Dear Friends,

Just after the mid-point of the school year here at Pleasant Ridge Montessori, there is much good news to celebrate and much to be grateful for. First of all, thank you to all of you who have supported us through this formative year. So far we have raised over $23,000 with your help! This is amazing and we deeply appreciate your volunteer efforts and your support for events like the Spaghetti Dinner, the evening at Molly Malone’s and the many other fundraisers like bake sales, Kroger cards, Amazon referrals, and book and magazine sales. Each and every one of the ways you give to the school helps us move forward together.

This year the Pleasant Ridge Montessori Foundation is continuing to focus on classroom education, helping to equip our teachers not only with the basics for day-to-day but with the things they need to help our kids reach higher. So far this school year, the Foundation has granted over $8,000 to teachers, staff and community volunteers. As of January 31, we had awarded 19 grants to teachers, school staff and volunteers through the Teacher and Community Grants program, our main funding initiative. Some highlights include:

1. A 3-6 teacher received a grant to help her create an African experience for her class, complete with a grass hut, African artifacts, fabric, and accessories needed for daily living in Africa.
2. The Foundation funded the purchase of cooking supplies for the Multi-Handicapped class. Once a week, students cook together– an outstanding opportunity to apply their math and reading skills to real-world situations.
3. Our music teacher purchased two new keyboards so students in grades 1-6 can create compositions and accompaniments, learn concepts in theory, learn songs and perform for class.

The school is becoming a harmonious place that nourishes curiosity and encourages children to explore hands-on the world around them. If you have visited the building recently, you know what I mean; through the hard work of the school’s leadership team, teachers, students and parents, a positive new school culture has begun to take shape. Still, our efforts to create a beautiful and engaging learning environment are just the first step towards ensuring that our children achieve mastery of their subjects.

Steve Sunderland, a professor of Peace and Education Studies at the University of Cincinnati, who has volunteered for the better part of this year helping our faculty and staff begin to untie the knots of dysfunction from the school’s past, describes the situation this way: “The cost of poorly functioning schools is kids who are afraid to move forward. When you scratch nearly every behavior problem at schools you find a child who’s frightened by their lack of understanding of the world. A child who is confident in his or her basic skills is a child who loves the world.” Reaching the next level as a school means making sure each child is achieving his or her potential and it will not be easy.

The Foundation is backing efforts by teachers, parents and the school’s leadership to provide remedial help and uncover hidden barriers that may be holding our students back. This past fall, we made a significant grant to The Literacy Network, a non-profit that teaches reading skills, to work with struggling students as part of the after-school program. Their success—5 out of the 7 participants doubled or tripled their oral reading fluency in just 2 months– gives us hope. Last month we funded the Network to test our students in the after school program to uncover hidden literacy issues. We hope that their results and method of testing will become a tool in wider use for teachers and parents to move the ball forward for all students.

Just as we have spent the past two years getting the teachers and materials in place for a Montessori learning environment, now it is time root out the academic failings of the past. We are asking you, parents and friends of the school, to renew your commitment to the future of our neighborhood by supporting the future of our children. We need your help as we continue our progress in building a school worthy of our kids.

We hope you will again join with us and support the school’s second Annual Fund Drive. Your dollars will help us fulfill our mission to offer every neighborhood child a quality Montessori education, in a peaceful and environmentally conscious setting that nurtures a love of learning.

Thank you for your support,

Ruth Anne Wolfe
Parent
Co-President, PTO
President, Pleasant Ridge Montessori Foundation