The Middle School Study Group Parent Information Meeting is Thursday, September 28 at 7 pm in the Hauser Auditorium.

The deadline for turning in magazine orders is Friday, September 29. If you haven’t already purchased a subscription, please consider doing so now. We depend on this fundraiser for most of what we do. Thanks for your support. And don’t forget, 40% of your purchase is tax deductible and goes directly toward helping your PTA.

Community Information Alert

Bulletin Number: 06-04
Date: September 21, 2006
** Additional Information added **

Activity Summary:

§ On Saturday September 9, 2006, Monday September 11, 2006 and again on Wednesday September 20th residents in the area of Riverside’s First Division have been the victim of daytime burglars. Residents on Fairbank, Bloomingbank and Scottswood Roads have all suffered break-ins during daylight hours.

§ *Today (Thursday, September 21, 2006) an additional burglary from the 100 block of Riverside Road where jewelry and a computer were taken. The homeowner may have been home and unaware when this burglary took place.*

§ On two burglaries, window screens were cut and windows forced open to gain entry to the homes. On the burglaries from September 20th brute force was applied to the doors to gain entry.

§ It appears in every case that jewelry and in one case a laptop computer was stolen from the homes.

§ During the attempts, some of the residents may have been home and were unaware their homes were being broken into or the homeowner was gone no longer than an hour.

Suspicious Activity:

It has been learned that a white work type van with “Carpet Cleaning” on the side and no phone number has been seen in the area. It is unknown if this vehicle is involved but one such vehicle was located by patrol and information forwarded to Investigations. Other work type vans have been checked as have several suspicious vehicles in the area. None of these have yielded any positive results.

Residents are encouraged to report any activity they feel is suspicious. We ask your assistance in helping us to locate the offender(s) of these crimes.

Residents are reminded to keep their doors locked when they are not home as well as locking exterior doors when home.

Area(s):

Village-wide but these burglaries have all occurred in the area from Indian Gardens to the area near the Swim Club and the 100 block on Riverside Road.

Please contact Detective Sergeant Bill Legg 708-447-2127 extension #262 or via email at blegg@riverside.il.us if you have any questions or updates to the information contained in this report.

The original flier can be downloaded as a PDF here.

There’s a wonderfully simple way for you to help us raise funds for our school. All you have to do is use your Target® Visa® or Target Card®, and a percentage of the amount of each purchase you make goes back to our school in the form of a cash donation from Target twice a year. The money can be used for things that aren’t in our budget, like new computers, A/V equipment, musical instruments, field trips: things that can really benefit our kids. Help us help our school through the Target Take Charge of Education program. Just visit target.com/tcoe or call 1-800-316-6142 to designate our school. Be sure to reference school number 48053 for Hauser.

Mary Baird, President and CEO of the Ophelia Project, is coming to Riverside the evening of Thursday, October 12, 7PM in the Hauser Auditorium to speak to parents about how they can help their children form healthy peer relationships.
The Ophelia Project believes that the primary root of many adolescent issues is relational aggression: behavior intended to harm someone by damaging or manipulating his or her relationships with others. This aggression can take many forms, including exclusion, malicious gossip and rumor spreading, taunting and name calling, alliance building, covert physical aggression and cyberbullying.

Ms. Baird will discuss why this behavior should not simply be written off as human nature, why it affects boys as much as girls, how parents can protect their children from its effects, and how it can be prevented in the first place.

Ms. Baird has been interviewed on this topic by The View, ABC News, Dateline NBC, the New York Times, Parents Magazine and many others. She normally gets paid thousands of dollars to speak to groups, but is coming to District 96 free of charge because her niece, Kathie Kunish, is a Blythe Park parent.

The Ophelia Project was inspired by the work of psychologist and author Dr. Mary Pipher, who detailed the struggles of girls growing up in today’s society in the book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. Its mission today encompasses all school age children, including boys, whose needs in this area have been found to be every bit as urgent as girls.

This event will be free of charge and open to all community members and will be held in the Hauser Auditorium at 7PM on Thursday October 12, 2006.

Do you know how to maintain a website? We need your help! Chris Hajer, our current webmaster, is a Central School dad who said yes when we asked if he would build us a website. Now we need a Hauser parent to take over the maintenance. If you know how to do this job, please consider offering your help. If you have any questions about what’s involved, please contact Chris Hajer at chrishajer@gmail.com. If you know a Hauser parent who is familiar with website maintenance, please contact Donna Mitchell at rivermitchells@aol.com.

Eighty-five parents and teachers signed in at our meeting Wednesday night, and we know others didn’t get a chance to. Almost 20 parents brought food or drinks. The more of you who participate, the stronger our voice, so thank you to everyone who attended.
For those of you who couldn’t make it, PTA parent Lisa Marciniak will be reporting on the evening for our next newsletter.

Student Directories were distributed at Fall Parent Night. If you attended, you should have picked up a copy in your child’s homeroom. If you didn’t do so, or weren’t able to attend, your child will be bringing the directory home. Be sure to ask for it! Directory questions? Contact Maura Doherty via email at mojo1216@aol.com.

Anybody interested in improving the appearance of the Hauser landscape is invited to attend an informal meeting at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, September 19 at the Blue Parrot. Questions? Contact Michele Brown at mdsar5@ameritech.net.