PATH is the non-profit Parent, Teacher organization supporting Castlebay Lane Elementary School.

Current Articles	Restaurants & Coupons
PATH Budget Next Year	Castlebay Paints Out Graffiti
Moms Take Over!	New Mailbox
Poolside Poker $4,000	Tamar Galatzan at Castlebay
Talent Show $3,800	School Belt Tightening
Jogathon $13,000	Beware New Drugs
Enrichment Classes	Safety Policies Changed
Boxtops	Summer Camps
Platinum Sponsors
California Dance Academy	Le Club Gymnastics
Richard Collins	Law Offices of Jae Young Lee
Huntington Learning	Porter Valley Country Club
Izze Soda	7-11 at 10325 Zelzah
All Corporate Sponsors	US Taekwando Porter Ranch

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.

View the presentation and draft budget

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!

Flier & Ticket Request. Rules.
List of acts for both shows.

Jogathon Raised $13,000 for PE

Principal Vivian Ihori leads the charge by jogging, walking or doing the chicken dance with each class.

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.

Sponsor Sign Up Sheet
Prize List


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.

By the way, read Steve Lopez article about school fundraising at Ivanhoe Elementary. They ask for $1,000 per child. They rank 14 in LAUSD's 484 elementary schools and raise $327,000. One dad is paying his $1,000 by canceling his cable service.

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.

Fox News Article

Castlebay Evacuation Plans Updated: March 2009

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.

Read about the meeting and evacuation suggestions.


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.

7-11 Location: 10325 Zelzah Avenue, Northridge,
Corner of Zelzah & Devonshire

Thank you to all our Corporate Sponsors!
Become a Corporate Sponsor!