• Multicultural Crayon Drive
• Open House/ Lottery – please share!
• Exploris finalist in WRAL Awards! 
• Food distribution- volunteers needed
• Spiritwear is here!
• THANK YOU- Teacher winter gifts
• Panera pickup volunteers needed
• Calendar

1.Multicultural Crayon Drive

Hi Exploris Families,

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”  As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. day, a National Day of Service, let’s make a commitment to serving our community and make it a better place.   

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and the upcoming Black History Month, (February) the Kindergarten Parent Liaison Group would like to host a Multicultural Crayola Crayon, Marker, Colored Pencil Drive!  We are hoping that Exploris families would consider donating a package (or multiple packages!) of the Multicultural Crayola supplies to stock our classrooms.  

Crayola boasts that the crayon packages have 24 new crayon colors that represent people from around the world.  The Markers contain 10 different skin colors and the Colored Pencils contain 8 different skin tones.  Let’s celebrate our diversity and have all of our students represented when doing school projects!

Feel free to drop off at the school any time during the month of February (or earlier if you have a supply pick up), there will be a plastic bin by the door to the elementary office. If shipping is easier for you, ship through Amazon Smile to:

Exploris Elementary School
Attn:  Multicultural Crayon Drive
17 S. Swain Street
Raleigh, NC  27601

The Kindergarten Parent Liaison Team will collect all of the supplies at the end of February and stock all classrooms with packages.  We will also make sure that our Global Arts Team and our Exceptional Children Team have enough supplies.

Thank you for your consideration! 

The Kindergarten Parent Liaison Team

2- Please help spread the word about Exploris!  January is our last opportunity to promote the lottery enrollment for next year. The deadline is Feb 4th.  Do you know of families that may be interested in applying to Exploris?  Please tell them about: 

• Jan 28 Information session https://www.eventbrite.com/e/129559845987

Go to Exploris.org to complete the simple application

https://www.exploris.org/2020-2021-admissions/

3. Congratulations!  Exploris was named #2 Middle School in the WRAL Viewer’s Choice Awards! Thanks to everyone who voted!  Visit the website to see all of the finalists: https://wral5.secondstreetapp.com/2020-WRAL-Voters-Choice-Awards/

4-  Good news!  Exploris is partnering with Ligon and Moore Square middle schools, in conjunction with Interfaith Food Shuttle, to provide food boxes every week at Chavis Park to families in need.  For our first event in December we provided 20 families boxes, delivered 8 additional boxes to Exploris families, and 34 to families from Hunter Elementary.  (pictured here.) This is truly a community effort that we are really excited to be a part of. 

Exploris PTO will be providing volunteers to help distribute the prepackaged boxes and backpack buddies.  Distribution will happen at Chavis from 2-4:30 on Fridays through January for now.  Recipients are asked to fill out a short form so that we can keep in contact with them about future events.

It would be nice to have at least 1, preferably 2, representatives from Exploris at each event. For privacy reasons, we do ask that students do not participate, thank you for your understanding.

Sign up genius link below. Thank you !

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080d48aca92ea13-food  

5- Spiritwear is here!  If you ordered Exploris spiritwear, please look for an email from PTO Treasurer Lynn Hildreth or feel free to contact her at pto-treasurer@exploris.org.  She is also working on a pickup option at school, which will be announced soon. 

6-THANK YOU for your gifts to our teachers! The PTO winter thanks collection in December was a big success. We collected $10,000 and were able to give all of our Exploris faculty members a generous holiday gift.  We’ll have another gift pool at the end of the school year. For more info visit: https://explorispto.org/parent-info/winter-end-of-year-thanks-faqs/

7-Want to help give back to the community and support our school? Sign up for Panera Bread Pick-Up. Each sign-up occurs at 7:55 pm on Sunday evenings at the Glenwood Panera. The following morning you drop off at Shepard’s Table Soup Kitchen before 11:00 am. The soup kitchen now more than ever relies on our donation. For more information and to sign up: Panera Bread Pick-Up

8– Calendar

January 11th – Ashley Moser (3rd grade)

• Monday, Jan 18 – MLK Holiday
• Thursday, Feb 4 PTO Meeting 6:00 PM
• Monday, February 15 – Teacher Workday – Portfolio Conferences//Digital Learning Day
• Friday, February 19 – Teacher Workday – Professional Development
• Thursday, Mar 4 PTO Meeting 6:00 PM
• Thursday, March 11 – End of Second Trimester
• Friday, March 12 – Teacher Workday
• Monday, March 15 – Teacher Workday//Digital Learning Day
• Thursday, Apr 1 PTO Meeting 6:00 PM
• Spring Break – Friday, March 26 (3:15pm) – Tuesday, April 6 (8am)
• Monday, April 5 – Teacher Workday
• Thursday,  May 6 PTO Meeting 6:00 PM
• Thursday, May 13  and Friday, May 14 – Teacher Workdays//Digital Learning Days//Passage portfolios (8th grade)
• Monday, May 31- Memorial Day Holiday
• Thursday, Jun 3 PTO Meeting 6:00 PM
• Friday, June 11 – 8th grade Graduation (10:30 am), early dismissal
• Friday, June 11 – End of Third Trimester, last day of school

Thanks for reading the “Monday Minute”- the Exploris PTO blog post.

If you would like to submit information, please email your text (copy ready), photos, and links to Dana Deaton at news@explorispto.org by 9pm Sunday.