Evergreen Elementary Community Club

Family Fun Night will be October 23, 2009.  The theme this year will be “Evergreen Rocks!”  As usual, this event promises games, prizes, music, food, and a fun time for all!  Hope to see you there!

The Box Tops For Education Program is giving away 1 MILLION BOX TOPS!!!  We could buy some really great things for the school with that kind of money, so we’re urging all Evergreen Parents to go to http://www.thebigclip.com and enter to win today!

Also, Box Tops For Education currently has several other sweepstakes programs running as well.  To check them out and enter for your chance to win up to 1000 bonus Box Tops for our school, please go to their website.  Good luck!  http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/bonus/Default.aspx

The October 2009 Community Club Meeting is coming up soon.  Hope to see you all there!

• Tuesday, October 6, 2009
• Room #14
• 1:15pm

Please remember to FIRST stop by the office to sign in and get your visitor sticker.  Thank you for your cooperation!

For many years now, Evergreen Elementary has participated in the Box Tops For Education Program in order to purchase playground equipment for the school.  Box Tops are found on hundreds of participating products in your grocery store, and as an Evergreen Parent, we’re asking that you clip and save as many of these box tops as you can!

How The Program Works:  Each time you see a Box Top on a product, clip it out and send it in to your child’s teacher.  Each Box Top is worth 10 cents for Evergreen Elementary.  The Box Top Coordinator collects the Box Tops and sends them into the company to be redeemed for cash.  The money collected is used to purchase playground equipment at Evergreen.  

For the 2008-2009 school year, Evergreen Elementary raised $1,776 from collecting 17,760 Box Tops coupons from family, friends and neighbors.  So, you can see how every Box Top coupon counts!  Please clip those Box Tops to help us meet our goal to raise the same or more for the 2009-2010 school year. 

When turning in your Box Tops, please remember these two very important things: 

1. All Box Tops submitted must be valid and well trimmed
2. Turn in Box Tops to your child’s teacher

Where Will I Find Box Tops?  Box Tops can be found on hundreds of products you buy every week, such as Cherrios, Kleenex, and Huggies Diapers.  A comprehensive list of participating product can be found here. 

Other Ways To Save For Evergreen:  In addition to clipping Box Tops, the program offers additional ways that you can make money for Evergreen, including “The Marketplace” and “The Reading Room”. 

In ”The Marketplace”, users can earn money for their schools by making online purchases at any one of more than 100 online stores.  Participating retailers give a percentage of each qualifying purchase back to Evergreen.  These are retailers such as OldNavy.com, Target.com, and OrientalTrading.com, just to name a few.  So next time you’re ready to make an online purchase, first go to “The Marketplace” to see whether the online store you’re shopping at participates in the program.  You could earn money for Evergreen just by buying products you had planned to purchase anyway!  But remember, the sale must be made through the Box Tops for Education website, specifically the Shop and Earn tab, in order for Evergreen to benefit.

“The Reading Room” works just like “The Marketplace”.  The next time you’re looking to purchase books, first go to “The Reading Room” to ensure that a portion of your BarnesandNoble.com purchase gets credited back to Evergreen Elementary.  Again, the sale must be made through the Box Tops for Education website, specifically the Shop and Earn tab, in order for Evergreen to benefit.

Finally, Box Tops frequently offers bonus fundraisers — which are on-line, no-purchase necessary sweepstakes that require only a few minutes of your time to login to their website and enter to win.  To see the current bonus fundraisers and enter to win bonus Box Tops for Evergreen, click here. 

If you have any questions regarding the Box Tops for Education Program, check out their website at http://www.boxtops4education.com or http://www.btfe.com, or contact Box Tops Coordinator, Beronica O’Barr.

The timeframe for presale orders of the 2009-2010 Yearbook ended on September 18th.  If you did not pre-order your yearbook, but still wish to purchase one, you may still be able to buy one in June.  The price for those yearbooks will be $25.00, and quantities will be limited.

If you have any questions regarding the yearbook, please contact Yara Sands, Deborah Barela, or Tjieu Giok Ngoe.

Can you help us out on Friday afternoons?  If you have an hour or two to help out at the school on Friday afternoons — EVEN ON AN OCCASIONAL BASIS – we could really use your help with our recycling program!

A meeting will be held this Friday, Sept. 25th which will explain how to supervise the collecting of the recycling and what to do with the materials when the collection is done.  The meeting will be at 1:00pm in the lunch area.  A sign up sheet will be available at the meeting so that you can choose the dates of your recycling volunteer assignments.  Hope to see you there!

We have just been informed that SB 680 – District of Choice – passed out of the Assembly last week and was approved once again by the Senate.  The bill is now on its way to the Governor’s desk for his signature.  The Governor has made District of Choice a component in his education package to help make California eligible for federal Race to the Top funds, so he is expected to sign the bill.   Last year, Evergreen had approximately 125 DOC  students.  If this legislation does not pass, all of those students would be required to return to their home districts.

Just a reminder… This Thursday, September 10th, the Community Club will be hosting their annual Welcome Back Brunch.  This is an event open to ALL Evergreen Parents.  We invite you all to attend, to meet and socialize with other parents, and to learn more about the Community Club and ways you can be involved with the school.  We hope to see you all there!  Here are the details:

Date:  Thursday, September 10th

Time:  8:10am

Place:  MPR

People often ask, “What is the Community Club?  What does it do?”  Well, the Community Club is a group of parents who work to assist the school staff in providing our students with the best education possible.  Often, this help comes in the way of financial assistance.  The Community Club raises money through fundraisers such as our annual Membership Drive in order to provide this financial partnership.  But how is the money spent?  The following chart will illustrate the ways in which the Community Club funds were spent during the 2008-2008 school year. 

Our first Community Club meeting of the 2009-2010 school year was held on September 1st.  We had a great turnout and were excited to see so much enthusiasm from members, both new and returning.  The following is a summary of the information presented at that meeting:

Principal’s Report:  In the Principal’s Report, Dr. Trimmer let us know that the school year is off to a great start, and he thanked the Community Club for the luncheon we hosted at the end of August to welcome the teachers and school staff back to school.

Next, Dr. Trimmer advised that there have been several changes to the office staff this year, and explained that as a result, the office is having to operate with less hands than it has in the past.  For this reason, anything the Community Club can do to help things run smoothly will be most appreciated. 

Dr. Trimmer reminded us that the “Goodbye At The Gate” policy has gone into effect, and has been well received.  This policy will help to keep our campus secure by making individuals who should NOT be at the school, more identifiable.

Finally, Dr. Trimmer discussed the state of the budget.  He explained that while this year’s budget is balanced, that balance was achieved only with cuts in staff and a 40% reduction to our overall operating costs.  We are hopeful that no additional cuts will be required, but it is clear that the school needs the assistance of the Community Club more than ever.

Teachers Report:  In the Teacher’s Report, Mrs. Gorsuch thanked the Community Club for the staff luncheon, and expressed pleasure at seeing such a strong show of support from parents at this, the first Community Club meeting of the year. 

Family Fun Night:  Family Fun Night will be held on October 23, 2009.  The theme will be “Evergreen Rocks”, and should be a great chance for the kids to dress up in their rock n’ roll finest and have an evening of great fun.  This year, the food will be provided by the Carl’s Jr. grill truck — which proved to be a great fundraiser for the Community Club at last year’s Open House. 

Membership Drive:  This year’s membership drive will be held October 12-16.  This is the Community Club’s main fundraiser of the year.   The Membership Drive Committee will be looking for assistance in distributing the flyers and collecting/processing donations. 

Hospitality:  The Community Club hosted a luncheon for the Evergreen Staff the last weekend in August.  It was a great event and the staff really appreciated the recognition.  We also hosted a 1st Day of School continental breakfast and mixer for parents in the Multipurpose Room which was very well received.  The Hospitality Committee’s next event will be the Welcome Back Brunch for all Evergreen Parents.  The Welcome Back Brunch will be held September 10th.

Library Committee:  The book fair has been running all this week.  The Library Committee was very pleased with the amount of parents who came forward to volunteer their time to help make the book fair a success.  A portion of every sale from the book fair comes back to Evergreen to help us buy books for our own library.

Parent Workshop:  For the Parent Workshop, Community Club members meet two days a week to photocopy materials for the teachers.  The Committee is still looking for 2-3 additional people to work with the Tuesday group, and 1-2 additional people to work with the Thursday group. 

Room Parent:  The process of selecting and identifying the room parents for each classroom is underway.  The Room Parent Tea is scheduled to be held on September 24th.   Assistance will be needed to help prepare and set up for this event.

Yearbooks:  This year the yearbook will be sold for $20.  Orders for the yearbooks are coming in now.  The Committee is looking for individuals interested in being picture-takers this year. 

Open Committee Positions:  Both the Disaster Prep and Coordinating Council positions have been filled.  We are still looking for individuals to fill the Recycling Committee, as well as someone to head up the Fine Arts Council (Music Mobile). 

Family Portraits:  This year the Community Club will be offering a Family Portrait package to Evergreen Parents which will give families an opportunity to get affordable portraits taken, and which will also serve as a fundraiser for the Community Club. 

Ice Cream Day:  The Community Club is trying to arrange to sell ice cream after school one Friday per month as an ongoing fundraising opportunity.  This will hopefully start in late September or early October.

Additional Issues of Concern:  A Community Club member brought up an issue of concern to the Committee for discussion.  Specifically, it was noted that the dirt filled planters outside the school (on Evergreen Springs) are heavily littered with dog feces and other objectionable materials.  Dr. Trimmer will investigate ways that we might get these planter areas cleaned up for parents and students walking to school. 

The Committee also discussed the traffic problems that occur in front of the school during drop-off time, and how we need to do anything possible to help ensure the safety of our students, parents, and crossing guards while they are walking to the school.  Dr. Trimmer agreed to investigate what additional measures may be taken to address this matter.

Finally, because of the continuing budget cuts, it was determined that the Evergreen Community Club will now cover the costs of providing basic cable to Evergreen.  This technology allows the school to benefit for educational purposes and in emergency situations.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 6th.  We hope you can join us there!