Thank You Discovery Parents and Staff for a Great School Year

As we head into the last day of school, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has supported and volunteered for PTA activities this year. Without the support of our Discovery families, parent volunteers, teachers, and staff, we wouldn't be able to enhance our students' school experience. You are all so appreciated!

We have had a lot of fun this year and raised some money for great causes. I wanted to highlight some of our activities and endeavors this school year:

• The PTA raised approximately $4,100 for playground improvements through its Star Wars-themed Walk-a-Thon. We're hoping with the help of grants and two fundraisers next school year, we will be able to meet our goal to purchase new equipment for the primary and intermediate playgrounds;
• We started the school year on a high note with our Discovery Night at The Farmstead where we witnessed Principal Dudley kiss a pig and raised more than $1,100. Save up your pennies for our next Kiss a Pig contest this fall;
• We encouraged students to express their creativity through the National PTA Reflections art competition. We had double the entries this school year, and we had six students go onto the Regional Reflections Art Gallery and have their works displayed at the Meridian City Hall Art Gallery;
• We earned $2,393.50 through the Box Tops for Education program. That's 23,935 Box Tops that were clipped and sent in to school! Half of the funds go directly back to the classrooms while the rest goes to the PTA for other school projects;
• We received Visa gift cards through the Labels for Education program to help our specials (library, music, computers, and PE) purchase school supplies, books, and Discovery Dasher charms;  
• We enjoyed seeing all the parents and grandparents come out to have breakfast with their students at our annual Discovery Donuts;
• We provided two Summerwind Skippers assemblies for the entire school;
• We helped the fourth-graders take a field trip to Celebration Park and have a Mountain Man Assembly;
• We helped first-graders enjoy a holiday craft night;
• We purchased Scholastic News for many grade levels and Reading A-Z for third grade;
• We purchased steps for the monkey bars on the intermediate playground; and
• We let our staff know how appreciated they are by providing breakfast at the start of the school year, lunch during parent-teacher conferences, side dishes and desserts for the holiday luncheon, a sweet shop during Valentine's Day, and lunch during Staff Appreciation Week.

And we are ready to do it all again for the 2016-17 school year. Please consider being part of the PTA to enhance our students' experience at Discovery.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer, and we look forward to working with you in August!

Thank you,

Christine Serlin
Discovery PTA President

National PTA Announces 2016-17 Reflections Theme

The National PTA's Reflections program encourages artistic creativity in the classrooms and at home, and Discovery PTA brings that to our local community.

For the 2015-16 school year, we had more than 70 arts entries that were displayed at our annual Reflections Gallery in November, with six students going on to the PTA Regional Reflections Gallery for visual arts, photography, dance, and literature and being featured in the Meridian City Hall Art Gallery.

The theme for the 2016-17 school year has been announced: What Is Your Story? We encourage your students to get in touch with their creative sides over the summer to reflect this theme in one or more of six different categories: dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts.

The PTA will be coming around to classrooms in the fall to talk more about the competition and theme. The deadline for entries will be in early November.