Teacher Treat Day- February 14
Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f084fa5a62ca1f94-teacher
Please join the Exploris PTO in celebrating the teachers and staff memebers with a day of sweet treats! We will shower them with cookies, brownies, fruit and cupckaes. Donations need to be dropped off at the Elementary School or Middle School on February 14th by 9:30am.
There will be a table set up at each school covered with baked goods. The teachers will each get to pick and choose the sweet treats they would like to take home.
We also encourage your child to make a home made card for your teacher/staff members, these really do show so much appreciation.
Store bought or home baked treats are both great! Don’t forget that Exploris is nut-free. The PTO will also be sending each staff member home with a heart shaped pizza.
Thank you in advance of your support for the PTO and the Exploris staff!
Eat Pizza next Monday and support Exploris!
Save the Date – Fundraiser Update
On Monday, February 7th the delicious and generous Venture Pizza (2320 Bale St) is donating back 33% of Takeout, Delivery & Pick up orders to support a great cause — Exploris School PTO!
On behalf of Exploris School PTO you’re invited to join us and eat out, not only in support of the organization, but to show one of your Raleigh restaurants some love too!
We ask that you RSVP here: https://grouprai.se/e216727 (even if you’re not completely sure) so Venture Pizza knows roughly how many orders to expect & so you have access to all the event details.
We hope you can make it, and please feel free to forward this invitation to your friends and family.
Thanks in advance for your support!
Richard Averitte
Exploris School PTO Fundraising Chair
Thursday Clean Up Days https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f084fa5a62ca1f94-friday
Lunch Volunteering
The Exploris Middle and Elementary School have a new opportunity for parents to volunteer. They are looking for parents/grandparents/caregivers to come and cover a lunch/recess session at the school. This is on Tuesday and Thursdays right now, please see the signup below to participate!
ES School Signup: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f084fa5a62ca1f94-exploris9
MS School Signup:https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F084FA5A62CA1F94-mslunch
Church Pew Storage – we are looking for a family that has a storage space large enough to store 2 large church pews. These need to be stored until we move into the new building. If you have a place to store these, please reach out to Jessica Roberts at elementaryfrontdesk@exploris.org
Teacher Snack Stash
Don’t forget, Teacher Snack Stash refills every 10th of the month. Right now the 1st grade parents and Kindergarten parents are amazing at bringing in items. So much so, the PTO would like to make a few tweaks to the snack items this month!
1st Grade Families – instead of bringing bubbly water, could you bring soda (Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite…)
Kindergarten Families – instead of bringing in different types of popcorn, could you bring in different sweets or protein bars (Hershey kisses, individually wrapped candies like Skittles, small chocolate bars, or any type of protein bars)
Don’t Forget! Exploris Lottery Applications must be received by February 4!
Applications for the 2022-2023 school year are open on the Exploris website! Please remember all applications must be received by midnight Friday, February 4th and our lottery will be held on Friday, March 4th. Currently enrolled families do not need to reapply, BUT a new application must be submitted for any new enrollments from a family, including siblings. Dates for open houses and links to the past virtual open houses are also posted on our website. As always, Exploris families are our best advertisement, so please share information about our lottery with interested friends!
https://exploris.org/admissions/admissions
Did you enjoy the first annual Exploris Fall Festival? Well, the PTO has decided to go BIG again! If you would like to help plan another amazing event pleas join our Spring Family Day committee. We are looking for committee members to help plan the Exploris Spring Family Day, to be held at the elementary campus on Sunday afternoon, April 3! Please email Carrie at events@explorispto.org. The committee communicates via Slack, and we’ll send you an invitation to join the discussion.
Middle School Drama Club- Help needed with licensing fees:
From the Drama Club:
Hi! We are raising money to fund our school’s play. Because we are student based we do-not have the money to put on our musical even with our student funds. In addition to this we are trying to make seeing the show and being in it affordable as possible, which means that the licensing price goes up. We have told our fellow class mates and members of the drama club that we will be doing this musical, but we need to be able to get the basic items we need, like the licensing and scripts. We need these fast! We have a lot of kids counting on us and we need the first thousand in a month! If you could please donate to our cause it would be much appreciated and will will help a lot of student realize there full potential.
Art by Me Update
Exploris Parents,
We sincerely apologize that Exploris Charter School ~ Art By Me orders did not arrive to the school before the holidays. Artbyme was shut down before the holidays due to Covid. Also we had supply chain issues and a shortage of trained Art By Me employees.
You can expect the all of your orders delivered to your school by Monday Jan 31.
“Ship to home” orders will arrive with UPS to their ship to addresses as well, an email will be sent with ship to home orders with the expected delivery date. (Your packing slips includes a list of the ship to home orders.)
Following the delivering of orders, we will send the Activity Report with the profit check and the original artworks for distribution back to students. Again we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and we will advise you when your orders have shipped. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Brenda White
Artbyme
customerservice@artbyme.com
Friday Enrichment Update:
Hey grown ups,
We’ve got so many exciting classes for students this round… Cirque De Vol, Puzzles and Brainteasers, Clay Creations, Science Adventures, Urban Hiking, and more!
We want to make this a great experience for our students and really need your support to pull it off. It takes a village to make this happen– you are welcome to volunteer in any grade level at any time of day! Please reply to us if you can fill one of these spots, even for just two Fridays.
We are in need for the following volunteers for Session 4 Enrichment (6 Classes: 2/4, 2/11, 2/25, 3/4, 3/18, 3/25):
2nd/3rd grade (12:00-1:20)
- Community Care Parent Lead Instructor (Lyndsey will be with you– this is a way to make our campus and community a better place. This is a 40 min class you’ll do with 2 small groups)
- Art Around Town Lead Instructor (Dorsey will be with you– we have a list of murals to walk to and al you’ll need to do is walk the kids to a mural a week and let them recreate the mural when you get back– I will have the murals on slides for you so we can project them in any room. This is an 80 minute class so that you have time to walk to and from murals in our community)
- Run Club Assistant (Therius is leading. This is a 40 minute class you’ll do with 2 small groups)
4th/5th grade (1:40-3:00)
- A Parent Lead Instructor (Ideally a quiet, maybe craft/ art/ book club based exploration but we welcome all activities!)
- Science Adventures Assistant (with Martha Fisk)
- Raleigh’s Future Assistants x2 (City of Raleigh Museum with Karen)
- Urban Hiking Assistant (With Antje Focke)
In partnership,
Calie and Karen
Important Dates (Exploris CALENDAR):
- Wednesday, February 16 – PTO General Membership Meeting
- Friday, February 18 – Teacher Workday
- Monday, Feb 21 – Teacher Workday – Portfolio Conferences
- Thursday, March 10 – End of Second Trimester
- Friday, March 11 – Teacher Workday
- Monday March 14 – Teacher Workday
- March 16- PTO Board Meeting
- Spring Break – Friday, April 8 (3:15pm) – Tuesday, April 19 (8am)
- Monday, April 18 – Friday, April 22 – 8th Grade Outward Bound Trip
- Monday, April 18 – Teacher Workday
- Tuesday, May 3 – Eid al Fitr Holiday
- Monday, May 30- Memorial Day Holiday
- Friday, June 10 – Graduation (10:30 am), early dismissal
February Birthdays
- 2/10: Aurelia Altman – MS Global Arts
- 2/22: Betsabe Munoz – 1st Grade Teaching Partner
- 2/20: Therius Styles
We are looking for a few more committee members to help plan the spring Middle School Dance, to be held on either May 13 or May 19. Please email Carrie at events@explorispto.org. The committee communicates via Slack, a very user friendly website/app that will be our main source of communication. We’ll send you an invitation to join the discussion!
Thanks for reading! If you would like to submit information for a PTO blog post, please email your text (copy ready), photos, and links to Dana Deaton at news@explorispto.org.
Exploris PTO 
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