Message from the PTO President

March, 2023

Happy Spring, Parents!

Welcome back from Spring Break! We hope you all had fun trips and enjoyed the time away. We are now in the last grading period of the year and busy planning all the end of year events!

Next week on Thursday, April 6th, the entire LTMS family that is over 1,000 strong, will be out in our local community to volunteer at 26 different service sites. This is a super fun day and we are SO very grateful that our school district has helped our middle schools bring it back after being cancelled the last two years due to COVID. As Principal Hudson outlined in her message to parents and guardians sent earlier today, our students have met with their site times to learn about what they'll be doing. To those who have signed up, THANK YOU! If you have not volunteered and would like to sign up, you still have time to do so. See the Day of Service article below for more information and how you can sign-up.

Cards, notes of encouragement, and other messages of support to our teachers, administrators, bus drivers, and others, are always welcomed. You can drop off these messages at the school office at any time. Be sure to take the time to give thanks to those that help teach and take care of your child every day.

Our PTO Grade Representatives are busy planning Spring activities, and our SAC Team will be treating our LTMS teachers and staff during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 8-10th. Watch for those announcements to volunteer and/or donate!

Please make sure to read Principal Hudson's Knight News weekly S'Mores updates, and our PTO newsletters and emails to keep up on how you can support these Spring events in the weeks to come.

We have PTO Board vacancies that are waiting for YOU! Please see the article below for those openings, descriptions of the board positions, and how you can join. If you have any questions, please reach out to any of our current PTO Board members, or email: nominations@ltmspto.org.

The next PTO Board meeting is a General Membership meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 20th at 9:00am in Room 653. Principal Hudson provides school and district updates during Principal's Coffee, and our board meeting will begin thereafter. We will vote to finalize next year's budget and the new board of volunteers that will serve 2023-24!

If you have any questions, please contact info@ltmspto.org.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 20

9:00a General PTO Meeting & Principal's Coffee

6:00p Spirit Night @ Angel's Icehouse

Thursday, May 18

9:00a PTO Board Executive Meeting

3:00p Spirit Night @ Bahama Bucks

In This Newsletter

Now Open: New Student Enrollment for 2023-24

Attention parents and guardians of students in grades K-12 that will be NEW to Lake Travis ISD for the 2023-24 school year.

You can now enroll your student by visiting https://www.ltisdschools.org/enrollment. From the New Student Enrollment page, click the blue Enroll for Upcoming School Year (2023-24) button to begin.

Superintendent's Weekly Update

Since early September 2022, LTISD Superintendent Paul Norton has been sharing a weekly update with news, notes, and shout outs from across the District. The update, better known as "Norton's Notes," is posted on our District website by 4:30 pm each Friday during the school year. Stay informed - visit: www.ltisdschools.org/nortonsnotes

Sprouts School Supplies

New and returning parents to LTMS: Its that time of the year again - time to order school supplies. School supply kits for the 2023-2024 go on sale beginning on April 1, 2023. Our PTO sells the supplies as a fundraiser, so by ordering through us, you are directly supporting the PTO's efforts to fund events for LTMS teachers and students. You'll also spend a lot less time trying to find all of your supplies. You can get this "to do" item crossed off your list - even before summer break.

The LTMS School Supplies store opens NEXT WEEK, so be on the lookout for the email with the ordering link, or you can check out our LTMS PTO Facebook page.

Call to Action Items

Our PTO is looking for parent volunteers to join the Parents In Service Team.

We need a team leader (or leaders) to help coordinate the parents volunteer efforts on our campus. In particular, we need volunteer in the following areas:

Assist in the Cafe during the three lunch periods from 11:15am until 1:45pm
Morning and afternoon car line assistance team
Core team to help establish the Knights Lounge, sponsored by our new counselor, Kimberly Mills. To volunteer for the Knights Lounge, you go to the Volunteer SignUp Genius page, or you can message her directly at millsk@ltisdschools.org

If you are interested in learning more, send us an email at info@ltmspto.org.

LTMS Birthday Basket & Coffee Bar

The LTMS Staff Birthday Basket and Coffee Bar are a huge hit with our wonderful staff. With your support, members of the LTMS staff have been able to celebrate their special day with a table full of their favorite snacks and a fully-stocked fridge with some of their favorite refreshments. For those who prefer a caffeinated boost to their day, a fully-stocked coffee bar was made available for all of our LTMS staff to enjoy. Thank you to all that donated.

If you are interested in making a donation for the April, May, and June birthdays, see the LTMS April-June Staff B-day Basket Sign-Up Genius.

UPDATE: We have been advised that we CAN receive Venmo donations for rest of this year, so if you'd like to send funds to help us shop for items needed for the LTMS Staff Birthday Basket and Coffee Bar, please send your Venmo donation to @Freda-Collier and indicate "B-day Basket" or "Coffee Cart". Thank you to those that have continually supported these fun initiatives to spoil our teachers, administrators, bus drivers, and other members of our amazing staff.

Parents: We could use your help to setup and maintain the staff Birthday Basket and Coffee Cart. If you are interested in joining the LTMS Birthday Basket and Coffee Cart team, email info@ltmspto.org.

In Search Of Volunteers

Volunteer with PTO

Are you interested in joining the LTMS PTO? There is something for everyone to enjoy, so let us know what your time and talents are, and we'll get you placed in a role that supports the activities at LTMS.

Board positions we are looking to fill for next school year (2023-24) include:

President	Staff Appreciation Committee
Vice-President	Round-up Coordinator
Treasurer	Spirit Store Coordinator
Fundraising & Sponsorship Coordinator	School Supplies Coordinator
Membership & Volunteer Coordinator	Day of Service Coordinator

If you are interested in any of these roles, complete the information provided on the LTMS PTO Interest Form. For information on the positions available, please reach out to nominations@ltmspto.org.

Day of Service Volunteers

LTMS Day of Service is scheduled for
Thursday, April 6th, 2023.

If you have not signed to be a parent volunteer/chaperone, please do so HERE. We have more room and need more parent volunteers, so if you are available, please join us for a fun day!

Please refer to Principal Hudson's email that went out Friday 3/31/23 full of all the important information you & your child needs to know for Thursday, April 6th.

We are sending over 1,000 volunteering students, teachers, and parents who received their assignments over the last couple of weeks to 26 Service Sites! We are super excited about this school-wide and community event.

If you have any questions about Day of Service, please email: dayofservice@ltmspto.org

Fundraising

Upcoming Spirit Night

Angel's Icehouse will be hosting our upcoming April Spirit Night. Come on out for an evening of fun on Thursday, 20 April, from 6-9pm.

A portion of proceeds for all dine in and pick-up orders will be donated to LTMS. After months of hard work with renovations, Angel's will be opening soon, so come check out their new space. We look forward to seeing you there.

Matching Gifts

Apple matched a donation from a generous LTMS parent as part of their corporate matching gift program. We are thankful for this amazing support! To find out how you can take advantage of this program, click here.

Spirit Store

LTMS Spirit Store

Spirit Store is OPEN and stocked with shirts, stickers, and other LTMS swag. You will receive email notification when your order is fulfilled and ready for pick up at the school. Show off your Knight pride!

Purchases of LTMS PTO Knight gear support PTO fundraising efforts. Thank you for your generosity!

NOTE: The LTMS Spirit Store will close for the remainder of the school year, on May 1st. During this time, we will be taking inventory and preparing for our next school year. The Spirit Store will reopen in August, 2023 at the Round-up event.

ARMOR Pencil Sets

Our Spirit Store has new pencil sets available for purchase at $10 per set. These sets are designed with the A-R-M-O-R character traits lasered onto each pencil and reminds the scribe of our school's treasured values. These sets make a great gift for your student to go along with the ARMOR Awards each grading period. These sets were created by one of our own LTMS parents, and our PTO loves supporting our local community businesses. If you have any questions, contact us at: info@ltmspto.org.

Fundraising Opportunities

Not sure how else to help the LTMS PTO raise funds? Here are just a few more examples of how you can help:

Community Partners

Do you own a local business and wish to partner with us to impact the programs and activities provided to our students and teachers? As a valued business sponsor you will be recognized through various benefits depending on the sponsorship level you choose. We hope your business will join us in supporting education in our community.
Contact us for information on how to become a sponsor today!

Double Your Donation

Increase the impact of your PTO donation with a matching gift. Employee matching gift programs are corporate giving programs in which the company matches donations made by employees to eligible non-profit organizations like LTMS. A simple and effective way to double a contribution at no additional cost to you. Details here.

Volunteer Grants Make a Difference

Volunteer grants are corporate giving programs in which companies provide monetary donations to non-profit organizations where employees volunteer regularly. If you volunteer at LTMS, it’s an easy way to provide the school with additional financial support at no cost to you! Details here.

Passive Fundraisers

Earn money for LTMS every time you shop! This is an easy way to earn money for our school while doing something you already do. Please take a minute to sign up for these programs, which donate a percentage of your purchases back to our school or PTO. The more families that participate, the more we earn! Details here.

Reminder: AmazonSmile & Randall's Good Neighbor Programs End

The economic outlook and slow growth in retail have forced numerous businesses to enact cost-cutting measures that directly impact our organization’s fundraising efforts.

Last fall, Randall’s removed the LTMS PTO from its Good Neighbor program, and most recently, Amazon announced they will shutter AmazonSmile effective February 20, 2023.

While we are disappointed by the termination of these charitable programs, please know that we will continue to make every effort to find meaningful ways to continue supporting our wonderful staff and students.

Thank you to all the families that contributed to both programs during this school year!

From Our Gold Sponsors

Community Partners

Thank you to our wonderful PTO sponsors. Please take time to patronize our Community Partners who have been generous in their support to our school!

If you are interested in becoming a Sponsor or know a business that would, please let us know: fundraising@ltmspto.org or visit our Community Partners page for more information.

SUBJECT: LTMS PTO Newsletter - March 2023