Crocker Farm PGO Seeking Class Parents & Other Volunteers

The PGO's volunteer signup form will be going home in backpacks soon.  You can access the online version here.   There are many ways that parents & families can volunteer at Crocker Farm, & even helping for an hour or two makes a BIG difference.

The PGO is currently specifically looking for volunteers for:
* Class parents for K-6th grade classes.  Parents, guardians, grandparents are welcome to sign up.  Each class parent works with their child's teacher to determine how best to help.   Class parents can be involved with helping in the classroom and/or planning potlucks or other special activities for events.  Please contact Amanda, this year's PGO class parent coordinator, at amandanlawall@gmail.com if you are interested in being a class parent.

* Coordinators for the upcoming back-to-school family picnic & harvest festival.   This year, the PGO is combining these two events into one, to be held on Friday, October 2nd, in the early evening.  The coordinators will help with arranging the activities & food for the event.  Please contact the PGO at crockerfarmpgo@gmail.com if you'd like to help coordinate this event, or if you'd like to volunteer for a specific activity (music, crafts, games, other). 

Wildwood Study & Town Elementary School Options

From the Superintendent's weekly newsletter to families, sent out yesterday:
The work on the Wildwood Building Project is moving forward and there are upcoming events to share information and gather input from our community.   This FAQ document, based on questions that have come from staff, parents/guardians, and members of our community, offers background information and clarifies many aspects of the project.  The three options that have been approved by the MSBA for analysis are to renovate the current Wildwood School; to rebuild a new Wildwood School; and to make unified, town-wide schools (Crocker Farm for all PreK-1 students; a new school for all grades 2-6 students). The first community forums are scheduled for September 29th at 3:30 pm and 7:00 pm at Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium. Another forum will be scheduled in October, and we will share that date once it is finalized. Please stay updated throughout the process, and ask questions on our Facebook page or by visiting the project website.  

Athletic Gear Swap for All ARPS Families, Oct 3rd

FREE Athletic Equipment Swap for K-12th Grade Families

Saturday, October 3rd, 9 am-noon,  ARHS Back Gym, 21 Mattoon Street

All families are welcome to come & take whatever they need.

 

* Equipment donations being accepted through October 3rd

* Donation collection box in the Crocker Farm lobby through October 2nd

 

Equipment swap being coordinated by Fort River parent Christine St. Laurent.  Please contact cwstlaurent@gmail.com for more info or with any questions. 

 

 

Amherst Youth Football Games on Sundays

Come watch the AYFL teams play Sundays at the ARHS fields. 



Crocker Farm Student Directory Forms - Please Return by Sept 25th

The Crocker Farm PGO will be publishing a student directory this school year & wants to include as many families & students as possible. The directory is for use by school families to help contact other Crocker Farm families, arrange playdates, birthday parties and more. 

For your family to be in the directory, you must submit the information you would like listed in it (for privacy reasons, the PGO doesn't have access to the contact information already collected by the school).
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The directory forms went home in backpacks last week. There is also a link to the online version here. Please fill out & submit your family's directory form no later than Fri, Sept 25th to be included in this year's directory.   thank you. 

Back-to-School Picnic Cancelled for Thurs, Sept 17th

Because of the conflict with the downtown Celebrate Amherst Block Party on Thurs, Sept 17th, the Crocker Farm PGO has cancelled our back-to-school picnic scheduled for the same night.

We will be rescheduling it soon - stay tuned!

The Downtown Block Party is a lot of fun for all, and is a great new Amherst tradition (this is the 3rd year). It's a nice night for all. Maybe we'll see you there.
 
For more info on the Downtown Block Party, please visit www.amherstdowntown.com.

Wildwood Building Study - It's not just about Wildwood

At the Crocker Farm coffee with the principal & assistant principal last Fri, a few parents mentioned that they have seen news stories about the Wildwood School building study, but since their children go to Crocker Farm, they haven't paid much attention.

The Wildwood study is looking at options that could affect ALL elementary children in Amherst, including current & future students attending Crocker Farm.  One option, for example, would have two Amherst-wide elementary schools, one for pre-K through 1st grade at the Crocker Farm school, and one for grades 2-6 at a new larger school (site not yet determined). Under this option, the current Fort River and Wildwood schools would no longer be used as elemenetary schools by the district. The project timeline indicates that any new/reconstructed school is proposed to open in Sept 2019, 4 years from now. 

There are upcoming public forums on the Wildwood building study & the options being explored. These forums are scheduled for Sept 29th at 3:30 & 7 pm at the ARMS auditorium. The district now has a Facebook page to share the latest information with families & community members.  Facebook page link here

Also, at the next Crocker Farm PGO coffee with the principal on Fri, Oct 9th at 8:45 am, Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris will be a special guest & will be speaking about the Wildwood building study.


(click to enlarge -- these graphics are republished from arps.org)

Amherst Survival Center - Trash to Treasures this Sat, Sept 12th

TRASH TO TREASURES - Amherst's Annual Gently Used Furniture Sale
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th, 9am to 3pm
All proceeds benefit Amherst Survival Center programs.


All furniture donations are tax deductible.
Furniture pickups are available for a small fee.
Call 549-3968 ext 308 or email furniture@amherstsurvival.org for more info. 

---
and a new way to donate to Trash to Treasures even if you don't need furniture.

By donating $5 (or more) to T2T , you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win an adventure package of your choice.  Here is a sampling of the T2T adventure packages:

• After 16 years of thrilling audiences around the world, the Buena Vista Social Club is set to bid 'Adios' with its current farewell world tour.  You have a chance to see them one final time at the Calvin Theater on Thursday, October 29 at 8:00PM
• How about catching the Red Sox in one of their final games of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays?
• If yoga or rock climbing is more your style, we've got that too!

Donate $5 or more to T2T before September 12th... and you'll have a chance to win one of these amazing packages.  See the website for more information about all 11 packages.

Drawing:  Wednesday, Sept 16th.
Questions? Contact Lisa Queenin, Development Coordinator at  lisa@amherstsurvival.org or 549-2968 ext 108. 

Learn more about the Amherst Survival Center at the center's web site: http://amherstsurvival.org/ 
The Survival Center's mission is to connect residents of Hampshire and Franklin Counties to food, clothing, healthcare, wellness and community primarily through volunteer efforts. 

NERD Summit at UMass this weekend - includes FREE workshops for kids 7 & up

The NERD (New England Regional Developers) Summit is a three day conference of talks, workshops, coding challenges, and fun with the local tech community!

More details about the conference are available at nerdsummit.org We are offering a number of workshops for kids and teens at NERD Summit 2015.  The details are here:
https://nerdsummit.org/news/kids-can-be-nerds-too

Saturday, September 12th

• Build a webpage with HTML & CSS 
• Draw in 3D with SketchUp!
• Game Programming with Construct 2
• JavaScript is Everywhere!
• Got an App for That?
• Graphics Programming with Processing
• Scratch Programming
• Green Screen Video Fun
• Minecraft
• Programming in Python

Sunday, September 13th

• EV3 Robotics
• Rube Goldberg chain reaction - WeDo Robotics
• Makerspace with Arduino

You can find the full list of workshops on our website. All workshops are free, but space is limited, so please register to let us know you are coming.

Mission

The New England Regional Developers, Inc is a registered US 501(c)(3) non-profit whose purpose is to organize, educate and advance the skills of web designers and developers in the New England region. It seeks to do this primarily through nurturing a self-sustaining mentoring community for its local IT industry.

NERDs has identified and defined the major issues facing its community and industry today. The most visible symptom of these issues is the growing talent gap in the field of IT.

NERDs believes that our IT teams are not as strong as they could be due to irrationalities lingering from society's past. Using proven techniques to achieve better diversity and inclusion in IT, the NERDs project identifies areas of the population that have a harder time making it into IT careers and works to remove those challenges or barriers.

Dance classes for children - The Center, an innovative dance studio

Please see www.thecenterdance.com for more info on the class offerings. 

Fall session classes begin Sept 8th & are enrolling through the end of Sept. 

The Center is run by a Crocker Farm family. 

(click to enlarge)

 

 

Not a school or PGO-sponsored activity.