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Spirit Week
Wear Red or
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Marquette
Spirit Wear Day
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Thursday, December 12, 2013
Spirit Week ~ 12-16-13
Monday, December 9, 2013
PTO Meeting Dec. 5 2013
PTO Meeting Dec. 5 2013
Summary of discussion
1.
Talked about DEAR: we need some more readers! Please contact marquettepto@gmail.com if you have a
friend, neighbor, acquaintance or family member who’d like to do some engaging
reading/actor’s theater for a half hour.
Date: Jan. 24 1014 6-8 pm.
BWB is providing 2000 books to be given away that night; it should be a
really fun event!
2. Upcoming schedule:
b.
DEAR:
Jan. 24 2014 6-8 pm
c.
Valentines Candy grams: Feb. 1-14
d.
Movie Night:
mid February, 2014
e.
All school gym event: early March 2014
i.
One idea:
arrange to use Adams’ High School pool for the evening, with HS student
volunteers to help supervise
3. WRITE to your legislators!
a.
The SBCSC, the School Board and the state Dept.
of Education have all confirmed that the most powerful tool for getting
legislation that is favorable to Public Education is for parents and other
voters to contact their legislators and tell them how you want them to
vote.
b.
So DO IT!
The flyer and contact information are included in this document and are
on the FB page of the PTO.
4. Upper Elementary Expansion Campaign
a.
Thanks to everyone; Phase 1 was a huge
success. We raised about $3000.00 and
involved about 580 separate donations.
This is powerful information that shows how deeply committed the
Marquette community is to the future of Montessori education for all children
in South Bend.
b.
We reviewed the history of our work with the
SBCSC on this project, identified supportive forces in the SBCSC and the Board,
and talked about Marquette community connections and resources who/which might
be useful in the next Phase of this campaign.
c.
We agreed that we want to take the campaign
public
i.
By building a partnership with local supporters
for Montessori, specifically Upper Elementary
ii.
And by telling the story of an outstanding
curriculum achieving successes in the community for a diverse portion of the
public school population.
d.
We need to design “The Story” in a really
effective way before we go public
i.
We need to articulate our goals
1.
Frame the story in a positive way—not so much
‘we have a problem (overcrowding) as we have a huge success story (many
children clamoring to be part of the school) that needs to be well managed for
continued development and growth
2.
Frame the story with some drama to catch the
attention of the super, the Board, and SB community
ii.
Collect our success stories
iii.
Coordinate our actions, so that we are ‘all on
the same page’ working together, not on separate perhaps contradictory tracks
iv.
Ask for another meeting or brief consultation
with the SBCSC to confirm progress, communicate goals, coordinate actions, and
plan for future Phases.
1.
It’s important that we maintain a clearly
articulated support of the SBCSC and that we do our best to determine the
agenda of the SBCSC and try to match it.
e.
So we are creating a set of Google docs in
Google Drive for brainstorming about ideas and stories.
i.
Anyone is welcome to contribute
ii.
Anyone with skills to help produce the finished
story is invited to volunteer!
1.
We need writers, photographers, videographers,
graphic designers, PR , marketing,
2.
We need volunteers to help with the support
tasks as well
f.
We identified some people in our community who
have skills we need.
i.
We will contact these resources
ii.
We need to identify other people with skills we
can use—Spread the word!
1.
Anyone with connections in the business
community
2.
Anyone with connections to local non-profits who
might support our work
3.
Anyone with connections to PR, marketing, fund
raising, grant writing resources.
4.
Anyone with ideas for connecting to the Mayor’s
office
g.
We want and need all good ideas from every part
of the Marquette Montessori community—so please get involved, online and/or in
person!
i.
Ideas suggested:
1.
Silent Auction of donated items for fund raising
–to take place at DEAR and the Feb. Movie Night
2.
Sell popcorn at Feb. Movie Night for fund
raising
3.
Organize a neighborhood walk of students to
‘advertise’ the school and promote its role in the Marquette and SB
community. Get news coverage
Attend a School Board meeting to talk about what
we are doing, our progress, and our hopes for our kids and SB kids in general
How YOU can help Marquette!
What Families can Do Right
Now to Help SBCSC and our students: our voices count, and count MORE than school
officials’ voices!
Call or Write your STATE and
FEDERAL legislators! Find them here: ttp://district.iga.in.gov/DistrictLookup
Most legislators have an automated email
link which makes contacting them very easy; you just fill in some blanks with
your specific concerns and name/address.
·
We have been told
over and over again that the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT thing families can do to
change Indiana law is to TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS how you want them to vote.
·
Marquette
Montessori wants Indiana state to provide state funds for pre-school education,
just like it does for K through 12th grade education.
o
We have a VERY
SUCCESSFUL, already up and running program that state could support with pride
and good marketing!
o
SBCSC has done a
GREAT thing for Marquette—despite the pressure, it has continued to support the
P3s and the P4s, even though the corporation pays for everyone of the 110+
students in full every year
§
SO take time to
THANK the corporation for footing this bill it does not have any legal
obligation to do!!
·
Send a message to
each legislator
·
Ask your friends
and family to send a message
·
Numbers
count!! And these two votes are
important to every person with kids in school in Indiana and/or who pays
property taxes.
Send these messages to your
legislators TODAY:
·
State Senators: Please vote to repeal the Protected Tax law
SEA517. This law is preventing local
school corporations from managing school district funds as needed, and other
Indiana law ALREADY guarantees that school corporations will repay debts.
·
State Senators: Please vote to fund pre-school education in
Indiana. This topic is in discussion
right now in the State Senate; there is no formal bill yet. The single most reliable education
fact--proved by scores of studies-- is that pre-school
education has long term benefits for every child who receives it.
*Indiana State Senator John Broden:
800-382-9467 District 10
http://www.in.gov/legislative/senate_democrats/homepages/s10/601.htm
*Indiana State Senator Joe Zakas, district 11: 800-382-9467 Office phone: 574-294-7473
Email: Senator.Zakas@iga.in.gov
Email: Senator.Zakas@iga.in.gov
*Indiana Rep. B. Patrick Bauer, district 6: 1-800-382-
9842 http://bauer.indianahousedemocrats.org/contact
*Indiana Rep. Ryan Dvorak, district 8: 1-800-382-9842
After you
contact these legislators, let the superintendent and the School Board know
that you did it; they will appreciate hearing from you!
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