5720 Emerson Avenue S

Minneapolis, MN 55419

Bill Gibbs, Principal William.Gibbs@mpls.k12.mn.us

Main Office: 612-668-3340

FAX: 612-668-3350

Nurse/Attendance: 612-668-3346

http://kenny.mpls.k12.mn.us

School Times: 8:05am-2:20pm

AM ECSE: (T-F) 8:05 am-10:35am

PM ECSE: (T-F) 11:50am-2:20pm

Minneapolis Kids: 612-668-3344

Dates to Remember

Fri 2/19 Science Expo Entry Forms Due

Fri 2/19 Student Council spons—Hat, Glasses & Tie Day

Tue 2/23 Wendy’s Night 5-7 66th & Lyndale

Thur 2/25 Science Expo Display Boards go home

Thur 2/25 Area C Parent Meeting 6:30-8:30 @ Whittier

Thus 2/25 No ECSE Classes

Fri 2/26 No School—Professional Development Day

Mon 3/1 PTA Board Mtg 5:30

Tue 3/2 Student Council 2:30-4

Wed 3/3 Plant Sale Begins

Fri 3/5 Coffee with the Principal 8:15 in the Office

Fri 3/5 March Magic! 7pm—midnight

February 17, 2010

Newsletter submissions are due by 6 p.m. Mondays. Email to Michele Lieske at mblieske@msn.com.

MARCH MAGIC

Friday, March 5th, 7pm-midnight

Borton Volvo

Time is running out....March Magic tickets are on sale this week before and after school.

We will be accepting checks, cash, Master Card and Visa. Cost is $40 per person. Questions? Please contact Kristy Reichel at 612927-6814/kristy.reichel@gmail.com or Mary Carl at 612-501-5815/Mary@francisking.com.

SCIENCE EXPO 2010

Friday, March 19, 6:00–7:00; Dinner 5:30–6:30 The Science Expo has 27 students signed up with exciting topics on rainforests, sloths, airplanes, color carnations, and water evaporation. Entry Forms will be accepted through Friday, Feb. 19. If you don’t have a topic that’s okay, you’ll have a chance to tell us later. Just sign up now to get a

display board and to reserve your spot at the Expo. Entry Forms are available in the school office or on Kenny school’s website.

If you have questions, contact Janet Parker, Erin Zellner, or ask Kenny School teachers Kathy Horner and Sherry Tsao.

Hello Kenny Families, We have some awesome things happening at Kenny. In our February student progress monitoring meetings, we saw students are continuing to make fantastic gains in reading across the board. The Kindergarteners made amazing growth. Kenny also received our preliminary classroom allocation which added another 4 classroom for us. Last year we added one classroom. This is great news for us following years of classroom reductions. Building budgets will be sent out next Friday the 26th. I am including a short survey that will help us with the budget process. The site council met last month and did some preliminary planning. At that time it was decided that having a full time secretary and social worker are necessities as well as having the health office covered during the duty day. This year we used the building budget to pay for full day kindergarten and to buy an extra teacher

(Continued on page 3)

2

WE NEED YOUR VOTES KENNY ADULTS! The Linden Hills Great Harvest has a fund raiser called "baker for the day". On March 21st, the non-profit organization with the most votes will supply the labor to help out that day, and all of the proceeds, yes ALL of the proceeds, will go to that non-profit. Anyone over 18 can vote between February 12th - 25th at the Linden Hills location. You can vote as many times as you want and you don't have to purchase anything to vote, so GET IN AND VOTE FOR KENNY SCHOOL FOUNDATION as much as

you can between the 12th - 25th! Tell family and friends to vote too!

Coordinators Needed!!

Fun events to welcome incoming Armatage families need someone (or two) to organize and plan!! We are planning on having a Shadow Day for kids currently at Armatage who intend to come to Kenny next year. They will come over to Kenny for a day and get to know kids in their grade and teachers etc. We also want to have a Kid Mixer to help everyone get to know each other. Please call Ellen Strom at 612-245-9948 if you can help get these two events up and running!!!

Kenny Read-a-thon Olympics

Kenny parents and staff, the read-a-thon officially ended today. The tallies are being totaled and the reward day is set for this Friday afternoon (Feb. 19) at 1:15pm. At the assembly, winners will be acknowledged and staff will be doing crazy 'Olympic' events to entertain the students. Thanks to parents and staff for encouraging the kids to read and a special thanks to the teachers for taking on the extra task getting tallies into the office. Go Kenny!

This Friday is…

Hat, glasses, and tie day! Sponsored by the Student Council.

Thank You!

A Big Thank You to John Mulkern for organizing the Kenny Staff Appreciation Party last Saturday evening. A great time was had by both staff and parents!

CHARACTER BUILDING

Have you noticed the banners going up in the lunchroom? Our first one says RESPECT and we concentrated on having respect for ourselves, for the school, and for the people around us. The new sign says CARING. Part of our Kenny song says, CARING CARING that's what we do! You CARE about me and I CARE about you! That really describes our Kenny Community. Look for more signs coming up in the lunchroom. And speaking of CARING...the Tuesday ALC class sponsored a collection for the people of Haiti. Reaching out to the people we don't even know shows that we care about the WORLD! It was exciting for the last three weeks to count all the money coming in. It was amazing how this child's baggie full of nickels and pennies added to another child's baggie full of quarters and dimes. The money tube kept filling up and up! We couldn't believe how much money was coming in! The ALC class was hoping for $100 to $200, then after the first week, we set our goal to $300, but on Friday

we sent a donation of $594.42 to the

American Red Cross! Wow! Caring really describes our Kenny Community! Way to go, Kenny Kids! All of us working together really does make a difference!

3

The Foundation Cornerstone

If you have something sitting around the house that you are not using, you can donate it to the Foundation and receive a charitable contribution form for your taxes. The item must have a retail value of $50 or more. Please email Tim Keehn at tkeehn1@comcast.net with any questions. If your workplace would like to donate to a classroom at Kenny and can't give cash or check, they can go to www.adoptaclassroom.org, pick out Kenny Elementary School in Mpls, MN and pick any of the many registered classrooms.

Wendy’s Night 66th and Lyndale

Don't forget, next Tuesday, February 23rd is Wendy's Night!

Come have fun with Kenny families from 5-7 p.m. Wendy's generously donates 10% of the night's sales to Kenny!

to lower class size at second and third grade. We were also able to fund some after school programs. The site council, which has representatives from parents, teachers, and administration oversees the budget process. We will make sure to use your input regarding programming. The budget will be tight, and we need to make sure we are using our resources in the most valuable manner. One example is all day Kindergarten. This has a significant impact on student achievement and is extremely important in recruiting new Kenny families. While the choices and priorities are tough, we need to make sure we are offerings the best programming for our students. Please take time to complete this survey. It will be extremely helpful if you complete the survey tonight and put it right into your child’s backpack. Please continue to watch for newsletters and I will be giving a budget update at the March PTA meeting. This is the last week of district MAP testing. There are still some students making up tests they missed so results will not be sent out until next Wednesday. It was really nice of the parents to put together a staff appreciation party on Saturday night. The room was beautiful and the food was fantastic. This is a stressful time of year for teachers so the timing was perfect. I have extremely high expectations for the staff and they step up the plate every time. I know the entire staff appreciated your thoughtfulness. Thanks for all you do at Kenny. Make sure to stop in the entryway to check out the finished foyer!

Bill Gibbs, Principal

(Mr. Gibb’s letter continued from page 1)

Kenny Park Up & Coming

Programs and Activities

Parents Time Out: Parents, this is the perfect opportunity for you to enjoy an afternoon out on the town. Drop your kids off at the park for an afternoon of fun! We will watch movies, play games and make art projects. Space is limited to 12 children. Our next session will be held on February 20th 10am-2pm. Only $15 per child. Friday Movie after School: Kids are you looking for something fun and exciting to do after school on Friday? Come on down to Kenny Park—there will be a movie playing at 3pm sharp and there will also be popcorn provided to the kids watching the movie. This program runs through March 19th, 3pm-5pm. Cost is free. Kick Fit Class: Adults, don’t worry, we have something for you too! Kick fit provides a sense of well being, improved strength and stamina. You will also increase your flexibility and balance. This program runs through March 18th 6:30pm-7:30pm. Program runs on Monday’s and Thursday’s. Only $5 per day. Spring Egg Hunt at Kenny Park: We will provide continental breakfast with light refreshments, arts and crafts activities, caricatures and of course the egg hunt. The egg hunt will be held on Saturday, April 17th 10am-11:30am. Sign up now. Only $5 per child. Spring programs and activities will be available to view online by February 28th and Registration will begin March 8th @ 6pm. * To sign up for these programs or if you have any questions please log onto www.reservemaster.com/minneapolisparks/ or call Kenny Park @ 612-370-4901.