We would like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you and your families to Coles. As Coles PTA board members, it is among our responsibilities to talk with you about our organization, enroll you as a member, and very importantly, encourage you to get involved in your school. But first, since this may be the first time at Coles, for many of you, it is important for us to explain what the Coles PTA is all about.
What is the PTA and who can be a Member?
Our PTA is part of the national Parent/Teacher Association that strives to enhance children’s educational experiences. Being part of a national organization, we must pay annual dues. To offset these dues, every year, we have a membership drive. Becoming a member does not mean you automatically sign up to volunteer, it just means you support our group and believe in what we’re doing. You will see our membership tables at all of the Back to School nights this September. Last year we had over 100 members– this year we set our goal for 200! All parents and caregivers, along with school faculty can be members, for only $10 per family! Please enroll or renew your membership for 2010-11 and help us achieve our membership goal!
PTA Programs & Fundraising
Our primary objective as a PTA is to provide our schools with programs, resources and services that will enrich and maximize the education of every child. To meet this important objective, and afford services that are no longer covered by our school budgets, we must fundraise; although we don’t want to be classified as a fundraising organization. Our school community must raise money if we want to provide our children with technology updates, classroom necessities, new books in our library, grade and curriculum based assemblies and other hands-on, interactive experiences and presentations that we have in the past. We are excited about several new programs for this coming school year! Our upcoming PTA brochure will detail all of the programs we sponsor and support.
This year Market Day, Lavenders, and Family Nights are our major fundraisers. This past school year the PTA was able to donate approximately $8,000 to our school. The money was used to support Teacher Grants, After-school Clubs, Assemblies, and the Students Activities Fund.
Our Market Day sale begins in September. More information will follow at the beginning of school. With your help we can make a lot of money through Market Day, it’s a monthly grocery fundraiser with several payment options. Be on the lookout for your brochure that will come home with your child in September.
Become a Volunteer…Why YOU should get involved!
As you can see, we are a busy group. This is where you can come in! We need your help, and so do your children. Over 500 independent studies on parent involvement show that when parents get involved in their children’s education grades go up, test scores improve, children are more likely to attend better schools after high school, they have fewer discipline problems and they’re less likely to use drugs and alcohol. Get involved TODAY!
Please look out for the PTA volunteer sheet, it will allow you to indicate what events/activities interest you.
A volunteer table will be set up at all of the Back to School nights. Stop by to see all of our volunteer opportunities! Volunteering doesn’t have to mean a huge time commitment. We understand it is increasingly more difficult to find time to give, but please, whatever your time schedule allows, we have need of you. We even have tasks that can be performed in the evenings, during the day or that don’t even involve coming to the school at all.
Coles PTA is Going Greener
Because of the amount of paper we use that eventually gets thrown away, we are starting an effort this year to dramatically reduce our paper usage. This will help our environment AND reduce our office expenses. Rather than send home fliers, we will send emails, post information on our website and continue to use the autodialer. Please help us by providing your email address and phone number. Our e-mails address is colesvolunteers@gmail.com
In conclusion
Our parent group is certainly about more than fundraisers! We’re about men and women working together toward a common goal. That goal, simply stated, is creating a better school and a better educational experience for our children. We strive to create an atmosphere where teachers, administrators, and support staff can do their best work – and so can our children. There is so much more that can be done and we need your help. We invite you to join us for our first meeting in September, at Coles Back to School night. We look forward to meeting you!
On behalf of the Coles PTA we would once again like to extend a warm welcome and best wishes for a successful school year! Please contact any of us with questions or comments.
Sincerely,
The Coles PTA Executive Committee
- Marzetta Waller/President – marzettaw@hotmail.com
- Stuart Josephs/Vice-President – stewjosephs@comcast.net
- Dan Couch/ Treasurer – Daniel.T.Couch@jci.com
- Denise Williams/Financial Auditor
- Linda Pugel/Secretary
- Stacia D. Kelly/Communications – staciakelly@gmail.com
- Lisa Garman/Spirit Wear & Programs Chair – lsgarman@yahoo.com
- Susan Rafferty/Market Day Chair – srafferty@comcast.net
