Staff Appreciation Week is the first week of May, and we want to show our AMAZING Wayside staff how much their hard work means to us. Various treats and surprises are planned for them throughout the week. In addition, we plan to provide a Staff Appreciation Lunch. When COVID-19 restrictions say no in-person group lunch, we say RESTAURANT GIFT CARDS for the staff! Please show your support by contributing Panera gift cards in $20 (maximum) increments. Or, please feel free to contribute any dollar amount to be put toward gift cards and other staff appreciation items. Items can be mailed or dropped off to the Staff Appreciation Week Committee in care of Heather Michaels at 11601 Glynshire Ct, Potomac, MD 20854 (close to Wayside) or sent via Venmo. Please send an email to hsmichaels@yahoo.com to let us know it’s coming! Thanks for showing your appreciation for our staff!

MCPS has not yet announced its guidance on allowed 5th grade promotion activities, but we want to be ready when they do! The PTA is looking for a few 5th grade parents who can help plan something for the 5th graders this spring. If you’re interested, please contact Jennifer Nordin at president@waysidepta.org.

Hello Wayside chess players! The April Wayside Monthly Chess Tournament is coming up! The tournament will take place on Saturday, April 24 at 2 p.m. on Chess.com. It will also be a 4-round Swiss tournament with G25+5 time control. You need to register a free Chess.com account if you don’t already have one and join the Wayside Chess Club (https://www.chess.com/club/wayside-chess-club/join) to be able to play the tournament. Please follow this link to join the tournament: https://www.chess.com/live#t=2240180. Please join 10 minutes before the tournament starts and your game will start automatically. As for the prizes, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner of each monthly tournament will get 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively. The top 3 players who get the most points by the end of this school year (June) will get trophies! Get ready!!! If you have any questions about the tournament please contact Tao Deng at dengtao618@gmail.com.

Spring is finally here! Whether your family has decided to keep your students in virtual learning or started to send them back to school, there are some great virtual and in-person (indoor & outdoor) enrichment activities starting in April, run by our committed local MoCo providers. We invite you to check out all they have to offer on Kiddo! Kiddo is free for families and they are not collecting fees so all payments go directly to supporting our local small businesses.

The Nominating Committee is seeking a PTA member who is interested in serving as the VP of Community Enrichment on the PTA Board next year. The VP of Community Enrichment oversees the event chairs and activities of the Reflections art program, community service, wellness, and after-school enrichments (when they return to the building). He/She attends monthly PTA Board meetings. If you would like to learn more about this position, please contact any member of the Nominating Committee.

Amy Oram, alvogel11@hotmail.com
Charu Srinivasan, charu.srinivasan@gmail.com
Manali Mody, mmc1216@hotmail.com
Noor Kirdar, nkirdar@aol.com