September 7th, 2018

Good Afternoon Parents and Guardians:

The Annual PTO Fund Drive

Newton PTO’s Annual Fund Drive is currently in progress.  This is the main PTO fundraiser for the 2018-2019 school year.  The goal is to raise $30,000 for school improvements.  This year, the funds will be used to purchase interactive SMART BOARDS for all classrooms.  In addition, the funds will support the Reading Counts program, the Fall dance, Teacher Appreciation, school supplies and teacher grants.  Every student at Newton will benefit from the planned improvements. 

The PTO wants to extend a thank you to those who have already contributed to the Annual Fund Drive.  To date, the PTO has collected $12,125, which amounts to 40% of our goal.

If you have not contributed yet, please consider donating!  Our goal for this fundraiser is 100% participation by the Newton community.  The requested donation amount is $125 per student.  However, the PTO will accept any amount that fits your family budget.

There is more than one way to contribute.  Click here to make a donation via Paypal today.  Alternatively, you can contribute cash (or a check payable to Newton PTO) and deliver it to the front office at Newton.  All of this information, including the Paypal link, is available on the Newton website under NMS PTO Fund Drive.

All donations are tax-deductible.  Your donation may also be subject to a corporate match by your employer.  If your employer offers corporate matching, please check whether your donation is eligible for a match!  If you have questions about a corporate match, email nmsptotreasurer@gmail.com for more information.

The deadline to participate in the Annual Fund Drive is October 31, 2018.  Thank you for supporting the Newton PTO!

Newton Community KNight Out
Our first Newton Community KNight of the year is coming soon!  Please join us on Tuesday, Sept. 18th at Bad Daddy's Burger Bar in Southglenn from 4pm-8pm.  Mention Newton and 20% of your sales will be donated back to the school.  This applies to dine-in and take-out orders.  Hope to see you there! Please see the attached flier for additional information.

SOS Signs of Suicide® Prevention Program
The adolescent years are marked by a roller-coaster ride of emotions—difficult for students and their parents. It is easy to misread depression as normal adolescent turmoil; however, depression (among the most common of mental illnesses) appears to be occurring at a much earlier age. Depression—which is treatable—is a leading risk factor for suicide. In addition, self-injury has become a growing problem among youth.

To proactively address these issues, Newton Middle School is offering depression awareness and suicide prevention training as part of the SOS Signs of Suicide® Prevention Program. The program encourages students to seek help if they are concerned about themselves or a friend.

Our goals in participating in this program are straightforward:

• To help our students understand that depression is a treatable illness
• To explain that suicide is a preventable tragedy that often occurs as a result of untreated        depression
• To provide students training in how to identify serious depression and potential suicide risk in themselves or a friend
• To impress upon youth that they can help themselves or a friend by taking the simple step of talking to a trusted adult about their concerns
• To teach students who they can turn to at school for help, if they need it

We will start this program with all 8th grade students during the first two weeks of October. They will receive a lesson and complete a simple depression screening by our Mental Health Team during their elective class. We hope to reach our 7th grade and 6th grade students later in the school year as well.

We will also be hosting a parent education night during our arena conferences on
October 17th. Our Mental Health Team will be sharing a lesson, discussion, and screening to help support and educate parents about this difficult but important topic. Please join us!  We will be sending out more information as this date approaches.

If you do NOT wish to have your child participating in the SOS Program in school, please write a brief email indicating this to Susie Swingler at sswingler@lps.k12.co.us.  If we do not hear from you, we will assume your child has permission to participate in this program.

Have a great weekend.

James O’Tremba
Principal, Newton Middle School