As a community, we raised over $200,000 to support our children and school. With the funds we raised, we were able to fund 7 Teacher Assistants, classroom subscriptions, in school and out of school learning experiences and much more! Click here to see how our additional funds were allocated.
Welcome back to school – at home! Tomorrow we will begin remote learning, and embark on an entirely new, uncharted journey together. There is no question we would prefer to be within the sturdy walls of Cottonwood, with our teachers and friends. Since that is not an option we will rise to the occasion. We are thankful for the continued learning and new routines we all will begin tomorrow.
Please see below for links to this week’s important announcements:
As you know, the online and live auction are Cottonwood’s largest fundraising events every year. Obviously, given our current environment with COVID-19, we have canceled our live auction that was scheduled for 4/17/2020.
*For those of you that purchased tickets and do not want to donate the purchase price to the PTO, please complete this Refund Request Form. If you purchased Cougar Pride packages at the beginning of the year, you can find out if you have Auction Tickets HERE.
In addition, the CCSD Parents’ Council (the governing body of the PTO) has advised us to put a hold on a couple other PTO activities through 4/17/2020. Therefore, we have postponed the following items and we will be working to reschedule them. Please watch for information on new dates after 4/17/2020.
Our restaurant nights are a wonderful way to show support for our local community during these times. Please participate in our April restaurant nights to help these local businesses. They are so grateful for your business.
WE STILL NEED TO FINISH THE YEARBOOK! UPLOAD YOUR PICTURES BY 4/10!
Need a way to fill your time? Upload pictures to the yearbook today! You can also create a custom page for your child!
During this time, we have begun gathering a list of useful online resources. Here are a few of interest.
PTO Auction Committee
The PTO Auction Committee, led by Stacy Johnson and including Rachel Schmela and Cat Sinclair, has worked tirelessly over the last school year preparing for both the online and live auction. The enormous effort they put in to book the band, gather hundreds of donations, develop the communications and marketing strategy is nothing short of amazing. While it is so hard to not be able to launch the live event as planned, we are so grateful for ALL they have done and we know that the school will still benefit from all of their efforts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Our Community
We also want to take a moment to recognize all the members of this amazing Cottonwood Community. While most of us are tucked into our homes, we want to recognize there are many going out each day to keep our community healthy, safe and our economy alive.
And, thank you to all the children, parents, teachers and administrators who are coming together to support each other. The lessons we are learning and the sacrifice we are making is building strength and resilience that will serve us as we emerge from this together.
Mark your calendars for these important dates:
4/9: Restaurant Night: Chick-Fil-A
4/10: Yearbook Uploads and Custom Pages Due
4/19: Restaurant Night: Nonna’s Italian Bistro
5/12: Restaurant Night: Burnt End BBQ
5/13: PTO Allocations Vote
5/15: Field Day
5/21: 5th Grade Continuation @ 8:30 AM
5/22: Kindie Ceremony @ 8:30 AM
*General PTO Meeting with Executive Board Slate Vote & Online Auction – Postponed (Dates TBD)
Over the last week, the solidarity and kindness of our community has been inspiring. There are countless stories of parents starting community outreach efforts and supporting each other over social media, text and video conferencing calls. While we navigate this new and temporary normal, there is no doubt that our Cougar Family is strong, connected and resilient.
As we settle into the idea of being home for an extended period, we have many questions. During uncertain times, we are thirsty for answers. We so deeply want to create certainty where it seems missing. For now, we are working on our patience (in more ways than one) and are trust the answers will come for the areas that seem fuzzy. Here are a few answers to questions we have received frequently this week:
What is happening with the remote learning plans for our kids?
We have been talking with Katie Johnson, and we can assure you that our great leaders in the district have been working tirelessly over spring break developing an approach for our children. They will continue to work next week (during our extended spring break) to solidify plans and execute communications that are consistent across the district. As a reminder, please see the below message from Dr. Scott Siegfried on 3/18/20:
“The CCSD Pandemic Committee has been meeting daily to deal with the ever-changing situation and make decisions that best protect the health and well-being of our students, staff, families and communities. Those decisions include the development and implementation of a free meal program, food banks, online educational resources for students and families to use during our extended spring break, as well as a remote learning system that we will begin the process of implementing next week.”
As we all know, we are in unchartered territory, and our reality seems to change daily. The district is adapting to these changes with deep care, thought and intention. We ask everyone for grace and trust in our teachers and district during this time. We have full confidence that, while there may be some bumps in the road, we will all come out of this together.
In the coming days, check your emails, text and phone as we will be hearing more from the Administration, Katie and our teachers as we all embark on this new way of learning together. In addition, remember to check the CCSD Coronavirus Website for additional resources.
The PTO funds critical items for our school, including Teacher Assistant salaries. Will this change?
No. Although our approach to raise these dollars will change, we are still committed to providing the resources to the school so that our children will continue to receive the same educational experience they have in the past.
Because of our collective contribution, Cottonwood can use 100% of their dollars towards other positions in our school, including our Classroom and Specials Teachers. With these funds, we benefit from smaller classroom sizes and increased individualized attention for our children.
What happens to the PTO events for the rest of the year?
Our team has been spending a great deal of time discussing our programming to ensure the most thoughtful and effective decisions are made to fulfill our financial commitments to the school, while protecting our family, friends and the community at large. We are aware that our economy is being deeply impacted and many of us are unsure of what the future entails. We also know that supporting each other, our school and businesses in our community is critical.
We look forward to coming back together as a community. In the meantime, we will still stay in touch, connected and share any updates as they unfold.
To learn more:
We hope you take the opportunity to get involved in our community and school!
