PTA Updates

The Ross 2024 auction is live! You can start browsing and bidding online here. We're adding TONS of new items every day, but here are a few that you'll see now:

• In-home professional cooking class for four people
• Taylor Swift lunch party
• Gel manicures at Nail Saloon
• Dinner for four at Barcelona
• Maman gift basket
• Four tickets to DC United
• LEGO sets - Frozen, Indiana Jones and more
• Flamenco classes for kids
• Hot laps in a race car

Proceeds from the auction will help fund our PTA; the auction is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year. Don't forget to book your babysitter for the evening of March 2. UrbanSitter is offering a 30% code for a first month of membership (use code EVENT2024). And please buy your tickets here and consider sponsoring the auction (see our growing list of business and Ross family sponsors here). You *can* get together with your friends or your class to purchase a sponsorship!

• Ross winter concert (private link; please do not share on social media)
  
• Workshop on understanding and supporting your anxious child

The PTA is working to organize our annual Family Bingo Night event, to be held on an evening in March or April. This is not a fundraiser-- t's just a fun night for Ross families to gather, eat some pizza and enjoy some exciting Bingo entertainment! The PTA is looking for a couple of parent volunteers to help organize the event (order prizes and supplies, help set up, etc.). It should be a pretty light lift, but additional hands would be appreciated. Please let Liz Lowry know if you're available to support: PTApresident@rosselementary.org.

Following the successful Ross fall clothing swap, the PTA is keen to organize a spring/summer clothing swap in March, and is in search of a volunteer to organize the swap. This involves working with the PTA secretary to encourage the Ross community to donate unused items, organize the collection of these items at Ross, put the items out a few mornings before school and help people "shop", and then donate any remaining items to a nearby elementary school. Contact Becky Ballard (beckyball@gmail.com) and Melanie Mayhew (melanie.mayhew@gmail.com) if you're interested in helping with this effort to reduce our environmental and financial footprints!

Interested in skiing or snowboarding? There's a WhatsApp group to help Ross families and friends coordinate local ski days and meet up on the slopes. Here's the link to join: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HcsgYLiWB1L8GFJu73zIk9

Ross is again partnering with Imagination Stage for a special discounted theater outing to the children's theater, which is a ten-minute walk from the Bethesda metro station. Please get your tickets for Cinderella: A Salsa Fairytale on February 24 at 1:00pm. The Ross community can use the code "Ross15" to save 15% on the tickets. (Note: This code does not apply to balcony tickets.)

Trying to find somewhere for your kids to go while they're out of school this summer? Here's an incomplete list of some options around the DMV area. Although the Ross PTA compiled this list, these are not affiliated with Ross. If you have a camp to add to the list, contact melanie.mayhew@gmail.com and we'll include it in the list. Two quickies:

• The lottery for DPR summer camps opens February 12.
• J. O. Wilson Elementary School is hosting a DC Camp Fair on Saturday, February 10 from 10:00am-1:00pm.

The DCPS 2023-2024 calendar is available as a Google Calendar that you can sync to your personal calendar service. To sync with Google Calendar, follow these instructions and copy the address below into your Google Calendar as instructed. To load the calendar into iCal, Outlook, or another application, download the address below. You’ll need to verify that the calendar is set to sync.

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/dcpstech%40dc.gov/public/basic.ics

FY25 budget season is upon us. Please review the following resources from DCPS to understand how budget and staffing allocations are determined. Ross Elementary School's 24.25 enrollment projection from DCPS is 173 students. If your student is not returning to Ross next year, please reach out to Principal Searl.

Please join the DC Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of General Services on February 1 at 11:00am for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of Stead Park Recreation Center (1625 P Street NW), DPR’s first net-zero recreation facility. Please visit https://steadpark.splashthat.com/ to RSVP.

The EDCJCC is hosting Talking to Children about Sex and Their Bodies: The How and the Why on Tuesday, January 30 at 8:00pm, which is Intended for parents of toddlers through tweens. Join them for a candid virtual workshop about the importance of early sexual health education as an issue of safety and as a path to later healthy relationships. Clinical social worker (and mom) Melissa Kilbride will talk about why these conversations are necessary and will provide simple ways to have conversations with your kids without shame and discomfort. With over 17 years of clinical experience and specialized training in sex therapy and trauma, Melissa believes in the importance of educating young children about their bodies and sex. Register here.

Watch The Incredibles and then learn about the film’s many references to mid-century modern architecture and design. Explore where the four-time Oscar-nominated movie fits within the history of animation, and, how it achieves its life-like animation techniques. Introductory remarks are to be delivered by Donald Albrecht, independent architecture and design curator, and author of the book Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies. Bring your own blanket or lawn chair to our Great Hall, for an experience like no other! Register here.

Is this the year you’re going to write a memoir? Have that novel in you, but you haven’t put it down on paper? Are you a poet that needs community? Are you looking for regular feedback from your writer neighbors? Are you an absolute beginner and need some direction? Did you know that the DC Public Library has creative writing groups and programs? Did you know that they are 100% FREE?

The DC Public Library offers programs (mostly virtual) that range from graded asynchronous classes (through our vendors) including beginner classes, regular feedback groups, and more. Writing groups offered by the DC Public Library include:

• This is My Story: a place to workshop your memoirs. Meets alternating Monday mornings. Register for the January 29th kick off here, meeting 10am-12pm. Or email chris.stevenson@dc.gov.
• DC Writes, a Wednesday night multi-genre place to workshop your words. Meets alternating Wednesday evenings. Register for the next meeting on January 31st, meeting 6-8pm here or email chris.stevenson@dc.gov.
• Writers Working, a Tuesday night multi-genre place to workshop your words. Meets alternating Tuesdays. Register for the next meeting on Feb 6th, 7pm-9pm here or email chris.stevenson@dc.gov.
• Aspiring Writers Circle, a Thursday night multi-genre place to work and generate new works. Meets Thursdays. Next meeting is Feb 1st, 6-7pm. For more information, email adultservices.dcpl@dc.gov.

If you’re an absolute beginner, or need a refresher writing course, please contact chris.stevenson@dc.gov to discuss what DC Public Library offers to meet your goals.

From KidFriendly DC: Washington, DC, is well known for its legion of museums. There are all the popular venues along the National Mall as well as many off-the-beaten-path spots around other parts of the city. And there are even more beyond the District lines that are great to explore with kids. Here's a new round-up of museums in Maryland and Northern Virginia to add to your family's activity mix.

2023.24 DCPS Calendar and DCPS Google Calendar

Ross PTA 2023.24 Calendar

Friday, February 2: Ross Learning Celebrations (9:00am)

Wednesday, February 14: Classroom Valentine's Day Parties (Room Parents/Teachers coordinate)

Friday, February 16: NO SCHOOL

Monday, February 19: NO SCHOOL

Saturday, February 24: Ross/Imagination Stage Theater Trip (1:00pm; use "Ross15 for 15% off)

Friday, March 1: MySchoolDC Lottery Closes (PK3 - Grade 8)

Saturday, March 2: Ross Auction (6:00pm, Toolbox Pilates Art Studio; learn more here)

Thursday, March 14: Parent-Teacher Conferences, NO SCHOOL

Friday, March 15: NO SCHOOL

Friday, April 5: NO SCHOOL

Monday, April 15 - Friday, April 19: NO SCHOOL

Friday, May 3 - Sunday, May 5: Mothers' and Fathers' Day Book Drive

Monday, May 6 - Friday, May 10: Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week

Monday, May 27: NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, June 4: NO SCHOOL

Saturday, June 8: Ross Participation in Capital Pride Parade

Last Day of School Year TBD (Snow Days)

• Recording: Workshop on understanding and supporting your anxious child
• Ross unofficial compilation of summer camps

The mission of the Ross PTA is to support the education of all Ross students, to support Ross faculty and staff, to foster relationships among parents, staff and community members, and to assist faculty and staff to provide a safe and nurturing environment where all students, families and faculty can thrive and grow.

Email: PTApresident@rosselementary.org
Website: http://rosselementary.org/pta-board/
Location: 1730 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202.673.7200

If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe to Ross PTA emails here.

Do you have updates or announcements that you think would be of interest to our school community? If so, email Ross PTA Secretary Melanie Mayhew.