Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Help needed at the Spring Fair

Hard to believe, but the the RCF 2010 Spring Fair is just 5 weeks away. It's scheduled for Friday, May 7, 4-7 pm - rain or shine. To make this year's Spring Fair extra fun for students, friends and family members, we urgently need your help. Many thanks to those of you who have already raised your hand to help pull off the Spring Fair, but there are still many jobs left to be filled. Here's the rundown: :
* Parent-Volunteer Coordinators (2 people): Assign volunteer slots for day of fair with help from room parents.
* Pre-Fair Pizza Order Coordinator (1-2 people): Organize pizza orders before fair. Excel know-how helpful.
* Petting Zoo Coordinator: Help ensure our (first-ever!) petting zoo & petting zoo ticket sales go smoothly.
* Cake Walk Coordinator: Run the fair's annual Cake Walk game. Fun!
* Tickets Coordinator: Oversee tickets for inflatables and petting zoo at the fair.
* Face Painting/Hair Painting Coordinator: Organize face painting and (new!) hair painting.
* Marketing: Promote the Spring Fair to the RCF community in new, possibly different ways.
* Water Sales Coordinator: Coordinate water bottle sales at Spring Fair.
* Recyling Coordinator: Work with middle-schoolers to recycle water bottles at the Spring Fair.
* Carnival Games Coordinator: Make sure carnival games run smoothly.
* Raffle Coordinator: Acquire donated iPod (very popular fundraiser) to raffle off at Spring Fair.
* Candy Guess Coordinator: Organize the Candy Guess game. You or your kids can pick the candy!
* Spring Fair Sign Artist: Feeling artsy? Give the highly visible Spring Fair sign that sits outside RCF a fun, 2010 facelift!
* Tables Coordinator: Recruit and organize tables and chairs we'll need to borrow from parents.
* Snowcone/smoothie Chief: Make sure sales go smoothly.
* Middle-Schooler Volunteer Coordinator: Recruit middle school students to work the fair, whether painting faces, painting hair, recycling water bottles or running carnival games. (No need to tell me now that your child can volunteer now. Please wait for the coordinator to put out requests.)
* Balloons Coordinator: Organize sale of helium balloons during the Spring Fair.
If you have any questions at all about the jobs listed above, please do not hesitate to call me. You can reach me (Barbara Contreras) at home 301 495 9178 or cell 240 462 2451. You can also email Barb at bdelolli@usatoday.com.
Thank you for your attention!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Board of Education Meets at Rock Creek Forest

Last night, the board of education came to Rock Creek Forest to hear presentations from the BCC cluster schools. Many members of the Student Government Association with support from Srta. Garcia gave tours to members of the BOE who came early. Then, each school had five minutes to present about their programs, achievements and challenges.

It was interesting to hear many of the common themes: over-crowding and staff reductions, chief among them.

When I had an opportunity to testify, I shared a power point illustrating our challenges and our successes.

BOE Presentation

Many thanks to Craig Brown, Jack Hauser, and Joy White, our cluster coordinators, who organized the event, the many Rock Creek Forest parents, teachers and staff who came out to support their school and, as always, the building service team.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

New Format a Sucess for Multicultural Night

Multicultural Night was a huge success with literally hundreds of parents and kids roaming the halls getting their "passports" stamped at different stations, trying new foods and watching performances.

With delicious food scattered throughout the building, there were no lines to eat and mixed in with the food tables were information booths staffed by RCF families representing countries from around the world, including: Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and Sweden, among others.

Beautiful traditional dress from Ethiopia, Ghana, Japan and other cultures could be seen on attendees.

After many years in the Gym, this was a new format and we have to thank Natalie Reineke and her committee for reimagining what multicultural night could mean. As always, the support of the teachers, staff, administration and especially building services, was invaluable.