Teacher Grant Requests Due September 28
PTO wants to give you money! Remember to complete your teacher grant requests by September 28. We've only received a handful of requests so far and would love to have more!  Print out a request and make two copies: one for the PTO box and one for Erin Kiyan. Grants will be voted on at our October PTO Board meeting.

Baxter Requests
Do you have a classroom or grade-level event coming up that you would like Baxter the Bison to attend?  We have a few people who love "being Baxter" who would like to help out.  Fill out a Baxter Request Form and we'll be in touch!

Fun Run Success
Again, thank you so much for everything you did to support the Boosterthon Fun Run this year. If all pledges are collected, we will have raised over $30,000! We couldn't have done it without you!  Look for your grade level incentives within the next month.

Many of you have had questions about our teacher grant process. Below is grant request information from our Teacher Grant Request Form. If you have any questions, please contact PTO Treasurer Marina McFarren.

Teacher vs. PBL Grants
Teacher grants are designed to help teachers get supplemental funds to help in the classroom (e.g., purchasing needed supplies or staff development).
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PBL grants in 2016-2017 are a flat $300 per classroom teacher to be used for PBL projects. (This totals $9,600 for PBLs.) The funds can be pooled together if grade levels are working together. PBL grants are transferred into the individual grade accounts in August.

Guidelines

• Teacher grant requests must be turned in by the due dates below to be considered. Grant requests received after the deadline will be bumped to the next round.
• Teacher grant requests must be filled out completely with the requested paperwork attached. Incomplete grants will not be considered.
• Make two copies of the teacher grant request. Place one copy in the PTO box and give one copy to Erin Kiyan. 
• Once a teacher grant is approved, you will be contacted with purchasing instructions.
• If you or your team are submitting more than one teacher grant request, please include information about how you would like us to prioritize your requests.

Deadlines
First round grant request forms are due by September 28 and will be voted on October 17.
Second round grand request forms are due by February 1 and will be voted on February 13.

Forms
Teacher grant request form can be printed from the CSE PTO website at www.CSEPTO.com/file-cabinet.

Wow! It's hard to believe we are already in to our second week of school. We hope you have a fantastic year! PTO has hit the ground running, and we are ready to raise some money for you and our students.  ​

This year’s main fundraiser is again the Boosterthon Fun Run, and we are so excited to finally host the run in the fall when weather is nicest and when funds raised can be put to use all year long! Hosting a Fun Run means there is no selling or delivering products. Once our program begins on Monday, August 22, family and friends anywhere in the world can support our school by giving pledges toward the number of laps your students will run on the day of the Fun Run: Wednesday, August 31.
 
Our Fun Run also comes with a world-class character theme. This year’s theme is BACKYARD BOX OFFICE, a movie theme all about making a difference by getting into character. Our students will learn from five REAL kid difference-makers. From inventors, to world-class speakers, to business owners, to world-record holders, these five kids will inspire our students to practice the five Character ACTS and make a difference in our community. Check out the fun video below. 
 
Through this year’s Fun Run, our school goal is to raise $25,000 for teacher grants and intervention support for our students. Teachers, we need YOUR help!
 
Teacher action steps during the program: 

1. Check funrun.com daily.
2. Email your parents daily.
3. Promote pledging daily.

 
And don’t forget, you will receive 5% back of all net pledges to spend on your grade level. (Please note: This year the net pledges will be combined per grade and distributed evenly among your team.) There are numerous ways to increase student participation and increase your classroom pledges; please see the list of team incentives at the bottom of this post.
 
You will learn more at the Staff Meeting on Wednesday, August 17 at 8:30 a.m. in the Bungalow. Until then, if you want to get your students excited, you are welcome to use the attached activity sheet or coloring pages as encouragement.

Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to another fantastic program!

www.CSEPTO.com/boosterthon

Team Incentives​

Thank you once again for volunteering your time for a teacher experience as auctioned off at our spring event. Each winning bidder on the auction received a certificate related to the forthcoming experience, and we informed them that you would be reaching out to them to schedule the experience. You should have received an email from Erika Milligan with the contact information for the student/family who won an experience with you. If you did not receive this information, please contact Erika.  
 
Once you've contacted the student's family and scheduled the experience, please comment with the date on this Sign-Up Genius so we can coordinate getting any gift cards to you for your experience.  We know we have a few experiences that cannot take place until this summer or due to weather, but please touch base with your families in the interim. For any non-summer experiences, our hope is you'll be able to schedule the experience between now and the end of the school year. Finally, please try to remember to take pictures of your experience and forward those to Erika or Trisha Klaus for publishing on Facebook and/or the Internet. (Please ask your parent if that is acceptable.)

​Thank you! 

THANK YOU to all who attended our first "A Clear Sky Night" event on Friday ... Great food, amazing bids on fantastic items and teacher experiences, a terrific auctioneer, a balloon pop that sold out in under 30 minutes, a fun time of dancing with some amazing teachers, and a beautiful venue! The numbers are still tentative, but after expenses, we will net over $10,000 to our school! That. Is. AMAZING! Thank you to the Spring Event Committee for planning what’s sure to be a new annual event! And thank you to all sponsors for making the event a success! Enjoy the photos posted on our website and be sure to look at our sponsor websites; both of these can be accessed at www.CSEPTO.com/tickets.
 
The PTO would also like to thank those of you who signed up for hosting a teacher experience.  All parents who bid and won experience(s) have been notified, and we will work to forward the recipient's information to you so you can coordinate your experience with the student's family. We will have this information to you later this week. In the mean time, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
 
Thank you again for all of your wonderful support of the PTO. The PTO is not always the easiest "job," especially when many of our volunteers work, but it makes our tasks easier to achieve when working with great teachers and staff members like you and having the backing we do. You have no idea how much we appreciate your confidence in the PTO.
 
Sincerely,
 
Erika Milligan
Spring Event Coordinator 
CSEPTORoomParents@gmail.com

We want to thank each and every one of you for signing up for so many experiences to be auctioned off at our event on Friday! We actually have a problem ... we have too many auction items, and we're worried some items are going to be "lost in the shuffle." To help alleviate the number of items we have, if you signed up for more than one experience, we will revise the final list to only reflect a single experience per teacher/grade. We hope you understand our dilemma because our goal is to try to get multiple bids for each of your experiences.
 
After the auction is over, we will reach out to you letting you know who the winning student(s) is for your experience along with the appropriate contact person with the PTO. We will also include the appropriate contact information so you can contact the family to arrange a date/time for the experience. As your experience date approaches, let us know and we'll make sure to forward any applicable gift certificates or funds to you to cover the experience. In the meantime, if any questions arise, please contact Heather Gonzales-Dittenber or Erika Milligan. 
 
Thank you again for supporting this event and we hope to see you on Friday ... because it's going to be fun Clear Sky Night!

Spring Event Tickets
Speaking of the upcoming event, did you know that teacher and staff tickets are at cost? This is our way of thanking you for all the hard work you do. Please accept this as our official invitation for our first adult-only function supporting our school. We hope you will consider joining us for a fun night.  You can purchase your tickets online, and we will also be selling tickets at different times throughout conferences.  

We announced last week that PTO is hosting its first adult-only event and auction, A Clear Sky Night, on Friday, April 15 at Plum Creek Golf Club. The venue has a fantastic view of the city of Castle Rock, as well as the Rock, and throughout the evening we will be encouraging parents to "eat, drink, dance, and bid"!

In the past, our live and silent auctions have typically included items and services offered by families and businesses in our community, but this year we thought it would be fun to include unique experiences with our wonderful staff members. (We know other schools have had great success with this.) Of course, for this to happen, we need your help! If you are interested in hosting an experience to be used in the auction, please sign up using our suggested list, or feel free to offer other ideas. Please note that we are not asking you to put forth any money for the experience; we are only asking for your time and assistance in coordinating and making this a fun experience for the successful bidder. 

If you have any questions at all, please contact Heather Gonzales-Dittenber. We would love to have sign ups completed by Monday, March 7 so that we can secure the necessary donations.

Thank you in advance for continuing to support the PTO. We love you for it!