What
wonderful things our PTAs are doing for our children!
There have been
Fall Festivals, Star Gazing Nights, Family Bingo/Spaghetti Nights, Parent
Involvement Forums, and Safe Routes to School presentations,
Reading "Slumber
Parties", Math Fun Night, and fundraisers so PTA can support assemblies,
libraries, arts enrichments, music enrichment, and other student
enrichments. Many PTAs
have sponsored Reflections Arts Program with the theme - "Beauty
Is...." We should see some
outstanding pieces from our students!
The Fifteenth District PTA will be
holding a Reflections Gallery
and Awards Celebration on
February 27, 2010 in Lompoc. This is always a very wonderful
experience and we invite you to attend.
Fifteenth District has also offered some timely health information
at the General Association Meeting in Santa Barbara called "Choosing Healthy Lifestyles."
We were alerted to the importance of healthy choices
for life by a doctor who cares for livers - and realized that the
difference begins in children and their daily life choices. This includes movement and food
choices. Walking and biking help healthy lives, so Safe Routes to School fits in
there. In fact, "It
Takes a Whole Village to Teach a
Child"
(one of my favorite sayings since I
was raised in Africa ) - and many persons from our
village came to encourage parents and children to choose healthy life
styles! We heard about N1H1
from the County Health nurse.
Our schools have been working hard to teach the children
preventative practices against spreading germs. Do we all do the "Dracula"
cough?
Fifteenth District PTA
presented a "check" worth $5,932,448.50 to the Children of
Santa Barbara County from the PTA volunteers last year.
From around California, 4,000 PTAs donated 19.8
million hours for the equivalent of $414 million. Thank you PTA volunteers!
Remember to log volunteer hours.
-- See what a
difference we make?
PTA units swept the 2009 Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and
Sports - and the GOLD
MEDALIST is our own Monroe
PTA, Monroe Elementary School, Santa Barbara! We congratulate the work of the
PTA over several years to help bring much-improved rates of passing the
California State Physical Fitness Exam by their fifth-graders! We presented a certificate to the
PTA. (They got $$$$ from the
Governor's Health Council)
Two Bylaws Workshops
with the California State PTA Parliamentarian were held. It was informative and almost
painless.... The good news is that plans for
on-line Bylaws is coming soon and will make a big difference in response
time.
Memberships in PTA have
been quite solid in our District. It isn't too late to
encourage further outreach to the community: our neighbors, the School Board
members, our business members who see plenty of PTA business, grandparents, retired
teachers. PTA membership
numbers brings power to our advocacy for the children in Sacramento and Washington DC. So celebrate the
unity of parent and teacher power - through PTA power!
Rewarding accomplishments helps keep the momentum going. See
capta.org
With early membership dues passed on to California State PTA now,
our units are ready to pay and be covered by our un-beatable
Insurance. Check out the
red page, yellow
page and green page in the new Insurance
Loss and Prevention Guide - coming
soon.
All non-profit groups Must now file with IRS with tax forms. This
information came to you from your treasurer, Marsha Hill, and she has kept
you all up-dated. Thank you
for your responses to keep your PTA in good standing! PTA "rules and guidelines" come to
us from the IRS, our Insurance Company to keep cost down, and from
California Corporate Code. We are not like a
lemonade stand anymore....
It is already time to think about the mid-term Audit, electing the
important Nominating Committee, and maybe another Goal Setting Time.
Do you do surveys for the next year's planning team? What is already working this year
and what do you want to change?
General Association
meetings approve the work of the Executive Board: budget, audit, programs,
fundraisers and calendar and ratify checks. Then a family oriented night
brings the school community together. Village
time....
What great teams we see around this Santa Barbara
County working for
our children. Thank you to
all of you! Your Fifteenth
District PTA leadership team is here to support and help you in any way we
can. We hope to see you at the Fifteenth District PTA Leadership
Workshops May 15 in
Buellton, and at the California
State PTA Convention in Sacramento on April
29 - May 2, 2010. There are 70 workshops and issue conferences
offered, networking to find great ideas of what is working
elsewhere - or you find that Your PTA is really great! Visit the Exhibit Hall for
fundraisers and assemblies and special concerns and photographers ideas, a
rally at the Capital, Reflections celebration that will show you that the
future is in good hands.... And the amazing
experience that PTA is such a powerful and inclusive voice made up by moms
and dads - just like YOU.
Come celebrate the Power of
PTA.