LAF Update
March 17
One School, One Book Read to page 203 by March 22nd
PTO Meeting March 18th @ 9:15 a.m.
Meeting Agenda
- Welcome Remarks and Presidents Report Andrea Caserta
- Principal, Chatham Middle School (CMS) Jill Gihorski
- Principal’s Q &A Cheryl Russo
Committee Updates
- Read a thon: Kara Siblia, Kelly Sachs & Jennifer Ferrie
- ASE: Karen Bruzzo
- Treasurer’s Report: Christine Slattery
- Approval of January Minutes Two motions needed
- Open Discussion
- To submit questions prior to the meeting email lafptopresident@gmail.com
Executive Board
- President – Andrea Caserta
- Vice President –Sharon Piskaldo
- Secretary – Chrissie Maxwell
- Treasurer – Christine Slattery
- Co-Treasurer – Erica Kolojdziej
- Co-General Fund – Pam Ryan and Janine Vecciarelli
LAFAYETTE PTO COMMITTEE BOARDS 2021-2022
Please sign up and become a part of one or more Lafayette PTO committees! Your help is greatly appreciated, and the success of our PTO depends on your time and effort. Thank you for considering a position. Click here to volunteer.
LAF Spring Book Fair
Give your kids an option other than electronics over spring break! Don't forget to order books from the LAF Spring Book Fair! All orders are due by Saturday, March 20th.
https://efairs.follettbookfairs.com/guest/home?classCode=G94K4
Any questions? Please contact us!
Megan Schaaf meganschaff@gmail.com
Beth Fitt beth.fitt@verizon.net
Cathy Egan cathyegan@yahoo.com
King Arthur Bread Company Returns (Virtually)
Don’t you love the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread?
On Tuesday, March 23rd, Lafayette School students will participate in King Arthur Baking Company’s Bake for Good Program. Our outreach program allows kids to learn, bake, and share their baked goods as an act of kindness using the power of baking to make a difference. Students will learn that combining math, science, reading, and baking know-how, adds up to delicious bread!
Your student will receive a Baking Kit* which includes two bags of King Arthur flour, a BFG recipe booklet, Red Star Yeast, a KABC dough scraper, a bread donation bag, and twist tie. With their new baking skills, your support, and perhaps a little guidance, your student will bake this recipe with confidence. (As your new baker will tell you, this recipe takes about 3½ hours!)
After baking two loaves of bread or rolls, they will share half of their baked goods (one loaf or some rolls), as an act of kindness. We recommend sharing with a food bank, neighbor, friend, or first responder. Due to COVID, we are not accepting donations this year.
You and your baker keep the other delicious loaf (or cinnamon rolls or pizza or dinner rolls) to enjoy!
Please visit KingArthurBakingCompany.com/bakeforgood to learn more about Bake for Good, to find helpful videos and tips for baking at home.
We hope you enjoy the pleasures of homemade bread!
Baking Kits for remote students will be available on the table in front of Lafayette School during school hours ( 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM) on Monday, March 22nd and Tuesday, March 23rd.
In case you missed it.......
Last week, I spoke with the students about their misuse of Chromebooks during school hours and at home. This misuse includes Googling topics that are unrelated to school, emailing friends about conflict, emailing friends to set up playdates, gaming, and watching various Youtube videos at all times. Our devices and Google Platforms are to be used for school related assignments only. Once their school work is complete, the device should be turned off and placed right back in the backpack. It should not be considered an at home personal device/gaming device.
As you know, the internet is riddled with false information and what your child is being exposed to is not always accurate, yet children are not able to reason that out. We do have an app called Securly which monitors our devices for content as well as malware that comes through email. Our security system at times will block them from clicking on certain links. Although, students are able to search any topic and when on websites such as YouTube, there are no guarantees for blocking inappropriate content. I ask for your support to remind students that they need to use our devices according to the Acceptable Use Policy
I also wanted to bring to your attention a frightening trend on the app Tic Tok which seems to glorify or perhaps encourage suicide. On this app, children are being exposed to this type of messaging and then they become curious. Their curiosity is resulting in searches on our Chromebooks and on your personal devices at home. I am suggesting that you continue to monitor the videos your children are watching and what they are being exposed to on this app. You should also encourage your child that if they see something online that they are wondering about, they should seek out a trusted adult to clarify and explain what they are watching.
Thank you for your support. Please see below regarding our Securly app.
SECURLY HOME
Securly Home (previously called the Securly Parent Portal) was a service that we made available to CHS and CMS parents when our 1:1 program started. Now that devices in PK-5 are not limited to on campus use only, we expanded this service to all schools and grade levels.
The Chromebook device we send home is filtered regardless of which wifi network it is connected to and the service enables transparency of internet history between parents, students, and their school. Parents can see alerts of bullying or self-harm in real-time if they follow the instructions to install the Securly Home app. Additionally, we enable parents to modify some settings on the devices when they are off-campus such as pausing the internet or blocking certain sites.
All parents have been enrolled and will receive a weekly email summary of their child's internet usage but further info is available through the Securly Home app. You can also click on the link below for more information.