Rowe PTO News

9.14.23 - Back to School Night at Sea Dogs

9.14.23 - Nason's Corner Neighborhood Association Info Session w/Julianne Operman

9.28.23 - Rowe Open House

9.30.23 - Fall Garden Clean-Up & Scavenger Hunt

10.18.23 - Family Science Night

10.19.23 - PTO Meeting

10.21.23 - Rowe Craft & Quest

10.25.23 - Odyssey of the Mind Maine info Session

10.27.23 - Walk-A-Thon

Welcome to the 2023 - 2024 school year at Rowe!

With new leadership at our school, as well as the district, it’s an exciting time for our students. Our kids have settled in over the last week, we hope yours have as well. We very much thank all of you who have already reached out to volunteer, donate, or just say hello. We look forward to connecting with many of you over the coming months. We won’t hold our first official meeting until October, but in the meantime, we have a lot to share. Check out what’s new for the beginning of the year, and how you can get involved.

Please sign up to be included in a classroom directory organized by your student’s Room Parents and/or a school directory organized by the PTO. Please complete the form separately for each student you have at Rowe.

Sign up here!

The PTO is looking for volunteers to serve as Room Parents for 2023-2024! The time commitment is approximately 2 hours per month. Room Parents help build community at the classroom level and serve as a liaison between teachers and families. Recommended activities include creating and distributing a class directory; organizing parent volunteers and classroom donations; hosting playdates; and coordinating teacher appreciation gifts.

Sign up here!

Contact PTO Vice President Ashley Eiler (vicepresident@roweschoolpto.org) with questions.

The PTO is happy to announce that your donations from previous years will help us gift a new Rowe t-shirt to every student and staff member this fall. The shirts show off our new River Otter mascot and look great! It’s been a long-held goal of ours to make spirit wear more accessible to everyone, so we’re really excited about this initiative. We have extended the deadline for friends and families to order these limited edition t-shirts at a discounted price.

You can order yours here until Thursday, 9/14.

Each year the PTO designates funds for student enrichment for each grade level. In the past, teachers have used the money for a chicken egg incubator and supplies, a 3D printer, and field trips to engage students in hands-on learning activities. We are excited to see what we will sponsor this year! The PTO also hosts community events, orders supplies for school wide spirit weeks, purchases extra school snacks, and assists in efforts to enhance our beautiful school building and campus.

We are so grateful for the support of our community and look forward to seeing you at our next event and hearing about your child’s learning experiences at Rowe!

Looking for an easy way to help out that doesn't require you to leave your computer (or better yet, phone?!). Consider donating snacks to Rowe.

Check out the amazon list you can order from!

The "ReWild Rowe Crew" has been hard at work removing crabgrass from the parking lot island this past week!

Our former Outdoor Art teacher, Jonathan Graffius, and Rowe parents, Dena Riegel (owner and operator of Wild Gardener: Native plant garden design for suburban and urban rewilding in Portland), installed Native Plant gardens in Sagamore village, the "Kids Welcome" garden that abuts Sagamore Village, and the parking lot island with the help of a small but mighty team of volunteers. Last year, the Rowe Greening Committee (Amy Hayes, Kayla Theriault) and community volunteers worked to put in the Native Plants that are now thriving to the right of the school entrance.

If you notice some of the gardens looking a bit lean and meager this year, it is thanks to the rain and subsequent crab grass that moved in. These gardens are working through their awkward stage and will bloom soon!

If you're interested in helping Rowe with ReWilding and Native Plants, or volunteering in the garden in other ways, please email: greening@roweschoolpto or wildgardenermaine@gmail.com

We are looking for gently used donations to enhance our teachers’ lounge so they may find a moment of peace during their busy day. Our spacious teachers’ lounge sits on the second floor of the school with great big windows overlooking the school playground and surrounding trees. It is a beautiful physical space but lacks the warmth and peacefulness teachers need midday to eat lunch, gather with their colleagues, and find a quiet moment outside the halls of our busy school.

If you have any or can acquire new furniture (couches, comfy chairs, bookshelves) or area rugs, throw pillows, blankets, plants, etc please contact Janna Stefanowicz at treasurer@roweschoolpto.org to discuss further.

Dr. Scallon is hoping to host a small Listen & Learn with some Rowe community members ahead of our PTO meeting on Thursday, 10/19 at 4:45. The PTO has been asked to gauge interest in this event.

If you would like to attend, please send an email to president@roweschoolpto.org.

The Portland Sea Dogs will celebrate our hard working students with a Back to School Night and parade on Thursday, 9/14.

The parade begins at 5:00pm, with gametime at 6:00pm.

Find more information and purchase tickets here.

The Nason’s Corner Neighborhood Association will be hosting a listening session with Portland District 3 School Board representative Julianne Opperman on Thursday, 9/14 at 6:30pm at the school. The school board is holding a goal setting retreat on 9/16, and Representative Opperman is hoping to gather information from parents and community members in advance of that retreat.

Find more information here.

Mark your calendars for Oct. 18th from 5:30-7:30 for Family Science Night. UNE students learning about how to teach science will have a variety of activities where students get to learn about and try out science!

Hear Ye! Hear ye! The Amanda C Rowe PTO, in conjunction with Kids Arcanum, proudly presents our second annual Rowe Craft & Quest! Do you love magic? Do you love dragons? Do you love adventure? Of course you do! Join us on Saturday October 21st at 1pm for a special adventure. Legend has it that a clutch of dragon eggs remains tucked away in a magically locked chest, and it’s up to our brave adventurers to rescue their baby dragons. The awesome kids of the realm will each start with some easy mask crafting, and then go on a scavenger hunt style quest to collect magical spell components. We will have some brave parent volunteers playing a few interesting characters so please give them a mighty HUZZAH when you see them! This will culminate in musical spell casting to break the enchantment and unlock the chest! The fun doesn’t end there though, for each kid must then rescue their very own special baby dragon and chisel it free from its stony egg. It gets pretty chalky and messy, so be prepared! This is going to be EPIC so we hope you will join us. Costumes/cosplay are encouraged and the PTO will provide some snacks and have spirit wear for sale. Sunday will be used as a rain out day, in case of poor weather. See you then, and HUZZAH!

As you may know, the garden class is no longer a "specials" class at Rowe. It was replaced with a new Environmental Literacy teacher, and her name is Leigha Hart. Leigha will be teaching at Rowe and Reiche. She will be working with classroom teachers on Wabanaki studies and garden education. We look forward to working with and supporting Leigha in her new role.

We will be hosting a Fall Garden Clean-Up & Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, Sept 30, from 1:00-3:00, (Rain date Sunday, Oct 1, 1:00-3:00) There will be no bathrooms, so please plan accordingly.

We are pleased to announce that Rania Campbell-Bussiere has agreed to co-chair the Greening Committee with Amy Hayes. They will be using the new Greening Committee email address greening@roweschoolpto.org, please contact them with any questions.

We value any amount of time you can give. Please complete the volunteer survey to let us know your interests. Filling out the survey does not obligate you in any way.

You can fill out the survey here.

Each year we raise approximately $30,000 (about $65 per student) to support classroom supplies, books, field trips, families in need, ad more.

You can help by:

Make a direct donation

Buy spirit wear

Use PTO Clynk bags for cans and bottles

Support our fundraisers