BLUES’ NEWS
Richmond Street School and PTA Newsletter
February 2006				Volume 6, Issue 6
Richmond Street School 615 Richmond St., El Segundo, CA 90245 (310) 606-6831		Dickie Van Breene, Principal Marisa Janicek, Assistant Principal elsegundousd.com/richmond_school Shari Gulian, Newsletter Editor	Windri Barriga, PTA President PTA El Segundo Council Thirty-Third District California State PTA, everychild.onevoice

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Richmond Street Families,

The 2005-2006 Richmond Street School Site Council Survey is available by going to our school website at:

http://elsegundousd.com/richmond_school. We value your input greatly and make changes based on your comments. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. No individual responding to the questions will be identified, as the data is collected and tabulated off-site by Survey Monkey. Hard copies are available through your child’s classroom teacher. More information will follow from your child’s teacher.

Our students are so fortunate to be a part of such a caring and generous community. We in turn, would like to teach our students to give back to their community and to people who are less fortunate. This year our students took part in the following projects:

• School wide effort – Hurricane Katrina Relief
• School wide effort led by Rotary – gently used books for a elementary school in a neighboring district
• School wide effort led by student council – frozen yogurt sale fund raiser to collect money for South Bay Youth Project (SBYP provides counseling services and resources for our kids and their families)
• Kindergarten – collected household items for C.A.S.E., an El Segundo charity that services the community
• 1^st Grade – Read a certain amount of books and Scholastic donated a matching number of books to schools ruined by Hurricane Katrina
• 2^nd Grade – Donated new toys to ESFD for distribution during the holidays
• 3^rd Grade – Will hold a used toy sale to culminate their economics unit. All proceeds will go to a needy family in the community
• 4^th Grade – Made bags of candy during the holidays for military personnel
• 5^th Grade - Sending letters to military personnel in Iraq

Thank you for supporting our children in all our endeavors here at school. We would not be able to do so many great things without your support.

Dickie Van Breene

Principal

dvanbreene@esusd.k12.ca.us

FEBRUARY CALENDAR OF EVENTS
2/2 Thursday	5^th Grade Colonial Day
2/13 Monday	SCHOOL HOLIDAY Presidents’ Day
2/16 Thursday	3^rd Grade Science Fair 6:30 – 7:30 in auditorium
2/20 Monday	SCHOOL HOLIDAY Presidents’ Day
2/22 Wednesday	8:30 School Site Council Meeting
2/27 Monday	Educational Foundation Fund Raiser McCormick and Schmick’s

CONGRATULATIONS, MRS. LISTER: Mrs. Lister and her husband had a baby boy on January 20. We wish them all the very best.

Part time instructional assistants needed district wide! If you have 48 semester units post high school and are interested in working with students as an instructional assistant please fill out an application on the elsegundousd.com website or at the district office between 7:30 – 4:00 Monday – Friday.

Community Watch Meeting: The El Segundo Police Department invites you to attend a lecture, “Terrorism and El Segundo’s Role in the War on Terror and Community Readiness” It will be led by Lt. Krumbach, Terrorist Liaison Officer and Dave Burns, Emergency Services Coordinator. When: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 7 pm, Where: City Council Chambers, 350 Main Street. RSVP to Laurie Risk at 524-2274

Health Office News: The health office is in need of sweat pants. If your child has outgrown

his or her sweat pants and they are in reasonably good shape, please bring them to the office.

5^th Grade Noon League Basketball: The 5^th grade is in the process of forming teams for a noon basketball league. We are fortunate again this year to have the help of Mrs. Sleeth’s husband. Mr. Sleeth will be coaching and refereeing along with our 5^th grade teachers. We would love volunteers to cover some of the games. If you are interested in helping please inform your child’s teacher or the office.

RSS Website: The Blues’ News and school lunch menu can be found on our school website at http://elsegundousd.com/richmond_school

Our website is updated monthly and has the latest school information.

5th Grade Parents--get involved in Middle School PTSA!  Interested in being an officer or chairman next year?  Contact Jayne at chrispim@aol.com or 322-1439 for more information. 

MESSAGE FROM THE PTA PRESIDENT

It’s hard to believe that the school year is already half over. Spring is almost here and could summer be just around the corner? The Richmond PTA programs such as Parent Volunteers in classrooms and workroom, School Site, Membership Drive, Book Fair, T-Shirt and Reflection all went off without a hitch. Well…….at least nothing that couldn’t be fixed. In addition, our fundraisers such as the Fall Festival, Gift Wrap, Box Tops/Campbell Labels, Ralphs Purchase Program, and Inkjet Recycling were all hugely successful. I think it’s very safe to say we had a terrific first half!

But then every coach knows that the game is won in the second half. The players may change, but Richmond PTA has continually been able to put together a championship team and we want to continue our winning streak. As we look ahead to the future, there are still many projects and activities for us to accomplish.

Coming up soon will is the District “Run for Education”. This is a PTA sponsored event in which all the schools in El Segundo participate. The event will take place on Saturday, March 4, 2006, and we anticipate that Richmond Elementary will have a significant presence. Entry forms can be found in our web site. In addition, we will begin planning for Teacher Appreciation Week. This is our opportunity to let the teachers and staff know how just how grateful we are for the wonderful job they do.

At the present time, PTA is looking to fill the 2006-2007 roster. We have many positions that need to be filled. We are busy recruiting the next championship team. Getting involved in your child’s education is very rewarding and your time and effort will ensure Richmond’s high quality of education. If you are interested, please visit our website for information on openings and descriptions of the positions.

And let’s not forget that we want to recognize our own MVP (Most Valuable Parents). This is always a pleasure but it is also one of the most difficult tasks because there are just so many wonderful volunteers! We will be taking nominations for the PTA Honorary Service Award to be presented in April. Nomination forms are also available on our web site.

And lastly, on a personal note, this will be the last newsletter article that I’ll be writing in the Blue’s News. As many of you know, this is my last year as Richmond’s PTA President. I would like to thank all the Richmond parents, and the PAR’s (Parent Alumni of Richmond), the administrators, staff and teachers for all their support in making my two years an easy and rewarding experience.

I’ve made many great friends and have been provided with so many great memories that I will treasure. Although it’s difficult to list them all, I would like to thank our Principal, Ms. Dickie Van Breene for all her help and support. She has really done a lot to make this a wonderful place to volunteer! And although I will be stepping down I will not be leaving. My daughter Ellyse is in the 2^nd grade so I’ll be here for some time to come and will continue to serve the Richmond PTA in a lesser role. In other words, this QB is going to step aside. I hope you will welcome our next QB and PTA president Tammy Long with all the enthusiasm and support that you’ve given me the past two years.

Go Richmond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Windri Barriga

PTA HONORARY SERVICE AWARDS

Please help us recognize those who have done so much to make our school the great place that it is.  The PTA's Honorary Service Committee is now accepting applications for its service awards, which will be awarded at the Founder's Day Tea in April.  A Nomination Form is attached to this Blue's News edition. If you know of a worthy candidate, please complete a Nomination Form and return it to the school office NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 28TH.  You may nominate more than one person (additional forms are available in the office), but we ask that you please keep all nominations CONFIDENTIAL.  Please note that the Nomination Forms have been streamlined this year to make the nomination process even easier.  Thanks for you participation in this wonderful event!  Questions - kindly call Nancy Reimann at 337-7202.

BOX TOPS AND LABELS FOR EDUCATION NOVEMBER WINNERS

Box Tops/Labels Winners for November 2005

Class	Teacher	Box Tops	Labels	Total
Kindergaten/Tedde	Jacobson	220	58	278
First Grade	Loye	40	3	43
Second Grade	Foster	56	34	90
Third Grade	Evans	92	1	93
Fourth Grade	MacKenzie	39	70	109
Fifth Grade	Thompson	215	0	215

Congratulations to our November winners! Due to the holidays we are combining December and January collections and totals. We will be collecting them from the classrooms on Friday, February 3rd. We are expecting a lot due to a two month period! Please remember to trim the box tops in an effort to save time. Box Tops 4 Education will only accept them if they are trimmed. This helps us out tremendously!

Don't forget to log-on to boxtops4education.com! By joining the booster club you can enter each month's sweepstakes and potentially earn 5,000 bonus box tops for our school. Not to mention, there are plenty of coupons to take advantage of and you don't have to go to any meetings!