" about the Walnut Acres Parent Faculty Club click
here.
Enjoy the remaining dog days of summer!
Nicole Padoan
Walnut Acres PFC President 2012 - 2013
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