In September:
1.  On Friday the 10th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., a much-anticipated, welcome-back event: the annual Back to School/Pot Luck Dinner. Pizza and drinks will be served and we welcome you to bring side dishes to share with the crowd. There will also be a used book sale (please donate gently used books only, please — watch for the donation boxes at school this coming week). We’ll also be soliciting design ideas for the creative play area of the playground (to be located behind the orange plastic fencing that will come down in a week or two). Volunteers to assist with set up and clean up are needed.

2.  On Saturday the 11th from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm there will be a dedication of the Stoddert School Rec Center. Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh is scheduled to come for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. We’ll also have a brick campaign dedication ceremony. The Department of Parks and Recreation will arrange for food, a moon bounce, a fire truck, and an open house of the building. Parent volunteers will be needed to monitor the few classrooms that will be open during these hours.

[Ed.:Please respond in the comments, below, if you'd like to volunteer for any event.]

3.  On Thursday the 16th, starting at 6:30 p.m., we’ll have Back-to-School Night and our first General PTA Meeting. This event is intended for parents only (no child care is available) and will be held in stages. Introductions with all teachers begin at 6:30 pm and last until 7:00 pm. Meetings with teachers will be in the classrooms. The first session is from 7:15 pm to 7:45 pm, and the second session from 8:00 pm to 8:30 pm. This evening will give you opportunity to meet your children’s teachers, visit classrooms, and see the progress in the first several weeks of school. Formal parent/teacher meetings for individual student progress discussions will be held regularly during the year (the first one is scheduled for October 18th).

PTA Meetings

For future PTA general meetings, we thought that the first Thursday of the month would work better for busy parents. After the first General Meeting on Back-to-School Night, we’ll alternate months with meetings of the executive board. (Anyone is welcome to attend the executive meetings.) The next general meeting wil be on Thursday, November 4th, and the first Thursday pattern will follow for January, March, and May. (We may have to tease out some of those dates with our plans for having guest speakers and such). We’ll post the information on the web site as soon as it’s available.

The fall will be busy with multiple events to plan, both in the classrooms and for the school as a whole. Visit the website, sign up for email announcements and the the StoddertNews Twitter feed, and monitor folders in the backpacks for messages from teachers, urgent PTA news, and planned DCPS closures or half-day events. There will be opportunity to be creative in volunteer roles, to get the kids involved in positive environmental activities, new initiatives for the school and the DPR Rec Center. This is our space, and we need to be ACTIVE to keep it GREAT.

PTA Co-Presidents
Mary McLaughlin and Ben Jensen

Thanks also to all of you who bought and sold cookie dough and a huge thanks to Shari Gilbert and Jenny Epstein for organizing this fundraiser to support the 5th grade trip.

Finally, thanks to those of you who have already bought bricks! Mike and Becky Gardner, and the entire Building Community Brick by Brick Committee are doing an amazing job, but we need you to help sell, sell, sell!! The money we raise from the Brick Campaign will be used to purchase books, playground equipment and whatever else the teachers need for our new school. The brick walkway, itself, will serve as a lovely outdoor space at our school and a reminder of how steadfast our community is!

Thanks for your help,

Mimi Laver
Co-president, Stoddert PTA