SHARE Newsletter April 2015

SHARE Newsletter

Support - Help - Answers - Recommendations - Encouragement April 21, 2015 ACS Athens PTO Year 6, Issue 43

GOT SPRING FEVER?

WE’VE GOT THE CURE!

Please join us on Friday, April 24, 2015 at 9 p.m. for Dinner and Dancing at NARGILE

50 Charilaou Trikoupi Street Kifissia 14562 Tel. 210 808 3333 Cost is 35 euros per person (inclusive of soft drinks, wine and beer) Dress: Cocktail

Please email pamela.stamatiou@gmail.com or Marissa Kouloura: marissakv@gmail.com to reserve now!

NEW DATE: The next PTO Cooking class will be held on Thursday, April 30, 2015 in the home of Demetra Lambros in Politeia. The class will teach you “No-Knead

Effortless Bread and Pizza Baking.” Class will start at 10:30 and everyone gets involved with the cooking and then the eating! The class is limited to 8 people, please RSVP to Marissa Vorgias as soon as possible at marissakv@gmail.com. You will be sent the address and directions as the date nears. Each participant is requested to donate 10 euro to help offset the costs of hosting. ** If you are interested in hosting a cooking class in your home, please let us know! All ideas are welcome!** -

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Mark your calendar!

Donate a prize for the Silent Auction!

Volunteer to organize a Food Table that represents your country!

Bake homemade treats for the Bake Sale Table!

Clean out your bookcases and donate your used books!

Sign up to sell your unwanted items at our first “Car Trunk Sale”!

Volunteer to help sell or serve at a PTO or food table that day!

Bring your whole family and all your friends! It will be a great day of fun for everyone!

Sign up now or go to this link: http://vols.pt/ZS6W4g

THANK YOU to the parents and sponsors who continuously support the ACS Athens PTO! Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who gave generously of their time as well as the delicious food donations that were sent in for the Teachers and Staff Appreciation Breakfast Monday and Luncheon Friday!

THANK YOU to Gaea (www.gaea.gr) and Mr. Aris Kefalogiannis (parent and Board of Trustees member) for providing all the fruit bars we distributed to Teachers and Staff during Appreciation Week.

THANK YOU use at PTO

to Mythical Brands (www.mythicalbrands.com) and Mr. Nick Meintanas (parent) for providing cases of juice for events and Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week.

THANK YOU to Gefsinus, our ACS Athens Cafeteria Caterer, for their generous and cheerful help and donations at all of our events, including the great coffee at each and every monthly PTO Meeting!

Advertise in the ACS Athens Academy 2014-2015 Yearbook!

The 2014-15 Academy Yearbook honors the Senior students who are completing their education at ACS Athens this year, as well as including the students in their Junior, Sophomore, and Freshman years. Photographs and candid shots of the students and all of our clubs, sports teams, events, and faculty are a part of the yearbook too! It’s a book of memories that will be treasured for many years to come.

In order to offset the costs of creating the yearbook, we are selling advertising space. The space can be used in several different ways: -

Parents, family members, and friends can use this space to congratulate their graduating student. It’s a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge their accomplishments with a celebratory ad they will always be able to look back on. The ad space can be customized with photos (old and recent) and text to be unique to your student!

This space could be used to advertise your business or company! Yearbooks could not be possible without the help from our sponsors, so we thank them for their support by providing the space and opportunity to advertise!

Students of all grade levels can purchase ad space together with their friends to create a shout out section with their fun memories to look back on.

There are three ad space price/size options you may choose from: 25€ for a quarter of a page (15cm x 10.5cm) 50€ for a half of a page (15cm x 21cm) 100€ for a full page (30cm x 21cm) if you’d more space, you can purchase more pages at the prices above You can use a standard A4 size piece of paper to visualize these dimensions when planning and creating your ad, keep the size in mind when choosing your photos and/or text content. The deadline to submit advertisements is Thursday April 30th, 2015.

Your support for our yearbook is greatly appreciated! If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact yearbook advisor Brittany Thank you! - The ACS Athens Academy Yearbook Club 2014-15 Langlois at langloisb@acs.gr.

Announcing the ACS Athens PTO Bulletin Board!

The ACS Athens community is a wonderfully diverse group of parents, teachers, administration and students. Each part of this community has something to offer the other-from local knowledge to goods and services and everything in-between.

New for this year, the PTO has developed an online bulletin board design to allow our community to better communicate and share with one another. We've selected Google Groups as the host of the Bulletin Board. You will need to have a Google account in order to participate. Once you've signed up, you do have the option to have the group's emails sent to an alternate email allowing you to continue to use the email service with which you are most comfortable. You can also select how many updates you receive and how frequently.

There are several ways to join: 1) Send an email to leahfwilkinson@gmail.com with your gmail address and you will be sent an invitation to join with just a few clicks 2) If you have a Google account you can search for ACS Athens PTO Bulletin Board and submit a request to join 3) If you do not have a Google account you will need to create one in order to join the group. The process is very simple, just go to https://accounts.google.com/SignUp and follow the instructions. Once you've created an account you can choose from the above options to join.

Please note that this group is intended for the ACS Athens community only and access is limited to members only. If you have any questions, please contact Leah Wilkinson, leahfwilkinson@gmail.com The

Institute for Innovation and Creativity at ACS Athens, is proud to host the 10th Annual Conference on Learning Differences and Innovation Summit, to be held on the campus of ACS Athens, May 6-9, 2015. The theme of the conference is “What if? Teaching and Learning at the Edge of Possibility”. The conference program and registration details can be found at http://www.acs.gr/ldc2015-main. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will be given over entirely to one 3-day and three 2-day intensive institutes, each focused on one of the conference strands. Participants may enroll in one of the institutes for an intensive, in-depth learning experience, in both the Institute and Saturday program, or only the Saturday program which consists of our Innovation Summit and Best-Practice Workshops.

It’s PTO Board Nomination time! Elections will be held at the May 12th meeting, so anyone interested in any of the positions should submit their selfnomination form before then. Please see the positions below, and the nomination form on the reverse side. Support your student’s school!

CHAIRPERSON Presides at all meetings of the Organization and of the Executive Board.

Appoints all necessary committee chairs with the approval of the Executive Board, informs the chairs of their selection, and serves as an ex-officio member to all committees, with the exception of the nominating committee.

May sign checks in lieu of the Treasurer for the disbursement of funds of the Organization.

Performs all other duties entrusted by the Organization or the Executive Board.

Attends, or delegates to the Vice Chairperson, the ACS Tuition Assistance meetings during the year.

Liaises with the Head of Schools and the Board of Education.

VICE CHAIRPERSON Assists the Chairperson in all executive duties.

Assumes the duties in the absence of the Chairperson.

Fills in as Chairperson should the office become vacant.

Liaises with the Alumni association and the Booster club and reports to the Executive Board on these meetings.

Liaises with the Optimal Match Director and reports to the Executive Board on these meetings.

Liaises with the relevant PTO committees.

ACADEMY, INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (I.B.), MIDDLE SCHOOL, AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES Holds monthly meetings with the Principal and a faculty representative (appointed by the Principal) of each respective school (I.B. Representative shall meet with the I.B. Coordinator) to discuss all relevant issues related to their schools and reports to the Executive Board.

Arranges meetings, as needed, with the Student Councils of each respective school. In the case of the Elementary school, the representative may arrange meetings, as needed, with the classroom parents and the I.B. Representative may arrange meetings, as needed, with the I.B. student council.

Assists and facilitates links between the schools, students and parents on important issues.

SECRETARY Records the minutes of all meetings of the Organization and of the Executive Board and makes these minutes available prior to the next Executive Board meeting.

Is responsible for the official correspondence of the Organization.

Informs the membership of upcoming meetings seven days prior to the meeting.

TREASURER Prepares a yearly budget with the assistance and approval of the Executive Board.

Receives all funds of the Organization.

Pays out funds as authorized by the Executive Board.

Keeps full and accurate records of all financial transactions.

Meets regularly with ACS Athens business office to authorize payments and receipts.

Signs checks for disbursement of funds of the Organization.

Presents a financial statement at every meeting of the Organization and presents a summary at the end of the school year.

Is responsible for a smooth transition to the incoming Treasurer.

Ensures that, to the extent possible, at the end of the school year, no less than € 1,000 is left to the incoming Executive Board.

U.S. EMBASSY REPRESENTATIVE Must be affiliated with the U.S. Embassy, either on assignment in Greece, or the spouse / partner of someone on assignment in Greece.

Acts as liaison between U.S. Embassy employed parents and the PTO in soliciting their input Assists with different PTO sponsored events.

COMMUNITY LIAISON Organizes community events and activities throughout the year, and acts as liaison between the PTO Board and the PTO members regarding local community events.

Creates a monthly newsletter (“Share”) designed to communicate upcoming events both within ACS and in the greater community. .

OPTIMAL LEARNING PROGRAM LIAISON

Meets regularly with the Optimal Learning Program department to discuss relevant issues related to OLP. Acts as liaison between the PTO and OLP regarding upcoming events, changes, or needs concerning the OLP. Assists in the planning of “Partnership for Success” meetings for parents on a monthly basis.

2015-2016 PTO BOARD SELF-NOMINATION FORM FULL NAME: EMAIL: TELEPHONE: NUMBER OF CHILDREN AT ACS Athens (and grades): NUMBER OF YEARS AT ACS Athens: BOARD POSITION I AM INTERESTED IN: ☐Chairperson

☐Vice-Chairperson

☐Secretary

☐Treasurer

☐E/S Rep

☐M/S Rep

☐Academy Rep

☐IB/AP Rep

☐Embassy Rep

☐Community Liaison Rep

☐Optimal Learning Prog. Rep

Please write a short note explaining your interest in this position and any relevant, prior experience or skills you have.

In addition to the above mentioned duties, all members are responsible for helping in the four annual school events: Welcome Back Barbeque, Holiday Bazaar, Teacher Appreciation Week, and the Spring Fair.

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ACS Athens PTO is planning its first ever CAR TRUNK SALE! During the Spring Fair, May 16th, 12:00 to 4:00pm Clean out your garage/attic/store room and come along to sell your stuff.

And remember: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Just pay a small fee, set up and sell it all away!

How to book a car space: 1.

2.

Fill in the attached form.

Send it in, along with your payment of 20€, by placing it in an envelope and dropping it off in one of the PTO drop boxes located in any one of the schools’ main offices. Deadline is May 4th.

VENDORS PLEASE NOTE:This is a family event and as such, we request your discretion with what is offered for sale. Selling any food and/or beverages is not allowed. Space is limited so it’s “first come, first served”. Your space is only reserved when payment has been received.

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CAR TRUNK SALE Name:____________________________________________________________ Child’s grade:______________________________________________________ Contact number:___________________________________________________ Email:____________________________________________________________ Car’s number plate:_________________________________________________ Please indicate if your car is:

Compact

Sedan

Large (Jeep/SUV)