November 11th, 2016

Good Afternoon Parents and Guardians:

The 2016 NMS Discovery Fund Drive raised a record $31,321.80!  Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in this primary annual PTO fundraiser for our great school.  Through the generous support of families, students, teachers, Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, Public Service Credit Union - DTC Branch, Oracle Corporation and CO Bank, we achieved 125% of the original goal.  Donation dollars are already making a difference.  This week, initial work has begun in the gym for the AV equipment upgrades.  Donation funds also support enrichment programs that benefit every student: PTO just paid $2,600 for this year’s Reading Counts program and purchased 25 books from the Book Fair, fulfilling all the Language Arts teachers’ wish lists.   

There was a fine sprint to the finish by all the homerooms in the participation contest.  The winners are:

• In 8th grade: Pattie Andrews’ Knight Notes Treble Makers with 70% participation.
• In 7th grade: Gardner with 86% participation.
• In 6th grade: Osthoff’s Overlords with 78% participation.

An ice cream sundae party in each of these homerooms will be scheduled one Friday afternoon before the winter break. While the Fund Drive may be over, donations may still be made and will be gratefully accepted throughout the school year.  If you have yet to donate, please consider doing so on Colorado Gives Day, December 6, and at year-end, when employers may well be in a position to make a tax-deductible corporate match on your behalf.  Please refer to the NMS PTO link on Newton’s homepage and click on Newton Discovery Fund Drive.  Feel great - donate!  Thank you so much for your support.

School Clinic Volunteers: Your assistance is greatly needed in Newton's clinic. Volunteer as little as 1 hour up to 3 hours during the school day.  Shift times are very flexible so you can come a little earlier or stay a little later.  Sonya Lewis, our LPS staff member who runs the clinic, would really appreciate your assistance.  Sign up available here for the remainder of November.  NO SPECIAL TRAINING OR EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED.  She could just really use some help. Clinic Volunteer Sign-Up

Library Volunteer Opportunity:  Parent volunteers are needed to help shelve and organize non-fiction books in the library on a very flexible schedule for 1-2 hours per month.  Volunteers are asked to commit by selecting 1 week a month (1st or 2nd or 3rd or 4th) and coming in for 1-2 hours during your week at any time that's convenient during the school day.  Contact Tish Lawler at llawler@lps.k12.co.us to arrange this.

In the spirit of community, The Salvation Army and Newton are working once again on ways to partner and collaborate. We will be helping with the Salvation Army’s community garden, food drives, and having students from our special education program help with some of their projects.

One exciting item that came out of our meeting today was the possibility of the Salvation Army starting a drop in after school program for Middle School kids. They have a recreation room that the kids could play pool, air hockey , foosball, receive music lesson/tutoring or just study until their parent could pick them up. This program would be run and staffed by the Salvation Army. If you would be interested in this program, please e-mail Denise Rice (drice@lps.k12.co.us) so we can compile possible numbers to give them. The Salvation Army is considering January when we resume school for second semester as a possible start date for the program.

We have one more week of school before Thanksgiving break, just a reminder that we have the entire week of school off the week of Thanksgiving!

Have a great weekend.

James O’Tremba

Principal, Newton Middle School