September 6, 2016
Dear Families of TCS Students,
Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year at The Concept School. I am very happy to welcome
back 21 returning students and 9 new additions to our family. Our Welcome Back BBQ on
August 30 was well attended and enjoyed by all. Thank you to Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Miller for
cooking the burgers and dogs.
The purpose of this edition of our newsletter is to highlight the start of school and give you
information to help ease the process for your son or daughter (and you, too!) Please take a few
minutes to read over each section of this newsletter.
Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions about TCS and what I can do to help
make your son or daughter’s educational experience better.
Sincerely,
Bill
Important dates to mark on your family calendar:
September 6: School Opens
September 21: Back to School Night, 7:00
October 10: School Closed – Columbus Day
October 21: School Closed – Teacher In-service
Student and Parent Handbook
The 2016-2017 edition of our handbook will be reviewed with our students on the first day of
school. They will be given a hard copy of the handbook. Students will be asked to sign a form
stating they agree to abide by our procedures and expectations. I will be sending home, via
email, a copy for your review. Please print out the last page, sign it, and return it to me so that I
know you have reviewed the handbook.
Registration Forms
Please make sure you have returned the registration packet we mailed home in August. The
forms have been streamlined to be easier for you and the information they contain is important
for us here at school. Mrs. Funsten will be calling if you have yet completed the forms.
School Newsletter
I will be sending out a monthly newsletter that contains important information about upcoming
events at school, as well as a summary of events over the past month. Please let me know if
the newsletter structure could be improved to be more informative.
On-going Communication
I will use our Constant Contact account to send you more frequent tidbits of information that
cannot wait for our monthly newsletter. Please make sure you send me all email addresses you
would like us to use form communication purposes.
Classroom Supplies
Teachers will communicate with you about any needed supplies your son or daughter needs
within the first few weeks of school. Every student is asked to bring in 3 boxes of tissues. In the
meantime, all students will need paper and pencils.
Snacks
We have a snack break each day at 10:30 and we encourage students to bring in a healthy,
protein-rich snack. We will be selling, at cost, a few snacks for students who may forget to
bring their own. The snacks will not cost more than $1.00 each. These items will include
cheese crackers, yogurt, and granola bars. We will not be selling sugary snacks this year!
School Directory
We will compile a school directory within the first month of school that contains only those
families who have requested to be part of it. Please make sure you do not share the
information in the directory with any other organization.
MESSAGE FROM TCS PTO FOR 2016-2017 YEAR by President Deann Lichtenstein
I would like to welcome all to The Concept School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). You do
not need to join the PTO formally because as parents or guardians of current Concept students,
you are automatically part of the PTO. The TCS PTO provides support and funds to the school
to make sure it's traditional events are supported and to help organize the appreciation of the
faculty for all that they do for our children. We will be asking for refreshment donations for
Back to School Night on Wednesday, Sept 21. We are also responsible for providing dinner for
the students during the two formal evening programs at the school: The Shakespeare Festival
in December and the Arts Celebration in the Spring. Prior to those two events I will be sending
out a notice for a sign up to provide food and volunteers for the dinner for the students that
stay after school to prepare for the events. Also, during these events we will request donations
of "gift baskets" to raffle off to raise funds for Teacher Appreciation and other school
needs. During Teacher Appreciation Week which is the first full week in May, we provide the
entire faculty/staff breakfast or lunch in coordination of other appreciation efforts at the
school. Finally, the PTO provides refreshments for graduation. We will try to schedule a
meeting for the PTO sometime in late October/early November, but we will keep everyone
updated through the newsletter/email. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments
about the PTO, let me know at [email protected]. We look forward to a great year!
Help Support the Concept School!!
(At no cost to YOU!!!)
Our PTO has undertaken to continue to support our school by managing many areas that, with
your support, provide monetary benefits to The Concept School. Please sign up for these
opportunities!!!
Happy clipping!
Please continue to clip Box Tops! Thank you to Ms. Spencer (Jonah) for
heading up this project! You can find Box Tops on many of the products
you will be using for dinners and parties. For a list of participating products, go to BTFE.com.
Thanks for your support.
Target Stores: The Target program is called "Take Charge of Education" and the home webpage
is: www.target.com/tcoe. The program lets guests designate 1 percent of their REDcard
purchases to a K-12 school of their choice to fund whatever the school needs most. This
program will be ending 5/2016 so timing is of the essence. ENTER SCHOOL NUMBER 123098
Amazon's Smile.amazon program: This program allows you to shop on Amazon and when you
do, a portion of your purchase comes back to The Concept School. All you do is log on to
smile.amazon.com and fill in “The Concept School” as your organization of choice. A link to
explain this program is attached. https://smile.amazon.com/about
Labels for Education: By collecting UPCs and beverage/sauce caps from participating products
The Concept School community can work together to earn a plethora of products for our
school. We are in the process of updating our account and Wish List at the present time, but in
the meantime, you can help by collecting UPC’s and labels.