BLUES NEWS
Richmond Street School and PTA Newsletter
November 2006				Volume 7, Issue 3
Richmond Street School 615 Richmond St., El Segundo, CA 90245 (310) 606-6831		Dickie Van Breene, Principal Janice Hickey, Assistant Principal elsegundousd.com/richmond_school Shari Gulian, Newsletter Editor	Tammy Long, PTA President PTA El Segundo Council Thirty-Third District California State PTA, everychild.onevoice

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Richmond Street Families,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents, teachers, local businesses, and students who helped to make the Fall Festival a spectacular success. We all had a lot of fun thanks to the hard work done by our volunteers. Special thanks go out to Cathy McKenna, Diane Olson, Tammy Long, and Bonnie Liedtke Kriestorac. I’d also like to thank the many parents whose children have graduated from Richmond by came back to help on this special night.

I would like to thank Officer Jeff Humphrey and the El Segundo Police Department and canine unit for helping us celebrate Red Ribbon Week. Thank you to Mrs. Hickey, assistant principal for organizing the week.

All ESUSD teachers participated in a valuable staff development day at the high school. The staff was engaged in discussions about how we can meet the needs of all students, including special education students, gifted students, English language learners and the unmotivated student.

November is a short month. We have Veterans’ Day Holiday on Friday, November 10. There is no school during the week of Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving week with your family.

Dickie Van Breene

NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS
11/2 Thursday	Fund raiser items from Innsibrook can be picked up in the auditorium 1-6 PM
11/10 Friday	Veterans’ Day School Holiday – No School
11/13 Monday	PTA Meeting 7:15 PM
11/20 – 11/24 Monday - Friday	Thanksgiving Holiday There will be no school all week
11/27 Monday	Minimum Day for Grades 1 - 5 All Kindergarteners are early birds 8:20 – 12:45
12/11 – 12/15 Monday - Friday	Parent-Teacher Conferences Book Fair
12/25 – 1/5	Winter Break

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Hidden World of Kids in Cyberspace will be held November 2, 2006 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. at the Health Conference Center at Torrance Memorial Medical Center. National experts from iSafe, Inc. – worldwide leaders in Internet education will focus on the most current issues and solutions that bridge the digital divide between adults (parents and schools) and our kids. It will address safety and security, the most popular sites like My Space, and specific solutions that can be implemented in the home, school and community. The cost is $10 per person or $15 per couple. Free childcare is available on a limited basis, as is free parking and a wealth of resources for all parents who attend.

Workroom Training: We have scheduled two dates for training in our workroom on all of the equipment. If you volunteer for your child’s teacher and do copying, etc. we ask that you attend one of these trainings. The copying machines are very costly to repair and they have been breaking down frequently from incorrect use. The trainings are scheduled for Friday, November 3 and Friday, November 17 from 8:20 – 9:20 AM

Loading Zone: The loading zones are for pick-up and drop-off only. For the safety of all students please drive carefully and slowly. The El Segundo Police Department may ticket individuals who are double-parked. Crossing guards will be on site to help students and to monitor traffic.

Make a Wish Foundation: Student Council will be raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation by selling frozen non-fat yogurt at lunch time in November. The Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. Our council members chose this group on their own. The price of the yogurt is $1.50.

WaMoola for Schools: If you have a Washington Mutual Debit MasterCard you can sign up to have Washington Mutual donate money back to Richmond Street School when you make a purchase. Please go to wamoolaforschools.com for more info.

Receive Preferred Mailing: If you would like to be put on an email list we will send you notices and announcements

1. Go to the school website at http://elsegundousd.com/richmond_school

2. Click on the button “sign-up for our mailing list” below the home page graphic

3. Type your email address, first and last name, and indicate grade levels

Skateboards, Skates, Roller Blades, Roller Shoes, and Scooters are not allowed at school! This is school board policy. Helmets must be worn when riding a bike to school.

MESSAGE FROM PTA

WOW!!, I hope you all had fun at the Fall Festival last Friday night. It was amazing!  The games, the prizes, the sweet walk, bingo and the auction.......there was so much fun to be had.  I first need to say thank you to the Festival Chairperson, Cathy McKenna. Cathy and her committee put in so much time and effort on this event and it showed.  Also, Bonnie Liedtke and her Silent Auction committee did an amazing job.  The auction had something for everyone.  As a side note, anyone who paid by credit card for silent auction items the night of the festival will see a charge on their statement from Kirk Flooring.  They were very generous in lending us their credit card machine.  I also need to say thank you to all of the parents, faculty, staff and businesses in El Segundo that donated their time and products to make the Festival a success.  This truly is a group effort.  Please say thank you to all of the businesses that are showing a bright green, “Proud Supporter of Richmond Street School” sign in their windows. The Fall Festival just confirms what we already know: Richmond Street School is a great school!

On another subject, there was a letter to the editor in the Herald by a disgruntled PTA member who was frustrated that PTA had supported Measure Q claiming that she didn't know that PTA was a political organization.  I just want to let everyone know that PTA does not support any political candidate at any time.  We do, however, support local measures that directly benefit or support our children and their education.  At our last meeting we discussed Measure Q and voted on whether or not to support it.  The vote was by the book of parliamentary procedure and had the vote been to not support Measure Q, we would not be supporting it as Richmond Street PTA.  This is one of these issues that show how important it is to attend our PTA meetings.  We need you there and appreciate it when you get involved.  I look forward to seeing everyone at our next PTA meeting, Monday, November 13th at 7:15 PM.

Tammy Long

BOx tops for education

Box Top Winners for September 2006
Grade	Teacher	Box Tops
Kindergarten/Tedde	Morgan	102
First Grade	Lister	202
Second Grade	Foster	318
Third Grade	Igi	304
Fourth Grade	Bennett	376
Fifth Grade	Lubba	243

Congratulations to our September winners! We are off to a great start with all the classrooms collecting a total of 3,235 Box Tops!  Thank you to all. 

Remember to log on to boxtops4education.com and enter the monthly sweepstakes to potentially earn thousands of bonus Box Tops for our school.

The next collection date for Box Tops will be Friday, November 3rd.  We are no longer collecting Campbell's Labels for Education.

INNISBROOK

The Innisbrook fundraiser was a big success this year.  Between internet and catalog orders, we sold 3,425 items totaling over $31,000!  That a profit to the school of nearly $15,500.  I want to thank everyone for all their hard work and for helping to make Richmond Street School a better place for our children to learn.  If you have any questions you can call Brandy Smith at 310-615-1944.  Don't forget that the school makes a profit on every internet sale all year long!

Brandy Smith

KBKSmith@excite.com

National PTA Reflections Program 2006-2007

Student Entries are due in the school office by Friday, November 10th

It’s not too late to submit your child’s entry for the Reflections Contest! Entry forms, rules and complete program information are available in the school office in the Reflections Binder or on the school website. All students are eligible to submit entries in any of the four arts areas as follows: Literature, Musical Composition, Photography, or Visual Arts.

All entries will be displayed sometime early next year (February/March) at a Community Art Exhibit showcasing the talent of all ESUSD schoolchildren.

Parents: Please encourage your children to participate in this fun and rewarding extra-curricular art activity. If you have any questions about the program, please contact Meighan Langlois at 310-322-1231 or megtad@pacbell.net.

BOOK FAIR

Mark your calendars now so you won't miss our Annual PTA Book Fair! This year's theme is "Reading the Rainforest"! The dates are December 11th - 15th. The hours will be from 8:00AM to 3:00PM. This is the week of Parent/Teacher conferences so we will be on a minimum day schedule which will allow for a lot of extra time to shop the fair! We are also busy planning one or two Family Nights which will be fun-filled evenings for everyone to enjoy. Don't miss out!

If you would like to volunteer to work the fair or help out in other ways (decorate, book reading, etc.), please contact our Book Fair Volunteer Coordinator; Michele Leach @ (310) 322-5144.

Thank you for your support.

Laura Nilsson & Brenda Forsythe