The money raised through our fund raising activities go to meet different needs or help supplement activities which are not met by CMS
Metro PTO Activities 2014-2015
Grant Award Winners for 2014 - 2015
The PTO spent over $19,000 to fund grant requests from teachers and therapists for items to help students.
Physical Education
Matt Berlin and Sheila Abraham requested equipment for Special Olympics training and physical education classes. Items requested included footballs, rubber basket balls, rubber bowling balls, soft balls, bocce ball sets, agility cones, volley ball, bean bags and bean chairs.
Language
Jenna Raber requested items to represent vocabulary for all the Middle School classrooms while teaching math, science, global studies, and language arts to ensure consistency.
Therapy
Therapists often have to fix and adjust equipment as well as work with students while in a sitting position. Julie Biel, Physical Therapist, requested tools to be used for equipment adjustments and repair and stools for proper sitting positioning when working with children. Julie was also granted a continuing purchase of Rifton guide bars to help maneuver gait trainer walkers.
Christy Spencer, Occupational Therapist, requested a variety of objects to help with stabilization of items during academic time (clamps), hand anchors (for stabilization to increase upper body control) and vibrating items (provides a calming sensory input for many students to de-escalate situations).
Access Technology
Rebeckah Hauss requested the purchase of switches and adaptors for students who were unable to independently access technology devices (i.e. iPad, iPod, etc) in the SAC Transition level as part of a project. These items would give teachers more options when working with students while enabling them to use technology.
Vocational Training Materials
The Transition Team (Alicia Walker, Erin King, Amber Martinez, Jonathan Collins, Samantha Kurey, Shannon Crawford, Rebeckah Hauss, Amanda Bell, Beth Skulkety and Yvonne Bell) requested vocational training materials to practice job related skills. Students would use the materials to learn a variety of tasks including assembling, sorting and basic packaging.
Communication
Diane Ferguson this year requested 43 communication devices and 10 headphones to be used throughout the school. This is a continuation of the support to the Speech Therapists and teachers who received 40 devices last year.
The Home Living Teacher, Priscilla Davis, requested the Writing With Symbols software since the prior version was no longer compatible with the school's technology. This software creates symbols to increase communication and engagement.
Stephanie Dorton requested 8 copies of the picture symbol software, Boardmaker, since the prior version was no longer compatible with the school's technology. This software is used by all the classrooms.
IIn Support of School Improvement Plan
In support of SIP, the PTO approved funding for three color printers.
Other Approved Purchases
The PTO also provided funding to purchase:
- A Sleepform Otterbock mattress which is a device to provide children positioning support when taken out of the wheelchairs.
- Gift Cards and flowers to:
Teacher of the Year
Paula Taylor
Assistant Teacher of the Year
Cynthia Yates
New Teacher of the Year
Eddie Hubert
- Sponsored two teachers to attend the Vision Impairment Conference in March.
Highlighted Activities
Charity Golf Tournament
Once again, thank you to Lori West and the volunteers to participate in this wonderful and important event. The golfers and sponsors were very gracious and donated over $20,000 - money which we use to help pay for the grants.
Fall Belk Fall Charity Event
Leigh Kasin (once again) coordinated our participation and all ticket sales.
Other Actvities
Parent Involvement in School Leadership Team (SLT)
The PTO conducted the secret ballot election in September for the seven parent representatives.
Membership Drive
The PTO conducted the membership drive.
PTO Meetings
The PTO held meetings in October and February.
Teacher Appreciation
In March, the PTO provided a Dr. Seuss bag with classroom supplies for each class.
Dr. Seuss Reading Day - morning
Thank you to Kristin Intemann for representing the PTO at this event and help to coordinate parent participation.
2013-2014 Activities
Grant Award Winners for 2013 - 2014
Wish for Mobility
As a Physical Therapist, Kathleen saw that the pre-school classrooms needed attendant guide bars for their Pacer walkers. The bars would allow teachers to provide assistance with direction and propulsion so they could walk the hallways or be on the playground. The PTO purchased three bars which could be attached to any Rifton Pacer walker.
Planning Made Easier
All six of the Middle School Teachers requested external CD/DVD
drives in order to install and run adaptive lesson planning programs. The drives
were needed to enhance the quality of Smart Board lessons which are used for the
majority of whole classroom instruction.
Sensory
Sensory input is very important to our children, especially for those who are unable to
communicate their needs, anxiety, concerns and frustrations.
The Transition Two Team (A. Walker, E. King, A. Martinez, S. Crawford, S. Coen, S. Curey and J. Collins) wanted a variety of headphones which would provide auditory input to their students. These headphones would allow the students to not only access IT resources but portable devices to travel calmly within the school premises and in the community.
Christy Altman and the OT group, wanted vibrating bumble balls for all of the classes
to provide a physical calming input. Additionally, they requested weighted vests which provide comfort and security to children to allow them to focus on activities.
Therapeutic Calming Environment
Rebeckah Hauss saw that her Transition I students needed a place to calm down when they were becoming frustrated or to relax as a reward. She wanted to create separate spaces for students which would be safe but relaxing – instead of sitting at a desk.
Communication
Diane Ferguson and Jennifer Singleton both wanted ways to enable students to make choices, comment and communicate their decisions.
Diane was granted 40 Big Talks (Big Macs) which are the basic communication devices used throughout the school by all of the students and teachers. Speech pathologists maintain and repair these devices but due to the number used by the school, many of these devices needed to be replaced. Purchase of these devices allowed placement of one new device in each classroom and a reserve of four devices to serve as loaners while others are being repaired.
Jennifer’s class has been working hard on learning new math concepts using a new
curriculum, Math Numeracy. Although they have seen great success (and have been
invited to participate in a national training video) they needed more multi- step communication devices to allow non-verbal students to fully participate in
counting activities. Jennifer requested two more devices so that her students could interact in small groups simultaneously. Upon hearing the request, the EC Department agreed to purchase the “Little Communicators” for Jennifer.
IIn Support of School Improvement Plan
In support of SIP, the pto approved funding for the purchase of 16 iPads with AppleCare and cases. Funding for three color printers was also approved
Other Approved Purchases
The PTO provided funding to purchase seeds and dirt for the horticulture program.
On March 25th, PTO Treasurer Kathy Taylor presented winners of the Teacher of the Year Award with a $50 gift card and Girl Scout Cookies (yummy)!
Teacher of the Year
J. Lee Collins
Assistant Teacher of the Year
Roberta Ross
National Certified Board Teacher
Holly Adams
New Teacher of the Year
Matt Whittle
In June, retiring teachers were presented with a gift from the PTO.
Highlighted Activities
Charity Golf Tournament
A very special thank you to Lori West for ensuring our participation in this wonderful event. This event is crucial to our program support. To all of the volunteers, we appreciate your help! It was a beautiful day and all the golfers were extremely gracious to us.
Fall/Spring Belk Fall Charity Event
Kudos to Leigh Kasin (once again) for coordinating our participation and all ticket sales. Great Job!!! Thank you to all the parents who manned the tables to sell tickets at the mall, parents and teachers who sold tickets, and all of you who provided monetary donations and/or purchased tickets. Lastly, we really appreciated those pleople who were able to spend their Saturday working at Belks. To Lori West - thank you for stepping in to help Leigh to deliver last minute ticket orders!
Other Actvities
Parent Involvement in School Leadership Team (SLT)
The PTO conducted the secret ballot election in September for the seven parent representatives.
Membership Drive
The PTO conducted the membership drive from August through October 1st.
Fall PTO Meeting
The meeting was held on October 22nd.
Teacher Appreciation
In October, the PTO delivered a special treat to teachers, therapists and staff in appreciation for all that they do.
March 3, Dr. Seuss Reading Day - morning
Thank you to Kristin Intemann for representing the PTO at this event and help to coordinate parent participation. Several readers indicated that the children loved being read to in the classroom.
Prom
Students beamed with happiness as they went off in the limo which was partially funded by the PTO. Matthews Presbyterian Church hosted the event and the students enjoyed this very special event.
May 9, Staff Appreciation Day
Teachers were overwhelmed with all the treats and goodies sent in by parents and appreciative of everything they received.
June Graduations
PTO provided funding to all the grade levels to purchase cake and items needed at their ceremonies.
June 13, Spring PTO Meeting
Held Spring Meeting to vote on funding requests, new business, by-law changes, elected officers, and concluded 2013 business.
Metro PTO Activities 2014-2015
Grant Award Winners for 2014 - 2015
The PTO spent over $19,000 to fund grant requests from teachers and therapists for items to help students.
Physical Education
Matt Berlin and Sheila Abraham requested equipment for Special Olympics training and physical education classes. Items requested included footballs, rubber basket balls, rubber bowling balls, soft balls, bocce ball sets, agility cones, volley ball, bean bags and bean chairs.
Language
Jenna Raber requested items to represent vocabulary for all the Middle School classrooms while teaching math, science, global studies, and language arts to ensure consistency.
Therapy
Therapists often have to fix and adjust equipment as well as work with students while in a sitting position. Julie Biel, Physical Therapist, requested tools to be used for equipment adjustments and repair and stools for proper sitting positioning when working with children. Julie was also granted a continuing purchase of Rifton guide bars to help maneuver gait trainer walkers.
Christy Spencer, Occupational Therapist, requested a variety of objects to help with stabilization of items during academic time (clamps), hand anchors (for stabilization to increase upper body control) and vibrating items (provides a calming sensory input for many students to de-escalate situations).
Access Technology
Rebeckah Hauss requested the purchase of switches and adaptors for students who were unable to independently access technology devices (i.e. iPad, iPod, etc) in the SAC Transition level as part of a project. These items would give teachers more options when working with students while enabling them to use technology.
Vocational Training Materials
The Transition Team (Alicia Walker, Erin King, Amber Martinez, Jonathan Collins, Samantha Kurey, Shannon Crawford, Rebeckah Hauss, Amanda Bell, Beth Skulkety and Yvonne Bell) requested vocational training materials to practice job related skills. Students would use the materials to learn a variety of tasks including assembling, sorting and basic packaging.
Communication
Diane Ferguson this year requested 43 communication devices and 10 headphones to be used throughout the school. This is a continuation of the support to the Speech Therapists and teachers who received 40 devices last year.
The Home Living Teacher, Priscilla Davis, requested the Writing With Symbols software since the prior version was no longer compatible with the school's technology. This software creates symbols to increase communication and engagement.
Stephanie Dorton requested 8 copies of the picture symbol software, Boardmaker, since the prior version was no longer compatible with the school's technology. This software is used by all the classrooms.
IIn Support of School Improvement Plan
In support of SIP, the PTO approved funding for three color printers.
Other Approved Purchases
The PTO also provided funding to purchase:
- A Sleepform Otterbock mattress which is a device to provide children positioning support when taken out of the wheelchairs.
- Gift Cards and flowers to:
Teacher of the Year
Paula Taylor
Assistant Teacher of the Year
Cynthia Yates
New Teacher of the Year
Eddie Hubert
- Sponsored two teachers to attend the Vision Impairment Conference in March.
Highlighted Activities
Charity Golf Tournament
Once again, thank you to Lori West and the volunteers to participate in this wonderful and important event. The golfers and sponsors were very gracious and donated over $20,000 - money which we use to help pay for the grants.
Fall Belk Fall Charity Event
Leigh Kasin (once again) coordinated our participation and all ticket sales.
Other Actvities
Parent Involvement in School Leadership Team (SLT)
The PTO conducted the secret ballot election in September for the seven parent representatives.
Membership Drive
The PTO conducted the membership drive.
PTO Meetings
The PTO held meetings in October and February.
Teacher Appreciation
In March, the PTO provided a Dr. Seuss bag with classroom supplies for each class.
Dr. Seuss Reading Day - morning
Thank you to Kristin Intemann for representing the PTO at this event and help to coordinate parent participation.
2013-2014 Activities
Grant Award Winners for 2013 - 2014
Wish for Mobility
As a Physical Therapist, Kathleen saw that the pre-school classrooms needed attendant guide bars for their Pacer walkers. The bars would allow teachers to provide assistance with direction and propulsion so they could walk the hallways or be on the playground. The PTO purchased three bars which could be attached to any Rifton Pacer walker.
Planning Made Easier
All six of the Middle School Teachers requested external CD/DVD
drives in order to install and run adaptive lesson planning programs. The drives
were needed to enhance the quality of Smart Board lessons which are used for the
majority of whole classroom instruction.
Sensory
Sensory input is very important to our children, especially for those who are unable to
communicate their needs, anxiety, concerns and frustrations.
The Transition Two Team (A. Walker, E. King, A. Martinez, S. Crawford, S. Coen, S. Curey and J. Collins) wanted a variety of headphones which would provide auditory input to their students. These headphones would allow the students to not only access IT resources but portable devices to travel calmly within the school premises and in the community.
Christy Altman and the OT group, wanted vibrating bumble balls for all of the classes
to provide a physical calming input. Additionally, they requested weighted vests which provide comfort and security to children to allow them to focus on activities.
Therapeutic Calming Environment
Rebeckah Hauss saw that her Transition I students needed a place to calm down when they were becoming frustrated or to relax as a reward. She wanted to create separate spaces for students which would be safe but relaxing – instead of sitting at a desk.
Communication
Diane Ferguson and Jennifer Singleton both wanted ways to enable students to make choices, comment and communicate their decisions.
Diane was granted 40 Big Talks (Big Macs) which are the basic communication devices used throughout the school by all of the students and teachers. Speech pathologists maintain and repair these devices but due to the number used by the school, many of these devices needed to be replaced. Purchase of these devices allowed placement of one new device in each classroom and a reserve of four devices to serve as loaners while others are being repaired.
Jennifer’s class has been working hard on learning new math concepts using a new
curriculum, Math Numeracy. Although they have seen great success (and have been
invited to participate in a national training video) they needed more multi- step communication devices to allow non-verbal students to fully participate in
counting activities. Jennifer requested two more devices so that her students could interact in small groups simultaneously. Upon hearing the request, the EC Department agreed to purchase the “Little Communicators” for Jennifer.
IIn Support of School Improvement Plan
In support of SIP, the pto approved funding for the purchase of 16 iPads with AppleCare and cases. Funding for three color printers was also approved
Other Approved Purchases
The PTO provided funding to purchase seeds and dirt for the horticulture program.
On March 25th, PTO Treasurer Kathy Taylor presented winners of the Teacher of the Year Award with a $50 gift card and Girl Scout Cookies (yummy)!
Teacher of the Year
J. Lee Collins
Assistant Teacher of the Year
Roberta Ross
National Certified Board Teacher
Holly Adams
New Teacher of the Year
Matt Whittle
In June, retiring teachers were presented with a gift from the PTO.
Highlighted Activities
Charity Golf Tournament
A very special thank you to Lori West for ensuring our participation in this wonderful event. This event is crucial to our program support. To all of the volunteers, we appreciate your help! It was a beautiful day and all the golfers were extremely gracious to us.
Fall/Spring Belk Fall Charity Event
Kudos to Leigh Kasin (once again) for coordinating our participation and all ticket sales. Great Job!!! Thank you to all the parents who manned the tables to sell tickets at the mall, parents and teachers who sold tickets, and all of you who provided monetary donations and/or purchased tickets. Lastly, we really appreciated those pleople who were able to spend their Saturday working at Belks. To Lori West - thank you for stepping in to help Leigh to deliver last minute ticket orders!
Other Actvities
Parent Involvement in School Leadership Team (SLT)
The PTO conducted the secret ballot election in September for the seven parent representatives.
Membership Drive
The PTO conducted the membership drive from August through October 1st.
Fall PTO Meeting
The meeting was held on October 22nd.
Teacher Appreciation
In October, the PTO delivered a special treat to teachers, therapists and staff in appreciation for all that they do.
March 3, Dr. Seuss Reading Day - morning
Thank you to Kristin Intemann for representing the PTO at this event and help to coordinate parent participation. Several readers indicated that the children loved being read to in the classroom.
Prom
Students beamed with happiness as they went off in the limo which was partially funded by the PTO. Matthews Presbyterian Church hosted the event and the students enjoyed this very special event.
May 9, Staff Appreciation Day
Teachers were overwhelmed with all the treats and goodies sent in by parents and appreciative of everything they received.
June Graduations
PTO provided funding to all the grade levels to purchase cake and items needed at their ceremonies.
June 13, Spring PTO Meeting
Held Spring Meeting to vote on funding requests, new business, by-law changes, elected officers, and concluded 2013 business.
