Monday, August 16, 2010

Introduction to the PTA

We’re excited to introduce ourselves to you as Canyon View’s PTA Executive Board for the 2010-2011 school year! The Utah PTA’s theme this year is “Celebrate Children”, and we are anxious to celebrate the children at Canyon View with you during this coming year. In fact, we are so excited about serving the children at Canyon View that three of us spent two days in Provo at the Utah State PTA convention, where we learned about many wonderful programs and resources available to our school through the PTA. We already have been busy planning how best to “Celebrate Children” at Canyon View, and we believe we can benefit our children most by focusing a lot of our efforts in the two essential areas of Education and Community.

Enriching Your Child’s Education
From the State PTA convention, we have become aware of a number of activities and programs that can enhance the educational experience of our students. We want to review and continue the valuable educational programs that the PTA already provides at our school, as well as add new programs to further enrich our students’ educational experiences. Obviously, input from our teachers will be essential in identifying the most needed and effective types of programs for our students.

Enhancing Canyon View’s Sense of Community
We are committed to further developing the sense of community at Canyon View and ensuring that this sense of community is available to all families who desire it. We are discussing ways to increase school spirit and pride among students and increase the warmth and sense of inclusion among parents, families, and staff. We plan to improve communication within the PTA by adding new and improving existing communication channels. In fact, we would love to receive your ideas, comments and questions at our new e-mail address at ptacanyonview@gmail.com or visit the Canyon View PTA facebook page.

We plan to reach out to more working parents (including dads!) by holding some evening meetings and to new families and parents who haven’t previously been involved with PTA. We want all Canyon View families to feel a sense of belonging and pride from having a child at Canyon View. Additionally, we are exploring ways of managing volunteers, so that each volunteer has a friendly and valuable experience helping at Canyon View, without feeling overburdened.

We also are planning some fun, community-building events, one of which will be our Fall 2010 fundraising event. Did you realize that the PTA is allowed only one fundraising event per school year? Through this one event, we must generate all of the money we will need to finance these important programs for the entire school year! Many of you have indicated previously that you prefer to make a financial contribution in lieu of fundraising, and you will have that option. Additionally, as a non-profit, charitable organization, your donations to “Canyon View PTA” are tax deductible, and we ask you to consider making donations to our PTA now and throughout the year to support our school.

Next Steps
As you may know from previous years, the PTA conducts an annual survey to help identify areas of concern you have about our school and community. We have attached the 2010-11 PTA Survey and ask that you please fill it out for your family and return it with your child next week.

We look forward to getting to know you as we work together to “Celebrate Children” at Canyon View by making 2010-2011 a great year of learning and increased connection. You can get involved by contacting us at our ptacanyonview@gmail.com address, Canyon View PTA facebook page, our individual contact information below, or our registration table at the School Open House in August. PTA membership is a great value at only $5.00 per person and benefits not only Canyon View’s PTA and students, but also the National and State PTAs as well. For more PTA information see the National
PTA at www.pta.org or the Utah PTA at www.utahpta.org.

Jenn Searle, President
Sawsha Turpin, President-Elect
Monica McKeon, Secretary
Ernie Messenger, Treasurer
Lauri Buzianis, VP Fundraiser/Spirit
Lisa Adams, VP Membership
Sharon Okumura, Principal

No comments:

Post a Comment