OPT February 2021 Newsletter
It’s already February 2021? It feels like it was February 2020 just yesterday…or five years ago…depending on how you look at it. What a year 2020 was! Like you, OPT has had to adapt to the curveballs thrown way over the last year and with that, came the re-invention of almost every event we had slated for the school year.
While it has been a challenge to create a virtual OPT presence, it has also been a pleasure to rethink, reimagine and reengineer our plans. We remain committed to providing fun and inclusive events and do our best to support the students and staff of Evergreen Academy.
Next Meeting: March 4th, 2021, 6 PM
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83987359585?pwd=VyswRUQyaEsyMHIrbWtlRFI5OWw2UT09
What's Happening
Adopt an Eagle Program: In Motion!
Spirit Wear: Online Store Coming Soon
Valentine’s Art Night
STEM Night
Tuesday, Feb 23, 2021, 06:00 PM
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Book Club
Tuesday, Mar 2, 2021, 07:00 PM
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Uniform Store: Shopping Time Availability Coming Soon!
During the week of 2/8 – 2/11 we accepted donations for the Uniform Store. Lots of great donations rolled in! After Mid-Winter break you will receive a Sign-Up Genius where you can pick a time slot to shop privately and at deeply discounted prices! (Ex: pants $3, shirts $2, etc.)
Parent Education Night: Helping Your Anxious Child
Immediately following the March 4th OPT Meeting, join us as we welcome back psychologists and moms, Jenna Elgin and Shanna Alvarez of Helping Families Thrive. Their mission is to provide practical, evidence-based tools to address challenging behaviors in convenient and accessible formats. This month’s topic will be, “Helping Your Anxious Child.” More details will be sent as we near the event!
Thursday, Mar 4, 2021, 06:30 PM
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Staff Appreciation
We have been able to treat our staff of 25 to two goodie bags in the New Year (pictured below.) While Staff Appreciation Week is still a few months away (May)…it’s rapidly approaching. If you are interested in helping make this year special for our hardworking staff, please let Kim Kertson know by email kimmykaykertson@gmail.com. We need your ideas and man power!
Principal’s Update
2021 is off to a wonderful start! 4th and 5th grade returned last month and we added two new students to our second grade. Priority Enrollment was a huge success, with a total of 118 enrollments. We opened enrollment up to outside families on January 26. Currently, we have 128 students enrolled for the fall and continue to have numerous tours and applications submitted. We won’t add more students to the group until Mrs. Morey’s meeting with our Operations team later this month.
Field trips are under way and we can’t wait to share the photos with you. Kindergarten virtually worked with the Toymaker and created a fun toy to take home. In January, OA 2nd and 3rd grade students had a virtual field trip with Doodlebugs. 5th grade students will be completing Virtual STEM lessons/Field Trips with Islandwood, while 4th grade is scheduling meetings with the Salmon group and basket weaving. First grade traveled to Antarctica two weeks ago and were able to explore places they would see on their journey to learn more about penguins. 2nd and 3rd grade are scheduling trips for their students, too. Stay tuned!
We continue to promote the importance of embracing who our students are meant to be. Our theme for January was “The World is Better with Each of Us” and we focused on Audre Lorde’s contributions to society. February’s theme is “Take Care of One Another” and Julia Alvarez’s quote: “The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.” We are also discussing Black History Month during LAUNCH and highlighting lesser-known black individuals who made significant contributions to society.
If you have questions about a particular topic, please reach out to Mrs. Morey via email or phone and she will be happy to discuss items with you.
December was a BUSY Month!
• PNB Nutcracker/Gingerbread House Event: Our PNB Nutcracker/Gingerbread House Event was a huge success with more than 40 participants. We were happy we could continue the EA Nutcracker tradition in an unconventional way and introduce a new event with Gingerbread House building.
• Secret Santa Gift Exchange: With the Holiday Store not possible this year, we mixed things up by hosting a Secret Santa Gift Exchange. More than half of the students opted in with a whopping 66 participants!
• OPT Goodie Bags: As we started Winter Break, we sent the children home with small goodie bags on the same day Secret Santa presents went home, to mitigate children feeling left out. The bags included hot chocolate, chocolate, a candy cane, and jingle bell, to go along with our Polar Express Read Aloud.
• December Directed Draw and Polar Express Read Aloud: Over Winter Break the OPT hosted a Directed Draw and Polar Express Read Aloud. Students drew an adorable reindeer and a polar bear in an ugly sweater. A read aloud of the Polar Express was viewed and we even had a surprise visitor from the North Pole!
• MOD Pizza Night: In our first ever EA Eats Out fundraising event, we raised $100! We hope to make these monthly mini-fundraisers a regular occurrence. We are looking to find ways to be more geographically accessible as our community is quite spread out stay tuned and send any ideas you have our way!
• Pie Mrs. Morey and TWO 100% Participation Parties Earned: In December our fundraising participation dreams came true as we watched Mrs. Morey get pied by our own Mrs. Loewen during Launch! The kids were THRILLED and loved being “together.” Two classes, Ms. Carpenter and Mrs. Ashmore, reached 100% fundraising participation and earned a class party. The planning is in the works and we look forward to sharing the details next month!
About OPT
Your OPT Board this year is:
- President: Melinda Kong
- Vice President of Fundraising: Julia Kulyk
- Vice President of Family Engagement: Keri Sliger
- Secretary: Kim Kertson
- Treasurer: Doug Mangini
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EvergreenAcademyOPT