PANTHER BEAT

Perry Hall Middle School PTSA

December 2006/January 2007

PTSA Web site: www.perryhallmiddleschoolptsa.org

PTSA Board Members

2006-07

President:

Terri Smith

410.256.5482

1st VP:

Teri Bibeault

410.592.2693

2nd VP:

Sharon Rogowski

410.256.3776

Treasurer:

John Wisniewski

410.529.7134

Rec. Secretary:

Bonni Wittstadt

410.529.5232

Corr. Secretary:

Kathy Case

410.256.2902

Editor:

Barb Hurn

410.529.0577

Gavin1234@comcast.net

In this issue:

• PTSA Student Recognition

Awards - October 2006 • Honor Roll Gold Card

First Quarter • Homework Can Help

Parents Learn About Their Children

• Thank You PHMS Volun-

teers • PTA Council of Baltimore

County Important Dates • Giant Food A+ Bonus

Bucks Program • Maryland PTA Achieve-

ment Award • and much more

A Message From the President

It’s a Wonderful Life is a holiday classic.

Just about everyone knows the story of

George Bailey, a down-and-out business

and family man who has the opportunity

to see what life in his community would

be like if he had never been born. When

we think about all the PTSA at Perry Hall

Middle School accomplishes year after

year, it’s sad to imagine what the

school and community would be

like if the PTSA “had never

been born.” It is difficult for us

to even imagine what our school

would be like without PTSA. After

all, PTA/PTSA has been a part of

Perry Hall Middle School for dec-

ades. It’s all we’ve ever known.

All the schools around us have

PTAs. As a matter of fact, every

middle school in Baltimore

County has an active PTA/PTSA.

We sometimes take for granted

all that this organization does for

our school and our community.

The atmosphere and environment would

be so much different. Just think—parents

and other caring adults would not have a

collective voice advocating for children

and public education. We would not have

the organizational structure to coordinate

the efforts of almost 200 volunteers each

year. We would not offer scholarships for

graduating alumni. We would not have

the cultural and curriculum enhancing

assemblies that our PTSA is fortunate to

be able to sponsor each year. We would

not have the funds to reimburse faculty

for classroom instructional enhancement

materials. We would not be able to subsi-

dize the student planners provided to

each student at the start of each year. We

would not have the means or organiza-

tional structure to conduct our many fam-

ily involvement events like our fam-

ily BINGO and Star Search Tal-

ent Show. We would not have the

means or organizational structure to

continue our many student academic

and character recognition programs,

teacher appreciation events or year-

end grade level activities. And the

list goes on. Without PTSA, our

school would be a much different

school. Fortunately, PHMS with-

out PTSA is, like Bedford Falls,

just fiction. Not only do we have a

PTSA, we have a very active and

successful PTSA.

Thank you for continuing to sup-

port the PTSA here at Perry Hall Middle

School. We will need everyone’s continued

support for our two upcoming fundrais-

ers—Enjoy the City coupon books and Joe

Corbi’s pizza kits. Our nominating com-

mittee was appointed at the December 5,

2006 PTSA Board meeting and will be

looking for parents to fill several commit-

tee and officer positions for next year (see

Nominating Committee article in this is-

sue.) Thank you for all you do for Perry

Hall Middle School.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Reminders:

The next PTSA Executive Board

Meeting is Tuesday, January 9, 2007

at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room.

Article Deadline....

for the February 2007 issue of the

Panther Beat is January 17, 2007.

PAGE 2 PANTHER BEAT DECEMBER 2006 / JANUARY 2007

PTSA Student Recognition Awards, October 2006 PTSA Student Recognition Awards are given to Perry Hall Middle School students who have

shown outstanding achievements or efforts. Each month teachers are asked to nominate

students for this award. This month 81 students received a “red bag” award. Congratulations!

Shereen Ahmed

Brittani Archer

Aleena Aspervil

Bryan Augstein

Jacob Bach

Taylor Baker

Emily Behnke

Jeffrey Berger, Jr.

Angela Bonsignore

Anthony Brooks

Staffaon Brown

Maci Buddemeyer

Kory Conn

Jerome Cosby

Nick Cotsoradis

Kristina Craven

Rachel Day

Nicole Dell

Melissa Downs

Kelly Drury

William Eichhorn

Philomina Ejimofor

Mike Evans

Kimberly Fernandez

Brendon Gallagher

Anthony German

Brittany Graves

Jamie Greer

Austin Haberkam

Laura Karant

Nicole Harris

Mike Hayes

Avondre Henderson

Jordan Hebsberger

Nathan Heselbach

Brandon Hogan

Brandon Hurn

Samantha Hruz

Kaitlyn Katrinak

Jamie Kidwell

Martin Lee

Shannon Lowry

Eric Lucas

Holly Lundy

Eric Magarin

Heather Manning

David Marsh

Tim Marsh

Sharise Marshall

Samantha Mast

Eric McCleary

Andrew McSorley

Krista Mitchell

Sean Nelson, Jr.

Karly Oliver

Chris Olson

Aidan Pare

Quintin Partlow

Ashley Peterson

Connor Porter

Vincent Pugliese

Alexandria Raab

Amy Reddy

Jarrett Rettman

Leanna Ritson

Carey Scott

Colleen Shipley

Griffin Shirley

Sam Smith

Rodney Spears

Alexandra Spiroff

Tier-Log Ton-Nu

Alvin Tsieh

Andrea Washington

Neil Westdorp

Erin Winters

Janna Wisniewski

Gene Yang

Kevin Yelton

Kaitlyn Yost

Blair Zagurski

Honor Roll Gold Card First Quarter

The Gold Card Program is designed to honor students who achieve Balti-

more County Honor Roll Status. Perry Hall Middle School was proud to

award 788 students out of 1,494 students with this distinction.

Students eligible for the honor roll must have A’s and B’s with the maxi-

mum of one C that will be offset by at least one A. Students with a D or E

on their report card are automatically ineligible for the honor roll that quar-

ter.

Keep up the good work Panthers!

Debbie Lundy

Gold Card Chairperson

First Quarter Honor Roll

Grade 6: 258 53%

Grade 7: 274 58%

Grade 8: 256 48%

DECEMBER 2006/JANUARY 2007 PANTHER BEAT PAGE 3

Market Day - Order to Win in January! Remember that freezer we won in Oc-

tober for having such an awesome

sale? Well, it could be YOURS! Every

$50 in Market Day products ordered

in January gets you a chance to win

the freezer. So, if you order $150 in

products, you get 3 chances to win!

Not everyone NEEDS a freezer, but

you could always sell it and keep the

cash! Paper orders must be turned in

by January 9th to the 6th grade office.

(Please do not attach payment.) You

may bring cash or a check with you to

the sale pick up or you can place your

order online at www.marketday.com

by 12 noon, January 11th. (You can

prepay with a credit card or pay at the

sale pick up.) The sale pick up will be

in the cafeteria on Wednesday, Janu-

ary 17th from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

The remainder of the sale dates for the school year are as follows:

Month Order sheets to school Internet orders by Sale date

12:00 noon (pick up 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.)

January January 9th January 11th January 17th

February February 6th February 8th February 14th

March March 6th March 8th March 14th

April March 27th March 29th April 4th

May May 11th May 15th May 21st

June June 5th June 7th June 13th

Also, we understand things can come

up that may prevent you from picking

up your order. Please recognize that

no-shows place an inconvenience on a

number of people. You must make

arrangements with a friend or family

member to come pick up your order if

you cannot do it yourself. Our volun-

teers, unfortunately, do not have room

to store your order for you in their

freezers (they order lots of food, too)

and there is only a very limited space

available in the school freezer. Please

call/e-mail our chairperson, Laurie

Finckel, with any questions, com-

ments, concerns at 410.661.1338 or

lfinckel@printmanage.com. Eat

(Market Day), Drink (Market Day)

and be merry!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Homework Can Help Parents Learn About Their Children Homework is not usually thought of as a fun activity.

But, parents can help make homework a more pleasant

experience.

First, parents can give children time to unwind after

school before they start doing homework. Par-

ents can also consider rewarding their child

for good work, for example, letting the child

decide what they want to bring for lunch the

next day. Remember that if you reward good

work, there should be penalties for not doing

homework.

Parents can also experiment with creative

ways to find out their child’s learning style.

Some children learn best through visual aids, such as

flash cards or graphic illustration of concepts. Some stu-

dents respond to sound, such as singing or rhyming, to

memorize ideas or recall what they’ve learned. You may

find that your child learns best using “manipulatives,”

which are objects such as building blocks that are held or

moved. Some children learn kinetically, which means it’s

easiest for them to learn if they move.

Finally, there are a couple keys to helping your child with

homework. First, do not give your child the

answers or correct all their homework mis-

takes. The key is for the child to find the an-

swers and work through the problems. Parents

can step in for assistance when the child does

not understand or needs someone to practice

with. The best thing a parent can do is to offer

support and encouragement.

Visit the Student Achievement area of the Na-

tional PTA’s Web site, www.pta.org, for more information

about improving your child’s schools success.

Reprinted with permission from “The PTA Parent, October 20, 2006”,

National PTA Web site, www.pta.org

PAGE 4 PANTHER BEAT DECEMBER 2006 / JANUARY 2007

Thank You PHMS Volunteers! The PTSA would like to recognize and thank the following individuals for their

contributions to Perry Hall Middle School and the PTSA.

Seth Barish

Mary Bateman

Derek Bibeault

Teri Bibeault

Derek Blackner

Vanessa Blackner

Todd Brendel

Karen Brown

Penny Brown

Kyle Brown

Kevin Brown

Toni Carr

Kathy Case

Michelle Cody

Sharon Cody

Kim Colwell

Sue Crispens

Wan Crispens

Becky Cruz

Donna Dajani

Linda Daley

Bonnie Davidson

Melissa Dell

Alyssa Denicolis

Lisa Eisemann

Carol Erpenstein

Megan Erpenstein

Karen Ervin

Lacey Esposito

Tammy Esposito

Laurie Finckel

Diane Gaither

Samantha Garriques

Ceil Gayhardt

Glenda Gilbert

Alex Gilbert

John H. Gregory

Tami Harman

Karen Hosler

Barb Hurn

Brandon Hurn

Terry Koogle

Glenn Kraus

Sheila Kviz

Jackie Lagna

Teresa Lebedda

Diana Lewis

Debbie Lundy

Erica Marousek

Robin Marousek

Brian Martin

Debbie Martin

Tanya Martin

Jenn Mayfield

Paula McDaniel

Rose McQuay

Jacob McQuay

Fran Melchoir

Judi Migliore

Chris Miller

Paula Mumma

Mary Nagle

Wendy Nelson

Jackie Nelson-Becker

Gloria Nethkin

Nicole Nethkin

Linda Neubauer

Robert Newnan

Betty Ogle

Jim Ports

Austin Prusak

Tammy Prusak

Deanna Quigley

Alex Raab

Dana Raab

Jean Repkorwich

Mariann Richardson

Sharon Rogowski

Sharon Sacra

Bonnie Schaffer

Brady Schiefer

Darlene Schiefer

Mary Schmid

Felicia Scott

Kim Seymour

Abbey Sierakowski

Terri Sierakowski

Kisha Simpson

Kirsten Smith

Nancy Smith

Terri Smith

Zachary Smith

Joseph Sunell

Sean Taylor

Tamee Taylor

Vainna Thompson

Dee Truitt

Gayle Turek

James Turek

Kim Vasiliades

Robin Whatley

Pauline Wiggins

Tracy Williams

Randi Winters

Janna Wisniewski

John Wisniewski

Karen Wisniewski

Kate Wisniewski

Bonni Wittstadt

Casey Wittstadt

Lindsey Wolfe

Al Zink

...and all the other people that volunteered for the school in some way and just

forgot to sign the Volunteer Log Book outside the Grade 6 Office.

PTA Council Board of Director Meetings

Board Room, ESS Building, 6601 Charles Street, Tow-

son, 7:30 p.m.

January 4, 2007

February 1, 2007

March 1, 2007

PTA Council General Meeting

January 18, 2007

PTA Council of Baltimore County Important Dates

A special thank you to the following people who have

volunteered to chair a PTSA Committee or program....

Jenn Mayfield - Print Shop,

themayfields2@comcast.net

Felicia Scott - Giant Food A+ Bonus Bucks Pro-

gram, fscott002@yahoo.com

Joe Sunnell - Beautification, jsunell@bcps.org

Welcome PTSA Chairper-sons and Coordinators!

DECEMBER 2006/JANUARY 2007 PANTHER BEAT PAGE 5

1 6 6 4

PAGE 6 PANTHER BEAT DECEMBER 2006 / JANUARY 2007

Thank you to all parents who provided

wonderful snacks for American Education

Week. The donations were very generous

and greatly appreciated. Also, special

thanks to Sue Crispens and Wendy Nelson

for helping with set up.

Our PTSA board is made up of a

wide variety of parents and caring

adults. We have moms and dads,

students, faculty and administra-

tors. Some work part-time, some

full-time, and some are stay-at-

home moms. We have a CPA, vet-

erinarian, several teachers, a

nurse, bookkeeper, aerobics in-

structor, librarian, and many other

occupations represented on our

diverse and dedicated board. But

they all have one thing in com-

mon—they all care about the chil-

dren at PHMS and

are committed to

leading this organi-

zation and working

for its success.

Sadly, the following board mem-

bers will no longer have children

attending PHMS and will be roll-

ing off the board:

-Diane Gaither, Sunshine

-Barb Hurn, Newsletter Editor

-Jackie Lagna, Student Rec-

ognition (Red Bag)

-Diana Lewis, PHHS Liaison

and Public Relations

-Debbie Lundy, Gold Scholar

Award

-Bonnie Schaffer, Ways and

Means

-Terri Sierakowski, Hospi-

tality and Volunteer

One officer’s term will expire:

-John Wisniewski, Treasurer

These are all vital positions for

us to fill for next year. Please

consider lending your leader-

ship skills and time. Ideally,

we’d like for the incoming chair

to “shadow” the current chair

for the remainder of the year to

learn the ropes, so please con-

tact Terri Smith at

hawsmith@comcast.net if you

are interested in these or any

board position with the PHMS

PTSA.

You Are Just the Person We’re Looking For

Maryland PTA Achievement Award The Perry Hall Middle School

PTSA was presented with a Mary-

land PTA Achievement Award —

Certificate of Distinction at the

Maryland PTA 91st Annual Con-

vention in Ocean City, Maryland

in November. The purpose of this

award is to aid each local unit in

achieving the PTA purpose and to

allow each local unit to report its

accomplishments to Maryland

PTA and become a unit in good

standing. Our PTSA was honored

with the Certification of Distinc-

tion because we met all charter

requirements plus 25 out of 40

possible points for other accom-

plishments in the 2005-2006

school year. We are a great PTSA!

Volunteers: Please continue to sign the Volun-

teer Books in the main lobby each

time you help. Your time is pre-

cious and needs to be docu-

mented. If you have not yet filled

out the Volunteer Application,

please see one of the secretaries.

As always, thank you for the time

you give to the school and the

children.

Sincerely,

Terri Sierakowski

Volunteer Coordinator

Two New PTSA Fundraisers to Kick-off in December The PHMS PTSA is proud to an-

nounce two new and exciting fund-

raisers to kick-off in December:

• Joe Corbi’s pizza kits and

• Enjoy the City discount books

Be on the lookout for fundraising kits

to be sent home with students in De-

cember. We need everyone’s support

so that we can continue all the great

work of the PTSA here at Perry Hall

Middle School.

Thank You Community Partner!

PHMS PTSA would like to acknowledge the

following community partner for their con-

tinued support of PHMS PTSA...

Perry Hall Dunkin

Donuts

Belair Road

DECEMBER 2006/JANUARY 2007 PANTHER BEAT PAGE 7

4300 Ebenezer Road Perry Hall, Maryland 21236 Phone: 410.887.5100 Fax: 410.887.5152 Web site: www.perryhallmiddleschoolptsa.org

PTSA Mission

The mission of the PTSA is threefold:

• To support and speak on behalf of children and youth in our

schools, in the community, and before governmental bodies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children; and

• To assist parents in developing the skills they need to raise and

protect their children; and

• To encourage parent and public involvement in the public schools

of this nation.

We’re on the Web Www.perryhallmiddleschoolptsa.org

The Purpose of the PTSA

• To promote the welfare of the children and youth in home,

school, community, and place of worship.

• To raise the standards of home life.

• To secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children

and youth.

• To bring into closer relation the home and the school, that par-

ents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth.

• To develop between educators and the general public such

united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, and spiritual education.

PTSA Calendar of Dates to Remember December 2006

Wednesday, December 13 - Winter

Concert, Grade 7

Thursday, December 14 - Winter

Concert, Grade 8

Thursday, December 14 - School

Newsletter, Pawprints collating

night, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, December 20 - Con-

ference Night, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. Indi-

vidual then Team

Friday, December 22 - Winter

Break begins at end of school day

Monday, December 25 - January

3 - Winter Holiday, Schools Closed

February 2007

Thursday, February 8 - Distribu-

tion of Report Cards

Tuesday, February 13 - PTSA Ex-

ecutive Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m.,

meeting room

Wednesday, February 14 - Market

Day Pick-up, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday, February 14 - Panther

Beat Article submission deadline

Saturday, February 17 - PTA

Founders’ Day

Monday, February 19 - Presidents

Day - Schools and Offices closed

January 2007

Wednesday, January 3 - Schools

Reopen

Tuesday, January 9 - PTSA Execu-

tive Board Meeting, 7:00 p.m., meet-

ing room

Monday, January 15 - Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday - Schools

and Offices Closed

Wednesday, January 17 - Market

Day Pick-up, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday, January 17 - Panther

Beat Article submission deadline

Thursday, January 18 - PTA Coun-

cil of Baltimore County General

Meeting

Friday, January 26 - Professional

Development Day for All Schools -

Schools Closed for all students

Other dates to look for: Dates related to the Joe Corbi’s and Enjoy

the City fundraisers (orders due, pick-up dates, etc.) will be sent

home with students and posted on the PTSA Web site.

DECEMBER 2006/JANUARY 2007 PANTHER BEAT PAGE 8