PTA News - March 2015

What is going on in the PTA?

From the EB
Despite a shortened month due to 'Mid-Winter Recess', February was action packed with Music shares, committee meetings and finalizing a date for the Spring Gala (May 9th)! March looks to be just as active. It is March 1st and currently snowing as I write. This makes it even harder to believe that soon we will be turning our clocks forward, navigating the NYC sidewalk traffic on St. Patrick's Day and welcoming Spring later this month. While the snow is beautiful, it continues to be a cold winter and I hope March brings some warmer weather...soon. 
-David Tunstall pr@sprucestreetnyc.org

General PTA Meeting
Come to the next General PTA Meeting on Wednesday March 18th at 8:45am in the cafeteria. At this meeting, Nancy will continue her discussion of Equity in the school in her Principal’s report as well as update on other goings on at the school, the PTA will announce open positions for the 2015-2016 PTA Executive Board, nominations will be taken for a special election for a VP of Fundraising, and there will be a special guest presenter.

PTA Executive Board Meetings (2 in March)

• Friday, March 6, 2015 | 8:15am - 10:15am in Room 351 - PTA Room 
• Monday, March 30, 2015 | 8:15am - 10:15am in Room 351 - PTA Room 

SLT Meeting

• Tuesday, March 24, 2015 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm in the Library

Events
Big props to Marie Ursitti-Collins and Shelley Grams for organizing and pulling off a fun community building event, the Winter Carnival. Thanks also go to all the sponsors, volunteers and everyone who came out to make it a great success.

The notable events coming up in March are :

• Project Cicero. For more information click here
  To volunteer click here

• Movie Night at Spruce. Fun for the whole family! Please join your fellow Spruce families for our PTA Sponsored movie night on Friday, March 13th at 6:15pm featuring "How To Train Your Dragon." Tickets cost $5.00. Snacks will be available for purchase during the movie. All children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Proceeds from this PTA fundraiser are used to support Spruce enrichment programs among other PTA initiatives. For more information, contact Laetitia Damiani.
• Family Picture Fundraiser. Memories for a lifetime! Sign up quick for Family Photo Day at Spruce Street School. You have to sign up in advance to secure your photo session appointment and spots are limited!!! Family Photo Day will take place on Saturday, March 14th from 9 am to 5 pm at the Cool for School Photo Pop-Up Photo Studio conveniently located in our very own Spruce Street School! Please click on link for all the details: Family Photo Day Spruce Street School. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Spruce PTA. For more info please check the calendar. For more information, contact Laetitia Damiani.
• City Harvest Canned Food Drive. Pick up some extra cans or mac 'n cheese on your next trip to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods or your favorite supermarket. Spruce is aiming to deliver 2,000 cans this year to City Harvest. City Harvest collects cans and delivers them to more than 500 soup kitchens and food pantries across NYC's five boroughs. The drive goes from from Monday, March 9th to Friday, March 20th. Cans of food can be given to your child and dropped off in the boxes outside of your child's classroom. There will also be a box in the lobby. The most needed items:
• canned fruit
• canned vegetables
• peanut butter (plastic jars)
• mac and cheese (packaged)
• hot and cold cereal (packaged, family-sized)
• Spruce Library Coins. Coins will be collected in each classroom to support our own Spruce Library to purchase current and new release books.  This collection runs from Monday, March 9th to Friday, March 20th.

Of course, just beyond the horizon is our Annual Spring Gala on May 9th. Preparations are already being made.

There will be delicious things to eat and drink and a fabulous assortment of goods and services to bid on, both at the Silent Auction and the engaging Live Auction. We also have an exciting raffle, the winner will be announced just prior to the live auction. Most importantly, the auction is the PTA’s largest fundraising event. Last year, it accounted for 41 percent of the entire PTA Budget. 

Early bird tickets are only $60 each! This price only lasts through Friday, March 20th, after that the price goes up to $75 per ticket.

If you have the time, talent and/or treasure to contribute to this 80s Night Gala Event please reach out to Liz Chen or Danielle Solomon. None of this is possible without the participation and support of our Spruce Street Community. Thank you for all of your continued dedication and support. We are looking forward to another wonderful event with friends. 

If you would like to design the Class Art project, kindly contact Beth Goldoff & Caitlin Mies

Treasury
The PTA filed the FY14 Tax Return on Feb. 15, 2015. As a public non-profit, our filing will be posted on the Foundation Center website once it is processed. 

Merchandise
We have a great line-up of Spruce branded apparel and accessories thanks to our active volunteers in design and sourcing quality products. Check out the Store to see all the Spruce Merchandise.

Fundraising
The PTA is looking to fill a V.P. of Fundraising position at the March General PTA Meeting. This position will involve creatively seeking ways for greater participation in the Direct Appeal, as well as other fundraising initiatives to further strengthen our already strong financial support for the PTA.

Website
Since moving away from eChalk, the website has been a work-in-process that is starting to take shape. Recently we've been working on getting our new calendar app, calendarwiz, embedded in the website on both public and classroom pages.

In March, we'd like to continue to empower the teachers/class parents to update the classroom pages. Since each classroom page is password protected, the PTA will be providing each parent a username and password to access your child's classroom page(s). Look for an email coming soon.

PR
February was the first full month of having a V.P. of Public Relations (PR)  on the Spruce PTA Executive Board. Some of the areas being addressed are:

• Formatting and sourcing content for this newsletter, now and going forward.
• Embedding the calendar on the website and making it the source for ALL events related to Spruce.
• Social Media Posts
• Email communications

For March the focus will be on the emails sent from both the School and the PTA. We'd like to continue working on figuring out the best way to deliver relevant, needed information in a timely fashion without being overwhelming. Tough task, indeed, but we'll work on it.

New Programs Committee
This committee has been active during Feb. The NPC (a hybrid of SLT and PTA New Programs Committee) sent a survey to teachers (and received great, usable feedback) about areas outside the Common Core curriculum where teachers in our school can assist with enrichment programs. The committee has also received a bunch of proposals in the areas of languages, technology, music, theater, art and coding.

For March, the NPC hopes to review and take steps towards approving an 8-week language pilot program for the lower grades scheduled to start soon. The NPC also hopes to follow up on the other enrichment proposals and possibly work with fundraising on creating a wish list of enrichment programs to be funded.

Inclusion Committee - SLT
Please note the name change, the Inclusion Committee is the former Special Education Committee.

They met in February and will also meet in March. Please see the calendar for more details.

Communications Committee - SLT
The Communications Committee met in February and will also meet in March. For more info please check the calendar.

Middle School Committee - SLT
Next year Spruce will add a Middle School (in case you haven't heard). There is much to be discussed and planned. Contact Laetitia if you'd like to contribute to this committee. For more info please check the calendar.

Art Committee - PTA
The Art Committee is a bold initiative involving art partnerships with Spruce. The committee met in Feb. and will meet in March.  For more info please check the calendar.

Wellness and Green Team - PTA

• Spruce classrooms are now supplied with non-toxic, bio-friendly hand soap, cleaning wipes and hand sanitizer. We will encourage the children to KEEP CALM AND WASH YOUR HANDS as recommended by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) 
• Spruce’s partnership with Battery Urban Farm continues to evolve as the first graders embark on their Story of Food Unit. Farmer Anna visits the classroom and the kids will make visits to the farm. We will continue to support by transporting produce from the farm to the cafeteria to host EAT WHAT YOU GROW days for the kids. We are hoping to plan a Harvest Day in the cafeteria hosted by the DOE’s Garden to School Cafe program.
• We continue to supply the cafeteria with compostable plates to replace the styrofoam trays. The children are encouraged to separate their trash from recyclables and organics as we are included on the Sanitation Department's organics collection pilot program. Watch for the city wide rollout in the coming years!

We encourage everyone to send their kids to school with the new Spruce Kleen Kanteen water bottle. Our bodies are made up of 70% water and it is important for kids to stay hydrated during the day.

Nominations
Calling all dedicated Spruce parents! Please consider nominating yourself or others for one of the vacant positions on the PTA Executive Board for our next school year 2015-2016!!! Our search for nominations begins now for the elections that will take place later this year. The PTA pools our collective talent to create, coordinate, and collaborate on some of the most fantastic fundraisers and community building events in lower Manhattan. We put the fun in fundraising but all that fun can’t happen without you!!! Open positions will be announced at the next PTA meeting to take place on Wednesday March 18th at 8:45am in the cafeteria. For more information contact Hilda Bergman at ptapresident@sprucestreetnyc.org.