Greetings!
Welcome to our first edition of this year's Council Connection. The purpose of this newsletter is to share information and best practices among our 21 PTA's in Bedford County.
We want to recognize successful initiatives and announce PTA/school events that are of interest across the county so please send in any articles that are worth sharing with everyone. Also, please forward this newsletter to PTA board members at your schools and anyone else that you feel may benefit from it. |
 Message from the President
Hello and welcome to our first digital version of Council Connections. Susan Martin is our Newsletter Editor and I encourage each school to submit news of interest about special achievements or activities from your school.
I am honored to serve as President of the Council this year. We are a network of the PTAs at the schools in Bedford County. Participation from all 21 schools is encouraged so that we can learn from each other and discuss county-wide school issues of importance.
Each local PTA unit has three seats on the Bedford County PTA Council:
- The local unit PTA President or his/her designate
- The local unit County Council representative or his/her designate
- The school principal or his/her designate
We hope to see you at the next meeting. We meet the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7 PM at the Bedford County School Administration Building (except June, July & December). The November meeting is on the third Tuesday due to the holiday.
For more information please visit our website at PTA Council Website.
Traci Blido
President 2010-11
|
 Forest Elementary
We are excited to announce the completion of our PTA membership drive, which achieved a record high of 110% this month. Along with the continued interest and involvement of our parents, which usually brings us a membership percentage in the 90's, our membership coordinator, Josie Freeman, came up with a fabulous idea to boost membership. She began this summer by mailing a PTA membership offer to each home, requesting that parents sign up for a "FAMILY" membership for $10. This offer was also placed on each child's desk on registration day. Although some parents chose to join with a single $5 payment, almost everyone sent in the double-membership or joined together on registration day. This small change in wording, along with our continued offer of a printed school directory for each member, made the difference needed to meet our 100% goal.
Other exciting PTA news: By investing $400 of our own in our fundraiser, we exceeded our catalog goal by $3,500 profit this fall. We credit additional sales to offering our own "PTA prize" in addition to what the catalog company offered. Children could adopt a stuffed animal "puppy" and receive an adoption certificate each Friday during the fundraiser if they showed that their sales had reached at least $50 or if their family made a flat donation of $25 or more to the PTA. This immediate gratification, along with a lot of advertising by the students who returned to class with the cute puppies, resulted in a record year despite the poor economy. Thank you to Lori Snead from Thomas Jefferson Elementary who shared this idea with us a couple of years ago. It worked again!
Lastly, our Programs committee sponsored our first ever "Trunk or Treat" this year as a free activity to our school families. This was a simple, inexpensive activity that replaced a very large, costly Fall Festival, which had become difficult to fund and manage. Continuing and possibly expanding such an event may be the answer to finding a fun way for our membership to come together without having to burden volunteers or charge admission fees.
Submitted by: Sharon George, FES PTA President |
|
Staunton River Middle School Staunton River Middle School PTA and 21st Century teamed up to bring the AMAZING RACE to Moneta on November 4th. After a pizza dinner, student and parent teams participated in 12 different challenges. Teams received a letter for successfully completing each challenge. When all the challenges were completed, a message could be decoded by the teams. At the end of the evening, a fun time was had by all! TWO BIG WINNERS were JD Hammit and Ben Martin. They both received iPods!
Staunton River Middle School is in its second year of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant has made it possible for Staunton River Middle School to offer free after school enrichment classes, as well as provide transportation and a snack. |
 Thomas Jefferson Elementary
Thomas Jefferson Elementary is located in the Forest area of Bedford County. There are approximately 620 students at the school this year. The TJES PTA has 415 members; teachers and staff are almost at 100% membership. Although the main membership drive is over; we are still trying to recruit more members. We completed the bylaw review process last year and were also able to achieve Model PTA status for the 10th year!
The PTA has completed our main fundraiser with success. We were just shy of our goal with the Innisbrook program this year. We hope to make up our shortfall with the school store. The school store used to be run by the SCA, however they are unable to host the store this year and asked the PTA to help. We have also helped the library by staffing the Election Day book fair and will do the same in March with the larger book fair. This helps our Library Media Center make up lost funding for supplies and new books.
In September, the PTA hosted a Meet and Greet dinner and a movie. Families preordered a pizza dinner to enjoy with their school friends, and then they enjoyed the throwback movie of "The Shaggy Dog." Over 150 people came out for a fun night of food and friends, complete with popcorn and drinks. We are planning another movie night for some time in January or February.
The Hospitality Committee has been very busy this fall. They welcomed the teachers and staff back to school, provided dinner for the teachers at Open House, and gave treats to the cafeteria workers and bus drivers. They also provided light refreshments to our veterans at the Veteran's Day celebration.
The PTA will be busy for the rest of the fall. We will host the 2nd grade program that the music department has been working hard preparing. We will welcome the Holiday Season with a sing a long in December. We will have a card making station to send our best to the soldiers for the New Year, art work made by students on display, and a can food drive to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank. We will even have a special visitor from the North Pole!
The most exciting part of the 2010-2011 school year is that the PTA has secured a grant to purchase smart boards. We were able to purchase 6 smart boards, one for each grade level to share. We are in the middle of a technology fundraising drive trying to purchase more smart boards through this grant. The teachers have enjoyed the LCD projectors and mounts that the PTA funded over the past 3 years, now we are trying to enhance their use with the smart boards.
As you can see, a supportive PTA can benefit teachers, students and our community.
Submitted By: Julie Polk, TJES PTA President |
|
|
|
|
 | |
Fatherhood Initiative! | |
This year, the County Council of PTA's in Bedford County added a Fatherhood Initiative to encourage more participation from Dads at School. Statistics show that a father or male role model's involvement in a child's life can make a huge impact which is why we, and many PTA's nationally, have gotten on board with programs such as All Pro Dads and Watch D.O.G.S.(Dads of Great Students).
Tom Mullett serves on the County PTA Council to assist schools who wish to start such programs and/orfind dads that can take the lead at their child's school.
For more information please contact Tom at forestprodad@gmail.com.
You may also download a "generic" flyer that you can adapt at your school by filling in your own information. You can use this flyer to hold a meeting of interest for starting a program in your school.
Download Flyer Here! |
|
|
