frisco independent school district council of ptas volume ... · frisco isd council of ptas...

Frisco Independent School District Council of PTAs

January 2010

Volume 7, Issue 3 Communicator

President’s

Luncheon with

Dr. Reedy

Feb. 16th April 13th May 18th

Admin Building on Maple @ 11:30am

Council General

Meetings

Jan. 19th March 23rd May 25th

All meetings begin at 10am at the Admin Building on Maple

FISD School

Board Meetings

Feb. 8th March 8th April 5th May 17th

FISD School Board Meetings are con-

ducted at the Admini-stration Building on

Maple.

All meetings begin at 7:30pm.

President’s Note By Anne McCausland, PTA Council - President

Welcome to 2010!

The Frisco ISD Council of PTAs has an exciting and busy Spring

ahead. We will hold elections, host the Life Membership banquet, the

Roughriders game and form new PTAs. Speaking of new PTAs, I would

like to congratulate the Early Childhood School PTA that formed in

November. A special thanks to Michelle Wilkins, the ECS PTA

President and Karen Fischer, the ECS principal for all your

assistance. I appreciate all your hard work and dedication.

Texas PTA will host their State Convention on February 26-28th in

Corpus Christi. Elections for the state offices will be held as well as

deliberations on proposed state bylaws changes. Please visit the

Texas PTA website for more details.

This month is also School Board Appreciation Month. Thank you to

Dan Mossakowski, Renèe Ehmke, Brenda Polk, Richard Beaver, Laura

Ellison, John Hoxie, and Buddy Minett for all your many hours of

service the children of FISD. We appreciate you!

Anne McCausland

Frisco ISD Council of PTAs

President

Volume 7, Issue 3 Frisco Independent School District Council of PTAs – Communicator –

C u l t u r a l A r t s By Brenda Richard, PTA Council—Cultural Arts Chair

I am very excited to announce that we had a total of 1,926 entries at the local level and 411

at the council level. Of the 411 entries, 42 were selected to go on to state for judging.

I would like to thank all of the Reflection Chairs for all of their hard work during the height

of the holiday season. I hope to have state results by our next newsletter.

Congratulations to those who went on to State!

Sabrina Xin Visual Arts Anderson

Jessica Chavez Visual Arts Bledsoe

Dylan Macalinao Literature Bledsoe

Alexandria Vaile Visual Arts Bledsoe

Alexandria Vaile Visual Arts Bledsoe

Jalen Bell Photography Boals

Kayla Quilantang Visual Arts Borchardt

Myles Miller Photography Bright

Emma Crotty Photography Carroll

McKenna Wallace Photography Corbell

Aarushi Aggarwal Literature Clark Middle

Montserrat Patino Visual Arts Elliott

Zaycia Guthrie Literature Fisher

Kendall Minaldi Film Production Fisher

Shivani Pattni Visual Arts Fowler Middle

Julia Bergmann Visual Arts Griffin Middle

Jolie Guz Photography Griffin Middle

Jared West Photography Griffin Middle

Laci Thompson Photography Ogle

David Kang Visual Arts Pink

Owen Robinson Photography Rogers

Owen Robinson Photography Rogers

Joshua Crossman Photography Shawnee Trail

Eric Debes Photography Smith

Isabella Grogman Visual Arts Smith

Patrick Lawrence Literature Smith

Joshua Lin Visual Arts Smith

Jewon Sohn Visual Arts Smith

Jessica Sutherland Photography Smith

Jessica Sutherland Photography Smith

Elena Zhang Visual Arts Smith

Grace Zhang Visual Arts Smith

Addison Kerbow Literature Sparks

Ivy Wang Music Sparks

Michelle Tong Visual Arts Spears

Dangy Franke Literature Staley

Daniel Molidor Literature Staley Middle

Trent Sandwisch Literature Staley Middle

Jenna Zapata Photography Staley Middle

Matthew Merrill Visual Arts Tadlock

Emily Graves Photography Taylor

Rohith Ram Visual Arts Taylor

Please feel free to call 972-335-9759 or e-mail Brenda Richard at

[email protected] if you have any questions.


P r og r ams By Keisha Sylvester, PTA Council—Programs Chair

School

Program

Date Program Name Program Description Grades

Bledsoe 2/1/2010 Sky Dome Planetarium K - 3rd

Bledsoe 2/10/2010 Dennis Lee Anti-bullying & 6 Pillars of Character All

Bledsoe 3/24/2010 High Touch High Tech Science in the classroom 1

Bledsoe 4/8/2010 Officer Tony Rike

Program for 5th grade parents -

transition to middle school 5th Parents

Bright 02/11/10 Book Fair & Art Show 6:30 pm All

Bright 03/05/10 Sock Hop School Dance 6-9 pm All

Bright 04/15/10 2nd Grade Musical 6:30 pm All

Bright 05/06/10 Multicultural Night 6:30 pm All

Bright 03/01/10 Snake Encounters "no fear" 8:15 am All

Corbell 01/27/10 Alborada Mexican Heritage Mexican Heritage All

Corbell 02/19/10 Dano Musical Entertainment K-2nd

Corbell 02/26/10 Morris Brothers TAKS Pep Rally 3rd-5th

Corbell 03/11/10 First Grade HTHT program See Ya' Later 1st

Corbell 4/13/2010 Critterman performance Rainforest Jewels All

Corbell 4/15/2010 Fifth grade HTHT program Silly Cells 5th

Corbell 4/27/2010 Second grade HTHT program Weather or Not 2nd

Corbell 05//10/10 Third grade HTHT program Cosmic Capers 3rd

Corbell 5/13/2010 Fourth grade HTHT program Newton in the Nutshell 4th

Pink 2/24/2010 First Grade HTHT program See Ya' Later 1st

Pink 2/26/2010 Morris Brothers TAKS Pep Rally 3rd-5th

Pink 3/12/2010 High Flying Excitement Be Buddies, Not Bullies All

Pink 5/21/2010 Eddie Coker Musical Entertainment All

Riddle 2/11/2010 Multicultural Night 6:30-8:30 p.m. All

Riddle 2/26/2010 Family Movie Night (Book Fair Week) Movie and Refreshments All

Riddle Feb-2010 Black History Month Program Doc Gibbs All

Riddle 3/4/2010 Second Grade Performance Performance after PTA General Mtg 2nd

Riddle 4/23/2010 Spring Fling Dance School Dance All

Riddle 5/13/2010 5th Grade Musical Performance Performance after PTA General Mtg 5th

Rogers Mar-2010 Music in our School Month Celebrating Music All

Rogers Year round High Touch High Tech Science Program All

Sem Mar-2010 Dennis Lee

Uses 6 Pillars of good character and

TAKS Motivation All

Sem Year round High Touch High Tech Science Program All

Sem TBA Multicultural Night TBA

Sem May-2010 Bicycle Rodeo Bicycle Safety All

Taylor 2/11/2010 Roller Skating Party at Thunderbird All

Taylor Year round High Touch High Tech Science Program All

�� PTA Happenings in FISD ��

Thank you to all the Programming VP's who have submitted copies of the PTA sponsored programs at their school.

If your school has not already submitted a copy of your scheduled programs for 2009-2010, please email a copy

of the programming information (program, date, time(s), and cost) to Keisha Sylvester, Frisco PTA Council,

Programs Chair at [email protected].


E n v i r o nmen t a l By Tanja Eltze, PTA Council—Environmental Chair

“Barktoberfest” was a big succes!

Organized by the Frisco Council of PTAs, 20 Frisco ISD schools collected reusable items that where

later donated to the Frisco Humane Society. All items where benefiting the four legged friends in

their care that are in need of a permanent home. While the students learned hands on about the sec-

ond “R” of our environmental motto “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” we where able to fill two storage units for

the Frisco Humane Society, that will help them do their volunteer work throughout the year.

Officially donated during the Barktoberfest at Frisco Commons Park were 343 towels, 184 leashes

and collars, 400 food items, 423 animal toys, 24 crates and 420 other items!

Way to go, Frisco!

Coming up soon is the Valentine’s Phone Book Recycling Contest,

when the students will once again be reminded about the importance

of recycling, and will learn how paper recycling can translate into

savings of energy, water and trees, how it will safe landfill space

and reduce air pollution. So don’t let go of your old phone books just yet.

Does this phone book talk make you think: I didn’t really need them

this past year: then please know that you have the choice to opt-out

of future phone book deliveries for an even greener solution to the

phone book problem!

Valentine’s

Phone Book Recycling

Contest


S u pe r i n t e nden t ’ s M es sage By Dr. Rick Reedy, FISD Superin-

Dear Council of PTA friends,

As Frisco ISD enters a new decade, we are renewing our commitment to excellence and challenging

ourselves in somewhat the same manner we are hoping to challenge our students.

Our test scores continue to improve and we are steadily closing the achievement gap among sub-

groups. As one of the fastest growing school district in the state and nation, we welcome new students

and teachers at a very high rate. Consequently, acclimating newcomers has been a priority in our ef-

forts.

We have worked hard to better assess a new student’s learning abilities as we make plans to meet

his or her needs. We have also worked hard to help our struggling students. This process has involved

appropriate placement in classes, additional tutoring, teaming with a mentor, and many other strategies,

along with communicating and working with parents.

We have also been working closely with our teachers, particularly new teachers. We continue to pro-

vide more methods of support and growth by facilitating frequent and varied professional development

opportunities, including shared planning periods to discuss lessons and strategies. Providing meaningful

curriculum and resources is also an on-going project. This allows our educators to focus more on the

“how” of teaching and not the “what.” Instructional coaching and vertical planning have also been key.

Frisco ISD is a great district, but we want to be even better. We are adding emphasis to academic

rigor and challenging our highest achieving students and those who are not choosing to seek challenge.

We are looking at our pre Advanced Placement and Advanced Placement offerings and focusing on ways

to encourage more students to take these classes and take the exam. Those who are already taking the

exams now are doing well. Part of these efforts will involve counseling with students and parents and

helping parents understand that it is okay for students to “struggle” a bit in a class.

We want to do everything we can to make sure our students gain their diploma and are prepared to

leave us and pursue higher education or a career anywhere of their choosing. All the pieces are in place

– great students, supportive parents and community, and the best teaching staff available. By working

harder and smarter, we can move forward and help our students soar.

PTA is an important partner in achieving these goals. By providing speakers, parent education, pro-

grams that complement curriculum and, as always, the continued encouragement of faculty and staff,

PTA continues to enhance the educational experience.

With warm regards,

Dr. Rick Reedy

Superintendent of Schools


L o ca l P TA News a nd Announcemen t s

*1st place for the most participation among elementary schools. *Second Grade teacher, Amy Swiney came in 2nd in her age group 30-34. *Special Ed. Instructor, Vickie Oliver came in 3rd in her age group 55-59. The total Fun Run had 4236 partici-

pants.

Our Fall Book Fair was held in No-vember and was capped off by a Lunch with Loved Ones and Pastries for Parents, both providing shopping opportunities for parents with their students. The event was very suc-cessful with funds raised going back to our school. In addition, donations to our One for Books campaign funded the purchase of books for the Children’s Medical Center in Plano. The donations were made in memory of a Bledsoe dad who recently lost his battle with cancer.

Our Reflections program wrapped up November 2nd with 159 entries sub-mitted in comparison to 122 entries last year! We sent 32 entries to FISD Council judging, and are proud to announce that we had 4 pieces winning an Award of Excellence con-tinuing on to State competition. These include Visual Arts category entries from 5th grader Alexandria Vaile and 2nd grader Jessica Chavez, and a Literature entry from 5th grader Dylan Macaliano.

Last year, Bledsoe adopted Timber Ridge Road. In December, we held our first Clean It and Green It clean up. While the temperatures were chilly, students, parents and staff collected 20 bags of trash keeping

Bledsoe Elementary PTA

WOW! What a busy Fall we had at Bledsoe! Since the last newsletter, October kicked off our first Boosterthon as our Fall Fundraiser. This exciting approach to fundraising is a values-based program that emphasizes the importance of Fitness, Education, and Character. We kicked off our fundrais-ing activities with an up on your feet Pep Rally on October 19th and ended with a Fun Run on Wednesday, October 28th. Students ran and cheered for one another around 1/16 mile track. Most students fulfilled their 35 lap goals! Throughout the 9-day program, stu-dents learn about character awareness. This year’s character theme was STAND UP.

Serve one another Take time to read Ask great questions Never give up

Discover your talents

While we are now in the final collection phase of our fundraiser, all indications point to a very successful event for the school and students! With 200 fewer students this year, our goal has been to match previous year’s Write a Check campaigns. We will not only meet this goal but will exceed last year’s num-bers by 50%!!!

Students and staff participated in the Gary Burns Fun Run, held in honor of the Gary Burns, father of our school nurse, Crystal Morris. This year Bledsoe was well represented with 118 participants and received the following awards:

*2nd place for most spirited

the area around our school beautiful!

On December 10th we held our Multi-cultural Night. The event displayed the food, clothing and culture of 17 Bledsoe families representing various countries around the world. Nearly 300 students, families and staff at-tended the event.

Bledsoe’s families were proud to par-ticipate in this year’s Angel Network. Once again our families were ex-tremely generous. We were assigned 65 students whose needs included clothing and toys. All of our Angels’ needs were met with extra items pro-vided to share.

Future Bledsoe events include Science Night, February Sock Hop, Spring Car-nival and Spring Book Fair.

Corbell Elementary PTA As we brought 2009 to a close, Cor-bell celebrated another successful Wild Walk and Book Fair. Because of the generous contributions from our

parents, sponsors and volunteers, the Corbell PTA will:

*Provide approximately $15,000

Gary Burns Fun Run

Fun at Multi-Cultural Night



Corbell Elementary PTA con’t

for educational programs to our stu-dents.

*Donate a rolling piano to be used school wide for classes and programs.

*Donate a scrolling marquee for an-nouncements in the cafeteria.

*Contribute to the Frisco Foundation Scholarship, allowing us to grant one scholarship each year.

*Provide all the funds necessary for ALL class parties for EVERY student.

*Provide over 1,200 books to the li-brary, teachers, and support staff.

*Donate over $270 in books to the Children’s Hospital-Legacy.

Because the students exceeded the Wild Walk goal, our Principal, Mr. Wehmeyer agreed to a Sumo Wres-tling Contest. He and a few staff members enjoyed participating in the wrestling matches. The students en-joyed cheering on their principal, as well as some of their favorite teach-ers!

We would like to congratulate all those who participated in the Reflec-tions program. Corbell had 109 en-tries with 23 of those receiving the “Award of Excellence.” One entry will advance to state. Again, Congrats to all participants!

In December, Corbell kicked off the Watch D.O.G.S. pizza night. We are looking forward to implementing this very successful program in the spring. As we welcome 2010, we look forward to celebrating our 3rd Annual Multi-cultural night, with the theme “Corbell does Culture with Style.” Our celebration will be in the form of a fashion show, showcasing the style of various cultures. Prizes will be awarded and desserts from the par-ticipating cultures will be served.

Elliott Elementary PTA Elliott Elementary students raised $44,000+ with the Boosterthon Fun Run. The rainy weather couldn’t dampen our spirits as we ran our 2nd Boosterthon Fun Run on October 22nd. Music, laughter, energy and encour-agement filled the gymnasium and the cafeteria as the students ran as hard and fast as they could! A Big THANKS to all Elliott families for all their par-ticipation.

Back to back in October, Elliott also held Destination Book Fair, which sold $12,000 in books! This enables our new school to acquire additional books and products for our library.

Barktoberfest event was a HUGE Suc-cess, as we filled up two whole stor-age units to support the Frisco Hu-mane Society with items needed in their quest to place shelter animals into foster homes and ultimately “forever homes”. Coming up in Feb-ruary, Elliott will promote another phone book recycling contest. Elliott students continually recycle plastic bags and batteries with drop-off

container in the cafeteria.

PTA Family Pizza Night is always a Huge success where families come out together and spend the evening eat-ing, laughing, and getting to know one another better as a community. Stonebridge Orthodontics and Collin County Pediatrics donated items to help sponsor this event.

In December, our PTA sponsored a Cookie Exchange for the Elliott team. Thanks to our wonderful parents who donated time and cookies/treats for fantastic staff at Elliott. Of course, the children, parents, siblings, and teachers all enjoyed the winter parties this season, as well as the crafts.

We look forward to a new and exciting 2010 when we return from break to enjoy new programs “BIG BALLOON CANYON” the first week back. Addi-tionally, Dads get ready for the 1st annual Watch D.O.G.S Chili Kick-Off, also Valentine’s parties in February, and Spring Book Fair in March.

Pink Elementary PTA

It’s been a fantastic year so far at Pink Elementary. As of today we have 796 PTA members which is very close to our goal of 100% membership or 1 member for every student at Pink. (We have 805 students.) We also have 100% of our faculty & staff who are members. Way to go Pink! Pink Elementary is gearing up for our Book Fair Diner-All You Can Read, February 8-12th. Fall book fair was such a success. Pink has a wonderful group of volunteers; we couldn’t do it without all of their support. It’s al-ways such a pleasure to see the kids excited about reading.

The Holiday’s were all a buzz. The PTA hosted a teachers coffee event and a staff cookie exchange.

The Corbell Sumo Wrestlers! Boosterthon Craziness!



Pink Elementary PTA con’t

This second annual cookie exchange is always such a hit with the teachers and staff. The students and their families make dozens of homemade goodies for all to enjoy throughout the holiday season. Each staff member gets to load up a box of goodies to take home and share with their fami-lies. Just a small gesture for Pink families to say “Thank You” for all they do.

Of course the Pink Spirit Store is a a huge hit with the kids. It is open throughout lunch time for all grades one Thursday each month. On De-cember 17th the kids had a surprise guest stop by, Mrs. Elizabeth Pink! What a special treat for the kids to see their Elementary name sake.

Look out the Dad’s are coming! The official meeting for Pink Watch D.O.G.S. program was held January 12th. It is an exciting time for Pink Dad’s to get involved! The kids can’t wait to see this new program start as well! What a wonderful start to the New Year at Pink Elementary

Sparks Elementary PTA

Sparks Elementary celebrated their First Place win in the Scholastic Na-tional Elementary Book Fair Contest on October 16th with a visit from Scholastic executives and Gordon Kor-man, author of many books such as Swindle, The 39 Clues - One False Note and Schooled.

Mrs. Pink with Pink Elementary Staff

Sparks also received $2000 from Scholastic to purchase books and equipment for our classrooms and library.

Gordon talked about how he got his start in writing and how he collects his ideas for book topics. He then spent the rest of the day signing copies of his books and chatting with students.

Gordon Korman, Author

Taylor Elementary PTA

Taylor Elementary was busy during the month of December. In recogni-tion of White Ribbon Week, we hosted a program from LD Zone presented to the 3rd-5th graders about Learning Differences. It was in a play format and presented by students from the Shelton School and helped generate awareness and discussion about dif-ferences in learning styles. We also held a 'Taylor Staff Cookie Swap' in which parent volunteers did the bak-ing and staff members took home trays of sweets for the holidays. And, we organized and held our first class room parties of the year which were a great success.

Now we are gearing up for our 'Olympic' themed school dance at the end of January which will include games, pizza, DJ and a silent auction. After our roller skating session in PE, we will be hosting a roller skating party at Thunderbird Roller Rink. And, we are gearing up for our Spring Book Fair to be held at the end of February.

Clark Middle PTA

What an awesome year Clark Middle School is having. Between fundrais-ers, board meetings, and other pro-grams, we have been going nonstop for the past two months! Clark PTA proudly kicked off their new website www.clarkpta.com. We hope that it will provide students, parents, and community members with easy access to all things involv-ing Clark Middle School PTA. Red Ribbon Week was held in Octo-ber. Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country. Students participated each day of the week. The Fall Bookfair was in late October. Clark had record sales during this yearly event thanks to all of the vol-unteers and board members who helped to make it such a success. Our annual Pie and Cookie Dough Fundraiser took place and orders were picked up in November. This is our major fundraiser of the year. Whew! We can check that off our list! How-ever, fundraising is NOT over. Our second Barnes and Noble fundraiser took place in December and we con-tinue to have monthly drives at Chick-fil-a and CiCi’s Pizza. We held our first Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) meeting, which is a father involvement initia-tive of the National Center for



Clark Middle PTA con’t

for Fathering that organizes fathers and father figures in order to provide positive male role models for the stu-dents and to enhance school security. This is a great opportunity for the men to be involved with Clark. We had an enormous response and look forward to seeing our new D.O.G.S. on campus.

The Reflections program is complete. This was our largest student participa-tion in the three years Clark has had a PTA. The students really did a great job in submitting their works relating to the theme ‘The Beauty Is…’.

Our PTA Membership Drive went well. Clark has over 200 members for the 2009-2010 year including staff and community members. The CMS Directory is complete and was distributed to the members’ stu-dents in mid-November.

Here are some upcoming PTA Events at Clark:

*White Ribbon Week is the third week

in January. White Ribbon Week high-lights and celebrates our nation's schools in providing a supportive and quality education to a diverse student population, especially those students with disabilities and those from cultur-ally and linguistically diverse back-grounds. The Friends of Rachel (F.O.R.) students are going to be in-volved in different lunchtime activities to encourage communication amongst the student population.

*Cici’s Pizza Night is scheduled for the end of January.

*Chick-fil-a Night will be held the first week in February.

*The Spring Bookfair is scheduled for early March.

*Open House will be in March before Spring Break.

Griffin Middle PTA Happy New Year Council delegates, PTA Presidents, Principals and FISD staff. We hope everyone is doing well in 2010 !

Here’s what’s been happening in our neck of the woods.

On Friday, December 11th, our PTA hosted its 1st Holiday Cookie Ex-change for the teachers. Approxi-mately, 250 dozen homemade cookies were made by parent volunteers. Every teacher and staff member at Griffin was able to choose two dozen cookies to take and enjoy over the weekend. We were also able to pro-vide cookies to the Fire Station on Eldorado and to the Frisco ISD Ad-ministration Building. All the teachers and staff were very appreciative of the wonderful goodies!! Without our incredible volunteers, this fabulous event would not have been possible.

On Monday, January 25th, Aim for Success is presenting their powerful program, “Achieve Success,” at a par-ents-only meeting. This program will preview what the students will see during the 8th grade student program on January 29th, and provide parents with helpful hints about how to en-courage their children to live a life of abstinence until marriage. The pro-gram is open to all Griffin Parents.

Our PTA also donated $500 to the school for the new school program this spring ‘ READ IT FORWARD’. We look forward to it being a great suc-cess. May 28th

May 28thMay 28thMay 28th School Will Be

School Will Be

School Will Be

School Will Be in Session!in Session!in Session!in Session!

Frisco Independent School District Council of PTAs

Communicator

The Communicator is published by the Frisco Independent School District Council of PTAs. The Communicator is distributed to FISD Principals, FISD PTA and PTO Presidents, Council Delegates, FISD Council of PTAs Board Members, FISD Administration and Board of Trustees. You may distribute the newsletter to your respective PTA membership.

Executive Board Officers

President Anne McCausland

[email protected]

Aide to President Kindra Strachan [email protected]

Treasurer

Brandy Dennison [email protected]

Secretary

Shannon Thornton [email protected]

Parliamentarian Melanie Crosby

[email protected]

Historian Open

[email protected]

Executive Board Chairmen

Fundraising Dawn Burwell

[email protected]

Programs

Keisha Sylvester [email protected]

Technology

Jeremy Staritt [email protected]

Membership

Susan Thomas [email protected]

Newsletter Terri West

[email protected]

Cultural Arts Brenda Richard

[email protected]

Executive Board Chairmen

Volunteers Benita Swan

[email protected]

Environmental Tanja Eltze

[email protected]

Hospitality

Willette Watts [email protected]

SAGE

Heather Brown [email protected]

Legislative

Laurie Cammack [email protected]

Training

Carmen Martinez [email protected]


F r i s c o Counc i l o f P TA s E x ecu t i v e Bo a r d Membe r s

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