One more week to go in the Clinton School Readathon which ends on Tuesday, March 2nd.

After the 2nd, you can collect money from the sponsors who pledged and return payments, pledge sheet, and reading log to the Clinton PTA. Don’t worry if you haven’t kept good track on the reading log, as long as you can give your sponsors the information they need to send payment.

Please be sure any checks are made out to the Clinton PTA and have a phone number on them.

Everyone who returns a pledge form (whether they collected money or not) will be entered in our raffle to win one of three gift certificates to a local bookstore. The raffle winners will be announced on Monday, March 22nd during morning announcements.

Please return pledge forms and check by Tuesday, March 16th.

And don’t forget: this Friday, February 26th, the Clinton students will have a visit with Horrible Harry author Suzy Kline, sponsored by the Clinton PTA.

Due to the snow day we had on the original date, the district’s Lice Information Night has been rescheduled:

Join the Parenting Center, doctors, and local lice professionals for an evening of information and demonstrations about Lice.

RESCHEDULED
Thursday, March 4, 2010
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Clinton School Cafeteria
27 Berkshire Road, Maplewood

This year’s Tricky Tray/Auction is now officially sold out!

We won’t be taking any more reservations and we cannot accept any walk- ins the night of the event as we are now at capacity for the space.

If you have made reservations but know of people in your group who can’t make it, please let us know as soon as possible. Also, if any money is still due for your group, send it to school ASAP in an envelope marked Clinton PTA/Tricky Tray. We will not take reservation money at the door. All seats need to be paid in advance.

We are in the countdown phase…..

Almost every available seat for the 2010 Tricky Tray/Auction is taken. We can’t accommodate more than 230 guests and we are now over 200.

Additionally, our program/list of prizes is truly amazing this year!

Below you’ll find our list of Live Auction prizes for this year. We like to get the word out about these in advance since many of them might require a little calendar-checking before the actual evening of the event.

And in addition to our usual live auction fare, this year for the first time we are featuring dinner parties. Several families have graciously offered to host amazing dinners at their homes, the seats to which will be auctioned off during our live auction. Here is a brief description of how it works:

During the live auction, our emcee will announce each dinner party separately, the date it will take place, the number of seats available, and the opening bid per seat. If you’re interested in buying a seat, raise your program with your paddle number showing (it’s on the back of the program). Example: Chinese dinner, 8 seats, $20 per seat. Maybe 30 people show their paddle number. At that point, he will raise the bid per seat to $25. This time, only 15 people show their paddle number. He will keep raising the bid until only 8 people are still interested. Those 8 people each will win a seat. (If you’re interested in bidding for two seats, hold up two fingers.)
Read the rest of this entry »

Dear South Orange-Maplewood school community,

Governor Christie’s Executive Order 14 cut state aid for the current school year and requires school districts to use surplus and reserve funds to supplant state aid reductions.

This action has a significant impact on school districts across the state and decreases South Orange-Maplewood’s 2009-2010 school budget by $2.2 million. More significantly, because districts allocate fund balances each year to the next fiscal year, the $2.2 million reduction directly impacts the district’s 2010-2011 budget.

Further, the Governor recently stated that districts should expect a 15% cut to state aid for next year. For our district this amounts to over $1 million in additional cuts. This budget season is a most challenging one, given Executive Order 14, reductions in 2010-2011 state aid, a spike in health insurance costs, and the effects of the troubled economy on local taxpayers.

Effective immediately, I am suspending all personnel hires, supply purchases, travel expenditures, and conference attendance not deemed to be of an emergency nature for the 2009-2010 school year. We will continue to keep you apprised of the District’s budget developments in the coming weeks.

Thank you for all that you do every day to prepare every one of our 6,400 great kids for higher learning and success in the 21st century.

Sincerely,

Brian Osborne

(via Patch)

Don’t forget that your orders for the David’s Cookies/Auntie Anne’s Pretzels fundraiser is due on Monday, February 22nd. You may return the envelopes with the order forms (white and yellow copy) to school with payment. Please remember to keep the pink copy for your records. We truly appreciate your efforts in helping to make this a great fundraiser for our school.

Delivery is scheduled for 3/26…just in time for spring break!