Call for applications – Arco Iris Finance

After many years of hard work and dedicated service, our current Arco Iris Treasurer, Jim Mullaney, is rotating off the school board. We are very thankful for Jim and his dedication to Arco Iris. Our financial planning not only helped us receive our original charter approval, but has allowed us to establish and maintain reserves and confidently establish a solid and stable financial status.

Jim’s school board term ends in June 2013. We are opening up a call for applications for individuals with a finance background that can ultimately serve as treasurer of our school.

Requirements:

• Financial knowledge of the organization.
• Personal commitment to devote the time necessary to ultimately perform the responsibilities of Treasurer.
• Understanding of financial accounting for nonprofit organizations.

Responsibilities:

• Serves as Chair of the Finance Committee.
• Manages, with the Finance Committee, the Board’s review of, and action related to, the Board’s financial responsibilities.
• Works with the school Principal and finance manager to ensure that appropriate financial reports are made available to the Board & Beaverton School District on a timely basis.
• Assists the Principal and financial manager in preparing the annual budget, and presenting the budget to the Board for approval.
• Works with the Finance Committee and the school Principal to develop Fiscal Policies for recommendation to the Board to ensure the financial integrity and sustainability of the organization.
• Works with the Finance Committee and school Principal to develop long-term financial strategies.
• Keeps currently informed of legal, regulatory and sector developments relating to the Board’s financial responsibilities.
• Coordinates annual audit with finance manager and preparation of annual tax returns by outside CPA firm.
• In charge of bank accounts with USNB, including signer on the accounts.
• Manages debit cards and credit cards issued in the Corporation’s name.
• Reviews monthly bank statements and payroll.
• Works with finance manager & PTO to coordinate fundraising budgets.

Additional responsibilities include:

• Attending monthly Arco Iris board meetings.
• Attending other Arco Iris board meetings (e.g. special meetings, executive sessions), as needed and requested by the Board Chair.
• Attending school functions: winter program, spring performance, science fair, annual auction.
• Completing school board training modules at http://www.boardtrainingmodules.org.
• Assisting in establishing, implementing, and maintaining the original mission, vision, and philosophy of the school.

The timeline for the selection process is as follows:

• Friday, May 17th – call for applications
• Friday, May 31st (5:00 pm PDT) – applications due
• June 2013 – committee interviews applicants/discusses options
• July 18th – presentation and recommendation to board

If you are interested in applying for this school board position, please email a cover letter and copy of your resume to J Rain.

Friday Updates – May 17 2013

Consejo de padres Updates

Consejo de padres would like to thank the 2012-13 parent representatives for their work this year and welcome the new representatives Michelle Black (2nd grade), Janice Faccio (3rd grade) and Sarah Nielsen (5th grade) for the 2013-2015 school years. There are open positions for 4th, 6th, and 7th grade (grade levels refer to the grade your child will be in next year). Please contact any of your Consejo de padres representatives if you are interested. You can find their emails on the Consejo de padres page.

Arco Iris School is moving this summer and YOUR HELP is needed! Sign up next week after school with Michelle Black and/or Stacey Mueller to lend a helping hand. There will be projects for all. Many hands make quick work. 

PTO Updates

Field day is Next Thursday, and we still need TWO group leaders each for both Maestra Becky’s class and Maestra’s Niki and Jeanette’s class.  Do you have six folding chairs, a water cooler, a badminton net we can borrow? We are also looking for a couple more station helpers. Sign up HERE!

Vision and hearing screenings are coming up! Can you come help? We need six more helpers. Wednesday, May 29th from 8-12, please sign up HERE. 

Don’t forget to send in those box tops the last drawing is coming up soon.

Are you on Facebook? Earn 5 free Box Tops for ARCO IRIS SPANISH IMMERSION SCHOOL in the I Love My School Summer Countdown! There are up to 5 MILLION Box Tops up for grabs, so help us earn more! Ends May 26, 2013. (Not compatible with mobile devices): https://www.facebook.com/BoxTopsForEducation/app_367976259968602

While there remember to join our PTO group on Facebook.

School Board Welcomes New Member

The Arco Iris School Board is pleased to announce our newest board member. Mark Lipscomb was selected by the Arco Iris Nominating Committee and recommended to the board for approval. The school board voted Thursday (6-0) to approve Mark’s nomination to the board.

Mark Lipscomb will serve as a project manager position on the board to fill the currently vacant 3 year term through November 2015.

Mark is a U.S. Army veteran with several commendations and began his IT career in Michigan at Madonna University. He has a long history of project and organizational management and 20+ years of IT experience, most recently with ClearEdge Power. Mark began his service to Arco Iris in January 2010 when he volunteered to lead the school’s IT efforts.

Mark has expressed his desire to be a part of the school board because of his passion for education and responsibility to children and the greater community. Mark is well versed and understands language immersion and is committed to this key element of the Arco Iris mission. Welcome to our team, Mark!

Friday Updates – May 10 2013

There is a school board meeting Thursday, May 16th at 6:00 pm in the 5th/6th grade classroom. The agenda will be posted early next week on our Board page.

Consejo de padres Updates

THE TIME IS NOW! DON’T WAIT! It is election time for Consejo de Padres! We are in need of parents for each grade level to help represent the parent voice, support the principal and the board, and work on special projects. This is a two year term and meetings are once a month in the evening. This is a great chance to volunteer for all parents – those available in the day and those of you who can only help in the evening.

Please fill out the nomination form by the end of Friday, May 10th! Fill out the nomination form or email Dina Musgrave.

PTO Updates

At Tuesday’s PTO meeting we held a limited election and filled the president and secretary positions. We will hold another special election to fill two vice president positions and a treasurer position in the fall.  If you have interest or questions regarding of these positions, please let us know.

Currently, we would like to welcome Sunshine King, she will join Christy Olson as Co-President for the 2013-2014 school year! We would like to thank Sam McElravey for continuing on as Secretary.

Becky Schiefelbein has agreed to coordinate school and community activities through the summer with intent to run for one of the Vice President Positions when we run elections in the fall.

While we are excited about wrapping up the 2012-13 school year the PTO is making plans for next year! Please take a moment to review and sign up online for next year’s committees. There’s always a lot going on with our school – Jog-a-thon,  Jaguar’s Read, book fair, classroom coordinators, annual auction, and even Lego teams. If you are interested in pitching in to help next year, this is a great (and easy) way to let us know.

As this school year counts down we have a couple of volunteer opportunities:

• Field day May 23rd from 10:am – 2:pm at Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec!
• Health/vision screening May 29th at 8:am.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Fundraising/Auction update blog and letter coming next week
• Scrip is due today – Friday May 10th
• Consejo de Padres meeting is Tuesday May 14th @ 6pm
• Board meeting Thursday May 16th @ 6pm
• Jump with Maestra Stacy (auction item) is Saturday May 18th
• No School May 24th & May 27th

Friday Updates – May 3 2013

PTO Updates

Arco Iris had an amazing night on Saturday at our annual Fiesta Night and Auction!  The event was an overwhelming success in many ways. Thank you to our generous Arco Iris community for your support at our auction and on all our fundraising activities throughout the school year. Details on the auction results and our total fundraising efforts will be out soon. Special thanks to Ann Ratay, Sam and Toby McElravey, students Chloe and Jono, and Justin Brown’s company Justin Perspective.  They captured why we choose Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School for our kids. See their stories on this video HERE!

Did you miss signing up for an item or party or just miss the auction in general?  No worries! We are having a week long silent auction at the school. All items/sheets will be put up at the school today (May 3rd) and pulled at the close of school on May 10th (or when the guaranteed price has been met).  The Auction committee will e-mail winners and payment by check is expected no later than May 13th. See more info on the attached sheet: Post-auction Auction Info

PTO Meeting and Elections will be held Tuesday May 7th - We will be holding elections for the 2013-2014 school year PTO board. If you are interested in any of the positions, please email the PTO. Open positions are: President, Vice President, Secretary, treasurer. All of these positions are set up to be shared.

Committees sign up sheets will be available soon.  Look for them outside the classrooms.

Burgerville Restaurant Night is Wednesday May 8th 3:30-7:30 at the Burgerville at 185th and Walker Road. We need a few volunteers to help hand out orders and clear tables.  Please sign up HERE!

It’s Spring cleaning time!  Clean up around the house or maybe just clean up the car with Scrip cards from Lowes, Home Depot, Fred Meyer, Kaady Car Wash, Eco Car Wash or Washman Auto Spa! Orders are due Friday May 10th and can be dropped in the mail box located on the cubbies outside Maestra Maria’s class.

Field day is Seussian inspired this year AND we still need a few people to run an assortment of activity stations. There is a lot of fun just waiting for you!  Please sign up HERE!

Do you have a spare kiddie pool (or two!) lying around that we can borrow?  These are part of the field day festivities. Please email the PTO if you have one we can use.

Consejo de padres Updates

It’s time for new volunteers!!

Are you looking for a way to be involved with Arco Iris? Nominate yourself to be a grade level representative. Consejo de padres aims to fulfill two goals: 1) represent the parent voice at Arco Iris School and 2) to act as a parent resource for special projects as needed by the principal and the School Board.  Terms last for 2-years, with a staggered schedule so that each grade level has one new and one returning representative.

Nominations accepted from Monday, May 6th – Friday, May 10th.  Nominate yourself on this WEB PAGE:

Ballots will be sent home on Wednesday, May 15th and must be returned on Thursday or Friday, May 16th-17th. 

Please contact Dina Musgrave with questions.

Arco Iris goes to BizTown

We welcome this guest post by Maestra Nikki -

On Tuesday, April 30th, our 5th and 6th grade class took a trip to Junior Achievement’s BizTown…However, even as I type the word “trip”, I realize that it doesn’t accurately describe the four-week-long, interactive, economics unit that culminated in an all-day simulation on Tuesday.

During the month of April, my students learned about the economy, work-readiness, taxes, financial responsibility and philanthropy through the JA BizTown curriculum. Each student learned skills that would prepare them for life after school. They learned how to interview for a job, practiced how to write checks and balance their accounts, and tried out new words like human resources, interest, and net pay.

After a month of classroom practice, we were assigned three businesses to actually run on simulation day. During this mega-interactive day, several hundred kids from three schools gather to practice their new skills. Students run their business throughout the day and pay the banks back while still trying to earn a profit.  When students aren’t running a business, they take two breaks to deposit their paychecks at a KeyBank run by students, and use their checks, “Bizbucks,” and debit cards to spend at student run stores. The entire town is the size of a large gymnasium and constructed to be realistic and complex. There are construction workers, four foot six insurance agents, and a non-profit organization. There is even a city hall run by an eleven year old mayor with a clipboard.

On the day of the simulation, our kids joined the other two schools and hit the ground running.  In the first hour, the kids began applying for business loans, setting prices, open checking and savings accounts and paid taxes. The CFOs created checks for payroll and paid invoices for store operating costs. There were lots of wide eyes and busy hands.

As students practiced and learned from their mistakes, I got to see our kids begin to shift from anxious learners to independent experts. After the first hour, our CFO’s no longer looked to the adults for direction. They had their groove down, and delegated work when it started getting tough. I no longer needed to tell kids to endorse checks and tear out deposit slips; they were helping others in line at the bank with these tasks.

Throughout the day, our amazing parent volunteers shared their observations with me: Leslie was learning to juggle her new responsibilities as a newspaper editor and CEO. Nicholas and Chloe were grace under pressure at the Wellness Center. Lucciano and Cali marketed products at Fred Meyer with flare. Lindsay, Matix, and Marcella looked like pros as they took the blood pressure, height and weight of other kids. Jackson and Maddie were so driven to take photos for the newspaper. Julian was recognized by the Mayor as Citizen of the Day. Joe, the reporter for the town’s newspaper, didn’t budge from his computer once until he collected his stories. He later proudly showed me all of his work that would later go into the printed newspapers. Honestly, I could go on and on about all of them. In fact, I plan on doing just that.

I’m so proud of all of them. They took this project seriously because they wanted to be ready for “work”. I’m also so impressed by their dedication on simulation day and their refusal to give up when things got…real. 

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District Science Expo – May 2, 2013

The Beaverton School District will be hosting a K-8 Science Expo – Family Engineering Night and Science Fair on Thursday, May 2, 2013 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Tektronix (Building 38, 3025 Zworykin Avenue, Beaverton).  Special guests will include the Westview High School Robotics Club, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), and Mad Science.

Arco Iris is sending five representatives this year to present their science fair projects at the Expo. Congratulations and good luck!

This event is open to the public and there are a number of hand’s on exhibits to experience – for kids and grown ups. Stop by, soak in some science, and support our local students. See you there!