Message from the President...

January 2003

Dear Montessori School of Manhattan Beach Parents,

We hope that you are as pleased as we are with the events and work that is being coordinated by the PTO this year. Many of you might not realize this but we only began as an organization in April of 2002 and it's amazing to see what we've got going in such a short time.

The key message I'd like to give in this note is that:

-If you like what the PTO is bringing to the school:

• 8-10 Child Enrichment activities per class are new this year because of the PTO (e.g. Cabrillo Ocean Museum, a Pow-Wow, visits from a fireman, policemen, BrainWorks Assembly)
• Speakers and evenings on topics of intrests to parents (e.g. Transitioning to Elementary, Improving your Child's Self Esteem)
• Helping organize charitable and community oriented events with parents and children
• Coordination of Teacher Appreciation events
• Montessori Nights for parents to learn more about Montessori

-Then please support the PTO through your words and actions by:

• Becoming a member
• Buying Scrip, Schoolpop, Schoolcash, and supporting other fund raising events
• Volunteering your time and energy - we always need others to help and we can almost always find ways for even the busiest of people to get involved (look on our website for a list of areas to get involved)
• Participating in activities such as Material Building Days
• Giving us your feedback (our phone #s and email addresses are posted on the the website here)
• Running for officer in the PTO and/or joining a committee for the coming year (next year's elections are in May)

The amazing thing about this is that you don't have to give much of your time, money or energy to make a big difference.

All of us on the PTO's Executive Board are part of the PTO because we believe that the best schools have active, involved parents AND our children benefit when we are active in their education.

That is why we have a PTO.

We thank all who have participated and supported these efforts.
We ask you to help us as we continue to evolve the PTO to best support our children.

Best regards - Carla Buck, PTO President