Pandamonium!

Thank you all so much for your support of our PTA fundraiser so far!  We are excited to see what fun activities our students will earn for the Panadamonium celebration on Friday, but this fundraiser means so much more to our school than the fun celebration. 

Penny Road depends on PTA funding in order to provide the enriching environment that keeps our students engaged and helps us to retain amazing teachers.  For those who may not be aware, funding is provided to schools based on student enrollment and the dollar amount per student was decreased this year by about ten percent.

The school budget we are provided allows for basics, covering the contracts for our copy machines, paper, and basic instructional supplies for our classrooms.  It is only with PTA support that our teachers have funds to spend individually to personalize their classrooms, have access to color printing, and are able to be provided online subscriptions to engaging platforms that improve teaching and learning.  PTA funding is needed in order to offer our students cultural arts assemblies, to bring current books into the library, and to offer amazing community events.

We have been so fortunate to have found success with this direct-give fundraiser such that every dollar donated goes fully toward our school.  We are less than halfway to our goal but in our final days of the fundraiser.  No donation is too small to make a difference and we encourage students to reach out beyond their immediate families for support.  Help us meet our goal this week by donating or sharing the link!

Staffing Update

Clubs

We are so excited to be launching student clubs this week!  This is an exciting culmination of the desire to offer student clubs that are accessible to all students (regardless of availability of transportation to before or after school sessions) and to protect time during the school day for grade level teams to meet for an hour each week.  In the past, students had one special each week lasting longer than the others. This year, instead of students staying in that special, students will instead be able to engage weekly in a club (20 minutes), followed by their scheduled special for the regular amount of time.  Our specialists are each offering a club for this first round, but we hope to expand the offerings moving forward by engaging other staff and community members.  If you are interested in leading a club (20 minutes once a week for four weeks), please complete this form.

Specials Rotation

Penny Road transitioned this year from a five-day specials rotation based on day of the week to a four-day rotation.  The primary factors driving this change were creating time for our staff who have significant job responsibilities beyond teaching specials and to create balance between the specials that students attend. 

Since the four-day rotation is based only on days we are in school, students aren't missing a day of specials when there is no school.  By having our counselors and school library media coordinator functionally share a specials spot, we have created additional time and space for them to support our students and school in other ways while also being a part of every student's routine. 

Our counselors engage regularly with small groups during lunch bunches, provide individualized support to students, and engage regularly with staff.  Our librarian is responsible for the maintenance and inventory of not just our books, but also the entirety of our school's technology.  In addition, she collaborates with teachers on integrating technology into the classroom and leads the school's Media and Technology Advisory Committee.

With the transition we are experiencing this week as we go from two counselors to one, our kindergarten and first grade schedules will now shift to mirror those of the other grade levels, with students having two quarters of Media and two quarters of CALM alternating over the course of the year.