Principal's Corner

Dear McMullen Booth Families,

Our students and teachers are currently focused on completing their final assessments after working hard all year in each of their core subjects. Results of their progress will be reported to you from your child’s teacher during this last month of school or in their final report card. Celebrate with your child in their growth!  We are all proud of them! 

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week!  I want to thank all of our  teachers and staff who are committed to supporting our students as they work to achieve their learning goals. Because our teachers are committed to living and teaching character, striving for excellence in the teaching of our curriculum, and celebrating successes both big and small with our students, McMullen Booth is an amazing place to work and learn. We are truly blessed to have a staff that exemplifies our motto, “We are McMullen Booth!  Working together, we make a difference!” 

Our Earth Day celebration last Friday was a joyous and successful celebration of Mother Earth and our natural resources!  Students, staff and community members alike enjoyed the wonderful weather and the great learning activities and fun that were available, some for a fee and others that were free!  Thank you to our PE staff for sharing their space and time and to Ms. Steakley and the Earth Day committee for their hard work in putting together another memorable day for our community to enjoy. 

Speaking of the Earth, we are committed to helping to decrease our  footprint on our planet!   We showed our commitment through our  efforts to recycle during the Pepsi Dream Machine Recycling  Challenge. We are happy to report that out of 200 schools that  participated nationwide in this challenge, we finished in 14th place,  recycling approximately 178,500 containers. This will allow us to use the points accrued in this contest to gain school supplies and incentives for our school. Thank you to all who helped during this contest period. Our commitment to the Earth doesn’t end here.  Although we no longer have to count each of our recyclables, we will continue to recycle and support our community in doing so through the bins that are located in our Union Street car circle. Aluminum cans may be put directly into the bin marked for metals, no bags please. The plastic containers must be bagged and placed into the green plastic rolling cans. These items must be bagged, or they will not collect them. Please help us with these requirements as we continue to support earth-friendly practices. Working together, we do make a difference! 

Have a great weekend!

~ Sherry Aemisegger, Principal

Dates To Remember

Last Day of School – June 8th

Please note the last day of school for students is Wednesday, June 8, 2011. Students will follow the regular Wednesday schedule of 8:35 am – 1:35 pm.

Community Happenings

The following flyers are located in the school office, and you are welcome to stop by and pick up any papers that interest you.

The school is neither endorsing nor sponsoring the events nor approving or endorsing
the views of the organization sponsoring the activity.

Family and Community Relations

It is hard to believe there are only 5 weeks of school left. Time sure flies when you’re having fun! We are still in need of help for some of our end of the year activities.

Our 5th grade Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday, June 8th. This is the perfect opportunity for this year’s 4th grade parents to come out to help and see what they will be planning for their own students next year. You will be finished in plenty of time for your own child’s dismissal. A signup sheet is located near the volunteer computer or you can give me a call to add your name. Please help us make their last MBES event a successful one! 

If you have been in to school to volunteer this week, you already know that our Volunteer Log-In procedure has changed. When you arrive on campus you will need to sign in as a visitor. When your volunteer service is completed for the day, you will log in on the Volunteer computer using the instructions below and enter your hours. It is extremely important that your hours are logged each time you are here on campus. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this new procedure. We will work through the glitches together!

New Volunteer Log-In Procedure:

• Click on the Portal icon on the desktop (this should already be done before you arrive!!) 
• Sign into Portal using your v. account Username (lastnamefirstinitial) 
  Username example: v.smithw 
• The Password is your Last Name (first letter capitalized) immediately followed by your year of birth. 
  Password example: Smith1975 
• Press “Enter” or Click “Log In” 

To Add Hours:

• Click on the Volunteer Icon 
• Dropdown menu --- Click on Add Hours and enter the following info: Date (will default to today’s date), School, Hours, Description of Activity, Student (if you are a Mentor), and Location. Add comments if necessary. 
• Click “Enter Hours” to save! 

Once you sign in the first time it will all make sense! Thanks for your willingness to go with the flow!!

~ Barbara Hajko, Family & Community Liaison

Earth Day Success

We earned $677 for our “green efforts” here at McMullen Booth. The money is used for our gardens, outdoor classroom, science materials, recycling ranger program, Earth Day and more! Thanks for all your support! We hope the students had a wonderful learning opportunity.

Thank You Crispers!!

We received $285.91 from our last Crispers Family Night.

Thank You Box Tops!

     

We received $902.30 from our Boxtops Program. Keep sending the Boxtops and Labels for Education to school. Save them over the summer!

Internet Safety

Technology is great, and we use it every day at school and in our homes. Used properly, these tools enrich our lives through increased ease of communication, research, learning and the completion of many and varied tasks. However, with technology use comes responsibility. This responsibility is required of students, parents and schools alike. To support our students we need to teach them proper use and etiquette and monitor them as they learn and grow in the use of the vast technology world.

Ask yourself some simple questions: Are you aware of what your children are doing on the computer at home? Have you discussed internet safety with your children and are you closely monitoring their use of websites and social networks? Are you aware that sites like Facebook are not to be used by persons under the age of 13, and the only way for a child to get onto these sites is to lie about your birth date and other personal information? Do you know how to set up safety parameters and permissions for you and your child? If you don’t know yourself, do some research and learn together about how to stay safe. Have conversations with your child about their use of the computer. Are they aware of the seriousness of internet safety and security? Time spent in conversation with our children helps us judge how they are handling the responsibility of computer and internet use.

Talk with your child today, you won’t regret the time you have spent helping them be safe in the wide world of computers and the internet. 

For more information on this subject, please contact the Pinellas County Schools Prevention Office, at 588-6130 or email Fenechc@pcsb.org.

Spring Cleaning?

If you are cleaning out your closets, our clinic could use all sizes of boys and girls elastic waist shorts and underwear.  These gently used clothes 
are available to our students who have all kinds of clothing accidents such as exploding milk in the cafeteria and mud slides in PE!

Important Cafeteria News

• All outstanding lunch borrows need to be paid before the last day of school. 
   
• No lunch loans will be allowed after Friday, May 20th.
   
• Lunch account balances will carry over to next year AND will follow the student to any Pinellas County School even middle school!  If your child will not be in a Pinellas County School next year, please send a note to the cafeteria for a balance refund.

McMullen's Cafe

Cafeteria News

Have you wondered how much money is left on your child’s lunch account? Well, now you can find out, and it’s free! Go to www.mealpayplus.com. You will need your student’s ID number (located on their negative balance letters). Enter the number as the ID and PIN number. You can check the status of the account, see what they have purchased and get e-mail alerts when the account falls below a certain amount ($5.25 is a good number, that’s 3 lunches left). All of this is available at no charge to you!

You can also, for a small fee, add money with a check, debit or credit card. When adding to the account, if there is a negative balance in the meals, make sure you add money to zero that out, as well as adding to the “general” account if your child is able to purchase ala carte items.

The School Board of Pinellas County, Florida, prohibits any and all forms of discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, orientation or disability in any of its programs, services or activities.