You Have Reached the End of the Internet

There is nothing more frustrating in the technical world than a down website.  The same day I posted the Blog about Terracycle, the website crashed.  I will update the Blog as soon as it is up again (consistently) but it's frustrating for me to have one of my favorite sites crash JUST WHEN I'VE SENT STUFF IN FOR WHITNEY.  We have patiently been waiting to see how much our latest donation will yield so I like to visit the site A LOT to check.  It's like I have reached the end of the internet and have to go back and start over again to find any joy in the internet again.  (Does it sound like I am a 5 year old pouting yet?) 

To date, garbage that could not be recycled and would have ended up in the landfill like toothbrushes, candy wrappers, chip wrappers and used pens have earned $10.30 just by sending it to TerraCycle.  This is free money from the garbage can to use on whatever the school needs.  I'm looking forward to updating our Terracycle totals when the website comes back.

On another note, if you're obsessively watching the Box Tops for Education site (okay, maybe that's just me) you might have noticed we BLEW away previous years totals in just the FIRST half of the 2010-2011 collection period!  This is fantastic and it is thanks to all of you who have turned in Box Tops or have used the Box Tops For Education website to shop your favorite internet retailers.

I urge you all to go to the site, sign up to watch our progress and see what other earning opportunities might be out there.

Remember February 25 is the last day to bring in Box Tops to your student's teacher for the school contest!  Box Tops For Education (BTFE) has added new sponsors and that means you will find new products with the Box Tops on them.  Each Box Top earns Whitney $.10 cents.  It does not sound like much, but in December they sent us a check for $779.00.  THIS is what we can do as a team for our kids!

-Whitney Parent
Nikki Rutledge

Shop at Chico's!!

This Thursday (January 27, 2011) Chico's in Downtown Boise is offering Whitney a percentage of their sales.  Make sure you visit and mention Whitney. 

Remember, 20% of sales on the last Wednesday of the month called into the Papa John'son Broadway go to Whitney as well!  The rest of the month, if you order online, use "WHITNEY" in the coupon code and Papa John's will donate $1 to the school.

It's incredibly generous that so many corporations and small businesses are willing to help out our school.  Remember to visit them as often as possible.  Every visit we make to them helps not just their business and their employees but our community as well!

Statistically Speaking

"In 4th grade, 79 percent of Idaho students scored at or above grade level on the NAEP Science, compared to 71 percent nationwide. Students in 12 states scored higher than Idaho’s students."

Idaho students performed above the national average in science, according to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for science, the only nationally representative measure of what American students know and can do.
Idaho State Department of Education January 25, 2011 News Release

This is very good news for Idaho and we're sure to see this information quite a bit during the Idaho Legislative session while the school budget is under review. 

This press release represents an average of Idaho's 4th graders.  It does not break down then numbers by specific schools but statistics tell a different story. 

Whitney is considered a Title I school, or a High Poverty school.  The statistics and how they determine the outcomes for our children are not as reflective in the "good news" of the latest standard science testing markers.

-On average, those eligible for free or reduced lunch scored 15 points lower than those who were not eligible for free or reduced lunch.

-The difference in scores between White and Hispanic students tells a different story as well. White students averaged scores of 158 and Hispanic students averaged scores of 127 on the same exam.

Nationwide here is how Idaho compares to the top and the bottom:
-Idaho's 75th Percentile and 25th Percentile look like this: 175 and 134

-California's 75th Percentile and 25th Percentile look like this: 164 and 111 (49th in the US) - New Hampshire: 75th Percentile and 25th Percentile look like this: 182 and 145 (1st in the US) Mississippi came in 50th place but I chose California for this Blog because many of us are familiar with California's own budget problems. What can budget cutbacks in other states predict for Idaho's public schools?  "On average, students from high-poverty schools did not perform as well on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading, mathematics, music, and art assessments as students from low-poverty schools." http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010028.pdf Why would students in high-poverty schools not perform as well on assessments?  It turns out, these are just numbers.  They are important numbers but the numbers do not tell the whole story.  For example, look at the fictional case of a student that does not speak English taking an assessment in English.  This student likely will not perform as well on the assessment in English as they would in their native language.  This student needs English language development, which requires more funds for more teachers, assistants and resources.  To increase Whitney's scoring we need more resources, not fewer. The time is long gone to assume that just because a student comes from a high-poverty school means that they will never go to college or graduate from high school.  When our children took their first steps and said their first words, nothing separated them from their contemporaries in terms of what they could someday achieve.  What people try to convince them they should be of based on how they look, where they came from or who they are makes a difference for better and for worse.  When we, as parents, stay engaged with our student's academic progress, give them love, enouragement and tell them everyday to keep on trying, then the sky is the limit.  What we need to do now is to encourage the government to keep on trying to meet their Constitutional mandate. How can we do that?  To make your voice heard on the school budget, the PTO has postcards addressed in the office for YOU to take home with you, fill out and send to your representative.  For District 17 that's Sue Chew and for District 18 (the east side of Hervey street) that's Julie Ellsworth.  You can email these representatives, call them or send them a longer letter.  You can also send letters to Tom Luna, Idaho Superintendent of Education "In 2008, among young adults ages 25–34 who worked full time throughout a full year, those with a bachelor’s degree earned 28 percent more than young adults with an associate’s degree, 53 percent more than young adult high school completers, and 96 percent more than young adults who did not earn a high school diploma. The median of the earnings for young adults with a bachelor’s degree was $46,000; for those with an associate’s degree, $36,000; for high school completers, $30,000; and for those who did not earn a high school diploma or equivalent certificate, $23,500." http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77

-Whitney Parent
Nikki Rutledge

Welcome to a New Year and a New Way of Looking at Trash!

Do you wish you could recycle more, throw away less and help a good cause all at the same time?  Your time has come.  


The innovative partnership at Terracycle.Net has brought companies that produce difficult to recycle products and urged them to participate in a program where people would send back their used goods and with the help of engineers at TerraCycle, the parent companies would get help creating new products.  To reward the recyclers picking the wasted products on the human end and sending those back to the manufacturers and TerraCycle, TerraCycle has worked out a redemption system where each piece of "garbage" is worth $.02 each. 


"This sounds crazy or maybe I'm just not getting it yet?"  So, what is collected and what gets made out of it?  For example, Ziploc storage bags are ubiquitous in the recycling world.  They can't really be recycled with your plastic grocery bags and once they rip, well, they're done.  Throwing them away seem so terrible and now that every person going through airport security is using at least one, we're going through a lot of bags.  What do you do with those bags?  No problem says TerraCycle.  If you send 100 bags to TerraCycle, they will send you $2.00 and you will be contributing to a new park bench or table, maybe a cutting board you can purchase at Target or even a section of fencing.  Eager to see how you can participate?  Go to www.terracycle.net for a list of items that can be recycled.  


Do you have any garbage for Whitney Elementary?  Every Friday there will be a container at the front of the school marked as TerraCycle, just place what you have in there and we will get it processed.  For Whitney's program, we are wait listed on a few items but that is not stopping us!  We will collect for every brigade until they let us on the brigade.


If you have any questions on what can or cannot be collected, please email the TerraCycle coordinator for the PTO, Nikki Rutledge