PARENT NEWS

Dear MKA Families,

The first half of the school year has been a busy and exciting time for PAMKA. The Scholastic Book Fair returned, bringing the thrill and magic of reading to our three campuses. The success of the fall and winter community engagement drives reminded me how amazing it is to be a part of this generous community.

PAMKA volunteers have continued to share their time and talent in planning events such as Parenting Workshops, the Spring Gala, and Cougar Pride Day. Without them, none of our work would be possible. While the end of the school year is approaching, there are still a variety of ways for you to get involved. You can always reach out to me, your grade representative, or an Event Chair to learn more. I encourage everyone to discover a way to get involved in creating meaningful memories for our students and learning and engagement opportunities for fellow parents and guardians.

It has been rewarding to fully return to pre-pandemic normalcy this year and have the opportunity to work in-person with fellow parents and guardians to fulfill PAMKA’s mission. We are always looking to evolve our own events and programming, keeping our school’s mission of Knowledge, Vision, and Integrity at the forefront of everything we do. We will continue to foster a strong partnership with MKA in supporting all school initiatives, including diversity, inclusion, and sustainability.

I hope to see many of you at the Spring Gala on Friday, April 14 and Cougar Pride Day on Saturday, May 6!

Sincerely,

Alison Slone P’30, ’33 President,

Alison Slone

President

Silvia Henriquez

Secretary

Sybil Eng

Finance Vice President

Sonia Vora

Communications Vice President

April Straten

Community Engagement Vice President

Ruchi Misra

Volunteer Coordinator Vice President

Leena Bansal

Special Events Vice President

Meredith Gardner

Primary School Campus Vice President

Monique French-Brown

Middle School Campus Vice President

Leigh Conforti

Upper School Campus Vice President

Friday, April 14, 2023

Spring Gala

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Cougar Pride Day

PICTURED ABOVE PAMKA Executive Board of Officers; Back Row L-R: Ruchi Misra, Sybil Eng, Sonia Vora, Leigh Conforti, Leena Bansal; Front Row (L-R): Meredith Gardner, Monique French-Brown, Silvia Henriquez, Alison Sloane, April Straten

THE RETURN OF PAMKA’S SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR WAS A TRUE SUCCESS! Tri-Campus PAMKA Book Fair Chairs Valerie Puryear and Nicole Xu, along with their wonderful team of volunteers, brought the excitement of reading to our three campuses with the 2022 Scholastic “Time Machine” Book Fair. This was PAMKA’s first Book Fair since 2019, and it was a true success. MKA has hosted Scholastic’s largest book fair in the country and invited several talented authors and illustrators to share their creative process with our students for years; we are thrilled that this tradition is now back.

Thank you to Julia Mortimore and Eun Jung Park for making our Primary School campus reading extravaganza complete with PJ Night and engaging presentations for our Brookside students by attending authors and illustrators Bryan Collier, Mike Lowery, and Oge Mora. Cara Cesaro and Elizabeth Hejna made sure that every Middle School student celebrated their creativity and love of books by welcoming authors Jeff Kinney, Lois Lowery, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Jason Reynolds. Jason Reynolds also gave an amazing presentation to our Upper School community, with Becki Hirsh and Janice Jacobson creating a literary space at our Upper School Academic Center.

A special thank you to all of the parents who gave their time and talent to make this special event possible. PAMKA is also grateful to Scholastic for their partnership and our MKA faculty and staff for their continuous support.