Parade is Saturday and it will be warm!  We have about 64 people signed up.  Will decorate float on Friday.  Participants show up at 9:15, everyone is welcome to come to the parade and watch.

Restaurant Nights:

Chipotle - Wednesday, September 14, 4-8pm, 33% of sales go to the school.

Papa Murphy's - Wednesday and Thursday, Oct 12-13, ONLINE ONLY!

Thanks to everyone that has already signed up.  Updates and emails will be coming soon.  ParentBooker accounts have the teachers loaded.  Please sign in and match your student to their teacher so you can get volunteer opportunities for your class.  There will be a variety of opportunities to fit everyone's schedule, so stay tunes, or feel free to reach out.  Will be at the Back to School night to answer questions and take suggestions.  Will be looking for room parents and other opportunities.

Donation day went really well.  Many teachers came by and picked up furniture and other items.  Rummage Sale September 24-25, 9am-5pm.  Need volunteers for two hour timeslots.  Also need help spreading word about the sale.  

Lots of support from families in helping with this program.  Teachers were a little overwhelmed getting ready for school and everything else.  Working on revamping the program to better work for the teachers once they are a little more settled in.

One large group spirit wear order.  Starting week of Sept 19 you can go to the website and submit your order.  Will be able to order for about 3 weeks and then it will close so we can finalize the order and get the items shipped.  There will be the ability to order items in the future, but it might not be exactly what is being ordered at this time.  Adding three new items this year: a tie-dye sweatshirt, dry-fit polo and sweatshirt.  

September 20 and 22nd.  20th is Kinder-2nd grade, 22 is 3rd-8th.  Will have PTO interest and volunteer sheets at the event.  Should have spirit wear info and fun things like games and popsicles.  This is a time for families to meet teachers and see their child's class and the inside of the school.  

Stock the Breakroom is a tradition at Arco Iris.  Families take turns donating items to keep in the breakroom for the teachers.  Item requests are posted in ParentBooker and there is a drop of date after school.  Sarah Nelson coordinates with the front office for the best way to stock the room and has sent a survey to the teachers to see what foods they prefer.  

Also looking into Custodian Appreciation Day.  We welcome ideas for this for early October.

Working on a 'Calendar for the Year' flyer that will have events for the year.

PTO interest form still needs to go to the Board, but it is in the works.

Book Fair is December 5-9.  Will need a lot of volunteers and will have night hours.  Rachel Davis has been lead on this for years and is looking for someone to take over.  She's looking for someone to work with/shadow her to learn about the Book Fair and hopefully take over eventually.

Still checking on the carpool map.  Will need to get back to everyone.

Move-a-thon will be October 19.  If you are interesting in volunteering on this committee, please let the PTO know.  Hoping to find a sponsor so that every student can get a t-shirt.  Will have stations for different activities such as dance, jump rope, running, etc.  Will need some volunteers to help.  This is the big fall fundraiser to help with the Gap Fund.

Familias Unidas: first meeting of this year will be Oct 22, 8:45am.  Essentially this is 'coffee with the principal'.  You can ask questions or discuss items.  Goal is one meeting a month and alternating online/in person and morning/night.  More info to come on this as we try to find what works best for most people.

Uniform exchange items may be put out at various times throughout the year, such as Back to School Night.  Feel free to donate/drop off items or look thru what is out.  PTO will follow up with how to collect items throughout the year.  Parents can also elect to post to the PTO Facebook page, although this is not an official method of communication.

PTO is researching fundraising companies to present to the Board to help us raise money for the Gap Fund.  Hopefully this will help the school so that we can focus on other programs or items, such as the playground fund.  Arco Iris does not receive all of their funding from the Beaverton School District (BSD).  90% of that funding goes to just paying for the building and other things to keep the school running.  The Board is still calculating what the Gap Fund will be this year since they were able to get an extra 5% from BSD.  The Gap Fun helps with the expensive project that the school undertakes that align with our school goals and mission.

We have an architect on the Board that is looking at plans for the playground and trying to see what the next steps would be to move this forward.  We don't know how much money is still needed for the playground because we are still developing the playground plan that is most cost effective for the school.  

We are working on a fundraising graphic that will help us be more transparent about our funding.  This could help show where we are in addressing our Gap Fund, playground fund, etc.  

Updating the school website: this needs to be updated with current information.  We need a volunteer to update the website.  They would need to coordinate with the school, PTO, etc. to regularly update the website.  

From the Principal: 

The school cannot function without volunteers, but the first few weeks the school is figuring out the capacity of the staff so that they know what they can handle if something happens and we are no longer allowed to utilize volunteers.  Once the school has figured out their capacity, they will post more volunteer opportunities.

The teachers are a little overwhelmed as they start the school year, but the Ambassador Program will be a great asset for them, once they are ready.

The school is still hoping for the best but working on contingency plans just in case they are needed.  Chris continues to monitor the COVID levels in Washington County.

Also thanks to the Lowe family for the special welcome to school surprise.  The kids really appreciated it and what it brought to school spirit.