Dear Parents & School Community: As the end of the school year is within days, we’d like to wrap up the school year with our Spring/Summer Newsletter from the PTO Executive Board. We welcomed Mr. David Kimball in late December, as our new AMS Principal, and we’re so happy to have his experience and leadership here at AMS. As with any volunteer group, dedicated and enthusiastic people make things happen. We would like to thank our chair people for our various events/activities who helped ensure successes. A special shout out to Deb Steremberg who continually beautified the school grounds all year with flowers. A special thank you to all of our parent volunteers who help us out and joined PTO work perhaps for the 1st time this year. Please know you have made a difference! The PTO board also continued to address our missions and goals, so that we could be more effective, impactful and supportive within the framework of the school’s goals. Copies of meeting notes over the year are filed in the front office PTO desk drawer. Please feel free to review them on-site. To communicate happenings in a timely way, you will find business cards with our PTO contact information to access our website and emails. Working together as a strong team of nine, we feel grateful to be involved with such a brilliant school community of learners and teachers. We look forward to summer and working alongside more of you in September. Warmly, Your 2016-2017 PTO Board: Carolyn Marshall, Chitra Kurup, Lisa Marshall, Dana Pedersen, Kim Huber, Sunita Shah, Amy Branch, Bridgit Lacombe, Laura Ward.

Bulleted is a brief synopsis of your PTO Board’s work on your

behalf since the Winter, December, 2016 PTO Newsletter:

As a reminder, our successful One & Done campaign raises

funds which allows the PTO to make improvements, fund school “Wish Lists” and offer special educational uses.

! Funded teacher “Wish List” requests and Team

Stipends from submitted requests in the amount of $3600. This included equipment for the Science Teams, recycling bins for the school & other educational purposes.

! Planned and ran the 1st PTO run 8th Grade Class

Night: “A Night Under the Stars”: 230 students attended representing more than 80% participation. An amazing celebration with a great DJ spinning student’s favorite tunes, dancing in a colorful, festively lit gym. Food, raffle prizes, photo areas, homemade desserts delighted the 8th graders as they gathered as a class for fun.

! Spirited show of parent volunteers made a

memorable night: Several dozen volunteers to ran the 8th Grade Class Night committees, set up, decorated, chaperoned or contributed desserts, fruit platters and treats.

! Winter’s Parent Forum provided information about

adolescent substance abuse with police and community outreach experts giving our parents and administrators an opportunity to learn and obtain sought out resources.

! Co-sponsored new initiative with the non-profit Jane

Doe No More along with Avon High School that provided an on-site educational program designed to increase awareness about sexual violence, advocacy and training.

! In cooperation with Jane Doe No More, funded a

Crucial Connections’ mother-daughter program for Avon Middle School. Look for future expansion of a father-son program developed by this organization.

! Planned an All-School Field Day for AMS along with

the school gym teacher, Mrs. Abate, for students with games and challenges, unfortunately rained out, but ready for a Fall team building day.

! Hosted a yummy Year-End All Families Ice Cream

Social scooping popular J.Fosters flavors & toppings.

! To keep informed on district-wide matters, participated in Parent Leadership meetings led by Gary Mala along with other school PTO members.

Enjoy your Summer doing more of what makes you happy! Thank you to our Principal, Mr. Kimball, Vice-Principal Mr. Pappa, our dedicated teachers and entire staff including our hardworking custodians. Goodbye to the retiring staff members and thank you! We recognize with appreciation our members who are moving on as we welcome new volunteer members to the PTO Board, and appreciate the continued efforts of returning members. It’s been an amazing journey together. “Those who give of their time are truly generous”

2017-2018 PTO Board: Chitra Kurup, Co-President (2nd term) Heather Maguire, Co-President *new

Erin Lamadrid, Treasurer * new Carol Shubinski, Secretary * new

Robyn Kessler, VP AMS Family Connections *new Sunita Shah, VP Volunteers

Amy Branch, VP Fundraising (One & Done) Laura Ward, VP Communications

Please visit our Website for current happenings: www.AvonMiddleSchoolPTO.org Like us on Facebook at: AvonMiddleSchoolPTO.org

AMS PTO Newsletter: June 2017