A BIG THANK YOU!

To everyone that donated their time, sold tickets, purchased raffle ticket(s), donated a raffle prize(s), or called to offer your time to help the Cleveland Family. All of these combined efforts resulted in a very successful event which I certainly could not have done without the help of so many others.

From the elderly lady that called to offer her furniture to the Cleveland family to Thom’s roofing in Riverside that offered to send a crew over to finish off the roof, many thanks! There are so many stories I could tell but I think the message is clear. We have caring people all around us that came together to help out a family in need.

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” —Ghandi

Ticket Sales

To the following friends, teachers, neighbors, organizations, that donated their time to help sell tickets for this event: Peg Aldape, Lisa Buffo, Gina Demitro, Kathy Dudek, Fran Guerrieri, Bonnie Powell, Christina Menchaca, Nancy Guelfi, Nancy Hawes, Rose Grezscowiak, Mary Lescher, Dawn Arnold, Susan Sciotte, Yvonne & Vince (Station Rest.), Joy Brabec, Annette Paulumbo, and The Hearth Group (Karen Bry, Michael Healy, John Coughlin, and John Richards).

Special thanks to the children of Ascension Church of Riverside for coordinating a bake sale and selling tickets after their masses. They raised over $500.00 dollars to help the Cleveland Family.

Getting the Word Out

Thank you to all the schools in District 96 that allowed the use of FEEDBLITZ to help promote this event. (Hauser, Hollywood, Blythe, Ames, and Central School). Also, Riverside Brookfield High School, St. Mary’s of Riverside, St. Barbra of Brookfield, Ascension Church of Riverside, Presbyterian Church of Riverside, United Church of Christ – Forest Park, Hollywood Community Newsletter, Coffee House Newsletter and the Suburban Life. Thank you all for promoting this event without your help we could not have been successful!

The Event

The event started at 2:00 p.m. and by 3:00 pm. a constant flow of people were in and out of “The Station” Restaurant. Some stayed to socialize and enjoy the additional raffles and great appetizers. Others stopped in to say hello and wish Laura and her family well.

The Station of Brookfield had a charming atmosphere along with great food, drinks and excellent service! We certainly do appreciate their generosity and hope you will consider them when planning a party, a lunch or dinner.

Raffle Winners

The Grand Prize Winner — Meindl Family of Riverside won $2,500.00 and donated this back to the Cleveland Family. Other winners included Barbra Roppo of LaGrange who won $250.00, Kevin Duffy of Brookfield a $50 winner, Burt Bullnow of Brookfield, $50.00 winner and the Spirios Family of Brookfield. All of these families donated back their winnings to support the Cleveland Family!

I believe almost everyone in attendance walked away with a gift or two from the great selection of gift certificates that were donated by all the local businesses in the area. (Such as, Brookfield, Riverside, Berwyn, LaGrange and LaGrange Park.)

To those of you who put together individual gifts, such as, (2) Tickets for a Blackhawk’s game, an Avon Basket, and a Hand Crafted Keepsake Box. Everything was extremely appreciated.

Over $8,000.00 was raised!

Laura Cleveland and her family are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from our community and neighboring communities. She is very grateful and wishes to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time.

Wishing all of you a Very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

MaryBeth Demitro
Event Organizer
Cleveland Family Event

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”  —George Bernard Shaw

Don’t forget: Friday, November 21st is an early release day with school ending at 11:30am and only PM Kindergarten in attendance.

Central’s PTO is sponsoring a “School House Rock” assembly on Friday, 11/21 at 10:00am and parents are welcome to attend. A special thank you to Mrs. Karen Layng for putting this great assembly together.

Mrs. Jennifer Sedivy, our corresponding secretary, will be sending out a form right after Thanksgiving for a holiday collection for all our special “Specials” teachers, such as PE, art, music, etc., so please contribute in any way you can.

Melinda Brom, 1st VP, will also be sending out some information for the Lead Room parents to assist with holiday collections for our teachers.

Whether you are traveling far or staying near, be safe and enjoy this special Thanksgiving celebration!

Central School PTO Minutes

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Introduction: The meeting began at 9:03 am in the Library. The PTO officers in attendance: Mary Ellen Meindl, Michelle Marconi, Melinda Brom, Jane Wilhelm, Kathy Dudek, Nancy Hutchings, Linda LaBelle, Jennifer Sedivy and Patrick O’Laughlin. Also in attendance: Central School Principal Dr. Limperis and Central School Teacher Samantha Lutz.

Minutes: The September 9, 2008 minutes were approved by Nancy Hutchings and seconded by Michelle Hejna.

Officers’ Reports

President: Mary Ellen Meindl passed around a sign up sheet for volunteers to provide dinner to the teachers for the November 24^th Parent-Teacher conferences.

Correspondence: Jennifer Sedivy passed around teacher thank you notes for events and DVDs as well as the sign up sheet for the Hospitality table.

Treasurer’s Report: Jane Wilhelm reported on the budget. Items of note on the accounting: the amount in income under the Yearbook covers the calendar, the directory and the yearbook; the amount in income for the school directory should be switched with the calendar printing; and a profit of $111.50 was made at the Fall Family Fun Night from ice cream sales.

Principal’s Report: Dr. Limperis reported on the district initiatives for the writing program. The overview of the program can be found at www.regieroutman.com. The goal is to help the children to move from dependent to independent writers. For Social Studies, the Scott Foresman series is being used (2nd year of use) which dovetails with the guided reading program. For more information please go to www.sfsocialstudies.com. Dr. Limperis detailed the new K.I.T.E. program (Kindergarteners Improving Toward Excellence). The program is a two day a week program to develop motor skills, handwriting skills (using pilot program “handwriting without tears”, if it goes well, it will be used for all Kindergarten classes). The students are selected for the program based on testing: District-wide 31 students qualified for the program and 28 accepted. The draft of the Civility and Communication Guidelines for District 96 were presented which are: 1) professional/friendly language will only be used, if it isn’t, the conversation will be ended; 2) phone/email correspondence will be returned in one business day; 3) conferences will only be on a scheduled basis; 4) everyone must sign in when visiting the school. The ISATs for this year were 88% or above (met/exceeded standards) in every category. The 3rd grade achieved a 100% in Math.

Teacher Representative: Samantha Lutz reported that Parent-Teacher conferences are Friday. If you were not given a conference time, you will have one in November. Samantha passed around some examples from the 4^th Grade haiku poetry lesson as well as posters on common and proper nouns.

Meet the Teacher: Patty Dost, the P.E. teacher is a U of I grad who has taught at Shepard H.S. as well as St. Louise de Merillac in LaGrange Park. She is in her 11^th year in District 96, where she teaches at Central and Hollywood. P.E. is two times a week for 30 minutes. Every grade’s activities build on the previous year. Now the students are working on the Presidential Fitness test which is a series of sit-ups, pushups and agility exercises. The TDPE room is used for teachers to take students for one day of TDPE per week.

PTA Committee Reports

Flying Carpet Club: Aberdeen Ozga stated that the Flying Carpet Club is in need of volunteers. The program takes place from January- March during lunch and indoor recess periods. Donna Considine located and donated more materials, so we can have two more sessions without having to expend money on more materials. The new volunteer training will be in November and student’s signup will be at the end of November.

Halloween Windows: Nancy Hutchings stated that a flyer will be distributed tomorrow, please respond by Friday. The program is for 1^st-5^th Grade with painting to be done on the weekend (Oct. 16-18). The cost is $5.00

Hike and Bike Week: Tracy Sloan reported that everyone will receive water bottles on Friday and the roller skating party is from 1-3pm.

Original Works Fundraiser: Mary Ellen reported that the Original Works information has been sent out and is due on October 17th.

100% Fund Update: Kathy Dudek reported that the 100% Fund has received about $6000.00. The goal is $11,000.00. Budget plans are available and if your employer offers corporate matching, please enroll in it.

September Board of Education Meeting Update: Jane Wilhelm attended the shortened September 16^th meeting at Ames. The budget of $14 million was adopted. The next board meeting is Tuesday October 21^st at Hollywood.

Other Business

Tax Referendum: Ben Sells, Village Trustee came to speak about the Tax Referendum which has two parts: 1) an advisory referendum whether Riverside wants green oriented practices in the building code and waste removal; 2) a property tax increase equal to about 3 ½%. The village is a non-home rule entity where the Illinois Property Tax Cap is 2 ½% per year, but costs for the village have risen at 7 ½. Over the next 6 years, the village is projecting a $600,000.00 deficit. If the referendum passes, current services will be maintained and there will be an increase of 30% in additional services (increased parks maintenance, hiring additional police detective, ongoing sidewalk replacement program). If the referendum doesn’t pass, the village will make a $400,000.00 reduction in 2009: the community service officer (attends bond court for our officers) would be lost, the North Fire Station would be closed two days per week, Public Works would be cut and the Parks and Recreation Department would be eliminated.

Announcements: Thank you to all the volunteers.

The meeting adjourned at 10:30 am.

The Minutes are respectfully submitted by Patrick O’Laughlin, Recording Secretary.

At the November 11, 2008, Central School PTA/O meeting the membership voted to dissolve the Central PTA. Central School will now operate as a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) as voted and approved by the general membership in May 2008.

As part of the continued transition to a PTO, the current 08/09 Executive Committee reviewed the officer roles and responsibilities and presented a proposal, at the 11/11/08 meeting, that included minor changes to the future 09/10 officer positions. A brief recap of the potential changes:

• The officer positions will be reduced from 9 to 8
• The President, 1st VP’s, Treasurer, Recording Secretary and Parliamentarian remain unchanged
• The 2nd VP of Fundraising would also cover Philanthropy
• The Corresponding Secretary role changed to 3rd VP of Member Services

Please download and review the proposal and next steps (PDF or Excel format) as shared at the 11/11/08 meeting.

The proposal will be presented again at the January 13, 2009 meeting for membership approval.

If you have any questions, need additional information or would like to provide any feedback, thoughts or ideas please contact Mary Ellen Meindl or Linda LaBelle (see student directory for contact information.)

As in past years, the Riverside Branch is offering Aunt Diana’s 10 oz. pans of plain and nut fudge for sale as a fundraiser.

Profits support AAUW philanthropies: Two grants for college-bound RBHS senior girls, a Returning-to-Learning grant for a woman going back to school for an undergraduate degree; two PRIDE sponsorships for 8th grade Hauser girls; and Woman History Month 4th grade poster and 7th grade essay contests.

If you are interested in purchasing fudge, please contact Robin Benoy via email at benoyr@centralptonews.org (or see directory for telephone number.) Orders are due Friday, November 21, 2008 with a delivery in early December.

Reminder: orders are in!! Please pickup your order/artwork in Central’s multi-purpose room from 2:30 - 3:30pm on Friday November 7th. Thank you.

Innisbrook is here! Please come and pick up your Innisbrook Gift Wrap Order on Monday November 10th between 2:45pm and 5:00pm in the multi-purpose room at Central School. Any orders not picked up on November 10th will be available for alternate arrangements. You will be contacted by a volunteer Monday evening to arrange pick-up. Thanks again for your order and enjoy!

Samantha Durst

Orders are in!! Please pickup your order/artwork in Central’s multi-purpose room from 2:30 - 3:30pm on Friday November 7th. Thank you.

The Central Veteran’s Day program will take place at 1:30pm in Hauser’s Auditorium on Tuesday, November 11th. Don’t miss it!

Central’s PTO Meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 11th at 7pm in the library. Come hear from our Principal, Dr. Janice Limperis, teacher representative, Mrs. Samantha Lutz and the District 96 Board of Education President, Cheryl Berdelle.