asms november newsletter - abita springs middle school

Warrior’s World From the Chief Dear Parents and Guardians- I want to begin by thanking our PTA for spearheading the jambalaya dinner night. It was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who purchased a dinner, those of you who donated desserts and to everyone who worked so hard to make this night a success. Our PTA truly is amazing, and we are all grateful for their time and com-mitment to Abita Springs Middle School. Not only is November the month we celebrate Thanksgiving (and have that coveted week off ), it is also National Bullying Awareness Month. In honor of this month, our B1 team has invited Rachel’s Story to do a presentation to our students, parents and community. Some of you with older students may be familiar with Rachel’s Challenge. Rachel’s Story conveys the importance of kindness and giving to help the world become a better place. Our parent event will be on Thursday, November 8th beginning just after the PTA meeting at 6:-00pm in our gym. TO learn more about Rachel’s Story, please visit www.rachelschallenge.org. We hope to see you here, it will be well worth your time.

Please take some time to review school and parish policies on Attendance, includ-ing tardiness and types of absences. Please also review our uniform policy with the cold weather coming, as well as the parish Electronics policy. Please remember that policies and procedures are established and followed to keep your children safe while on our campus.

I know that we are all rushed and busy so much of the time. I hope that the holi-days will provide some quality time and rest for you all. We appreciate your sup-port of our school, and we know that we could not do this job without you all lend-ing a hand.

Sincerely,

Donna Forrest and Rhonda Meyers

November 2012

Issue 3

Upcoming Events

November 6th

Election Day

No School

November 8th

PTA Meeting

Rachel’s Story

6pm

November 12th

Veterans Day Musical

Performance 9am

November 14th

Deadline to submit

Canned Goods for

Student Council Food

Drive

November 15th

B1 Sonic Night 5-8pm

Interim Reports

November 19th-23rd

Thanksgiving Holidays

Abita Springs Middle School PT

A

72079 Maple St., Abita Springs, LA 70420 985-892-2070

Working Together As One

Presidential Address

Warrior’s World

Our “MOM’S NIGHT OFF” jambalaya dinner was a huge success. I actually had people stop and ask me when were we going to have the next one. We raised approximately $2300.00 dol-lars (see treasure’s report for exact amount) and had a great showing of parental support. I would like to thank everyone who worked so tirelessly to make it go so smooth, from the teach-ers, to the board members to the parents, support staff, and administration, we could not have done it without you, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH! As you know our cookie dough came in, and once again, we had a great group of parents who came to help sort through and box it up for dispersal. As with any plan you have to be fluid and this one proved to be no different. It started with the delivery and no pallet jack so we had to dolly the dough into the gym by the boxes. The second phase of sorting the dough went great with all the help. When it came to distribution phase, we had all sorts of problems. It started with our last flier that had the right day but the wrong month. OOPS!! Most of the people who we spoke to said they didn’t even see the flier or if they did, they assumed we meant October and not Sep-tember. We had the information on the school website and the PTA website, Ms. Forrest made an announcement to remind the students, and it was in the newsletter, and on Facebook. With all this we still had parents who didn’t get the message. Lesson learned for next time is that we will do an all call to every students home to remind parents of the pickup date, along with the other information distribution avenues we used this past event. JUST A NOTE TO PARENTS:

IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE CALLED AT WORK UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY, YOU

MIGHT LET THE OFFICE KNOW. YOU SHOULD HAVE NOTED IT ON YOUR INFORMATION

SHEET IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. IF IT WAS NOT NOTED, AND WE CALLED

YOU, AND IT CREATED A PROBLEM.... SO SORRY!!!

Our membership drive is still ongoing, we have the month of November to max every category. Please help us in any way possible. Go to you bank and ask them to buy a corporate member-ship it is only $25.00 and they get monthly advertisement in our newsletter. Ask your neighbor even if they don’t have a child in our school, it only costs $5.00 to join. We need student mem-berships, grandparent memberships, dads memberships, and corporate memberships. PLEASE

HELP US REACH OUR GOAL OF 100% MEMBERSHIP!

We are starting work on our spring fundraiser, which will be another first for the PTA. This year our plan is to have a spring fair. You may think it is early when our plan is to have it in March but it is going to take a lot of planning and we are going to need tons of help so help by getting involved. We are also planning another “community connection” project called “DATE NIGHT”. This is where for a small fee you drop your children off at school starting at 6:00 pm and we entertain them until 9:00 pm so that there is a safe and supervised location so parents won’t have to worry and can then unplug and recharge. November PTA meeting is on the 8th at 6:00 in the gym in conjunction with a B-1 program so I hope to see all of you there! Sincerely, Dan Curtis ASMS PTA President

There are many ways that you can get information about what is happening at the school and with the PTA.

The first is to call or email one of the Board members.

President Dan Curtis [email protected] 985-373-2971

Vice President Jeff Ruth [email protected] 985-966-5315

Secretary Jill Barringer [email protected] 985-892-2070

Treasurer Janet Dufrene [email protected] 985-966-7371

We also have a link on the school’s website at http://abitaspringsmiddle.stpsb.org/. We have boxes in the of-

fice at school where you can drop off items for us to pick up. The PTA has gone technical and now has a Face-

book page at https://www.facebook.com/AbitaSpringsMiddleSchoolPta. Just “like” our page and you will get

updates directly to your news feed as they are posted. This is also a great way for you to give us suggestions,

feedback and questions. Please do not post student or teacher specific information on this site. Those ques-

tions should be sent to the teacher or administrators. Finally, we have an email address for the PTA at

[email protected]. We welcome your feedback and questions .

PTA Gets Technical

We are so excited about all of the things we are working on for this year. We have been setting goals and

achieving them. That is ALL about you guys! We can’t do this alone and every time we present you with a chal-

lenge you guys reach the bar. Our Fall Fundraiser was a huge success. We are waiting for the final invoice so

that we know what portion of the proceeds will be all profit but we know we did very well. Our worst case sce-

nario is that we made 12,454.83 in profit but we expect it will be more since Otis Spunkmeyer is working with

our invoice as restitution for the failure to send us the peanut butter dough on time. We will give you a real

number once we have it. We also held our Jambalaya Dinner. Our proceeds were $2354.47 and our cost was

only $680.42 so we made $1674.05 off of that one event. Best of all, that event was FUN! We learned some

lessons and will tweak the logistics for next time but we had so much fun seeing you all! We are looking what

our other needs are for our school. We are hoping to have a few more events this year that will bring us to-

gether as a community while earning some money to complete projects on campus. We haven’t budgeted for

updating areas of the campus but we would love to give our kids more green areas to play on. All of this can be

done only through your help and participation. If anyone has any connections with grass or sod companies,

sprinkler companies, lawn and garden shops, construction companies please let us know. We can always use

all the help we can get and those connections will be vital once we decide what our next projects are going to

be. As always, our books are open for inspection by anyone who wants to see them. I am at the school on most

days and can provide the books for you to see. Contact me at 985-966-7371 and I will meet you. It is the re-

sponsibility of anyone who is a PTA member to make sure that the funds of the group are being used according

to the budget set forth and voted on by the membership. Speaking of budgets we will be voting on amending

the budget once again at the November 8th meeting. This will allow us to allocate the funds earned through

selling desserts at the dinner to the library to purchase new materials. It will also allow us to change some of

the figures for fall fundraiser and jambalaya dinner to bring them in to line with what the actual were. Budgets

are fluid and ours keeps changing as we reach and set new goals. -Janet Dufrene, Treasurer

Financial Footnotes

Issue 3

Membership Levels

Parent/Dad: $5.00

Grandparent: $5.00

Student: $5.00

Corporate: $25

The Mission of the Parent Teacher Association®

PTA® serves as:

• A powerful voice for all children, • A relevant resource for families and communities, and • A strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child.

114! That is the number of memberships we have left to sell in order to have 100% membership and

a PTA representative for every student in our school. We have come so far and I am so proud of eve-

ryone in our school and community. The PTA at the national, state and local levels all strive to have

the most diverse membership possible. This means having members in all of the categories, moms,

dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. We are doing very well so far. We have reached our goal of

50 grandparents! Our next goal is to get to 100 Dads and 20 Corporate memberships. We are at 68

dad memberships and 10 corporate memberships which means we are so close! I would like to

throw down a challenge to the dads this month. We currently have 117 moms who have purchased

memberships. I would love to see the dads get to that number. Dads and male role models are as

important if not more important in the lives of middle school children. Girls are learning how they

should be treated by men and boys are learning how they should treat women. They both want to

have positive men around who can have fun, provide guidance, be non-judgmental and to show

them what being “real men” is about. We invite the men of our Abita community to become a

stronger presence in our PTA and at our school. We are very blessed to have teachers like Justice

Buras, Jonathan Alford and Roy Jenkins in our school on a daily basis. We also have strong male

role models like Dan Curtis, Jeff Ruth, Brandon Dufrene, Matt Ray, Avery Hulin, Jeff Curtis, and

Chris Kotteman who have donated time and energy to help us this year. We also have Mr. Al, our

custodian, who lends a hand whenever he can, has a positive attitude and teaches the kids about

what it means to do a job and love it. As always, we love and thank our moms and grandparents for

their time and support. We couldn’t do it without you. Let’s see if we can get those dads to come out

in force. The November 8th meeting with Rachel’s Challenge is the perfect opportunity to start. See

you there!

Membership G0als

Unit Goal: 490 LA Goal: 225 Dads: 100 Grandparents:50 Corporate Sponsors:20

Unit Actual:376 Students: 68 Dads:68 Grandparents:50 Corporate Sponsors:10

www.pta.org

Members Only

Issue 3

The deadline for Reflections entries has now come and gone. We are going to be very busy as-

sembling and sorting the entries. Once they have been judged we will announce the entries that

will be moving on to the District judging level. From there it is out of our hands and we wait for

notification of entries that might have moved on to the state level. Those who have been chosen

at the District level will be invited to a Children’s Banquet later this year hosted by the District

PTA. From those will be chosen the state winners who will be invited to attend a Children’s

Banquet at the State PTA Convention in April in Baton Rouge. We have had some very talented children at-

tend these banquets in the past and this could be the biggest year for ASMS ever! We look forward to an-

nouncing the winners soon.

Cultural Arts

Issue 3

VFW Americanism Contest

4th Grade Students: Make an illustration of a

Historical Event on 9 1/2 X 11 max paper size.

5th & 6th Grade Students: “How I Honor

Veterans” Essay (300 words or less)

All entries are due November 13th!

Safety Poster Contest Don’t forget that our Safety Poster Contest has a deadline for entry date as December 1, 2012. We have al-

ways done really well in this National PTA contest and have had several students whose work went on to the

District and State levels over the past few years. We encourage all students to create a poster for judging. The

theme this year is “Safety Rules at Our School”. Drawings may not exceed 18 X 12 inches. You may use regu-

lar paper, art paper or poster board. The drawing mediums include pencil, crayon, colored pencil and mark-

ers. All artwork must be original and completed by the student. Lettering should be done by hand and should

be neat and simple, with a minimum of words. Do not use stencils, magazine clippings or any kind of ma-

chine cut-outs.

Safety Rules

in Our Schools

On November 8th, following the PTA meeting at 6pm, we will be hosting a Rachel’s Story Community Night.

We are extremely excited to have this wonderful program come to our school. Rachel’s Challenge/Story exists

to equip and inspire individuals to replace acts of violence, bullying and negativity with acts of respect, kind-

ness, and compassion. Rachel’s Challenge is based on the life and writing of Rachel Joy Scott who was the first

victim of the Columbine School shootings in 1999. Through her example, Rachel’s Challenge is making a posi-

tive impact in the lives of millions of people every year. Rachel’s inspiring story provides a simple, yet powerful

example of how small acts of kindness and acceptance motivate us to consider our relationships with the peo-

ple we come in contact with everyday. Rachel’s Challenge renews our hope that our life has meaning and pur-

pose. Rachel’s story gives us permission to start our own chain reaction of kindness and compassion, which

positively affects the climate of our schools and communities. We hope to see you there!

Sonic Night was a huge success last year in raising money for B1 and

PBIS. Come out and join us on November 15th from 5-8pm. We will

have teachers and administrators out there serving and mixing with

you all. It was a BLAST last year, even in the pouring rain. We will

have more details to come but please mark your calendars to join us

for this fun night.

Keep up the great work Wise Warriors!!!

“Fear of bullying causes 160,000 students to skip school everyday!”

B1 “Take a Stand, Lend a Hand”

“I have this theory that if one person will go out of their way to show compassion, then it WILL

start a chain reaction of the same.”

-Rachel Joy Scott

Issue 3

November marks the start of a very busy time for Student Council as we enter the Holiday Season! We will begin by heading up the Annual ASMS Thanksgiving Food Drive, which directly benefits members of the Abita Springs community. The items we are looking for include, but are not lim-ited to; pasta and rice, dry beans, macaroni and cheese, soups, canned vegetables and meats, peanut butter and jelly, and whole grain cereals. Please be sure to check the expiration dates on all items before sending them in! As usual, we will have a contest among homeroom classes to see who can donate the most nonperishable food items. The winning class will

receive a Pizza Party provided by Student Council. The deadline for all canned goods to be turned in will be Wednesday, November 14th.

I still have a few ASM Spirit Shirts (the tie-dye shirts) left in my classroom. These shirts can be worn each Friday as part of Spirit Day. I will be selling them on a first-come, first-served basis. I still have both Youth and Adult sizes Small, Medium and Large. They are $12.00 each no order form is necessary. Please stop by my room to pick up your shirt today!

Sincerely,

Christine Magnuson, Advisor

Student Council

The 4-H club is off to a great start. We are very happy to announce our 2012-

2013 4-H officers: President-Lauren Hosch, Vice President-Emma Frost,

Treasurer– Mekell Stansbury, Secretary– Grace Dufrene, Reporter– Gwen

Shallin, Parliamentarian– Michaela Michailakis. The officers will attend

officer training to learn more about their roles.

We have already been active in our participation in school and in our

community. Emma and Lauren both took home trophies at the St. Tammany

Parish Fair for their participation in showing their livestock. Our club also

helped Mrs. Connie and crew decorate the cafeteria for National School

Lunch Week. Our fun has only just begun! Check back next month when

secretary, Grace Dufrene, makes her debut as a writer in the 4-H section of

the ASMS newsletter!

Issue 3

4-H

ASMS ST. TAMMANY PARISH FAIR BOOTH ASMS participated in the St. Tammany Parish Fair by creating a Louisiana themed booth using items that were

made by the students and titled “Abita Springs Middle Salutes our Sportsman’s Paradise”. We are so proud of

the creativity of our students and the hard work done by Ms. Adcox to set up the booth. Thank you all for your

hard work!

August & September Students of the Month

August Students of the Month Top row, L-R: Dwayne Bernard, Jonathan Diaz, Callie Dufrene, Samantha Fisher, and Evan Fornea. Middle row: Rachel Gilbert, Alexis Gratia, Camryn Hood, Scott Kastner, Haley Martin, Conlyn Moore, and Trent Lorio. Front row: Chloe Navarro, Skyleigh Neumann, Matilda Plaza, Ashley Schilling, Kaleb Solar, and Analisa Toussaint. (not present for photo: Amelia Bretz)

September Students of the Month Bottom Kameron Batts, Chase Canattella, Sophie Conrad, Jackson Dobraska, and Avione Fabre. Middle row, L-R: Evan Fornea, Tyeshia Johnson, Mason Lampo, Macey Liberto, Hailey McCance, Payton Nunmaker, and Owen Romeril. Back row: Landen Seeley, Brennan Simoneaux, Timothy Snow, DJ Warren, and Jackson Wicker. (not present for photo: Madison Lazaro and Kevin Martin).

We would like to extend a special Thank You to the following businesses for donating food or

goods for our Jambalaya Dinner. We are so Thankful for your help and support. We couldn’t

do it without you and you all contributed to the success of this event.

Olive Garden of Covington for all of the salads

Double D for all of the sausage

Wal-mart of Covington for the French bread

Winn Dixie Highway 59 Mandeville for $25 Gift Card

Sonic of Covington for the napkins and utensils

Veteran’s Day Performance The ASMS Music department will be having a special Veteran’s Day Performance on Monday,

November 12th at 9am in the ASMS gymnasium. There will be a tribute to Veterans so please

invite your friends and family that are Veterans. There will be an array of musical pieces chosen

to salute our armed forces and those people who devote their lives to help protect our freedoms

as Americans. We would love to see your there!

Classroom Spotlight Mrs. Molier-6th Grade

Science

Rocks

Box Tops & Labels for Education We are so proud of our parents and students! Our Box Tops Contest last month was very successful and we sub-

mitted $1317 in Box Tops that will be included with the $1200 we already had earned so we are expecting a nice

check for approximately $2500 in December. We had only budgeted to make $1500 for the whole year so you guys

have blown away another goal! Thank you all! Here are the winning classes of the Box Tops Contest who will be

getting Popsicle Parties:

4th Grade: Ms. Damare’

5th Grade: Ms. Blades

6th Grade: Ms. Demick

Congratulations to the winners and we will holding another contest after the first of the year for before our next

submission date. Continue to collect those box tops so you have them stocked up to send in when we are ready.

We are still collecting Community Coffee labels. We are doing very well with these also. Check our offices and

place of business’ and see if they use Community Coffee and if they do grab all of the labels you can. We were very

lucky to find over $600 worth of labels that were left for us by the previous year’s PTA board so we are starting off

with a bang! The deadline for submission of these labels is the end of January so we are going to set a deadline for

turning them in at January 15th, 2013. Keep collecting those labels!

Grandparent’s Day 2012

ASMS Spirit Cart Spirit Cart sales have started and the kids are loving it! Spirit Cart opens during lunch every Tuesday unless

weather prohibits it. We have been very busy and have been trying different things in order to allow all children

a chance to purchase something. We may limit the number of items a child can purchase at one time and ask

them to get back in line so that others will have a chance before the bell rings. There is a limited amount of time

for the kids to shop so we don’t want to miss out on anyone. Please bear with us as we give them a shopping ex-

perience while also teaching patience and respect for others. Thank you for your support. Please let us know if

you are interested in helping out by working the Spirit Cart with us.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------———-

ASMS Spirit Items Order Form

School Year 2012-2013

Parent's name:__________________________________ Phone # ____________________

Child's name:_________________________________________

(If you have more than one child at ASMS, please put the name of the child to whom you wish the order to be

delivered.)

Homeroom teacher: ____________________________________Grade (circle): 4th 5th 6th

Please return completed orders with payment to your child's homeroom or the school office in an envelope marked "Spirit Cart." Orders will be delivered to your child's homeroom on

Tuesdays by the Spirit Cart volunteers.

_____________FOR STAFF USE ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE._____________

Cash Amt __________ OR Check Amt __________/Date_______________/Number__________

Item Description Quan-

tity

Price Total

ASMS shoelaces, pair navy w/white "ASMS", 36"

(5-6 pairs of holes)

X 2.00 =

ASMS logo keychain white/navy, vinyl w/metal ring, logo &

phone #

X 0.75 =

ASMS logo pencil

bag

clear/white, vinyl with zipper and binder

holes

X 1.00 =

ASMS logo sticker clear/white, 4" round

(not reversed/not a window cling)

X 1.00 =

ASMS lanyard navy w/white "ASMS" X 1.00 =

ASMS pencil navy/silver X 0.25 =

Total (Enclose payment with order. Make checks payable to ASMS PTA.) =

Corporate Sponsors

Amazing Views of the Smokies

1455 E. Parkway Gatlinburg, TN 37738

(865)436-3613

Northshore Auto & Truck Accessories

1856 Collins Blvd.

Covington, LA 70433

(985) 898-2211

Clayton Charbonnet, DDS Louisiana Orthodontic Specialists

61 Park Place Drive

Covington, LA 70433

(985)867-3636

Dependable Siding Inc.

Mark Hosch, Owner

985-966-0628

New Construction, Repairs & Addi-tions

Vinyl Siding, Windows, Patio Covers, Gutters & Hardie Siding

Northshore Tire Repair & Service LLC

1990 Highway 190 West

Slidell, LA 70460

985-645-8747

Dale Wicker Construction

70204 8th Street Covington, LA 70433

(985)373-5862

(985)809-0818

Authentic Exterminating Inc.

P.O. Box 9102 Mandeville, LA 70470

(985)674-0634 (985)264-3776

Pest & Termite Service

Creative Arts of St. Tammany

70326 Highway 59

Abita Springs, LA 70420

(985) 590-3645

“Theater For Children by children

performed at The Swan”

www.dramaandmusic.com

Smoothie King

1600 N Highway 190 70456 Highway 21

Covington, LA 70433

(985)809-9722 (985)875-7793 www.smoothieking.com

Corporate Sponsors

Tutor Me Online Professional Tutoring Service

Martha Schubert, M.Ed. www.tutormeonline.org

Helping Your Child Succeed Is Our Number One Priority

Cafeteria Menu

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

1 Ham & Cheese Wrap

Turkey Breast Rice w. Gravy

Black Eyed Peas Carrots & Fruit

2 Grits & French Toast

Quesadilla Salsa Corn

Fruit

5 Muffins

Beef Taco w. Shell Cheese, Lettuce, Salsa

Corn & Peaches Cinnamon Roll

6

Election Day

No School

7 Waffles

Fish Square Baked Potato

Broccoli & Fruit Texas Toast

8 Cinnamon Roll

Chicken Tenders Mac & Cheese Celery & Fruit Texas Toast

9 Sausage Biscuit

BBQ Chicken Lettuce

Fruit Choice Roll

12 Cinnamon Roll

Chicken Poppers Fried Rice

Broccoli & Fruit Texas Toast

13 Ham & Biscuits

Pigs-in-a-Blanket Baked Beans

Carrots & Fruits Brownie

14 Beignets

Turkey w. Gravy Sweet Potatoes

Fruit Salad Cornbread Dressing

15 Ham & Cheese Wrap

Quesadilla Potato Rounds

Corn Fruit

16 Pancakes Spaghetti w Meat Sauce Salad & Green Beans

Fruit Choice Bread Sticks

19

No School


20

No School


21

No School


22

No School


23

No School


26 Muffins

Meat Loaf

Mashed Potatoes Broccoli and Fruit Chocolate Cookie

27 Sausage Biscuit

Chicken Taco w. Shell Cheese, Lettuce, Salsa

Corn & Potatoes Cinnamon Roll

28 Beignets

Chicken Tenders Mac & Cheese

Black Beans & Fruit Texas Toast

29 Cinnamon Roll

Hamburger w. Bun

French Fries Lettuce & Carrots

Fruit Choice

30 Yogurt w. Toast

Gumbo w. Rice Carrot Sticks Fruit Choice Texas Toast

asms november newsletter - abita springs middle school

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