Problems with Overdue Library Books? This year the school district implemented a new library computer system. We are currently having problems with about 20% of the books. Instead of checking the books back in, the system is coding them incorrectly. This means that you may receive overdue notices for books that have been returned. Please be patient with us as we work with the district to correct the problem. Overdue fines/replacements for lost books will be suspended until the problem is fixed, unless the family is sure the book has not been returned and cannot be found.

Family Volunteering: Simple Ways to Weave Service into Your Hectic Life PTA is sponsoring a special speaker for us on Thursday, January 10 at 6:00 p.m. Learn the unexpected benefits of family volunteering, a powerful, hands-on way to teach your children the values of kindness, compassion, tolerance, community responsibility, and good citizenship. Discover dozens of practical and simple ideas for getting your family involved in community service work; environmental, social and political action; and charitable giving, and find out how easy it is to integrate this meaningful tradition into your busy life. Also, hear about the “Doing Good Together in the Schools” initiative that was piloted in the Minneapolis area during the 2006-2007 academic year; it won the 2007 Minnesota State Service award, which recognizes exceptional programs and organizations that engage students in service.

Jenny Friedman, Ph.D, is founder and Executive Director of Doing Good Together and author of The Busy Family’s Guide to Volunteering (Robins Lane Press, 2003). She is a national leader on the topic, recently cited in Better Homes and Gardens.

Please RSVP to Judy Browne at 651-293-8965, extension 9008, so that we can ensure adequate seating.

Family Service Project Night To follow up from Jenny’s talk, the PTA is sponsoring a Family Service Project Night. Please save Friday, January 25 and watch for more details. This will be a free, fun, relaxed opportunity to connect with your children while doing something to help someone else. It will be set up similar to Make-It, Take-it Night, but we will be making it and giving it away. To volunteer or ask questions, please contact Sarah Johnson at smillerjohnson@hotmail.com or Chris Aerts at chrisbillaerts@comcast.net. Let’s do something good together!

Automated Attendance Dialing Please be aware that we are using an automated computer system to notify families when a child is absent from school. Our families do a great job of calling in or sending a note for student absence. Katie Thomas enters this information into the attendance system in the afternoon. (You can check it out on the Parent Portal.) This system is not intended to replace that process. It is an important tool for student safety and parent communication. At Webster, it stopped a couple of sixth graders who were skipping school. It would also be a help in the unlikely, but horrific event that a child was kidnapped on the way to school. So, if you call in or send a note and still receive a call from school, please know that we received your communication and it was put to good use!

Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids The next support group meeting for parents with gifted students will be Monday, January 14 at 6:00 p.m. Mariana Tennyson will present a comprehensive overview of the gifted program. We will begin a book study of The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids: How to Understand, Live With, and Stick Up for Your Gifted Child! By Dr. Sally Yahnke Walker. Copies will be available for purchase at the meeting. Please RSVP to 651-293-8965, ext 305 if you are interested.

Dealing with Lice You may have heard that we have a small outbreak of lice in the school. Here are some good tips from one of our parents, Dr. Scott Velders.

Dr. Velders discussed the issue with one of his colleagues at HCMC who is a pediatric infectious disease expert. He had recently helped his children's school eradicate a lice epidemic that had gone on for three months. One of the concerns is that we may be dealing with a Permethrin resistant strain at the school. (Permethrin is the active ingredient in RID and NIX, which are commonly used, first-line agents to treat lice.)

It is important for parents to know that:

1. Parents should check their children with a fine tooth comb (available at any pharmacy) on a daily basis until the epidemic has completely resolved.
2. Over the counter lice treatments are considerably weaker than the prescription varieties. Parents who note lice on their children should contact their doctors for a prescription strength product. Their health provider should also be made aware of the fact that we may be dealing with a Permethrin-resistant strain.
3. Suffocation methods for eradicating lice are not scientifically substantiated. What does work is daily vigilant combing combined with treatment. The treatment is most effective if it is repeated about a week after the first treatment. None of the treatments are very pleasant to use. They smell and sometimes sting slightly when applied; however, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to get rid of lice without them. All the reliable evidence about these treatments shows that they are completely safe when used properly. 

Trained personnel at the school will be helping screen children for live lice. Finding lice can be difficult, despite parental best efforts, and  a team approach is important in solving this problem. We should not let up on this problem until there have been no cases at the school for at least a 4-week period. Another good source of information is http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/lice/factsht_head_lice.htm.

We would all rather be focusing on our children's education; however, until this problem is solved, it is going to be quite a distraction from homework and normal home life.

What If? Young Inventors Fair

                Are you a problem solver?  Do you have creative solutions to problems?  Do you like to tinker with equipment, materials, tools, or ideas?  Are you a doodler?  If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you are just the person to participate in the Horace Mann Inventor’s Fair.  This year the fair will be held on Thursday, February 7, 2007.  Any student in first through sixth grade is welcome to participate. 

What is the Inventor’s Fair?  You identify a problem that exists in the world and then you find a solution to the problem. 

This is an independent project to work on at home.  I will send home weekly assignments to help keep you on track.  You must plan on putting in at least 20 hours of work on this project.  Final projects consist of an invention, display board, inventor’s log, and presentation. Inventions will be judged and the top invention in each grade 4, 5, and 6 will be eligible to submit an application for the What If? Young Inventors Regional Fair.  If your invention is selected, you will display your invention with other student inventions from around the state.

If you are interested in participating in the Fair this year, please contact Mrs. Tennyson.  Everyone interested in participating needs to contact Mrs. Tennyson by January 4^th, 2008.

No Chess Club Tuesday, December 18.

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