I was asked to clean up the PTA storage that is taking over the teacher workroom. I tackled it with help from my trusty first vice president in about 45 minutes last week.
We went through all of the posters and large items that were stacked on countertops and THREW IT ALL AWAY! Folks had saved posters from events long gone with dates on them. Posters made with photos of children that are now in high school. Wrinkled things, ugly things. We recycled it all.
After getting rid of the garbage we found that we had a ton of supplies in there. So many decorations for our 2 big family events that can be reused. It is budget friendly to be organized!
Now that the garbage is gone we intend to have a parent who enjoys organizing to come in and label and store items for us neatly.
Keeping our PTA items neat and put away is a way for us to show respect for the staff at our school. They need room to work!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Budgeting meeting.
Our PTA budgeting meeting was last Thursday. It was a great meeting! Our executive board met in the teachers lounge at the school and looked at how much money we have, how much we plan to spend and how we can better allocate our funds for next school year.
The most exciting thing that came out of the meeting is a new scholarship for a graduating senior who attended our elementary school for at least 3 years. We will award $500 to the student who writes the favorite essay as judged by our committee of three people. Such a wonderful legacy for our PTA to leave!
After all of the numbers were added up, we adjourned the meeting. It took about 2 hours. Once the meeting was over our treasurer took everything we planned and put it into a spreadsheet. We will present this to the PTA meeting in September for approval.
The most exciting thing that came out of the meeting is a new scholarship for a graduating senior who attended our elementary school for at least 3 years. We will award $500 to the student who writes the favorite essay as judged by our committee of three people. Such a wonderful legacy for our PTA to leave!
After all of the numbers were added up, we adjourned the meeting. It took about 2 hours. Once the meeting was over our treasurer took everything we planned and put it into a spreadsheet. We will present this to the PTA meeting in September for approval.
Mission accomplished!
The library at our elementary school was fairly dreary when Kat started first grade. White walls with dark grey accents, white blinds that were mostly broken. Gray carpet with burgundy office chairs. Lots and lots of books in blonde wood bookshelves. Drab.
Sitting through several PTA meetings the year before last I dreamed up the idea of painting blue sky and clouds on the 65 foot long wall in the back of the library. We gathered a team of parents and got the job done.
The students and teachers loved the update, it brought both beauty and science to the room. The clouds were accurate renditions of the 6 types of clouds and were labeled by one of our parents. Lovely!
This year I decided that I wanted to paint the portal hallway into the library. It is about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide at its narrowest spot. First we taped sections off for each color of the rainbow. With gifted children you had better make sure that you do Roy G Biv and you do it right! You will never hear the end of it if you mess it up!
After taping we painted every other stripe. Red, Yellow, blue, and violet. Once they dried we went back and painted in the orange, green and indigo stripes.
Very inviting! The entire project cost us about $300 and we used 5 volunteers.
Sitting through several PTA meetings the year before last I dreamed up the idea of painting blue sky and clouds on the 65 foot long wall in the back of the library. We gathered a team of parents and got the job done.
The students and teachers loved the update, it brought both beauty and science to the room. The clouds were accurate renditions of the 6 types of clouds and were labeled by one of our parents. Lovely!
This year I decided that I wanted to paint the portal hallway into the library. It is about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide at its narrowest spot. First we taped sections off for each color of the rainbow. With gifted children you had better make sure that you do Roy G Biv and you do it right! You will never hear the end of it if you mess it up!
After taping we painted every other stripe. Red, Yellow, blue, and violet. Once they dried we went back and painted in the orange, green and indigo stripes.
Very inviting! The entire project cost us about $300 and we used 5 volunteers.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Since last Tuesday I have painted more of the library, we now have a yellow stripe and a blue stripe. Just 5 more to go! Unfortunately, I re-injured my arm painting today and am benched from painting. Hopefully, the volunteers I enlisted today will come through and we will start the school year with freshly painted walls that are complete!
We also had another new student play date this morning. Over 20 children came with many complaining that they did not hear about the play dates easily. We have to rethink our method of contacting new families for next year. As I don't have their names or addresses, this makes it difficult!
I also had a meeting with the principal of our school, the secretary, the PTA VP2, and one of the teachers. We went over our calendars for the year and double checked dates. We added an event of Mathlete Day. Our school serves two populations and everything the PTA needs to be inclusive of both the exceptionally gifted children and the children with moderate cognitive impairments. Because of this, our school has never had a field day. Many families are disappointed by this but I think that we found a way to host a field day for everyone. Mathelete Day will combine math with sports activities and physics. We will customize a roster for each class with activities appropriate for everybody's capabilities.
I was also asked to clean up the workroom in the school. ACK! Eight years of leftovers from eight years worth of activities. I need to sort, organize, store and toss many, many items.
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend PTA training put on by our state PTA council. It went from 8 am to 4:30 pm. It lasted about 3 hours too long if you ask me. Very interesting topics were covered but maybe in too drawn out a fashion. They spoke about membership for 2 hours. How we can get more members. You could practically see the dollar signs in their eyes. More members = more money! ACK! That was so not for me!
One more meeting this week. On Thursday I meet with the PTA board and we will run through our budget for next year. We plan to add a line item for a new scholarship and a line item to pay the office back for the office supplies we use throughout the year. During the first PTA meeting we will vote to approve or amend the budget.
We also had another new student play date this morning. Over 20 children came with many complaining that they did not hear about the play dates easily. We have to rethink our method of contacting new families for next year. As I don't have their names or addresses, this makes it difficult!
I also had a meeting with the principal of our school, the secretary, the PTA VP2, and one of the teachers. We went over our calendars for the year and double checked dates. We added an event of Mathlete Day. Our school serves two populations and everything the PTA needs to be inclusive of both the exceptionally gifted children and the children with moderate cognitive impairments. Because of this, our school has never had a field day. Many families are disappointed by this but I think that we found a way to host a field day for everyone. Mathelete Day will combine math with sports activities and physics. We will customize a roster for each class with activities appropriate for everybody's capabilities.
I was also asked to clean up the workroom in the school. ACK! Eight years of leftovers from eight years worth of activities. I need to sort, organize, store and toss many, many items.
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend PTA training put on by our state PTA council. It went from 8 am to 4:30 pm. It lasted about 3 hours too long if you ask me. Very interesting topics were covered but maybe in too drawn out a fashion. They spoke about membership for 2 hours. How we can get more members. You could practically see the dollar signs in their eyes. More members = more money! ACK! That was so not for me!
One more meeting this week. On Thursday I meet with the PTA board and we will run through our budget for next year. We plan to add a line item for a new scholarship and a line item to pay the office back for the office supplies we use throughout the year. During the first PTA meeting we will vote to approve or amend the budget.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Behind the scenes.
I've done a bit more PTA work this week. Yesterday, I printed out 20 fundraiser letters for our Walkathon, bought 20 Red Delicious apples and my daughter and I went around to local businesses to ask for their support. Kat did most of the talking and I supported her as needed. She explained who she was, where she was from, what she wanted and how each business could help. Kat was able to get one $250 check and two promises from the 6 places we stopped.
This was such a victory over last year. Last year we were only able to obtain 1 sponsor for our Walkathon. I think this is because I emailed businesses last year and this year had my sweet little girl hand over an apple and a smile to each representative. It is really hard to tell an 8 year old that you won't support her school!
Tomorrow we will drive to a few more businesses and ask for their support.
I also swung into the district printing office and asked them to make us 250 envelopes for our PTA membership drive. The past president printed the envelopes on her own and paid for all of the costs, that is not my cup of tea so I opted to have it done for us for $30. I prefer to use my time and money in other ways such as painting the school library...
Today, I woke early and threw on work clothes. I hit the school where I taped lines on the wall of the library. Our school library has a short hall that leads from the main hallway of the school into the main reading room of the library. The hall is low ceiling-ed and ugly. We decided to paint it as a rainbow, up the walls and across the ceiling for each color of the rainbow. I had to get the tape straight so that the paint lines would look nice. Now that the tape is up I am ready to paint and will start that job later this week.
After taping, I grabbed 600 feet of hose and watered our new trees. We have about 10 trees with Gator Bags to hold water and they need to be refilled once a week. This was my first stint with the hose, it was messy but it was a pleasant morning so I was happy to be outside!
I got home about noon, cleaned house for an hour and ran to work.
This was such a victory over last year. Last year we were only able to obtain 1 sponsor for our Walkathon. I think this is because I emailed businesses last year and this year had my sweet little girl hand over an apple and a smile to each representative. It is really hard to tell an 8 year old that you won't support her school!
Tomorrow we will drive to a few more businesses and ask for their support.
I also swung into the district printing office and asked them to make us 250 envelopes for our PTA membership drive. The past president printed the envelopes on her own and paid for all of the costs, that is not my cup of tea so I opted to have it done for us for $30. I prefer to use my time and money in other ways such as painting the school library...
Today, I woke early and threw on work clothes. I hit the school where I taped lines on the wall of the library. Our school library has a short hall that leads from the main hallway of the school into the main reading room of the library. The hall is low ceiling-ed and ugly. We decided to paint it as a rainbow, up the walls and across the ceiling for each color of the rainbow. I had to get the tape straight so that the paint lines would look nice. Now that the tape is up I am ready to paint and will start that job later this week.
After taping, I grabbed 600 feet of hose and watered our new trees. We have about 10 trees with Gator Bags to hold water and they need to be refilled once a week. This was my first stint with the hose, it was messy but it was a pleasant morning so I was happy to be outside!
I got home about noon, cleaned house for an hour and ran to work.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Summertime play dates.
Our school is a special place. We have two distinct programs that work together to create one, big happy school. Our ACT 18 program serves children in K-6th grade with moderate cognitive impairments and/or autism and our TAG program serves children who are gifted learners.
No one at our school is there by chance, and the kids are bussed in from all over the county. Because of this unique set up our school hosts play dates in the summer for students to come and make friends before the first day of school.
I've mentioned before that Kat is in the TAG program. This will be her 3rd year and her classes have been almost entirely new children each year. There is a lot of turn over and a lot of new students that come in each year. Hosting these play dates is an important service our school provides to families.
We had our first play date this week and had 5 returning students and 16 new students attend with their families. The students spent time playing while the adults chatted. Students were able to exchange numbers with others and to make connections with other families. Friends were made.
These play dates are free to the PTA. The only cost incurred is printing up tags for the students to write their name and number on to share with new friends they meet. We made a stack last year and still have enough for the other two play dates to be held this summer.
We invite families to come to our school playground, for parents to bring lawn chairs and a picnic and for students to come ready to play. Play dates last about 2 hours and we host 3 each summer before school begins. One person is needed to coordinate the play dates. They decide the place and time and advertise using our school website, Facebook page, and email. On the day of the play date they bring pens, the tags I spoke about, and a willingness to mingle.
Sample Tags:
We just printed these up on regular paper about 8 to a page and cut them into small rectangles. We keep them where kids can get to them to exchange numbers. It is a very little thing and it makes the kids so very happy!
No one at our school is there by chance, and the kids are bussed in from all over the county. Because of this unique set up our school hosts play dates in the summer for students to come and make friends before the first day of school.
I've mentioned before that Kat is in the TAG program. This will be her 3rd year and her classes have been almost entirely new children each year. There is a lot of turn over and a lot of new students that come in each year. Hosting these play dates is an important service our school provides to families.
We had our first play date this week and had 5 returning students and 16 new students attend with their families. The students spent time playing while the adults chatted. Students were able to exchange numbers with others and to make connections with other families. Friends were made.
These play dates are free to the PTA. The only cost incurred is printing up tags for the students to write their name and number on to share with new friends they meet. We made a stack last year and still have enough for the other two play dates to be held this summer.
We invite families to come to our school playground, for parents to bring lawn chairs and a picnic and for students to come ready to play. Play dates last about 2 hours and we host 3 each summer before school begins. One person is needed to coordinate the play dates. They decide the place and time and advertise using our school website, Facebook page, and email. On the day of the play date they bring pens, the tags I spoke about, and a willingness to mingle.
Sample Tags:
NAME OF SCHOOLNamePhoneLet's be friends!
We just printed these up on regular paper about 8 to a page and cut them into small rectangles. We keep them where kids can get to them to exchange numbers. It is a very little thing and it makes the kids so very happy!
Just to be clear...
I have never been president of ANYTHING! I have no idea what I am doing as PTA president and feel like I must be dropping balls left and right. Invisible balls that I have no idea where or what they are.
Hopefully, I don't mess it up too badly!
Hopefully, I don't mess it up too badly!
Starting out as president.
It was at the June meeting of the PTA that I was elected as PTA president. July 1 was the first official day of my presidency. Since then I have had several meetings, over 100 emails sent and received and kept up with our schools online presence.
The first meeting I had as PTA president was with the principal of our school, the secretary, and the VP of PTA to discuss the calendar for next year. We hammered out dates for each of our big events including Halloween, Open House, all PTA meetings, Science Fair, field trips, and staff appreciation. Once all of these dates were agreed upon we high tailed it to the school webmaster to get the dates put on our website.
The second meeting, held 3 weeks later, was with our PTA executive board. They came over to my house, we tossed our kids in the pool and sat poolside with iced tea to discus our goals for the upcoming year, to select which committees we would mentor, to tie up loose ends from the year before, and to get to know each other. It was a great meeting!
We decided in this meeting that our PTA would start a scholarship fund for graduating seniors who had gone to our elementary for at least 3 years. We also decided that each member of our executive board would serve as mentor for up to 6 committee chairs, or as we decided to call them, team leaders. This will reduce the amount of different people asking PTA related questions in the school office. The team leaders will have the name, number and email for an executive board member and when they are stumped or need information (where can we meet? how much juice did we have to buy last year?) they can turn to one of us for answers. Even if we don't have the answers right away, we are a resource for them so they don't feel abandoned and without information.
The concept of using "Team Leaders" is a new one. We were hoping that being a leader would be less intimidating than being a committee chair, we were also hoping that by placing the names of executive board team members at the top of each sign up it would relax people more to volunteer. Our school has a lot of type A parents who want to know that they can do things perfectly. We don't need perfect, we just need help!
A typical sign up is going to look like this:
Sock Hop
February 14
6-8pm
The sock hop team will provide a dj, snacks including popcorn, juice, and cookies, two quiet games to be held in room 12. Budget of $500.
Mentor:
Suzy of Suburban Rebellion
Team Leader:
1.
Teammates:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The rest of the meeting was discussing old business, like who is going to send in our forms to State? and how do you like to be contacted?
The first meeting I had as PTA president was with the principal of our school, the secretary, and the VP of PTA to discuss the calendar for next year. We hammered out dates for each of our big events including Halloween, Open House, all PTA meetings, Science Fair, field trips, and staff appreciation. Once all of these dates were agreed upon we high tailed it to the school webmaster to get the dates put on our website.
The second meeting, held 3 weeks later, was with our PTA executive board. They came over to my house, we tossed our kids in the pool and sat poolside with iced tea to discus our goals for the upcoming year, to select which committees we would mentor, to tie up loose ends from the year before, and to get to know each other. It was a great meeting!
We decided in this meeting that our PTA would start a scholarship fund for graduating seniors who had gone to our elementary for at least 3 years. We also decided that each member of our executive board would serve as mentor for up to 6 committee chairs, or as we decided to call them, team leaders. This will reduce the amount of different people asking PTA related questions in the school office. The team leaders will have the name, number and email for an executive board member and when they are stumped or need information (where can we meet? how much juice did we have to buy last year?) they can turn to one of us for answers. Even if we don't have the answers right away, we are a resource for them so they don't feel abandoned and without information.
The concept of using "Team Leaders" is a new one. We were hoping that being a leader would be less intimidating than being a committee chair, we were also hoping that by placing the names of executive board team members at the top of each sign up it would relax people more to volunteer. Our school has a lot of type A parents who want to know that they can do things perfectly. We don't need perfect, we just need help!
A typical sign up is going to look like this:
Sock Hop
February 14
6-8pm
The sock hop team will provide a dj, snacks including popcorn, juice, and cookies, two quiet games to be held in room 12. Budget of $500.
Mentor:
Suzy of Suburban Rebellion
Team Leader:
1.
Teammates:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The rest of the meeting was discussing old business, like who is going to send in our forms to State? and how do you like to be contacted?
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Madame President.
I love being involved in my children's schools. I like being in the buildings, I like talking to the teachers, I like seeing my children when they don't know I am there and watching their faces light up. I spend hours each week working at both of my children's schools. Each day, Kat is bussed to Drew's school and is there 1/2 hour before Drew's bell rings. Kat and I spent those 30 minutes making ourselves useful to Drew's teacher or anyone else who needed the help. It was a great way to model citizenship for Kat and a great way to get involved in my son's education.
The teachers at Drew's school all started to know me. When we went in to ask for accommodations for Drew for next year, we were met with smiles.
Being at the schools so much made me quite a target for "favors." Lots of people wanted a piece of my time and I was happy to give it or to say, "Not this time." One of the places where I found I was being asked to help a lot was in the PTA.
The PTA at Kat's school is intense. There is a dedicated core group of parents who come to the meetings and run most of the programs. Most of these parents are type A. They get things done, they pay attention to detail, they ask questions, they are serious about PTA. The first year Kat was at this school, I struggled to fit in. I went to every meeting, I volunteered, I offered suggestions, I was cheerful, positive, and proactive. I was disliked. My ideas were called "horrible," I rarely got taken up on my offers of help. I hung in there. I kept offering ideas. I kept volunteering. I kept trying.
It paid off. The second year at Kat's school was much easier. I was trusted, I was utilized. I helped with the Walkathon fundraiser, with science fair, with teacher appreciation. I organized a painting party where parents came in and painted a mural that was 15x65 ft in the library depicting 6 different types of clouds. Yet, there was still a couple of PTA members who did not care for me at all. I heard from other parents that they did not want to go to the PTA meetings because of the "mean girls" and I actually ended up approaching the principal of the school about it.
The principal asked me to run for PTA president. NO WAY! NA-UH! NOT HAPPENING!
A month later, my mind was made up. I was going to be the change that I wanted to see in our local PTA. I was going to be a harbinger of respect, kindness, and inclusivity in our PTA. I know that I am going to make mistakes along the way and that I won't be able to please everyone but I am hoping that the other parents who feel badly about not participating in the PTA will feel comfortable joining us and will feel like they have a place at our school.
I plan to share my experiences over the next year. During this time I will also be working part-time, leading a troop of 12 Brownies, acting as VP of the PTA at Drew's school, and trying to keep my house running.
Wish me luck.
The teachers at Drew's school all started to know me. When we went in to ask for accommodations for Drew for next year, we were met with smiles.
Being at the schools so much made me quite a target for "favors." Lots of people wanted a piece of my time and I was happy to give it or to say, "Not this time." One of the places where I found I was being asked to help a lot was in the PTA.
The PTA at Kat's school is intense. There is a dedicated core group of parents who come to the meetings and run most of the programs. Most of these parents are type A. They get things done, they pay attention to detail, they ask questions, they are serious about PTA. The first year Kat was at this school, I struggled to fit in. I went to every meeting, I volunteered, I offered suggestions, I was cheerful, positive, and proactive. I was disliked. My ideas were called "horrible," I rarely got taken up on my offers of help. I hung in there. I kept offering ideas. I kept volunteering. I kept trying.
It paid off. The second year at Kat's school was much easier. I was trusted, I was utilized. I helped with the Walkathon fundraiser, with science fair, with teacher appreciation. I organized a painting party where parents came in and painted a mural that was 15x65 ft in the library depicting 6 different types of clouds. Yet, there was still a couple of PTA members who did not care for me at all. I heard from other parents that they did not want to go to the PTA meetings because of the "mean girls" and I actually ended up approaching the principal of the school about it.
The principal asked me to run for PTA president. NO WAY! NA-UH! NOT HAPPENING!
A month later, my mind was made up. I was going to be the change that I wanted to see in our local PTA. I was going to be a harbinger of respect, kindness, and inclusivity in our PTA. I know that I am going to make mistakes along the way and that I won't be able to please everyone but I am hoping that the other parents who feel badly about not participating in the PTA will feel comfortable joining us and will feel like they have a place at our school.
I plan to share my experiences over the next year. During this time I will also be working part-time, leading a troop of 12 Brownies, acting as VP of the PTA at Drew's school, and trying to keep my house running.
Wish me luck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)