Welcome our new 2024-25 PTA Board Members
End of Year PTA Wrap-Up
Garden Summer Signups
Volunteer Interest Form 2024-25
Belmont Buzz Around Town
Burbank PTA
In this issue...
Thank you!
Thank you to our Burbank Community for a wonderful 2023-24 School Year! We are so grateful for our school, families, teachers, staff, and volunteers for making this a special year for our students. We appreciate everyone who made donations, whether monetarily or with your time, involvement, and smiles. It's an honor to be part of such a close community, and we look forward to our continued work together in the coming school year. Have a great summer and see you in the fall!
2024-2025 PTA Board Members!
Samantha Thu, President, 2nd Term
Faisal Karmali, Treasurer, 1st Term
Brittany Kuterbach, Secretary, 2nd Term
Zhenyi An, VP, Grants, 1st Term
Susanne Zwierlein, VP, Enrichments, 1st Term
Martin Guentert, VP, Fundraising, 1st Term
Kelly Michaud, VP, Extracurriculars, 1st Term
Betel Girmay, VP, Extracurriculars, 1st Term
Laura Kane, VP, Events, 2nd Term
Pamela Schmidt, VP, DEI, 2nd Term
Open Positions: Co-President, Co-VP of Events
End of Year Wrap-Up
We get a lot of questions about what the PTA does! The Burbank PTA is a group of parents who volunteer their time to work closely with the principal, teachers, and staff to help build a strong school community, support teachers, and raise money to fund programs that the school would not be able to do otherwise. Here is a look at our year in review, including events, enrichments, grants, and teacher appreciation. We truly couldn't do this without volunteers and your support!
Burbank Community Events
We kicked off the year in September with a fun fall social and book fair to welcome everyone back to school! This was followed in October by our Burbank Lights the Way Movie Night and our online Library Night.
March brought an exciting Family Hoedown Dance with DJ Carlo and DJ Paul! Students also had the opportunity to participate in the annual Geography Challenge. Next came an incredibly successful and fun STEM Night in April. In May, Burbank brought back Multicultural Night which was an incredible night of shared cultures, traditions, and delicious foods.
With both 3rd and 4th grades moving to the CUE, the last few weeks have been full of Moving On Events and Celebrations for both grades including picnics, yearbooks, t-shirts, and tiles.
We are so grateful to all the volunteers who have stepped up to help us make these events possible for our students, and we thank all our families for showing up and making these events worthwhile!
Be on the lookout for 2024-25 Event Updates so you can mark your calendars for our beloved community events! As always, we run on volunteer power and need your help to make these events come to life.
Multicultural Night '24
Family Dance 2024
Library Night 2023
Burbank Lights Way
3rd Grade Tiles 2024
Fall Social 2023
STEM Night 2024
Movie Night 2023
In-Class Enrichments
Our classroom enrichment programs are organized in collaboration with teachers to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities that complement the curriculum. The bulk of PTA funding goes to these enrichments that benefit all students during the school day. This year, students in each grade level enjoyed the following in-class programming:
Kindergarten
Discovery Museum: Force & Motion
Kiwi Crates: Window Gardens
Drumlin Farms: Wild Tales
Word Play by Puppet Motion organized by Art & Music
1st Grade
Weather Enrichment
Discovery Museum: Visiting Weather Workshop
2nd Grade
Author Visit: Gail LaRocca
Author Visit: Jason Viola
Discovery Museum: Physical Changes of Matter
All Grades
K-4 Classroom and Veggie Garden Enrichment Activities
3rd Grade
Paul Revere House: Midnight Ride Program
Discovery Museum: Force & Magnetism
Colonial Days
Discovery Museum: Weather & Climate
4th Grade
Discovery Museum: Earth Science
Native American Presentation
Grants
PTA Grants support grade-, curriculum-, or classroom-specific requests from classroom teachers, resource teachers, and specialists to help supplement the educational goals of the Belmont Public Schools.
This year, we funded 2nd & 3rd Grade Flexible Seating Options to allow for a choice in preferred learning spaces in their classrooms.
Teacher Appreciation
A quick review of our Teacher Appreciation efforts this year:
Coordinated Snack Sign-up for Monthly Staff Meetings
Provided Snacks for Conference Days
Valentine's Goody-Bags for Teachers
"We're So Lucky to be a Burbank Student" Student Appreciation Video & St. Patrick's Day Themed Treat Spread
"April Showers" Wildflower Seed Packets
Teacher Appreciation Week - complete with swag for teachers, candy in mailboxes, notes from families, and catered lunch from La Victoria
Dedicated a Tree to Ms. Cox in celebration of her 39-Years at Burbank and presented it during a special Retirement Celebration hosted at Burbank
End of Year Appreciation Gift Cards for staff that serve the building at large (nurse, lunch aides, custodians, office staff, ESL, school psychologist, librarian, crossing guards)
End of Year Appreciation for retiring staff and those moving up to the Chenery next year (Hawaiian leis, potted plants and notes)
Thank you to the 3rd Grade Community!
We'd like to take a moment to thank our Burbank 3rd grade community for all the hard work and support you provided towards the moving up festivities over the last few months. We're so grateful you were all willing to step up and give a huge lift during what is typically the busiest time of year. Your efforts truly made this celebration special and meaningful for everyone involved.
-Shanna and Nicole
Garden Summer Sign-Ups!
Pick a week you are around to water and weed, and you can watch the gardens thrive. It's a wonderful family activity that you can fit into your schedule as it works for you, and you are welcome to pick ripe vegetables (and herbs). Sign up here - please take only one week to start with.
Garden questions? Email Heather at hrubeski@gmail.com
Volunteer Interest Form
The Burbank PTA is an all-volunteer organization that facilitates many curriculum-enhancing enrichment programs, community building events, and teacher and staff support. We do this partly by fundraising but most of our success comes from parent involvement.
PTA Volunteer Interest Form: Sign up for one or multiple opportunities including Room Parent, garden committee, library committee, events, welcoming, and so much more!
For all Event Committee volunteers, we have guides for how to plan events at Burbank along with details on what has been done in previous years. This includes vendor information, flyer templates, instructions, etc.
If you know of any new families coming to Burbank in the fall, please let them know about these volunteer opportunities!
Belmont Buzz Around Town
Fall Registration is now open for the Belmont Soccer Association!
Belmont Recreation has many summer programs to check out!
Download the BPS App!
New BPS Website & Newsletter Makeover
Belmont Public Schools has rolled out their new website and app! We are navigating the new format and hope this platform will allow you easier access to our PTA newsletters. An exciting improvement is the ability to translate the newsletter into multiple languages! You'll find the translate button in the upper right corner of this page.
If you download the app and save Burbank as a preferred school, you will see PTA updates on events and volunteer needs as well as a new PTA calendar feature.
Contact Us!
Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Want to get involved? Please email the Burbank PTA at maryleeburbankpta@gmail.com
Have Burbank News or Around Town content to share with Burbank Families? Email the PTA Secretary