Dear Aldrich Families, 

We've had a great first, full week of school! Each day our school-wide procedures such as what we do in the lunchroom, arrival, and dismissal are going more and more smoothly! Our teachers and staff are spending lots of time practicing and reinforcing our expectations so we start this year off on a great note! We thank you for your continued support. 

Here are some upcoming events and reminders to be aware of:

MAP Testing: Our MAP testing window opened this week. In preparation for those tests, and more to come this year, I've included Millard's Assessment Brochure (Spanish version). If you have any questions about testing, please reach out to me or your classroom teacher. 

Absences:  Please email the teacher and Mrs. Allen-Vidlak at laallen@mpsomaha.org if your child is going to miss school or call the school at (402)715-2020. We would appreciate any details you can share about your child’s illness. 

Lunch Accounts: School meals are parent-pay and regular pricing for the 2024/2025 school year. The breakfast price is $1.60, lunch price is $3.15, and milk only is $0.55. A student must have money in their account in order to buy milk with their cold lunch. Please discuss this with your child if they want milk at lunch. We do not like turning students away, so please send another drink if you don’t want to pay for the milk.

If your child qualifies for Free or Reduced lunch, your family needs to submit an application.  Please click here to be redirected to the application.

Curriculum Night: We will have Curriculum Night on Tuesday, August 27th.  We will have two time slots available to attend: 5:30-6:10pm and 6:15-6:55pm. Classroom teachers will give the same presentation twice so pick one time that works for your schedule. We look forward to sharing curriculum information with you. Curriculum Night is for parents and guardians only.

Carnival: The PTO Carnival is September 13th. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year.  We hope to see you all there!

PTO: Olympic Day T-shirt orders are due by August 23rd.  Everyone must order one for their student(s). The t-shirts are FREE, so please click here to put in your child’s shirt size today!  We wear our Olympic Day shirts for Olympic Day meetings, for field trips and for Olympic Day.  

Walking Club: Walking Club starts on September 5th.  Please visit our PTO website here to sign up.  We only sign up once a year so don’t miss it.  The deadline to sign up is August 23rd.

Lunch Visitors/Volunteers: Just a reminder that we are not allowing any lunch visitors or volunteers until after Labor Day. 

Drop off and Pick Up Reminders: 

Students should not arrive before 8:15.  We do not have supervision before that time.  The front doors will be locked until 8:15.

When you are dropping off or picking up your child, please park in a parking stall if your child cannot load and unload the car independently.  If you get out of your car in the drop off/pick up lane, you are holding up all of the traffic.

Please use the crosswalks when approaching and leaving the building. Not only is this safe for you, but models safe behavior around moving traffic for our students. Please wait until directed to proceed by one of our staff members with the stop signs before entering crosswalks. 

No pets on school grounds.  For the safety of all our students, we ask that you do not bring pets onto the school grounds.

Sincerely,

Dayna Burke

Aldrich Princial

Hello All Star families,

I hope everyone has enjoyed our first few days back at school! I know our household is having absolutely perfect, stress-free mornings with no rushing and no "MOM, where's my other shoe?!" moments...! If this sounds like what is actually happening in your house, please teach me your ways.

Our first PTO meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 20. Join us at 8:30 am in the art room. We will have an online option to join via Google Meet - we no longer use Zoom. You can find the meeting link HERE (https://meet.google.com/hme-atmu-gce), and it will also be posted in the PTO Facebook group. Speaking of the Facebook group, you can request to join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/aldrichpto. Please remember to answer the required membership questions, as this helps us make sure we're only allowing Aldrich families to join. 

At our first PTO meeting (8/20), we'll review our annual budget, review our committees & their projects, and discuss other PTO and school business. It's a great chance for new families to put faces with names and learn a bit more about our amazing PTO group. You can ask questions and give input for our year's projects. I develop the agenda with the help of our other officers and committee chairs and am always open to suggestions for agenda items. If PTO membership presents a financial hardship for your family, please contact Mrs. Burke or me.

It will be a busy month for PTO, with our annual membership drive, Walking Club registration and FREE student Olympic Day shirt size selections due by Friday, August 23. Membership registration will remain open during the year, but I encourage you to join soon so that your family has access to the student directory. The directory will be updated sometime in early October - until then, there may be some information missing or duplicated, but you can still utilize this tool. You'll notice that there are no added fees for classroom parties and other items this year. Our 2024 Color Run fundraiser success made this possible, and we hope these changes are helpful. Our carnival on September 13 is shaping up to be amazing! Carnival chair Rachel Richards and I would love to add some great raffle prizes or silent auction prizes; if you have anything you'd like to donate such as game or event tickets or other experiences, please contact us at AldrichPTOCarnival@outlook.com. 

Would your family or company like to sponsor either the Carnival or general PTO activities? Sponsors who COMMIT to $1000 or more sponsorship by Friday 8/23 will have their logos on all Olympic Day t-shirts, along with other benefits throughout the year. We print 500+ Olympic Day shirts for students, staff and family members so this is an excellent opportunity. For more information, click here or please contact Tynell Millner, themillners@outlook.com. Carnival sponsorship commitments are due 8/30 and there are options ranging from $150-2500. Carnival sponsors of $1000 or more will have logos on the Olympic Day shirts IF commitment is received by 8/23.

 Thank you all for everything you do to make our school community so fantastic! We're lucky to have your support and I look forward to working with all of you this year.

Amanda Hall

aldrichptopresident@outlook.com

Aldrich Elementary PTO President

IMPORTANT PTO DATES

-First PTO Meeting, Tues 8/20 @ 8:30am

-Walking Club Registration & FREE student Olympic Day shirt size selections due Friday, 8/23

-Sponsorship Commitments for Olympic Day shirt logo placement due 8/23 ($1000 and up)

-Carnival Sponsorship Commitments due Friday 8/30

-Last Day for Carnival wristband purchase (PRESALE PRICE $20) Friday 9/6. Wristbands purchased on event day are $25.