Lutherville Lab Report

What's gone down & what's coming up at the leopards' lair.

October 11, 2024

Lutherville Families,

Another wonderful week at the Lab!

The highlight of this week was certainly our Fall Family Night! We had an absolute blast with the building full of activities. It was a joy to see our 3rd graders perform and see our families in community at school.

A HUGE thank you to the 12 families representing 9 countries and cultures across 6 continents that helped our gym buzz with engagement in the Cultural Fair. This is always a huge personal highlight for me and so many in our community. We are deeply appreciative of the time and effort put into sharing!

We were excited to see our school Psychologist, the wonderful Michelle Bortmes, highlighted by the BCPS School Psychologists Instagram page. You can check that out here.

A calendar reminder that we are off next Friday. We will also be giving the writing staff of the Lab Report (me) the week off from the newsletter. The Lab Report will return Friday 10/25.

In partnership,

-Mr. McComb

Calendar Reminders:

10/18 - Schools Closed

10/21 - Bullying Prevention Week

10/23 - Fall Pictures

10/31 - 1:05 Dismissal

11/1 - Schools Closed

3rd graders rocked their recorder performance at FFN

Read-A-Thon is Coming

To our Lutherville Lab PTA families,

We're very excited about our upcoming Read-A-Thon fundraiser and want to share an amazing opportunity for local businesses. If you own, manage, or know of a business that would like to support our school, consider becoming a Read-A-Thon sponsor. By becoming a sponsor, a business will gain exposure to thousands of individuals who are all passionate about supporting literacy and our community.

Hurry, as there are only a limited number of digital and printed sponsorship spots available, including an exclusive Literacy Champion sponsorship. Reserve sponsorship spots today by clicking here. As always, we extend our heartfelt thanks for your support of our school community.

Warm regards,

Lutherville Lab PTA

Bullying Prevention Week

We were so grateful that Ms. Powell arranged for her former students from Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts to come to Fall Family Night and provide facepainting!

“Gym-NEWS-ium” PE News and Notes from Mr. Bruns  

PLAY60 with the Baltimore Ravens- The Play60 challenge kicked off this week and helps motivate students to get 60 minutes of exercise a day. The program runs from October 7 - October 25. During this (3) week period, students will track both their activity and minutes each day using their

Student Game Planner (student activity log for the entire three (3) week program). Parents will need to sign off at the bottom of each weekly column. Students must hand in completed and signed Student Game Planners to Mr. Bruns, by Monday, October 28.

Also, one student’s name will be randomly selected to be the Ravens’ Play60 Ambassador. The student ambassador will receive either a spring luncheon at the Ravens’ facility, OR possibly win a chance for tickets to a Ravens home game. The Ravens will choose two (2) ambassadors from all participating BCPS schools to receive tickets to a Raven’s home game in December.

Lutherville Lab’s Monster Mile

Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 4:20 – 5:30

(Rain date: Wednesday, October 30)

The Monster Mile (previously Turkey Trot) is a one-mile fun run on school grounds for 3rd-5th graders. We are requesting that all participants donate a minimum of 2 non-perishable food items to the Maryland Food Bank.

Costumes are optional! Costume masks and weapons will NOT be allowed.

After the run, the participants will receive refreshments and medals will be awarded to the top three boys and girls of each grade level. All participants will then have a chance to win a turkey and other various prizes.

This is an excellent opportunity to have fun with your friends, get exercise and help those less fortunate!

BCPS Online Learning Program

Students must be entering Grades 4-12 next school year

The BCPS Online Learning Program offers a full-time online educational environment for students in Grades 4-12. The program offers a full day of synchronous (real time/live) instruction taught by certified BCPS teachers. The program offers courses that fulfill BCPS requirements for promotion and graduation. Any student who is eligible to attend a BCPS school may apply. The application window for the 2025-2026 school year opens at 1 p.m. on Friday, November 8, and closes at 1 p.m. on Friday, December 13. The application will be available online.

The Gonzalez-Diaz family were one of 12 families who planned and shared their culture with us at Fall Family Night! It was such a lovely display of the wonderful diversity at our school.

Visit from the Lutherville Black Legacy Committee

On Thursday, as part of our staff professional learning activities, we welcomed representatives from the Lutherville Black Legacy Committee, Charlene Graham, Celeste Adams, Margaret Selby, and Emily Stills, to present their lived experiences attending segregated schools and integrating schools in Baltimore County, including Ms. Still's experience of integrating Lutherville Elementary. We were honored and grateful for their time, memories, and wisdom and grateful to Ms. Conley for helping us to get connected with the Committee, as some of them are her family!

The presenters shared the deep sense of family, community, and wholeness that they felt at Lutherville Colored School #24. They also impressed upon us the challenge that was put on them as children to integrate white schools, and the strength and courage it took to do so was clear. One of the presenters spoke to her experience when attending high school of having to catch a bus at 6am that traveled all over western Baltimore County to pick-up students attending Carver School, one of only 3 secondary schools for Black children in Baltimore County at the time. The difference in attending schools where they were seen and supported was evident. In addition to Ms. Conley, some other staff in the room learned of nieces, nephews, and children of presenters that they had taught over the years, a reminder that some of the students our staff has had the opportunity to teach are only one generation removed from these distinguished presenters.

Art Updates

Notes from the PTA

UPCOMING DEADLINE: PIZZA PRE-ORDERS DUE TUES OCT 15

Looking to order a cheese or pepperoni pizza for the Oct 17th Movie Night? Click here to order online by credit card or send this form (also in your student's green folder) in by next Tues.

CULTURAL FAIR THANK YOU

Thank you to all of the 12 amazing families who took time to create beautiful displays as well as share words, images and food with our incredible community during the Fall Family Night Cultural Fair. Your willingness to entertain questions, speak to adults and children alike and educate us on customs and traditions from your heritage and home countries is such a gift. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about Costa Rica, Ecuador, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Russia and South Korea. We appreciate you and look forward to continuing to embrace our community's diversity!

UPCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS

Mon Oct 14th at 7 pm

PTA General Meeting, Hybrid, In person at the school library (enter main doors by ringing the gold bell) or join us virtually by clicking on this link

These meetings are for anyone in the LL community, you do not have to be a PTA member to attend. When a matter calls for a vote, PTA members are eligible to vote. We encourage participants to bring areas of concern, encouragement and new ideas.

Topics will include:

Updates: Finance & membership initiatives
Overview of upcoming programs: Read-a-Thon, Savers FUNDrive®
New areas: Vote on new logo to be used for future spirit wear, learn about Young Entrepreneurship Program (to start soon)

Thurs Oct 17th from 5:30-8:00 pm

Last Movie Night

We are looking for a bit of HELP for our last Movie Night of the school year, PLEASE!

Use this SignUp Genius link to sign up if you can:

- bring a cooler

- make or buy an item for the bake sale

- help before, during or after the movie (***this is where we need the most help, please, and it's only for short periods of time!***)

PTA MEMBERSHIP - VENMO UPDATE

Unfortunately our correspondence with Venmo has not led us to a place to successfully collect membership dues via this method at this time. We hope you will take advantage of our online platform: Givebacks for credit card payments or complete or mail/send in this paper form with check or cash. We look forward to receiving your membership!

SAVE THE DATE

Sun Oct 27th from 4:00-6:00 pm

Playground Pop-in, Riderwood Hills Park (Kenilworth Drive by Trader Joe's)

Nov 6-20th

Read-a-Thon & Virtual Read-Alouds, more info to come

Nov & Dec

Savers FUNDrive® - A Fundraiser Making the Most of What You Already Have

Please start saving gently used/previously-loved clothing, housewares, and books! In Nov & Dec we'll have drop off opportunities in the school parking lot. Savers Thrift Store in Parkville will buy those items from us and the profit will come back to the PTA and the school!