August Newsletter 2026

Welcome back Cougars, we are super excited for the 2026-2027 school year! We had a FANTASTIC year last year and we are super proud of our students and staff. We plan to "RUN IT BACK" this year!! Parents, we want to THANK YOU as well for your continued support and partnership with us in your students' Middle School journey! We plan to have a fun year but also with our eyes on the prize that EVERY student shows a year's growth in their learning!!! With your support and a staff that is driven to turn it up a notch (212*) we know our students will be successful! 212 degrees is something you will hear us refer to this year as our staff's motto is that one extra degree of effort will get us where we want to be. I hope our students are rested and ready to return to have the best year ever at L.A. Ainger Middle School. We feel that we "set the standard" last year with our results(Energy-Effort-Confidence) and are extremely motivated to stay the #1 school around! Thank you for your partnership and thank you for being a part of our COUGAR FAMILY!!!

Steve Smith

Principal

Welcome back! We are so excited to start a new school year with you and your student! As your PTO, we love supporting Ainger behind the scenes through volunteering, hosting fun events, and providing financial support. To kick things off, we were thrilled to sponsor a special back-to-school luncheon to celebrate our amazing staff!

This year, we would love to welcome even more families into our PTO community. We know life is busy, and we promise to always respect your time and boundaries—there is absolutely no pressure. For many of us, the PTO has been a wonderful way to build friendships, stay connected with what's happening at Ainger, and support our school together. We would love to have you join us!  

So you’re probably wondering, what do we do? Well, we plan the following events:

PTO Banner Program - we reach out to businesses for support & put up banners for our biggest donors. These banners stay up all year. This is our BIGGEST fundraiser.

Cougar Color Run - Exactly what it sounds like! Run where the runners get splashed with color! There are also food trucks & lots of family fun!

Staff/Teacher Appreciation Week - we plan & execute this week of celebration

5th grade step up night - we attend and share all we do to support Ainger

Year End Awards Ceremonies - we do all the decor & planning for these events

Teacher Grants - as we are able, we provide grants to our teachers to help them get much needed supplies for their classrooms midyear.

Various fundraiser nights at Arctic Alligator.

Those are just some of the larger things our PTO does. We support the school any way we can! PTO also helped lower field trip costs for all students last year!

Want to be a part of this great group of parents? Come to our next meeting! All the info is below! Be sure to join our Parent Square (https://tinyurl.com/PTOparentsquare) and follow our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/LAAPTO) for all the latest info!

Join us for our monthly SAC/PTO meetings in the Media Center at Ainger, starting at 5:30 p.m. We respect your time and try to keep our meetings to 60 minutes or less. 

Aug 17

Sept 14

Oct 19

Nov 9

Jan 11, 2027

Feb 8, 2027

Apr 12, 2027(PTO board nominations)

May 10, 2027 (PTO board elections)

Please note that board elections will be especially important this year as half of our board will be moving on to high school with their students. Get involved early so you can help continue this amazing PTO in the coming years!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! This year’s Color Run will be held on October 30th! (Rain date TBD) More details on times & how it works will come as it gets closer, but put it on the calendar NOW so you and your student can be a part of the biggest PTO event of the year!

If you own or know of a business that would like to sponsor the Color Run &  have their logo on our T-shirt, please submit a sponsorship form by September 30th. Your support helps our school!

For the latest updates, follow our PTO Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LAAPTO or join us on ParentSquare! https://tinyurl.com/PTOparentsquare . We look forward to seeing you soon! 

Welcome back, students, parents, and community members, to our 2026-2027 school

year at L.A. Ainger! I am Heidi Adams, the adviser for our chapter of the NJHS. Our

goal is to provide students with the tools they need to grow into responsible, empathetic

leaders. We don’t just celebrate what students have achieved in the past; we challenge

them to grow even further through service to their community and school. The ideals

that our organization is based on are: scholarship, service, leadership, character,

and citizenship. Thirty-five students were selected and inducted to the National Junior

Honor Society on April 9, 2026. Our meetings will be held on every second and

fourth Thursday of the month at 8:15 a.m. in G5. I look forward to meeting and

working with all of our new members for this school year! We have a lot of great things

ahead!

Huge shoutout to all the amazing sponsors who support Ainger! Your generosity makes a real difference for our students and school community. We couldn't do it without you! Thank you for all you do.