Lutherville Lab Report

What's gone down & what's coming up at the leopards' lair.

September 15, 2023

Lutherville Families,

We had a packed week at The Lab! On Saturday, 14 members of the Lutherville Equity Guiding Coalition convened for a 4-hour retreat at Goucher College to set the foundation for our work ahead. It was powerful to see such a collaboration between staff, parents/guardians and community members working in concert to make LL the best it can be for every student.

The week was short, but full! We were so glad to see so many families at Back to School Night and glad to share information about the year ahead. The slides from the schoolwide presentation are attached. I enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate so much of what I am proud of at Lutherville -- our commitment to student learning, relationships and connections with students, and the extraordinary efforts of our staff. Minds On -- Whole Hearts -- ALL IN!

It was great to see much of the community out together at Baskin Robbins night! Thank you for the support of the PTA and our school. Please enjoy a few of the pictures below, with plenty more on the PTA Facebook page. I brought my daughter, Sadie, who is excited to see all her new Lutherville friends again soon!

This week, Mrs. Hart and I completed Student Handbook talks, which are an overview of important safety rules and our ROAR Code of Conduct. Handbooks came home with signature pages identified to be signed and returned. When discussing responsibility, we highlighted care and use of the BCPS-issued device. Please be advised that the cover that comes on the device is not to be removed or attempted to be removed, which would likely damage the device. This year, malicious destruction of devices is something which BCPS will be charging families for, with a replacement cost of $355. We also discussed responsible device use, which applies to use of the BCPS network and school appropriate websites and images, and that BCPS devices should be used for schoolwork. The full expectations for devices are covered on page 5 of the handbook.

Finally, there are a couple of flyers to pass along.

The Central Area Advisory Council meeting for September 20th.
Parent University calendar for the year.

Calendar Reminders:

9/21: Central Area Capacity Relief Meeting, 6:00 (livestream link on website)

9/25: No School for students

9/27: Food Truck Night @ St. Paul's

In partnership,

-Mr. McComb

Baskin Robbins was a Blast!

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Fall Family Night!

We are looking forward to another excellent Fall Family Night on October 17th!

Central to our Fall Family night is the Cultural Fair in the gym, which is such an important way that we seek to celebrate and highlight the beautiful diversity of our community.

We are seeking families that are interested in sharing elements of their home culture with our school community. If you are interested in sharing through a demonstration, artifact, display, food, teaching some of the language, or another idea -- please contact Shaimaa Hussien at shimaahussien86@gmail.com to register!

Additionally, Mr. Weigle is planning ahead for student art displays at Fall Family Night and is seeking volunteer support to prepare student artwork for display (matt, hand, and take down).

Please reach out to him at tweigle@bcps.org if you are able to make any of the following dates/times to support:

Tuesday, October 10th, from 4:25pm-5:30pm (matting art day)
Monday, October 16th from 4:25pm-6pm (hanging art day)
Tuesday, October 17th from 7:30pm-8:30pm (taking down art, we could be done by 8pm)

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Staff panel as part of our Professional Learning on Friday.

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This is what successful problem-solving looks like.

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Our gratitude to the PTA for nourishing our staff on PD days!

Notes from the PTA

Thank you to all who have joined the PTA and to all who attended our hugely successful Baskin Robbins fundraiser! We appreciate your support and the time spent together so far.

We will be in touch soon with those who have submitted volunteer interest forms.

If you missed the PTA presentation at Back to School Night, fear not! A packet of information will be coming home in your child(ren)'s green folder next week.

If you wish to get a head start in getting connected with us, here are 3 key next steps:

STEP 1: Complete a short survey about your knowledge of and interactions with the PTA.

STEP 2: Submit a volunteer interest form to tell us what type of resources you already have to offer (i.e. cooking/baking, local business connection, own a large vehicle for transporting items etc..) and what events you would like to support this fall. Here is a description of and dates for the events.

Step 3: Purchase a PTA membership online or by using the membership form located at the bottom of this Lab Report. Memberships are $15 per person with a transaction fee by credit card.

We look forward to connecting with everyone soon!

School Photos Transition to Lifetouch

Last Spring we made the decision to transition our school pictures business to a different vendor. We were seeking better customer services practices for our community and communication for our school staff. We are very pleased to share we've entered a new contact partnering with Lifetouch.

The move to Lifetouch offers many benefits to families. There is an attachment that provides further information, but highlights are:

Every Lutherville child will receive a photo package, either a package purchased by the family or a proof sheet that includes 3 wallet size pictures and 2 family safe cards.
All picture packages include a free digital image.
Lifetouch partners with Shutterfly and families receive a special Shutterfly gift when purchasing school pictures on mylifetouch.com and the opportunity to connect to Shutterfly's nearly endless variety of personalized products.
Families have the option to change the background of their child's image after their photo is taken to get their favorite look.

We are excited for the opportunities with this change and hope that it serves our community well. Please note the following dates for picture days. Additional information and reminders will come as we get closer:

Fall Individuals: November 8th
Fall Retakes: January 17th
Spring Individuals: April 10th