PTO Officers for 2015-2016 President: Didi Willard Vice-Presidents: Katharina Connor and Chris Christman Secretary: Cheryl Church Treasurer: Gail Fitzgerald
President's Message It’s hard to believe that half the school year is already behind us. I’m excited to share that we have accomplished a great deal during this time. In a few short months, we have increased our financial base; increased membership by 50 people; sponsored and managed a second school theatrical play involving over 50 BMS students and two performances; provided our teachers and staff with two meals; held three well attended dances; completed two very successful fundraisers; offered BMS Spirit Wear resulting in higher sales than last year; applied for and received four grants from the Community Foundation of Frederick County; increased communication through our Facebook page; and the list goes on. There is much more to accomplish, and we need your continued parent involvement to make it all happen. Thank you for all your help so far. Please consider joining us for one of our upcoming events and sharing some of your time and talents to help make the second half of the year a success, too.
Direct Donations - A great way to directly support student programs You can make a direct donation at any time. Direct donations support the students and school 100%, and the donation is tax deductible. To make a direct donation, please make a check payable to “BMS PTO”, place it in a sealed envelope marked “BMS PTO Direct Donation” and send it in with your child. Ask them to give it to their first period teacher. Please check with your company about matching funds for donations, as this will help the school twice as nice.
Upcoming School Dance - Friday, April 8th Join us for our next dance on Friday, April 8th, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Tickets are $3 and will be sold during lunch shifts Tuesday, April 5, Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7th! Great dancing, fun in the gym, board games in the library and friends will make this an event to remember! Adult volunteers and concession donations are needed to make this event successful. If you can help, please look for the SignUpGenius links that will be coming out in advance of the dance in a Find Out First and on our Facebook page. What an awesome way to celebrate Spring with friends!
School Store - We need your help The PTO provides the students with an opportunity to shop at a school store to purchase school related items. Items that are offered include traditional lead pencils, mechanical pencils, pens, paper, composition notebooks, rulers, erasers, poster board and much more. The students love to come by and see what we have and get something new. We like to have this store open once a week. We’ve had multiple volunteers give their time, but we need more. Please consider volunteering a couple hours one day a month to help. If you can help, please email us at [email protected] and let us know. Thank you.
Get Involved through Volunteering There are ways to be involved with the PTO: Sell dance tickets, decorate for dances, chaperone dances, clean up after dances, volunteer to help with the book fair, suggest and run a fund raiser, help with staff appreciation events, help with the play, save boxtops and labels for education, work in the school store during lunch or before school, help with the PBIS events, volunteer to work in the library and much more.
Box Tops and Labels for Education We are continuing our monthly contests for Box Tops. Thank you parents for sending in your cut Box Tops. Sixth grade won 15 minutes of extra recess for December and eighth grade won for the first time this school year for January. We have now received over $600 for Box Tops! That's a great return for a little bit of time! So, keep sending them in!
More information on both these programs: Box Tops in particular are a way to make "free" money to support our students and school programs. Every box top is worth $0.10. If you are already buying items with Box Tops on them, they are an easy way to contribute to the school. Some students seem uninterested in participating so we are hoping that parents will collect and encourage their students to actually turn them in. You can also ask grandparents and neighbors to save - one BMS family has an aunt that sends them her Box Tops from California for BMS! Click here for the BoxTop website. With Labels for Education, we don't get money but are able to use them to "purchase" various items for the school or the PTO. For example, last year we replaced the large thermos that we use for the school dances. got some additional balls for recess, and supplied the PBIS program with some items for their end-of-year raffle. Click here for the Labels for Education website.
Upcoming PTO Meetings and Becoming a Member Our next meeting will be on the 16th of March at 7:00 pm. The following one will be April 27th. Please join us in the Media Center to share your ideas, find out what we have coming up and ways to get involved. Not a current PTO Member? Please join us! Click here for a membership form. Fill it out and send it to school in an envelope marked PTO. Membership dues are $5.00 for a family. Checks should be made payable to "BMS PTO." Membership dues are used to support field trips, special programs (Math Counts, Destination Imagination, Scripps Spelling Bee, etc.), assemblies, author visits, teachers, and so much more. You are also welcome to come to the PTO meetings whether you are a member or not. They are typically held the fourth Wednesday of each month with some exceptions due to school closings or other events. Check the school website calendar for additional dates.