Remember that Key Card orders are due this Friday September 24th. Orders will head home next week! Please contact Sue Cleland (616)365-7653 or via email at: treasurer@northparkschools.org.
The North Park Schools Fall Carnival will be on October 15 from 5:30-7:30. Please note the change of date.
Please plan on coming with your family to enjoy all of the fun and games! A raffle will be held where you can have a chance to win wonderful prizes from local merchants and service providers. Tickets for the raffle as well as tickets for the games and snacks will be available for sale at a table set up at the front entrance of the school during the carnival. We will also have North Park Spirit Wear t-shirts available for sale at this table.
From now until October 8, the PTA is collecting donations of boxes of any brand of Juice Pouches for the carnival. If you are able to donate a box, please have your child bring it to the office by October 8th. Watch your child’s backpack in the next few weeks for further details about the carnival.
We are in need of volunteers to help run this event. Please contact Emily Akers at 616-378-0123 or feel free to email her at monalove00@hotmail.com. Please know that it’s only with the help from all of you that we can make this carnival a great time for everyone!
North Park Schools PTA has partnered with Flower Power Fundraising again for a second year. Flower Power has top-quality flower bulbs and plants for our friends and family members to purchase. Also, all orders ship directly to our customers’ homes and come with a 100% money-back guarantee.
50% of all purchase go directly to the North Park Schools PTA to fund important school year purchases used in the classroom by our students, such as magazine subscriptions, software, and other supplemental school supplies.
Follow the link today and start planting ASAP!
Find out what supplies your child needs for their classroom by clicking on the teacher’s name below (a pdf will download.)
2010-11-Arens-Huyser-Lee-g4-5-6-supply-list
2010-11-Hendrick-g1-supply-list
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Dear GRPS Students, Parents, Staff and Supporters: We are just one day away from the citywide door to door blitz and are looking for more volunteers! We hope you will join the hundreds of volunteers already signed up to hit the streets and walk the neighborhoods sharing the positive news and information about GRPS. All volunteers will receive a complimentary GRPS polo shirt (orange with navy blue Friends of GRPS logo) along with talking points, a script, street maps and literature. It is fun, easy, good exercise and a great help to raise awareness about GRPS school choices, programs and services. It is also helping to promote the Back to School Park Parties that start next week.
Please email John Helmholdt helmholdtJ@grps.k12.mi.us or Michael Kohlenberger kohlenbergerm@grps.k12.mi.us or call 819-2149. All we need is your name, shirt size, and the preferred school location. All elementary and K8 schools are the “meeting locations” as the walk is organized based on school neighborhood attendance area boundaries. So High School and Middle School staff/parents/volunteers should target one of the elementary schools or call the principal to find out about the target area they are planning on knocking.
On Tuesday, May 11, students at Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Academy and North Park Schools will watch books come alive in a fresh and exciting way as they meet the real people who inspired the characters in Grand Rapids’ Author Sue Stauffacher’s new series with Random House. They will even meet real alligators!
In “Animal Rescue Team” (Knopf, May 11, 2010), her new series for Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, Stauffacher has created a lovable cast of characters centered around the Carter Family, owners of Carter’s Urban Rescue. They include fifth-grader, Keisha; her 1st grade brother, Razi; baby brother, Paulo; Mama and Daddy and Grandma; along with a community of neighbors and friends. One wacky adventure follows another, involving kids’ interactions with animals, each other and their town, Grand River. Inspired by events at her 150+ year old farmhouse in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as news items from the surrounding area, Sue keeps kids—and animals—in stitches, while subtly teaching children what to do when they encounter wildlife.
Sue Stauffacher has a long history of making kids laugh while teaching them about compassion, relationships and growing up. Books like “Donuthead,” and “Harry Sue” have won awards from readers as well as organizations like the American Library Association, the Library of Michigan, The N.A.A.C.P., and the Women’s National Book Association.
As the series unfolds—there are four books so far—Sue relies heavily on Grand Rapids’ Public School’s principal and friend, Carrie Tellerico. With Carrie’s permission, she also became a character in the book. She is the principal of Langston Hughes Elementary, which is loosely based on Carrie’s own school in GRPS, Martin Luther King Jr., Leadership Academy. “I’ve worked with Carrie for many years,” says Stauffacher. “But if I couldn’t imagine what she’d say, I’d call her up and ask her.”
Another developing storyline takes the school’s jump rope team to the division championships in Detroit. “Coach Rose, who worked with the girls at MLK, was wonderful about explaining how the jump rope competitions work,” says Stauffacher. “And I learned so much from the jumpers themselves! So many kids had a hand in developing these stories.”
To write “Gator on the Loose,” the first in the series to be released May 11, Sue worked closely with Dan Malone, Animal Management Supervisor, at John Ball “The public has a lot of misconceptions about what zoos can and can’t do with regard to local wildlife,” says Stauffacher. “I wanted to make sure I was representing the zoo correctly. I came away very impressed with their role in keeping all animals wild and safe, not just the ones in their care. Both for our website and for the book, Dan helped me give kids up-to-date information on some scaly and scary problems…such as what do to if there’s an alligator or snake loose in your neighborhood.”
She also consulted heavily with, and incorporated into the story, David Critchlow, who, with his wife, Carmen, operates Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary in Athens, Michigan. “David’s sanctuary was a dream come true for me because I was able to write a realistic happy ending for my story.”
For more information on the series, check out Sue’s website and blog at www.suestauffacher.com and learn more about Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary at www.alligatorsanctuary.com
The North Park Schools PTA is sponsoring our 3rd annual Rummage Sale on Saturday May 15th. The PTA has been working hard this year to update our early elementary playground. Recently PTA President, Matthew Patulski, along with our Principal, Rick Noel, have secured new and used playground equipment through the district. Our challenge is the cost. To move and install the pieces at North Park is over $10,000. This playground equipment is scheduled to be installed in early May. Read the details here. Here are ways you can lend a hand:
Please support the rummage and bake sale any way you can to help raise the money needed to pay for our new playground!
This week, the PTA is holding its 2010/2011 PTA Officer Elections. Each spring the PTA accepts nominations to fill the following PTA officer positions: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Corresponding Secretary and Recording Secretary. Presently there are two openings on the board: President and Recording Secretary.
Three members who have expressed interest in returning: Vice-President Cathy Cardosa, Treasurer Sue Cleland and Corresponding Secretary Amanda Wilkinson-Brown. You must be a current PTA member to nominate or be nominated as an officer.
Contact any current PTA Officer to nominate a PTA member for a position. Nominations must be in writing and must include your name, who you are nominating, for what position and why. You may submit a nomination via email or paper to any current PTA Officer.
If one of the PTA officer positions listed above is not for you, there are other ways to help support the PTA and all the activities that the PTA does for our students, teachers and community. Throughout the year the PTA needs help from parents in many areas. This year we have had great success with Kim Crawford as our volunteer coordinator.
We want to build on that success by creating four support roles around the key components of the National PTA mission: advocacy for excellent education, communicate to the community about our great school, host social events to build a sense of community, and fundraise to support all of these activities. These are non-elected positions, but they are sorely needed to help the board more effectively share the wealth of opportunities to support our kids and teachers succeed. Responsibility for these roles can be shared as well.
Work with our faculty and Principal to identify classroom and campus needs specific to education that the PTA can support, organize support for parents helping out in the classroom keep our classroom magazines subscriptions current, facilitate any software upgrade and purchases, etc.
Help produce our fliers, signs, website, Facebook content, public calendar, PTA Welcome Packs, materials for parents, local media, realtors as needed, work with GRPS PR, keep the PTA bulletin board up to date, etc.
Make sure our events through out the year are pulled off with out a hitch such as the fall social, sledding party, holiday movie, etc. Organize meals and PTA table at conferences, Liaise with neighborhood groups and churches on schools’ behalf.
Work with the PTA Treasurer to manage fundraising efforts, funds dispersal requests, collection center upkeep, grant writing, and any other finance related actions.
Last week, our PTA membership approved using PTA funds to finish phase 1 of our playground improvements. Activity has already began with removal of the 60 year old equipment. Over spring break, The GRPS facilities team will begin adding new, lower elementary scaled features including: 6 new swings, a geodesic climbing dome, a 4 seat buck-a-bout, a freestanding slide (not shown) and a whirl scrambler.
The total cost will be $11,300. The PTA is contributing $7000 and a targeted United Way Fund is contributing another $2000. That leaves an additional need of $2300 to complete the work. We need your help!
You can contribute in several ways:
Thank you!
Hey there all you West Michigan Gardeners! We are accepting orders for our spring plant sale from now until Wednesday, April 21. Pick up will be on Saturday, May 1—just in time for Mother’s Day! Choose from a variety of annuals, perennials, herbs vegetables in 4 inch pots. Also available are 3 different 10 inch hanging baskets. Please, download this PDF form, make your selections, enclose your money and return to North Park Schools at the address provided.
On the day of the sale we will also have select plants available for drop-by gardeners. All available first, come first serve. The baskets are advance order only. 50% of all sales will fund outdoor learning opportunities. This year, proceeds will contribute to the new lower elementary playground. Here are images of many of the offerings available. Let your mouse hover for a description.
