Panther Press

October 13th-Lothrop PTO Virtual meeting @ 6:30 PM

October 15th-Early Release-11:30 AM-Car Riders and Walkers/11:45 AM-Bus Riders

October 16th-Lothrop PTO and Pittsford Rec Movie Night 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

October 20th-OVUU Board Meeting @ 6:00 PM-OV Library and Virtual

October 25th-Lothrop Gear Orders Due

October 26th-Lothrop Family Engagement Night @ 6:00 PM-Details Below

October 29th-Halloween Parade-1:15 Learners Assemble on the Blacktop.

October 31 - Lothrop PTO Trunk or Treat 5:30-6:30 at the Pittsford Town Office

November 2nd-Caverly Vision Screenings

November 3rd-OV Board Meeting @ 6:00 PM-OV Library and Virtual

November 8 - November 12 - Scholastic Book Fair

November 9th-Family Conferences

November 10th-Lothrop PTO Virtual meeting @ 6:30 PM

November 11th-No School/Inservice

November 17th-OV Board Meeting @ 6:00 PM-OV Library and Virtual

November 18th-Family Conferences

November 19th-Early Release-11:30 AM-Car Riders and Walkers/11:45 AM-Bus Riders

November 24th-26th-No School-Thanksgiving Break

On Friday, October 1st the Pittsford Fire Department joined us for our all school morning meeting on the blacktop. They spoke to the students about fire safety and firefighters interacted with them in an effort to familiarize students with what it is like to be around fully equipped firefighters. Throughout the day, classes were able to explore firetrucks, learn about fire safety and receive a goodie bag. They are always such good sports. This year, one of the firefighters brought "Poppy and Shiloh," characters from the books that grades 3 and 4 are reading, to the top of the ladder!

We have seen a number of learners bringing Pokemon cards to school lately. Please help us remind children that personal toys should not come to school unless it is a special day organized by the classroom teacher- ex.Class Celebration.

I know that the kiddos would like to be able to trade cards at school, but as you can imagine, all kinds of difficulties arise from this. (I remember when my own children's schools navigated this in the early 2000s) In the future, cards will be considered toys. That said, the Pittsford Rec is in the process of organizing a card trading night and I will keep you posted as to the details.

Lothrop School will host a series of meetings on October 26th beginning at 6:00 PM to support our families' understanding regarding the goals of Lothrop School as a part of RNESU, Title l Intervention offerings, and our Home School Compact. There will be both in-person and virtual options and you are invited to attend all three or just the ones that interest you the most.

6:00 PM-6:20 PM-Lothrop School-Wide Plan Review

*I will post a draft of our Lothrop Title l Schoolwide Plan on the school website and include it in an email for your review in the coming days. I will seek input from families at the meeting.

6:20 PM-6:40 PM-Title I Intervention Programming

*I will share a presentation on our Multi-tiered System of Supports and Lothrop systems, to include our Educational Support Team process and how learners are identified and receive intervention and supports at Lothrop.

6:40 PM-7:00 PM-Lothrop School and Home Compact Review

*Those present will review our Lothrop School and Home Compact and determine if any revisions are desired and/or necessary.

This is an updated flier and you will notice that the cost is now FREE! The PTO and Pittsford Rec ask that you will reserve your seats using the Scan QR Code or this LINK to reserve tickets for planning purposes.

This week the fifth graders wrapped up their five Starbase days. Sixth grade students have one more make up day in November. Middle Level learners enjoyed the hands on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathmatics (STEM) lessons. Topics they were introduced to included Newton's Laws, Computer Aided Design, Nanotechnology, Molecular design, Robotics, Navigation, Chemical and Physical Changes. The goal of our partnership with Starbase is to get learners excited about science and give them an opportunity to think about careers in STEM. Ask your learner about their favorite lesson!

Mrs. Desforges's class will host the Friday morning Meeting on November 5th and honor our Veterans. To prepare, they are doing a special project to honor our veterans. If you have a picture of a veteran in your family or circle of friends, we would love to have a digital copy. These pictures can be portraits or casual family photos, of any veterans with ties to Lothrop School. Deployment or reunification pictures are needed too. These can be old or new pictures, just please provide a name and connection to Lothrop. If you know the rank and branch of the military, feel free to include that as well. For example, Nicholas Whitman, Sargent, US Marine Corp, Lothrop Graduate and Evan Desforges's uncle.

Please email your photos to Mary Desforges, at mdesforges@rnesu.org by October 15 so the class has time to produce the tribute. So far we only have a few, so thank you all for helping!

Family Conferences are scheduled for November 9th and 18th. Teachers will be preparing sign-up sheets and links to all of them for next week's Panther Press. This year, families will have a choice of meeting in-person, by phone, or by Google Meet. We always shoot for 100% participation and we hope that the multitude of options will get us there. These meetings are some of the most important connections between home and school for the year.

I will not be present on November 9th as I am participating in the last portion of the Waddington Leadership Initiative, but will be present in the building on November 18th and would gladly meet with any family through any of these methods of communicating. Never hesitate to reach out.

The Lothrop Leadership Team met and we planned for the 2021 Halloween Parade! We are very excited about being able to do this. Classes will walk together as they have in the past and will wear cloth masks as they will be unable to social distance.

The irony is that we have asked each year that children NOT wear masks for the parade. The reason for this is that Halloween masks often cover the eyes of a child, impeding their vision and causing a potentially unsafe situation. So, please do not send any parts of a costume that cover eye areas, such as a "Halloween Mask."

As usual, costumes should not include weapons, blood, or gore. They should be school-appropriate and consider that we will have children in grades K-6 participating. Please consider your child's footwear choice as we will march over Pleasant Street and up Arch Street, a little bit of a hike if one is in high heel shoes :)

Should learners wish to dress up and need help finding a costume, we have some available at the school. Please let your child's teacher, myself or the front office know as soon as you are able.

Families may view the parade from Pleasant Street and Arch Street. Families will not be able to come into the school to help with costumes and should not be viewed from school grounds. (We will help children with costumes-eliciting our Middle-Level students who will enjoy helping our Littles) Pleasant Street and Arch Street will allow us to predictably have space between our children and adults. If you wish to pick up your child after the parade, please get into the parent pick-up lane and we will begin loading cars as soon as the parade is over. For families unable to attend, car rider pick-up will run as usual.

Classrooms will be given guidance on snacks for the day and that information will come home in classroom newsletters.

Each spring, our learners in grades 3-6 take a series of assessments created by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium that align with our learning standards, also created by SBAC. Participation in these assessments is a part of our programming curriculum. The data collected helps to inform our next instruction and the results are a small piece of your child's data profile. Beginning this year we will be taking interim SBAC assessments. This will further inform our instruction and help to normalize the assessment process. Finally, large sums of federal dollars that we count on each year are tied to learners participating in these assessments. Our local budget and what we can offer our learners would be greatly impacted, should we lose federal dollars. Lothrop has typically had nearly 100% participation in the SBAC assessments and I am grateful for your support of this piece of our work.

Per VT Department of Health guidelines, students and staff with symptoms of COVID should be excluded from school. If your child has any of the following symptoms, they need to stay at home until their symptoms have been improved for at least 24 hours without the use of Tylenol or Ibuprofen. If your child has one or more symptoms for more than 24 hours, please consult their healthcare provider for guidance and testing. (If your child is tested, they should stay home until negative test results are received. Written test results will be required before returning to school.)

• Fever

• Cough

• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

• Fatigue (Very Tired)

• Muscle aches

• Headache

• New loss of taste or smell

• Sore throat

• Runny nose

• Nausea or Vomiting

• Diarrhea

Please call or email Mrs. Parker at 802-483-2242 Ext 2425 or mparker@rnesu.org if you have any questions about whether your child should be at school.

If your child arrives at school with any of these symptoms or develops any of these symptoms while at school, they will need to be picked up immediately. Please be sure that the emergency contacts on file include someone that can quickly respond to a call from school. If you will be away for the day, please have a contact available that is nearby.

Here is the link for the documents below.

2021-22 PTO Officers:

President-Sybren Spensley

Vice President-Kate Lathrop

Treasurer-Brett and Hillary Mullin

Secretary- Meghan Fox

Facebook Page & Group

We have a public page and a private group, we will be posting items/updates in the private group as well as the public page. Please 'like' our page and request to be added to the group (link).

Meetings

For the time being, The Lothrop PTO meets the second Wednesday of the month ONLINE at 6:30pm. ALL Lothrop families are considered members of the PTO and are welcome to attend meetings. Meeting notices/invites will be posted in the private Facebook group.

Help Needed

We are always looking for folks willing to help with various tasks and events so please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to contribute.

Lothroppto@rnesu.org

What is AmazonSmile?

AmazonSmile is a simple way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. AmazonSmile is available at smile.amazon.com on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones. When you shop at AmazonSmile, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added benefit that AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. You can choose from over one million organizations to support.

Don't forget about the Lothrop PTO when you shop on Amazon smile. Follow the link and the PTO will get a portion of your purchase. Or search for Pittsford parent teacher on Amazon smile. Thank you! http://smile.amazon.com/ch/03-6011454

We will be holding our Fall Fundraising Blitz again this year and will be sending home a number of fundraisers for those families that wish to order holiday gifts. We understand that many families' financial situations may have changed and we do NOT want anyone to feel pressured to purchase or sell items. We are NOT asking each family to support ALL. We are asking each interested family to choose ONE and sell that one. We are hoping to meet our fundraising needs with this blitz and not have to hold any other fundraisers after the fall blitz is over. Unfortunately, the need for fundraising is there...the PTO is not trying to overwhelm families, we want to give you options. We aim to have all orders delivered to the school by the first week in December in case folks were purchasing items as Holiday gifts. We will post Fundraiser due dates/deadlines in each school newsletter. If you are not interested in selling/buying from fundraisers and would like 100% of your contribution to go to the PTO, please feel free to write us a check or use our Square site for debit/credit:

https://lothrop-pto.square.site/

Here is a list of Potential Fundraisers we plan to send home information for (pending approval at October 7th meeting):

• Cookie Love

• Baird Farm

• Little Caesars

• Square One Art

• Spirit Wear

• Danforth

• Mary Kay

• Farmraiser

• Meadow Farms

Thank you for your support!

Please contact Kelly Connaughton if you would like some coupons for $2 off a haircut at SportClips in Rutland. The PTO gets $2 for every coupon and you get $2 off!!

Reusable bags - help the environment and support the PTO! $5 for a set of 4 bags. 2 sandwich bags, 2 snack bags. Dishwasher safe! PM or email lothroppto@rnesu.org or Kelly Connaughton kfield16@yahoo.com Cash, Check or Square payments accepted: https://lothrop-pto.square.site/ Checks payable to Lothrop PTO

Styles include:

Pink monster

Orange monster

Blue Clouds

Panda

Blue dog

Pink kitty

Blue words

Green words

Shop at Price Chopper/Market 32 to help our school earn free classroom equipment! Please link your AdvantEdge card to our school at: rewards.pricechopper.com. Each time you shop and have your linked card scanned, our school will earn free classroom equipment, all donated by Price Chopper/ Market 32.

How Supporters can Enroll their AdvantEdge Cards to your school:

Lothrop School Code: 15378

Parents and supporters need to sign up at https://rewards.pricechopper.com even if they participated in the past!

If a supporter doesn't already have a Price Chopper AdvantEdge Card, they can sign-up for one at any Price Chopper store or visit us online at www.pricechopper.com.

Show us your creative side! Trunk or Treat is a Halloween event sponsored by the Lothrop PTO, Pittsford Recreation Department, Pittsford Fire Department, Pittsford First Response, Maclure Library and set up at the Vermont Police Academy. Local folks will decorate their trunks, gather and park cars in the Pittsford Town Office Parking Lot. Candy will be passed out from decorated trunks. The event provides a safe family environment for trick or treaters. FREE event but donations are appreciated - Proceeds benefit the Lothrop Elementary PTO. Join us for tricks, treats and lots of fun! PLENTY of parking is available.
'Trunkers' must arrive by 5:00pm, please no gruesome decor.
Please send an email to lothroppto@rnesu.org if you are interested in hosting a trunk. We will have candy donated by Vermont Country Store, Gecha Fuels, and CVS to refill your bowl when you run out.

Promoting an Early Love of Reading

Sara’s Stories is a book program that began in Pittsford in 2016. Our program was created in 2016 in memory of Sara Gallipo, a beloved community member and mother of two of the program’s founders. Since 2016, Sara’s Stories has given out over 1,000 books to Pittsford and Florence residents. Our program helps to ensure that every child in our program has new books that are developmentally appropriate in their home. Research shows that early literacy is linked to success in elementary school, high school and beyond.

Over the years our program has grown and expanded. We initially provided free books at Pittsford events and through Caverly Preschool but wanted to be able to reach more of our community with books each month in an affordable, efficient way. In 2019, we found a way to make our goal a reality! Sara’s Stories began a partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in October of 2019. In 2021, we were able to expand our Dolly Parton Imagination Library to include Chittenden, Proctor and Clarendon. We now serve as the local champion for Pittsford, Florence, Chittenden, Proctor and Clarendon. As a local champion we raise funds, attend community events and process applications for the Imagination Library book mailings. Sara’s Stories is funded by a couple of small fundraisers, business sponsorships and individual donations throughout the year. We still strive to attend Pittsford events and hand out free books, generally ones that coincide with the event or season, to all children in attendance, regardless of residency. Our Facebook Page, Sara’s Stories, will tell you when and where you can find us next!

In order to become part of the Sara’s Stories program, please fill out the attached form for all children in your household under age 5. If you provide your email address you will be able to create a Dolly Parton account which will allow you to see which book your little one can expect in the mail next, submit address changes and add any children that join your family. Once we receive your application, we will input your child(ren) into our system and your child(ren) will receive their first book in the mail within 8-10 weeks. Mail your application to:

Sara’s Stories

3114 US Route 7

Pittsford, VT 05763

You can also sign up online by following this link: https://imaginationlibrary.com/check-availability

Please keep in mind that this program is free and you will never receive a bill for the books that your child receives. We just hope that your family will enjoy the books and spend time reading together!

We hope to hear from you soon,

Meghan Fox, Kayla Desabrais and Jenelle Daly