PTA CONNector
Parents, educators, and students working together to build a stronger school community
March 2010
Principal’s Message
RESPECT – RESPONSIBILITY - KINDNESS
Dear Conn Families,
The second semester is well underway, and it is
never too late for a reminder about Conn’s
attendance and tardy procedures. Student drop-off
begins at 8:40am each morning, and the bell rings at
9:05 to officially start our day. Students arriving
after the 9:05 bell without an excusable condition
receive an unexcused tardy for the day.
Alarmingly, on any given day we may have as
many as 35-40 students that arrive after the 9:05
bell. Please make every effort to get your student to
Conn on-time so he/she can make the most of
his/her day!
Likewise, a student must be in attendance at
least one-half of the school day to be counted
present. According to Wake County Public School
System’s Parent Handbook, an absence is excused if
one of the following conditions exist (a written note
is required):
A. Illness or injury which makes the student
physically unable to attend school
B. Isolation ordered by the State Board of
Health or the Wake County Health Department
C. Death in family
D. Medical, dental, or other appointment with a
health care provider for the student or for a child for
whom the student is a custodial parent.
E. Court when a student is under subpoena.
F. Religious observance, as suggested by the
religion of the student or the student’s parents.
G. Participation in a valid educational
opportunity with prior approval.
H. A catastrophic event or natural disaster
Punctual attendance is key for school success,
and we appreciate your efforts to help your child
arrive on-time and ready to learn! One of the
components of our school motto is responsibility
and how students demonstrate responsibility. On-
time arrival insures that students can get in the
building and to their classrooms before the 9:05
bell. This enables them to complete morning work
assignments and ready themselves for the school
day. Likewise, on-time arrival enables our teachers
to start the instructional day promptly without
interruption. On-time students are able to take
responsibility for their academic achievement.
Thank you for your continued support -
Diann P. Kearney
Conn Elementary Principal
Leslie Taylor
Administrative Intern
PTA President’s Message
Call to Action Needed
Well, it seems that the Wake County School
Board’s actions concerning our children’s futures is
as unpredictable as the recent weather. In the
month since Conn’s Town Hall Forum on the future
of education, we have more questions than answers.
The school board has delayed voting on
changes to school calendars for 2010-2011. With
the resignation of Superintendent Del Burns, it faces
added pressure to figure out how to finish this year
and search for a new superintendent as well as fund
changes they decide to pursue. As of this writing, I
remain optimistic that Conn will continue with the
same magnet theme and the same traditional school
calendar for 2010-2011.
However, it appears that a majority of our PTA
members are communicating strong support of
Conn and the Wake County Magnet Schools Policy.
In addition to the 50 people at our forum in January,
I have heard from twice that many Conn parents
who strongly support making a statement in favor of
the current magnet policy. Several PTAs at other
magnet schools are joining forces to support a
resolution urging the school board to continue its
current magnet policy. This coincides with the
unanimous opinion at our forum that our students
and families benefit greatly from the socioeconomic
diversity found at our magnet school.
We really want to hear how you feel about the
changes being considered for Wake County public
schools. Please visit our PTA website at
www.connpta.org to register your comments in a
survey that we hope will inform how we take action
to represent the interests of our members. All
comments received by Monday, March 22, will be
reviewed before the next full PTA membership
meeting on Thursday, March 25.
In other important Conn PTA news, we funded
cultural arts programs for every student and
broadened our families’ experience with square
dancing and fun on Family Spirit Night. We’ve
assisted the Media Center with more books and
sponsored visiting author Steve Swinburne, who
comes to Conn this week. Our sponsorship of the
Reflections Program encourages students to pursue
artistic expression. The next Conn Showcase will
celebrate the achievements of several students
whose submissions were recognized at the county
and district levels. PTA continues to work hard
supporting the Fifth Graders’ upcoming class trip to
Washington, DC.
But we have had to make cuts and pull back on
some of the programs we had hoped to fund.
Therefore we will be presenting a “pared down”
budget to the full PTA membership on March 25.
Please attend the meeting at 6:00 p.m. (prior to the
3rd Quarter Showcase) and vote on the revised
budget. You can find details at our PTA website,
www.connpta.org. There is also information about
fundraising and how you can be active with us
between now and the end of this school year. It’s
as easy as 1,2,3…
1. Please make a tax-deductible donation to
Conn PTA
2. Volunteer on a project – we still have plenty
coming up
3. Call me if you need more information on
where to start. My number is listed in this
newsletter.
Thanks for your involvement in PTA.
Together, we make a real difference in the
education our children receive.
Linda Davis
PTA President
March 2010 CONNector  
News from Reflections Committee
We have a winner!
Tiffany Kwong was awarded second place in
the NCPTA Reflections arts program’s Primary
Division for her dance entry, “Beauty is Spring.”
Tiffany says, “I chose the title ‘Beauty is
Spring.’ Spring is beautiful because all the flowers
bloom, and the birds and butterflies come out. In
my dance, I start out like a flower that blooms and I
dance like a butterfly that goes around the flowers
too. I made the paper flowers out of tissues and pipe
cleaners for the background. I chose a green tutu
dress because everything start to turn green in
spring. The music is the Four seasons.”
Tiffany, a first-grader in Ms. Mack’s class, was
recognized at the Reflections awards ceremony in
February. Congratulations, Tiffany!!
Kelly LeVoyer
Betsy Alexieff
Co-Chairs, PTA Reflections
Somebody New in the Drama Room
Hi! My name is Sarah Goforth and I am a
senior North Carolina Teaching Fellow getting my
K-12 Licensure in Theatre from Meredith College.
This semester I am student teaching with Kellie
Harris during 3rd and 4th quarter focus areas. I have
been observing for the past year in her classroom,
so your students may have mentioned me! This
coming month is going to be very busy in the drama
room but a lot of fun!
Kindergarten classes are going to be exploring
the art of pantomime. Each day will bring different
activities that allow the class to move around the
room and use their imaginations and bodies to
perform.
1st graders will be listening to two different
versions of a familiar fairytale and discussing parts
of a script that can be found in stories. The students
will then get to reenact parts from both stories and
perform for the rest of the class.
Playwriting classes, 2nd and 3rd grade, will have
daily writing exercises to get practice and ideas for
writing for the theatre. The final writing project
will be original scripts and a staged reading of the
works during class at the end of the quarter.
The 4th grade focus area, Folktales, will be a
blend of literature and theatre as students bring
stories to life. The first part of the quarter will be a
focus on tales from cultures around the world and
will end with performing our own staged versions
of some North Carolina Jack Tales at Showcase
Night, March 25.
5th grade’s focus will be improvisation and
characterization, something these students got a
taste of during rotations and really enjoyed. As a
class, we will be exploring the spontaneity of
theatre and the thought processes behind creating
and showing a character onstage.
This quarter is going to hold some exciting
things in the drama room. Not only do I get to
teach your students, but I know they will end up
teaching me as well!
Sara Goforth
Drama Student Teacher
Media Matters
Wow! The Media Center is hopping for
March!
Muddy Buddy Book Club has inspired many
of our students to reach for a reading goal to earn
Mudcats game passes. Congratulations to all who
participated. Participant names will be posted on
the media center doors and passes will be
distributed in April.
Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’ birthday
is March 2, with special guest readers from
Centennial Middle School visiting classrooms to
share nonsensical Seuss stories.
Steve Swinburne, nonfiction author and
photographer, visits Conn on March 4 to speak to
grades 2-5 to share his experiences and talk about
the writing process. Thank you to the PTA for their
continuing support of Conn’s visiting author
program. Also a big thank you to Rachael E. Pair,
General Manager of Courtyard Raleigh-Crabtree,
for her donation of lodging for our author!!!
Kindergarten has been rhyming, singing, and
dancing with Mother Goose; reading and voting on
their favorite nominee for North Carolina
Children’s Book Award; and coming to check out
books independently….as many times as they
want!!! First grade small groups are exploring
research using an inhouse webquest on Jan Brett
and her book The Mitten. Second grade small
groups are practicing high frequency words and
reading rhyming text. They are our most frequent
March 2010 CONNector  
visitors to the media center, checking out both
fiction and nonfiction titles to read and share with
their classmates and families. Third grade is busy
adding toppings to the Genre Pizzas as they explore
and do activities on all the different types of books
we offer. Ask your students what genre means and
what toppings they have added to their class’ pizza.
Several small groups are reading fiction, meeting
together in the media center once a week and
interacting on Blackboard with others who are
reading the same title.
Fourth grade continues to enjoy graphic
novels and also the new car and military nonfiction
titles added before the winter break. Using
photostory, they have created a moving tribute to
the Greensboro Sit In to celebrate Black History
Month. Fifth grade is learning to use different
resources through short tutorial videos. Student
experts are creating the videos for their classmates!
Students use the media center for independent
reading materials both in small groups and as whole
classes.
Happy Reading!
Brenda Shore, Media Specialist
Kathie Rozar, Media Assistant
Dance Moves
We are getting smart in dance by doing the
Brain Dance! In kindergarten through fifth grade,
students have learned about warming up using
developmental patterns that make connections in the
brain that influence reading, writing, positive
behavior, and focus. Ask you child to demonstrate
core-distal movement, or talk to you about balance
and the vestibular system. (Kindergarten knows
these as “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Humpty
Dumpty”)
A group of third grade dance students and
second and third grade chorus students are getting
ready to perform at Memorial Auditorium for Wake
County’s annual “Pieces of Gold” performance on
Wednesday, March 10. They will be dancing and
singing “The Character Tango,’ and singing “The
Power of the Arts” in the finale along with over 900
WCPSS student performers.
Third Quarter focus areas are now in full
swing. Several of these classes will be sharing
during the March Showcase Night on Thursday,
March 25.
 Parents, please try to not send your daughter to
school in tights on dance days. Please also monitor
pants length—we lose a lot of dancing time to
rolling up pants legs. Kindergarten parents, continue
to work on those shoe-tying skills. See you at a
dance performance soon!
Gerrie Bowen
Dance Teacher
Spanish Says Hola!
Students in Spanish are off to a great start for
second semester. Our third graders are working on a
unit which includes the calendar, weather, and
seasons? Ask your third grader ¿Qué tiempo hace?
You may get some answers such as “hace frío” or
maybe even “hace viento”! The fourth graders just
completed a unit on telling time. Ask your fourth
grader, ¿Qué hora es? Fourth graders will study
North Carolina next. Our fifth graders finished a
unit on Guatemala. During the study of Guatemala
students learned how to describe what they were
wearing and what someone else was wearing. Ask
your fifth grader to describe their outfit for you
today. Our next destination is El Salvador. We will
study various products native to Central America.
¡Hasta luego!
Sra. Ramirez
Spanish Teacher
Notes from the Music Room
Third quarter focus areas are in full swing and
there are some exciting things going on in Music. In
second grade we are experiencing music through
playing instruments in the Drum and Percussion
Class. We are reading rhythm patterns and musical
notation on the treble clef while performing on the
pitched and unpitched instruments. Xylophones,
metalaphones, congas, djembes, claves, guiros,
castanets, cymbals, maracas, and tambourines are
just a few instruments we are using along our
musical journey!
Third graders are making beautiful music with
the handbells this quarter. We are reading musical
notation on both treble and bass clef in the focus
area. Students work as a team to perform musical
masterpieces and we look forward to performing on
Conn Showcase Night March 25!
Fourth and fifth graders are preparing to
perform at the Raleigh Fine Arts Choral Festival. In
March 2010 CONNector  
this class we are singing in parts to create beautiful
harmony. We will lift our voices in one of the most
beautiful venues in Raleigh, Meymandi Hall, on
April 13.
Pieces of Gold is coming up! Second and Third
grade students were selected to perform at
Memorial Auditorium March 10. Tickets are still on
sale through Ticketmaster or at the Progress Energy
Center Box Office.
Stephanie Connor
Music Teacher
News from Yearbook Committee
Don’s Miss It – Deadline March 18!
This year our yearbook is “CSI” – Cool Student
Information. Thanks to all the CONN-pliments that were
purchased , we are able to offer this year’s book for $20.
Order now to reserve your copy of the yearbook.
Sales end March 18, 2010. Books will be back before the
end of the year and will be delivered on 5th Grade Class
Day. All sales will be issued a receipt. Make checks
payable to Conn PTA.
When you send in your payment, please list your
student’s name, the teacher’s name, your name and an
email and phone number where you can be contacted if
there are any questions.
Thanks for your support!
Mary Williams
Chair, PTA Yearbook
Conn Merchandise Sale
Good news! There is still time to order Conn t-
shirts. Conn t-shirts – in white only – are available
for $10 each. Bargain hunters can get three t-shirts
for $25. T-shirts sizes for youth are small, medium
and large. T-shirt sizes for adults are small,
medium, large, extra-large, 2XL and 3XL (note: add
$1 per shirt when ordering size 2XL or 3XL).
While you’re shopping, don’t forget bumper
stickers - $2.00 each. Questions about merchandise
orders should be addressed to Mary Williams. Ms.
Williams’ contact information can be found at the
end of this newsletter.
 2009-2010 Conn Elementary PTA
HOME CELL
PTA CONTACTS NAME PHONE PHONE EMAIL
President Linda Davis 821.7602 210.4420 lgd919@nc.rr.com
President-Elect Dakeisa Parker 803.2035 264.7744 blakedakeisa@hotmail.com
VP Fundraising Julie Thomas 434.9690 thomasja@us.ibm.com
VP Membership Melissa Madrid 255.5219 Melissamadrid1@yahoo.com
Secretary Dionne Lester 792.2442 dlesterpta@nc.rr.com
Treasurer Toddi Steelman 513.0408 271.2844 Toddi_Steelman@ncsu.edu
Asst. Treasurer Joe Sinsheimer 821.9487 jsinsheimer@nc.rr.com
Butterfly Garden Christine Murphy 832.3298 345.1807 tomeichenberger@bellsouth.net
Communications Reid Serozi 807.1878 reid@serozi.com
CONNector Julie Snee 210.5586 jsneeze@gmail.com
Cultural Arts Peggy Hayes 870.0599 522.7995 peggy@peggyhayes.com
Soo Keith 834.1811 soo@sookeith.com
Lisa Ferrando
(Staff Liaison) 828.3534 lferrando@wcpss.net
Fall Carnival – Lisa & Rob
CONNivale Vanderberry 872.0741 271.4350 lvanderberry@nc.rr.com
Family Spirit Night Jared Ollison 247.4478 jso94@hotmail.com
Green Team Jeff Cherry 878.6177 915.1012 pakbakr@hotmail.com
David Thome 834.2735 215-0420 thome10@bellsouth.net
Holiday Shop Chrissy Pressley 834.6488 368.3856 cjpressley@gmail.com
Hospitality Capricia Conyers 833.1732 Capricia.conyers@yahoo.com
Legislative Matthew Brown 834.6488 askmisterbrown@yahoo.com
Literacy Night &
Campaign Pam Hartley 428.0992 pamhartley@earthlink.net
Media Center Kelly Turner 846.9317 kelly@mcbug.net
Room Parent
Coordinator Carol Lawson 761.1013 clawson2@aol.com
Parent Classroom
Liaison, K-2 Carmon Pullen 376.0844 291.8803 carmonellen@yahoo.com
Parent Classroom
Liaison, 3-5 Jaime Baker 231.9878 931.1478 bakers5@bellsouth.net
Positive Behavior
Support Mary Williams 846.5019 mawatwilliams@aol.com
Reflections Kelly LeVoyer 833.2297 kelly.levoyer@sas.com
Betsy Alexieff 524.8936 betsy_alexieff@ncsu.edu
Room Parent Coord. Carol Lawson 761.1013 cdlawson2@aol.com
School Store Daphne Shuler
School Spirit Merch. Mary Williams 846.5019 mawatwilliams@aol.com
Student Directory Adrienne Berney 828.5599 awberney@bellsouth.net
Teacher Apprec. Susan Robson 212.8733 luvoureducators@yahoo.com
Yard Sale Gabriella Corter 833.2078 827.3681 magicrabbit@nc.rr.com
Yearbook Mary Williams 846-5019 mawatwilliams@aol.com

March 2010 CONNector  

 
 March 2010
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Bell Schedule: 1 2 3 4 5 6
M,T,Th,F – 9:05-3:45 -PTA Board Meeting Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Jump Rope For Heart Steve Swinburne
W – 9:05 – 2:45 6:15 pm Read Across America Visiting Author
Media Center
[Jump Rope for Heart
– Raindate]

7 8 9 10 11 12 13
EARLY RELEASE
1:15
Conn Community Night –
Chick-Fil-A
North Hills 4 – 8 p.m.
Pieces of Gold 7 p.m.
Memorial Auditorium

14 15 16 17 18 19 20
3rd Grade – ITBS 3rd Grade – ITBS 3rd Grade – ITBS 3rd Grade – ITBS 3rd Grade – ITBS -Green Team Grounds
Testing All Week Testing All Week Testing All Week Testing All Week Testing All Week Work Day 10 – Noon

21 22 23 24 25 26 27
5th gr. Artist in Conn Achiever: Conn Showcase Night End of Third Quarter Conn Community Yard
Residence Leni Newell K-1 9:30 PTA Mtg. – 6:00 Sale
Batik All Week!! 3 – 10:15 Showcase – 6:30 – 8:00
4-5 11:00 Conn Achiever:
2 10:15

28 29 30 31
School Day – SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK
Make up for
Snow Day
 April 2010
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Bell Schedule: 1 2 3
M,T,Th,F – 9:05-3:45 SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK
W – 9:05 – 2:45

4 5 6 7 8 9 10
TEACHER 4th Q focus areas begin Report Cards Issued –
WORKDAY Tuesday folders will go 1st through 5th
home Friday with Interim issued –
report cards. Kindergarten

11 12 13 14 15 16 17
PTA Board Meeting “Do Your Best” EOG -Green Team Grounds
6:15 Prep Night – 3rd Work Day 10 – Noon
through 5th grades
Choral Festival
Rehearsal Choral Festival

18 19 20 21 22 23 24
EARLY RELEASE
1:15
Conn Community
Night - TBA

25 26 27 28 29 30
Conn Community Night
Dinner

Chick-fil-A * North Hills location

Wed. Mar. 10, 4–8 pm

Come and Bring Family and Friends!

Enjoy talking with other families from CONN.
Don’t miss Conn Community Night!
We hope to see you there!!