Thornhill Elementary PFC Newsletter

• From Our PFC co-Presidents

• Annual Fund Week 3: The Class in the Lead Might Surprise You!

• Annual Fund Spotlight: Library with Ms. Fox

• Straight from the Students: What They Love About the Library!

• Update From the Library: Latine/x Read-in

• Join Us for ThornChill Fall Festival on October 5!

• Accepting Halloween Costumes and Clothes Hanger Donations For The ThornChill Fall Festival Costume Swap!

• Learning With Colors, Walking, and More Green Developments!

• Lost and Found Update - Items Now Donated Every Month

• Save the Date - Picture Day is October 3 & 4

• Shop and Earn for Thornhill

• Get Cleared to Volunteer

• Calendar of Important Dates

Reminders:

PFC Meeting TONIGHT @ 6pm via Zoom!

NO SCHOOL THIS FRIDAY!!

Hello Thornhill families,

Can you believe we’re already halfway through September? School is in full swing, and we have so many exciting things ahead! We want to take a moment to give a big thank you to our incredible Annual Fund team—Selam Brown, Stefani Miller, Deepa Lounsbury, Annie Sartor and our VP of Fundraising, Tamara Chao. They’ve been doing an amazing job leading the charge on our biggest fundraiser of the school year. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and we truly appreciate their hard work!

The Annual Fund is the PFC’s first and most significant fundraising effort of the school year and contributions of any size are not only appreciated but essential to creating a strong student experience. No matter the amount, your support shows the unity and strength of our Thornhill School community. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! Please contribute here if you haven’t already.

We hope you can join us for the PFC meeting tonight at 6:00 PM via Zoom. We have a lot of important updates to share and catch up on! We’ll cover key topics, including the Principal’s Report, a discussion and vote on teacher technology needs, the Treasurer’s Report, and progress on the Annual Fund.

Additionally, we’ll hear updates on traffic safety, the ThornChill Fall Festival on Oct. 5-(yay!), the BIPOC Advisory Council, sustainability efforts from the Green Team, and more. You can view the full meeting agenda here.

Warmly,

Catrina Vrankovich & Becky Gonzales

PFC co-Presidents

PFC Zoom Meeting: Tuesday 9/17 6:00pm - 7:00pm

Meeting ID: 839 9115 5209

Passcode: thornhill

Hello Thunderbirds!

We have reached 59% of our $220,000 goal with 40% of families participating. Week after week, we are so impressed by how the Thornhill parent community comes together to support our students - Thank You!

We also want to thank those who have shared our Annual Fund campaign with extended friends and family and to those pursuing company matches - we truly appreciate the thoughtfulness!

We would love to see 100% of our families participate, with any amount counting toward participation. Your tax deductible contribution directly benefits every teacher and student at Thornhill, impacting classrooms, programs and students across the board. Your contribution enables students to excel both academically and in extracurricular activities.

PLEASE help us get one step closer to our goal of $220,000 - Contribute Today!

And ANY CLASS with 80% participation or higher by September 30

will receive a…

Ready to donate? Great! There are a variety of ways to submit your contribution:

You can double or triple your contribution by taking advantage of your corporate match benefit. Many companies, both large and small, will match donations made by their employees. To see if your employer offers matching gifts, visit Charity Navigator to submit a match request online. It only takes five minutes.

Here are some companies that offer a matching program: Disney, Pixar, AAA, Expedia, Google, Pandora, Kaiser, Genentech, PayPal, Apple, Salesforce, Williams Sonoma, Microsoft.

Thank you for your continued support!

Selam Brown, Stefani Miller, Deepa Lounsbury & Annie Sartor

Annual Fund co-Chairs

annualfund@thornhillschool.org

Hello, my name is Marie Fox, and I am excited to begin my seventh year as the Thornhill librarian. I have lived in Oakland for the last 20 years, and my husband and I have three daughters - two Thornhill alumni, Lucy (now in 10th grade at Oakland Tech), Kaya (7th grade at Montera), and Grace (4th grade). I have a BA in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and my Masters in Library and Information Science from SJSU.

The library is a unique communal space for our school where students can follow their interests and explore materials that offer windows and mirrors to their worlds. During our weekly sessions, we read and discuss books that are related to current cultural events, just for fun, or are connected to their curriculum, supporting what they are learning in their classrooms. I also coordinate author visits, collaborate with teachers, make book recommendations, offer activity centers, open the library to students during recess, and work with 5th grade library aides.

Research has shown that schools staffed with a qualified librarian have a boost to their student achievement. I am passionate about supporting students in discovering what sparks their interest and helping to develop their critical thinking and information-gathering skills. My aim is to assure that the library is a safe space for all students to experience reading joy and support their development in becoming life-long readers and learners.

I am very grateful to be a part of the wonderful Thornhill community of students, families, staff and readers!

-Marie Fox

Do you have kids’ Halloween costumes gathering dust in a closet? Consider donating them to the ThornChill Fall Festival Halloween Costume Swap! We are gathering your clean, kid-appropriate (nothing too scary or gory, please), and good-condition Halloween costumes for the costume swap. Families will be able to browse the costumes at the ThornChill Fall Festival on October 5 and take home a new-to-you costume FOR FREE!!

Help us make this a success by dropping off your costumes in the bin in front of the school on September 18 or 25! If you use the car drop-off lanes on those days, you can hand your bagged costumes to the traffic volunteers who will make sure they get to the bin for you. We are also taking clothes hanger donations! Drop those off in the bin or with the traffic volunteers. Questions? Contact christinefry@gmail.com.

The Green Team continues to have conversations with various parties outside of school to improve Thornhill's efficiency with energy usage, delivery of the right amount of meals for school lunches, donations of excess food to families in need, and adding more shade to the school grounds. We'll share how these topics develop over the next few weeks!

Color at ThornChill Fall Festival and learn about green energy!
There is so much fun and learning to be had at the upcoming ThornChill Fall Festival. Yes, kids can learn how a heat pump works, or how electricity gets to their house.... through coloring! The Green Team will have a table with crayons and drawings from climate artist Nicole Kelner, who makes lovely educational drawings about electrification solutions that are climate-friendly. Join us for coloring at the Green Team booth at ThornChill, October 5!

It's not too early to get ready! Walk & Roll To School is on Wednesday, October 9! Last year, half of the school's students walked and biked to school that day. We're excited to do it again! This super fun, social and healthy event is designed to encourage students, families and the Thornhill school community to roll, walk, bicycle, take transit, or use other non-motorized transportation to get to school. In fact, driving + parking + walking counts and is highly encouraged to those families who live far. This is an inclusive event where everyone is welcome to participate in any way they can!

Our next Thornhill Sustainability and Beautification Team meeting will be on Friday, October 4 at 5pm at Taps and Takeout.

Hurry and find your lost items at school! Lost and Found items will now get donated on the last day of EVERY month.

With a history of lost items at school that are never claimed and already 3 racks full of clothes one month into the school year, we've put in place a cycle of donations every month with Oakland nonprofit City Team. Starting September 30 and every subsequent month, the school's Lost and Found will be donated to City Team, which redistributes to the homeless and people in need. Don't wait, keep track of your student's items, label them, and find them at school if they're left behind. A ParentSquare announcement will be sent out to parents monthly, one week before donating the items from the Lost and Found.

Picture day is scheduled for Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4. Look out for an announcement from your teacher regarding which day your child will attend. If your child is absent on those dates, don't worry, a make-up day will be scheduled.

ShopRaise Partnership
We’re excited to introduce our new partnership with ShopRaise this year! Whether you're buying daily essentials like groceries, shopping for home office furniture, or booking your next trip, the ShopRaise app allows you to raise funds for Thornhill Elementary while you shop online—all at no extra cost to you. Now, your everyday shopping can directly support our school. Click the link here to learn more and download the app.

The Thornhill Parent-Faculty Club (PFC) eNews team publishes this weekly newsletter each Tuesday in the school year to communicate school, PFC and OUSD news, events and information. We all have plenty of other things to do, but please try to read it weekly, as it will more than likely answer most questions you have about what’s up at school. Information about how to submit to the newsletter is below, but you can reach out to us at any time at newsletter@thornhillschool.org.

Email submissions to our Newsletter Chair, Annie Sartor, at newsletter@thornhillschool.org by 8 p.m. Thursday for approval—nothing sent after this will be included in the following week’s newsletter unless there are extenuating circumstances. It’s fine to include text in the body of the email with links and no formatting, and attach photos preferably as 150 x 150, 72 dpi JPG or GIFs only (not embedded in email or word file). Submissions may be edited for spelling, grammar, brevity and clarity. Advertising and items not related to Thornhill are not accepted, as we need to keep the newsletter focused on need-to-know info for the community.

THANK YOU to everyone who submits articles and to PFC Board Members, Teachers, PFC co-Presidents Becky Gonzales and Catrina Vrankovich, VP of Communications Jill Evans, and Principal Steve Daubenspeck, member of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).