Plano ISD Council of PTAs

Welcome Plano ISD PTA leaders, members and volunteers! Please feel free to post notice of programs, ask about vendors/events, look for ideas and share your successes!!

Volunteers: Be sure to complete the PISD Volunteer Application before your next big PTA event. There's nothing sadder than having to tell a chaperone that they cannot volunteer at a dance because the application is not complete! Visit www.pisd.edu or follow the link from our Council website under Volunteer Chairman.

Mitchell PTA is looking for a reputable hot dog, corny dog, snow cone and/or cotton candy vendor. Can anyone recommended someone or point me in the direction of someone good.

Huffman has used All Around Amusements (a Plano company) for snow cones and more. They were easy to work with, delivered & picked up on time. The web address is allaroundbouncing.com

Looking for some assistance with food concession for a PTA carnival. Last year at Hickey Elementary we were able to use the cafeteria for food preparation and distribution. The distrcit required us to pay for a FANS employee who cooked the food and PTA volunteers served the food (hot dogs, nachos, chips and canned sodas). This year howver they are insisting that anyone even serving food be required to take a 2 hr safe food handling course offered by the city for $20/per person. Besides the cost, the class is during the workday, which pretty much ensures I will not be sucessful in getting enough people to take it. Any suggestions ? I understand that some elementary schools use very large crock-pot type devices to cook the food. Help !! Any assistance/suggestions appreciated.

Food Service: I have checked with the City of Plano and they do not require the food handling certification with a TEMPORARY AND SEASONAL HEALTH PERMIT. The certification applies to restaurant workers AND those volunteers that work in the cafeteria during school hours (a FANS requirement). If your event is after school hours, you would not have to have your volunteers undergo training. To arrange for a FANS manager, please contact Michelle Herndon in the PISD/FANS Catering Department. If you'd like to speak with someone in the Plano Health Department, the phone number is 972-941-7143.

Here is the health permit packet [pdf file]

There was an article about the award winner for the American Cancer Society's 2007 Community Awareness Award - Jerry Berkowitz. He is a cancer survivor who lost his larynx, voice box and vocal cords because of smoking. I know him and he is amazing! He speaks to student groups about 3x a week and can be reached at 817-377-4333 or speak4333@aol.com.

Use of kitchen for non-school events (update). After much back and forth PISD has agreed that volunteers serving food during non-school hours do not require a safe food handling certification. The only requirement is for a certified FANs kitchen employee be present and paid for by the PTA. In researching this issue I went to the Texas Dept of Agriculture, City of Plano Health Dept and PISD Policy manual. All stated that the training was only required for volunteers in the kitchen during normal school hours.

From Jennifer Barnaby, Hickey Elementary PTA President:

We would like to have Mark Kistler come to Hickey Elementary in the spring for a program. Due to the expense, we can only do it if he is in town to visit more than one school. The assembly would cost $1590/school if two schools schedule and would go down if more are involved. If you are interested, their website is www.draw3D.com. You can also e-mail me for more info, shawn@doctorshawn.com.

Do any of you currently have at your schools an electronic check-in system? We are having a meeting next week at Boggess to look over several differnt companies, what they offer and is it worth the expense and up-keep? One such company is "Positive Proof." Did the district provide you with a computer/printer?

Thanks for the input!
Tonya Gosnell
tonyagosnell@verizon.net

Has anyone put together a cookbook for a fundraiser? Can you recommend an approved PISD vendor?

From Texas PTA:
Advertising sales for items such as directories or yearbooks are exempt from sales tax, so the PTA does not need to collect/remit sales tax on the advertising sales. Be sure to limit advertising space to 10% of the total document, including any self-advertising in order to keep your PTA non-commercial and in order to not jeopardize the Purposes and nonprofit status of the PTA.

Help Wanted: PISD Council of PTAs is seeking a detail-oriented person to join a fun and supportive board. Duties will include: organizing the Council's 13th Annual Vendor Fair on April 5, 2008. Interested candidates should contact Karen at klsandboys@gmail.com or 972-248-1058.

CITY House Donations: Thank you to all who contributed drinks and snacks--the folks at CITY House were so happy when I showed up with my car packed with these needed items. For those of you planning ahead we'll be collecting the following at our regular meetings:

* October: Journals (for kids to write about their feelings)
* November: Paper goods (non-glamorous, but necessary)
* January: Cleaning supplies (let's help them start the year off with a sparkling clean facility)

As always, I thank you for all you do for your local units--I've really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and work with you. Please forward this to your board as you see necessary.

Have a great week!
Karen

We are interested in the Bullying program offered by Texas PTA. Is anyone in the area bringing this in for the fall 2007 semester?

Thanks -

Gulledge Elem

Carlisle PTA are looking at the possibility of sponsoring a Native flower garden, for our school. Does anyone have pointers / advice for this project?

Thanks
Melanie Ford

Scholarship from AAUW

Applications are now being accepted for AAUW Scholarships. The deadline for applications is February 12, 2008. There are awards up to $1000. for graduating high school seniors. Check out the website: http://aauwplanocc.org

Free elementary school healthy fundraiser [pdf file]

I am the Hospitality Chair for Saigling Elementary. I am beginning to make plans for our staff winter luncheon. Would like to know if anyone has any really good caterers that are reasonably priced.

Thank you,
Julie Thomas
Hospitality
Saigling Elementary

Hi, can anyone give me information on environmental activities at their elementary school? Also, does anyone have the dates for the environmental poster contest in the spring?

mary

Has any school translated the "Benefits for PTA Members" explanation into Spanish? I received the English explanation in a local unit mailing,but was hoping another school had already translated it to Spanish so we don't have to start from scratch on ours. (This is about those new PTA member benefit cards and using them only on the website, etc.) Thanks!

caterer- i've used spice of life catering and trays from central market and been really pleased. you also might consider some of the local restaurants that do catered lunches. i've used charo chicken, mooyah burgers, sonny bryan's bbq and la madeline. it's always nice to have some portion of the meal homemade if possible - dessert is usually pretty easy for everyone and the leftovers are always a hit in the teachers' lounge!

Benefit Card info in Spanish - I have not seen an info sheet in Spanish, but before you go to the trouble of doing it yourself, please call Texas PTA and see if they already have it or will do it! Their phone number is 1-800-talk-PTA. If you don't get a positive response, please email me at caraathome@gmail.com

Our school switched from the Classics to The Art Workshop for our Family Art night this year. We were very disappointed with their service and organization. Are their any other art companies that you can recommend? Being new to this position, I thought it would be nice for a change. Something different - something new. Any new and fresh ideas, please pass them along.

Thanks! :)

If you are looking for a different kind of parent program I suggest one from "Get Organized!". You can select from many topics: Home Organization, Organizing Kids, Savvy Ways to Save, Kitchen "Tidbites", Home Filing Systems and Time Management. These programs benefit the whole family and it teaches students at the same time good organizational skills. I know many parents struggle with what to do with all those school papers, school lunches, and everyone could use some time savers and ways they can cut cost in their homes. Teaching good organization skills and home management skills will benefit families now and prepare students for the furture. www.GetOrganized.ws

Forman, Harrington & Wyatt held a parent-child class, "Weaving the Webs of Womanhood" presented by Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Dallas. The classes help strengthen the bond between mothers and their young daughters and is being funded by a grant from the Dallas Women's Foundation.

Parenting and Child-Development Presentations Available
for Your School or Group

Jewish Family Service child-development and parent-guidance specialists
speak in schools and to other organizations on the topics listed below. For more information, or to
schedule a speaker for your group, please contact Shelly Middleman at 972.437.9950.

See Programs for more information and topics. These programs are not focused on religion.

This posting is in reponse to Sherri Reeder's bullentin request and comments:

The Art Workshop has sucessfully offered Art Night to schools in the PISD region since 1997.

According to the parents who attended Mitchell's Elementary's Art Night, they were thrilled with their children's artwork and projects.

Art Night is designed to familiarize students in grade levels K-5 with the mediums used for the Reflection's Visual Art Categories such as:

drawing,painting, printmaking, fiber art, photo collage, and metal tooling.

This event is free to the student body of each school that offers Art Night. There is a fee covered by the PTA or PTSA for the serivces renderd by the Art Workshop Inc. which include supplies, 2 instructors from the Art Wrokshop to manage the event, and organization in planning this wonderful evening in fine art.

The Art Workshop Inc. is a member of the National PTA and has been juding Reflections for schools locally and distict wide since 1990.

Art Night came as a need to schools wanting to give students a wider range of experience with the various mediums listed under the categories for the Visual Art segment of Reflections.

The Art Workshop, established in 1994, is an award winning after- school enrichment program that offers on- site fine art instruction to schools throughout the Plano and Richardson School Districts.

For more information go to: http://www.theartworkshopinc.com or call us @ 972-898-6767

This is a follow up on the benefit cards being translated into Spanish.

We were unable to get Texas PTA to translate them so we got it done on our own! Here is the membership benefit card information from this website.

Are there any other PTA documents that you would like to disseminate to your members but need translated into other languages? If so, please let me know!

I am volunteering to take on the responsibility of my school's Yearbook for 2008-2009, and I wanted to know if someone who has already held this position could recommend a publisher that was economical and a pleasure to work with.

I appreciate any comments - favorable or otherwise.

Thanks,
Tania