Art Supplies Please bring unused art
supplies and old crayons to the teacher's lounge for use
in next year's art projects.
PATH Makes Critical Budget
Decisions
Critical decisions were made by the parents at the May
27, 2009 PATH meeting for next year. There was standing
room only at the evening meeting in the library with
many new parents attending, including some whose
children start at Castlebay next year.
Budget decisions included:
Paying the remaining
$5,000 for the PE program for next year. The
jogathon raised $13,000 for next year. The remaining
$5,000 is needed for the full year of PE.
Paying for $3,000 in
paper for the teachers to cover next year's math
curriculum copying. There is a corresponding
reduction of $3,800 for teacher supplies, or $100
per teacher that will be eliminated if funds are not
raised.
Funding a new copier
for $6,000. The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council
will be also supporting the school with $4,000 for
another copier.
Funding $7,000 for a
Kindergarten Aide in lieu of math practice books
that will not be needed next year. They are not
provided for the new curriculum. Hence, the paper
allocation mentioned above. These funds cover the
aide time in the classroom, which was cut by LAUSD.
Her time is still paid for by LAUSD for the
playground.
The draft budget assumes
that we conduct the exact same fundraisers with the same
results. If so we will be $12,000 short. More than 10
events / fundraising efforts require additional
volunteers to execute. Please sign up to help.
Second Grade Moms Take Matters Into
Their Own Hands!
Three moms of second graders were upset when the field
trip planned to the Moorpark College Learning Zoo was
cancelled for June 2, 2009 due to lack of funds for
buses. They agreed to pay for the buses and the field
trip was on. Many parents have chipped in to help pay
the cost of the buses, which is $6 per student. It is
not too late to send in your $$$ to help out. Way to go
Moms!
By the way, the
Zoo is a great summer field trip for all you other
moms look for summer activities.
Poolside
Poker – Texas Hold’em Tournament & Ladies Night
Raises $4,000
PATH held a
Texas Hold’em style poker tournament and ladies
night on Saturday, May 30, 2009. Thanks to Christi
Ebenhoch and Gus Gougas for your heroic efforts in pulling this together! This event resulted
in $4,000 for our kids!
Yearbooks On Sale
Limited quantities of the yearbooks are for sale on
Monday, June 8th after school in the office on a first
come first serve for $35.00 cash. Limited quantities. Castlebay's Got Talent! April 25, 2009
The talent
show was held on April 25 at 1:30 and 4:30pm in the MPR.
There were only 185 tickets per show. The performers did
a great job. Castlebay has all kinds of talent, singing,
dancing, piano, violin, kung fu and Korean drums!
PATH and the school conducted a Jogathon on April 2, 2009 to raise
money to pay for next year's PE program. The
current program gives each student 45 minutes of PE a
week conducted by YMCA PE staff. The annual cost of the
PE program is $21,000, which is about $26 per student.
Currently $17,000 of the program is paid for by PATH
fundraising and $4,000 by the school. If each student
raises $28 during the Jogathon, then PE is assured for
next year!
Students spent 20 minutes running or walking
around the backstops in the field and collected
sponsors for specific amounts or by backstop. Parents
and teachers were invited to run or walk too. Student
participation is part of their PE program for the day.
Running is also part of the fifth grade physical fitness
assessment. A big thanks to Mr. Narin and his committee
of parents who made this event successful! After warming up, students line up at the backstops
to begin their jogging. Students jog around the field, stopping at each
backstop to have their progress marked on their card.
Parents and fifth graders helped at the backstops. Parents joined in the jogging fun! Everyone gave it
their best and had a great time.
Spring Enrichment Classes
Classes started the week of April 20th. Enrichment
classed benefit our kids and make money for our school,
$1,700 this year.
Class Schedule.Class
Descriptions.
Enrichment letter.
Sign up form. Castlebay Students Paint Out Graffiti Saturday,
March 21, 2009 Castlebay students joined community
volunteers in a graffiti clean up sponsored by the
school. About 50 people painted out graffiti in three
locations. More.
Lowe's
Donates Mailbox
Thanks to concerned father and community activist, Mike
Dobry, we now have a new locking mailbox donated by
Lowe's. This replaces an old box that looked like it had
been hit by a car and was missing the door, allowing
mail to blow around the neighborhood in the wind. LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan Reads to
Castlebay On
Tuesday, March 10, LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan
read to third graders as part of the Read Across America
Literacy Week Program. She read Demi's "One Grain of
Rice" because it relates to the current unit on money.
PATH Meeting Focused on School Funding
Principal Vivian Ihori identified some of the ways the
district is considering cutting the LAUSD budget during
the March 10, 2009 meeting. They include moving
administrators to classrooms and laying off probationary
and first and second year (or more) teachers. Teacher
furloughs which require the teachers to take unpaid time
off, but not affect the classroom time, are a
possibility. We may be required to increase ratios to 24
to 1 in kindergarten through third grade, which would
eliminate 4 teachers at our school. Also under
consideration is eliminating the Assistant Principal for
Educational Instruction Support (Mrs. Richmond). If so,
she would be replaced by a specialist covering several
schools.
The school budget controlled by the district covers
teacher salaries and text books. The school based budget
controlled by the school covers aides and materials with
$65,000.
The PATH budget covers Art, PE, Music, Computer, part of
the librarian, workroom aide, some classroom aides, one
bus ride to a field trip per student, and minimal
teacher supplies. The cost for all of these services for
our children is $172,000.
View where our
$$$ go.
Each year we parents are asked to contribute $500 to
cover the cost of the $172,000. However only 15-20%
of families respond, resulting in collections of only
$53,000. Hence the fundraising events to try and
collect the money: Wrapping paper sales, magazine
drives, cook's night out, art sales, family fun day,
talent show, jogathon, magic show, poker night etc.
During the PATH meeting we discussed ways to raise money
and where to cut the budget. The 24 attendees (you
are all welcome to attend-no extra charge!) voted to
charge for next year's directory, saving about $1,000.
We also voted to ask parents to pay $10 at the beginning
of the year for the one bus field trip covered by PATH
each year, which would save $4,800. Please
review the budget
and come help!
President Christi Ebenhoch vigorously campaigned for
volunteers to partner together in committees to run
fundraising events for next year. Please
contact Christi to see how you can help, even if you
work full time.
Committee
Sign Up List.
Boxtops Expire!
Parents and students: thanks for sending in your boxtops.
Please check the expiration dates. We have had to
discard quite a few that expired 12/31/2008 but were
received this year. Please be sure to bring in boxtops
that expire 6/1 2009 by May 27, 2009.
Beware
of Drugs Marketed to Kids
New drug in Schools...
This is a new drug known as 'strawberry quick '.
There is a very scary thing going on in the schools
right now that we all need to be aware of.
There
is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like
strawberry pop rocks (the candy that sizzles and 'pops'
in your mouth). It also smells like strawberry and it is
being handed out to kids in school yards. They are
calling it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.
Kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and
being rushed off to the hospital in dire condition. It
also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry,
grape and orange.
Please instruct your children not to accept candy from
strangers and even not to accept candy that looks like
this from a friend (who may have been given it and
believed it is candy) and to take any that they may have
to a teacher, principal, etc. immediately.
As a result of parent concerns about the evacuation
process during the Sesnon Fire, the District and school
have taken steps to improve our emergency policies.
During a PATH Safety Committee Meeting on March 9, Bob
Spears, Director of LAUSD Emergency Services reported
that LAUSD and the City are aware that they need to
communicate better at the City Emergency Operations
Center to pass along critical information about
evacuations in school neighborhoods.
Additionally the school has changed their evacuation
procedures. The principal may use the ConnectEd
voicemail system to alert parents about the status of a
potential emergency. Parents have been asked to update
the emergency cards with a more complete listing of
office and cell phone numbers. This information has been updated in the ConnectEd system;
however only half the students have sent in updated
cards.
The school has moved the request gate to a better
position in the parking lot. A table for use at the gate
is stored in the multipurpose room. The table will be
set up with emergency cards in 4 notebooks to speed up
request processing.
Teachers will "double up", with one teacher for two
classrooms, allowing teachers to be the runners for
requested children. The reunion gate remains the same,
but staff will be positioned at the bottom of the gate
to release children, preventing parents from crowding up
the stairway.
Corporate Sponsors for 2008 - 2009
PATH is inviting companies to be sponsors as a new
component to our fundraising. We are excited that
Huntington
Learning Centers,
RealSoda.com and
Le Club
Gymnastics have sponsored us at the Platinum Level.
Copyright 2007 • CASTLEBAY LANE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (this is not the CLES official website)
19010 Castlebay Lane • Porter Ranch, CA 91326 • Phone: 818-360-1908
Site Designed By: Moore
Business Results