Volume11, Issue 4 President’s Message€¦ · President’s Message March 2014 Volume11, Issue 4 ... 600 attendees and guests to San Antonio for a weekend full of family en-gagement,

F I S D C o u n c i l o f P T A s . C o m m u n i c a t o r . Vo l u m e 1 1 . I s s u e 3

1 www.friscopta.org/

President’s Message

March 2014 Volume11, Issue 4

Frisco Independent School District Council of PTAs

I hope that your Spring Break was won-derful and relaxing. Now that we are back, it seems that we are in the throws of a race to the end of the school year. We will soon find ourselves and our kids busy with extracurricular activities along with their end of season banquets. We are all trying to fit in one last fundraiser or program along with our students gearing up for STAAR testing. We are starting new PTAs and honoring Life Members. Electing and training new board members and welcoming back existing board members. There are so many things to do between now and the fin-ish line. It may seem hectic but it is truly exciting seeing everything coming to completion these last few months of the school year. Tasks completed and goals met. Truly hectic but satisfying as you tidy up the school year and cross the finish line. At the finish line I hope that we can all look back at a race well run with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Here’s to success in that race. Susan Thomas, President

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

President’s Message 1

Important dates 2

Message from Dr. Lyon

3

Inside Frisco 4

Frisco Environmental 6

Local PTAs News 7

Local PTAs News contd. 8

Council Board info 13

Frisco ISD Council of PTAs is on Face

book! Like us and be connected to re-

ceive updates and news!

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FriscoPTA

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2013-2014

EVENTS & MEETINGS

Council Regular Meetings

March 18th

Guest speaker: Cecilia Ortiz

Campus and Multicultural Out-

reach Manager/Texas PTA

May 20th

FISD Admin Bldg Training

Room, 10:00 a.m..

**********************

President’s Meetings

Below luncheons are held

in the FISD Admin Bldg

Training Room, 11:30 a.m.

April 22nd

May 13th: Pass off lunch-

eon - CTE Center

School Board Meetings

FISD Admin Bldg Board

Room, 7:30 p.m.

June 17th

TEXAS PTA NEWS

March

21st: LMB reservations and payment due

April

11th: TXPTA Lifetime Membership Honoree Banquet. Location TBA.

May

3rd: Frisco ISD Night at the RoughRider Game!!!!

7th: Roundtable, 6:30pm at Vandeventer Middle School.

12th: Council Newsletter submission deadline. Send to

Athirai Baskaran, [email protected]

UP COMING Events

We did it all! EXPLORE, DISCOVER, and IGNITE!

Family Engagement Conference 2014 was a huge hit! We welcomed over

600 attendees and guests to San Antonio for a weekend full of family en-

gagement, PTA training, and good old fashioned fun! Highlights included

student performance from schools , installing a new Board of Directors, and

a vibrant, exciting exhibit hall full of ideas and tools. Erin Gruwell, Founder

of Freedom Writers Foundation, also joined us for an inspirational Found-

ers' Day Dinner and Jillian Howard, Elementary Teacher of the Year, spoke

from her heart about the importance of "the village".


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.txpta.org/events/fec-convention/



s u P e r i n t e n d e n t ’ s M e s s a g e

Dr. Jeremy Lyon, FISD Super intendent

Dear PTA Council members,

Can you believe we’ve already finished Spring Break? We are

heading down the home stretch now as students prepare for test-ing and our seniors get closer and closer to graduation. It will be a

busy time for all of us.

April and May are also election season throughout the country. This year there will be an FISD-related item on the local ballot.

After studying the proposal developed by of the Citizens Bond Committee, the FISD Board of Trustees voted in February to hold a $775,000,000 bond referen-

dum that will be up for election on May 10. Early voting will begin on April 28. One-time early voting will be offered at 49 campuses this spring.

The proposed bond is designed to take the District to an enrollment of 66,000 stu-dents. Information about the bond program is available on the FISD homepage at http://www.friscoisd.org/bond-program-2014. Included in this information are

dates and locations for voting.

April 10 is the deadline for voter registration. There are voter registration cards available at all FISD campuses. If you are not registered to vote here in Frisco ISD,

please pick one up and fill it out. Voter registration cards must be postmarked April 10 for the May 10 election. Remember, you vote in the county in which you

live.

It has been a challenging few months with weather and decisions about canceling school. I received a very nice thank you letter from a first grade student for our

March 3 closing. I’m glad he and his friends enjoyed the day, but I will be happy to be entering a new season and enjoying some sunshine. I urge all of you to take

time for yourselves and your family. Take a walk, a run, or go to the park with your children. The school year passes quickly and so does childhood. Don’t miss it. Sincerely, Sincerely,

Dr. Jeremy Lyon, superintendent


http://www.friscoisd.org/bond-program-2014



INSIDE FRISCO ISD




INSIDE FRISCO ISD




INSIDE FRISCO ISD

Mindbender Academy, STEM camp for FISD students will be June 23-27, 2014 at the

FISD Career and Technology Center.

Mindbender Academy is a program of the Frisco education Founda-tion. It is a great camp highlighting on “STEM “ (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) for FISD middle school students going into grades 6, 7 or 8, to extend their learning outside of the classroom.

This camp runs from June 23-27, 2014 and costs $125.00 per stu-dent. There are two sessions – first session is from 8 am to 12 noon; second session from 1 pm to 5 pm Monday through Friday. Campers may only sign up for one session, there will be 190 spots for each ses-

sion. On-line registration begins March 21, 2014 at 7 AM. There will be no refunds after May 29, 2014.

Additional camp information will be posted at the following link af-ter Spring Break http://www.friscoisd.org/ly/community/FEF/Programs.htm


http://www.friscoisd.org/ly/community/FEF/Programs.htm



Cell Phone Drive Update

The Valentine’s Day Recycle Cell Phones Drive was a success – together we collected more than 100 total

phones, accompanied by a ton of recyclable accessories, cords, manuals and more. But the best part is, we have

helped spread awareness about recycling electronics in Frisco! A special “congratulations” goes to Rogers Ele-

mentary and Fowler Middle School for collecting the most phones per student! Students attending these schools

will receive a special “recycled” prize very soon.

Reuse-A-Shoe Update

During this year’s Winter Shoe Drive, several Frisco schools worked together to collect more than 1000 pairs of shoes

for children in need - both locally and internationally. With help from non-profit organization Shoe Bank, our reused

shoes are traveling to their new owners as we speak. Many pairs of shoes will be delivered to the Pine Ridge and Red

Bud Native American reservations in South Dakota this month. I can’t wait to see pictures of the REAL kids there,

with warm feet and smiling faces, wearing OUR shoes!

APRIL IS EARTH MONTH!! Here are some fun ways to celebrate at your school!

Blast the Trash… and Keep Frisco Beautiful with CLEAN IT & GREEN IT 2014!

Help your Recycling Coordinator pre-register your school for Frisco’s annual community cleanup event on

Saturday, April 26! We need your help to distribute flyers with the event waiver printed on the back (to save

paper). All pre-registered volunteers will receive a free t-shirt and cleanup supplies. On event day, families can meet at your school

by 9am to pick up litter in the area. Around 10:30, volunteers are encouraged to meet back at IKEA for a FREE lunch, bounce hous-

es, face painting and a cool raffle led by our Mayor. And of course Super Rufus will be there for superhero poses, pictures and big

hugs! For more information, visit www.FriscoTexas.gov/Recycle or email [email protected].

Plan a WALK 2 SCHOOL Event!

Now that the weather is becoming warmer and more predictable (hopefully!)… you can team up with your Healthy Lifestyles Chair

to organize a day where students are encouraged to walk/bike/ride a scooter to school instead of riding in a car! To support your

event, email [email protected] to borrow three Walk2School flying banners (great for crosswalks!) and/or schedule a visit

from Ms. Molly and Rufus the Recycling Dog to support your event!

Host a SPRING REUSE-A-SHOE Drive!

If you could not participate in the winter drive, email [email protected] to set one up for this April or May! Earth

Month is a great time to hold a Reuse-A-Shoe Drive… and it’s one of the easiest ways your school can make a real impact on real

kids. I can help you create flyers for Thursday folders and we’ll make sure you have a Shoe Bank Bin delivered (if you don’t have

one already). And after the drive, we’ll make sure your shoes disappear… POOF! Straight onto the little feet that need them!

“SURPRISE GREEN GIFTS” in Teacher Mailboxes

April is Earth Month, and it’s a great time to celebrate our planet! But at the same time, it’s also a tough month for students and

teachers facing upcoming STAAR testing. A positive way to celebrate (and educate) while supporting teachers is with a gift in their

mailbox! Ask your Recycling Coordinator if they notice a particular kind of contamination in the weekly recycling. For example,

tissues, chip bags, candy bar wrappers, pencils/shavings and gum are common offenders. Take these “Blue Bin Boo-Boos” and

make them into “Surprise Green Gifts” for teachers! (If you’re running low on PTA funds, shoot me an email at environmen-

[email protected] and I might be able to help!) It’s easy – buy a fun treat for teachers and tape a note to it. If giving out packs of

gum, say something cute like “OOPS! There is lots of GUM in the recycling bin this week. Let’s STICK it in the trash instead!

Love, The Green Team at (your school here).” Not only will you help educate teachers and staff about recycling at your school, but

you’ll also provide them with a cute little “pick-me-up” during a month when they could surely use it!

ENVIRONMENTAL


http://www.FriscoTexas.gov/Recycle








ASHLEY ELEMENTARY Ashley PTA hosted a successful Healthy Life-styles Event on January 30th. Our first ever “Kids Teaching Kids Signature Night” was at-tended by over 60 students and their parents! The kids enjoyed making three different healthy snacks featured in Medical City Chil-dren's Hospital recipe book that was handed out to FISD students several weeks ago. We have several more Healthy Lifestyles events coming up. We will host a Family Fun Fitness Night on April 29th. Ashley families and com-munity members / organizations will come to-gether in support of a healthier school environ-ment! Ashley families will have fun participat-ing in this health-centered, family-friendly, PTA-sponsored event! We are also participating in National Bike to School Day on May 7, 2014 and hope everyone will join us to start gearing up to ride to school!!! With the money we raised from our annual Ashley Dash earlier in the year our Ashley PTA was able to buy 20 iPads with cases. Combined with our efforts from previous years, that will now put an iPad in EVERY classroom at Ashley Elementary!!! Ashley is also proud to be further supporting our SLC Classrooms through a Speak 60 Electronic Recycling Drive in the month of March. All proceeds from this collec-tion will go towards the purchasing of tablets for the SLC Classrooms at Ashley!

Local pta news

Click on a School’s name to connect to its PTA website




BOALS ELEMENTARY

At Boals Elementary our year has been filled with many fun activities. We had Boosterthon and the Fall Festival in October. In November we had an amazing book fair, Oasis of read-ing. December we brought in Team Big Air for our winter parties. They were a huge hit with the students. As we welcome 2014 we are looking forward to many other fun events. Grisham farms will be joining us at our end of year celebrations.

Local pta news





ELLIOT ELEMENTARY

We are so very proud of Anusha Kashyapa, our Elliott student whose entry in the Reflections Art Contest was one of only 20 in the District to ad-vance to State! Our Reflections Chair will be hosting a special event for all of our Elliott Re-flections participants. The Valentine parties were great fun, thanks to our fantastic team of Room Parents. Wow! It’s almost time to plan for the end-of-year class par-ties! We will be certain to recognize our “graduating” 5

th graders in a special way this

year – they were the VERY FIRST Kinder class the year Elliott opened! Our Hospitality crew and parent volunteers again went over the top making sure our teach-ers and staff know they are appreciated, by treating them to a delicious Soup Extravaganza in February. The variety of scrumptious soups brought in by the parents was amazing. February included a Kids Teaching Kids event at Elliott, with our Healthy Lifestyles Chair hosting an evening for Elliott students to make snacks using recipes from the Kids Teaching Kids cook-books. We were also excited to present Elliott with a check in February from our Boosterthon proceeds, which will be used to buy books for all of the teachers’ classrooms. The Boosterthon class popcorn parties were given in early March as awards for all classes that collected 95% or more of their pledges. Now it’s time to begin planning the Spring Book Fair coming up in April. We had such a success-ful Fall Book Fair (with the coinciding grandpar-ents’ luncheon bringing in almost more business than the volunteers could handle!)…and we are looking forward to adding many more books to Elliott’s library in the Spring!

SPARKS ELEMENTARY Sparks Elementary welcomed the New Year with the 2nd Annual Fit Kids Fair. Over 250 attendees enjoyed booths that included Warrior Martial Arts, iCream, Family Health Market, Kids Teaching Kids and the FISD Child Nutrition Department. Numerous vendors were on hand to show parents and students many ways to stay healthy and active in the upcoming year. Sparks families enjoyed mixed mar-tial arts demonstrations, a mini yoga class, chiropractic chair massages and samples from local healthy restaurants like Cedar's Woodfire Grill and Pure Plates . Wonderful door prizes including a 60 mi-nute massage, a martial arts birthday par-ty, a basket of healthy snacks and free din-ner for one lucky family were generously donated by local vendors. The classes with the highest total attendance received treats for the whole class from iCream and Unrefined Bakery. It was a fun and in-formative night for all who attended and a great way to kick off a healthy 2014!

ROACH MIDDLE SCHOOL

The PTA at Roach middle school (RMS) is making a positive difference through its grants. The grants include materials for 8th grade history book study, DVD's for the Skills for Living course on campus, iPads for the fine arts department, and a much needed water cooler for the school nurse ofice. Approximately, $3200 in grants were made possible through working with local business on fundraising projects and the great PTA team at RMS.

Local pta news



https://elliottpta.com/



ROGERS ELEMENTARY

We had our Book Fair “Fiesta” this month selling $16,078 worth of books - that’s about 3200 books into the hands of students, teachers and families! In addition, we raised $1476 for the

“All For Books” program. We are blessed to have such generous families at Rogers. We presented our PTA Lifetime Awards this week to Veronica Mueller and Tanya Strickland. Tanya is a dedicated teacher who has taught at Rogers for 17 years. She is an amazing asset to Rogers students and parents. Our 2nd recipient, Veronica, is a PTA Board member and devoted to our school. She volunteers her time to decorate our stage for music performanc-es and hallways for Open House. She coordinates our PALS program and volunteers her time to mentor students. We are so lucky to have both of these women at our school!!!

We’re looking forward to the rest of the year!

Local pta news





STALEY MIDDLE SCHOOL

Staley PTA recently surprised counselor Allene Byroad with the news that she has been select-ed to be receive a Lifetime PTA membership. Ms. Byroad was thrilled and totally surprised when PTA President Lana Levy met her in the principal’s office to give her the news. Ms. Byroad credits her father, who taught high school choir, for inspiring her to go into educa-tion. She had him as her own teacher when she got to high school. “I hated it. But I went to his room after school and there were all these stu-dents there hanging around. I realized they loved him. He was a wonderful teacher.” Ms. By-road has brought that same level of care and in-terest in her students to Staley.

Staley has just finished its Step Up For Staley

fundraiser and not only made goal but sur-

passed it by more than $600! The sixth grade

students won the rights to an ice cream party.

Thanks Staley parents and students!

from left - Staley PTA Pres. Lana Levy, Counselor Allene Byroad,

Staley PTA Board member Jane Whitledge

VANDEVENTER MIDDLE SCHOOL

VMS has been having a year of great achievements and exciting events so far, and looks like we’re not going to slow down! Here are some of the highlights! Sports! Congratulations to our 7th grade Viking Basketball teams! The 7th grade Vikings won FISD's District Championship, and the 7th grade Lady Vikings placed second in the district. Way to go, Vikings!

We are also excited to host the PTA’s

FIRST Vandeventer Kickball Tournament!

The proceeds of the tournament will go

toward school-wide programs as well as

teacher incentives for grade-level team.

Local pta news





VANDEVENTER MIDDLE SCHOOL (contd.)

Community Service!

Over the last collection period, 6th grade collected

the most Box Tops – 1754; with 8th grade in second

place with 834, and 7th in third place with 720.

One of our biggest event was the Empty Bowls Ser-

vice Project on March 2nd

. Students and parents

picked out handmade bowls as part of the Empty

Bowls fundraiser for Frisco Family Services Food

Bank. Participants enjoyed a simple meal of soup,

bread and water and took their bowls home as a

reminder to keep giving and helping others.

Art!

In the Reflections Contest, Vandeventer had

46 entries, of which 12 entries have escalat-

ed to the Council level.

Pop Quiz!

VMS Math & Science Team competed in a

qualifying meet at JL Long Middle School in

Dallas. Ten of our Vikings placed in the top

30 of their grade level and test, and seven-

teen of our Vikings received qualifying scores

for the state competition. Way to go, Vikings!

Local pta news





C O U N C I L E X E C U T I V E B O A R D

President Susan Thomas [email protected]

Aide to the President Marisol Randle [email protected]

Secretary Kathy Mecom [email protected]

Treasurer Susan Baker [email protected]

Parliamentarian Kindra Strachan [email protected]

Historian Melanie Crosby [email protected]

Fundraising Cheryl Pembleton [email protected]

Arts In Education Michelle Wilkins [email protected]

Membership Debbie Pasha [email protected]

Programs Liz Watkins [email protected]

Environmental Molly Kinson [email protected]

Legislative Debbie Gillespie [email protected]

Inclusiveness Kristi Schaffer [email protected]

SAGE Lizeth LoCicero [email protected]

Training Anne McCausland [email protected]

Newsletter/Publicity Athirai Baskaran [email protected]

Volunteers Ginger Tarbet [email protected]

Technology Marcy O'Neill [email protected]

Healthy Lifestyles Allison Gutschlag [email protected]

Watch D.O.G.S. J D Tomlin [email protected]

The Communicator is published by the Frisco Independent School District Council

of PTAs. The Communicator is distributed to FISD Principals, FISD PTA

Presidents,

Council Delegates, FISD Council of PTAs Board Members, FISD Administration

and Board of Trustees. The Communicator may be distributed to all FISD PTA

members.







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Documents

Volume11, Issue 4 President’s Message€¦ · President’s Message March 2014 Volume11, Issue 4 ... 600 attendees and guests to San Antonio for a weekend full of family en-gagement,