CCPTA Meeting Agenda - February 11, 2013

Welcome                                                                                                  

Introductions

·         School highlights

 Community Presentation

·         Multicultural Parent Conference – Linda Smith Elementary ESOL/HILT Specialist

·         USS Arlington Commission Ceremony - Jim Pebley

APS Presentation

·         More Students More Seats – Meg Tuccillo 

Committee/Representative Reports

·         Budget Advisory

·         Facility Advisory

·         Tech Advisory

·         Treasurer Report

·         Reflections 

Report from APS

·         School Board Member Report- Noah Simon

·         APS Update - Patrick Murphy

President's Report

               ·         CCPTA List Serv  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CCPTA_APS/
               ·         Website - http://arlingtonccpta.blogspot.com/
               ·         Pre-meeting brainstorming/information sharing session
               ·         Elections

o   Need Nominating committee

o   Interest in running for CCPTA positions

Next meeting 

·         March 18 - James Lander

·         April 15 - Abby Raphael

·         May 20 - Emma Violand - Sanchez

·         June 17 - Sally Baird

New Business

Adjournment

Northern Virginia District Results!

Dear parents, school chairs, and others,

At long last we can share the Northern Virginia Reflections Results.

We have 2 Arlington entries that will move on to compete at the state level, both film entries.

Congratulations to :

Isabelle Lauritzen-Zapata from Claremont (Primary Age Divison) and

Olivia Laino from Arlington Traditional School (Intermediate).

Both of their work will go on to compete at the Virginia State level! Congratulations and good luck!

They run their contest a little differently at the District level, awarding only one Award of Excellence and one Award of Merit for each category and age division. So having said that, congratulations to the following Arlington students for placing at the NoVa District level Reflections competition!

Megan	Schaedel	Film	Middle School	Excellence
Evelyne	Breed	Literature	Primary (pre-school-2nd grade)	Excellence
Katrina	Shuster	Music	Primary (pre-school-2nd grade)	Excellence
Malva	de Boor	Music	Intermediate (3rd-5th grades)	Excellence
Alexandra	Provasnik	Visual Arts	Intermediate (3rd-5th grades)	Excellence
Winston	Gruver	Dance	Primary (pre-school-2nd grade)	Merit
Katharine	Ware	Music	Middle School	Merit
Samantha	Spytek	Photography	High School	Merit

All of these artists will be honored at the District award ceremony, to be held in March (sorry I don't have a date as of yet).

As I said back in December, my motto is that we are ALL artists, a point that has been wonderfully demonstrated through all of the artwork across the County.

I wish to acknowledge and thank the wonderful support of our judges. They had a most difficult (but enjoyable!) job of reviewing all of the artwork, and the artist statements, to select the works that best intepreted the theme of Magic of a Moment.

• Penelope Nunes, Natalia Iukhymenko & Ashley Graves from the Arlington Arts Center for Visual Arts and Photography
• Duy Tran, of Duy Tran Productions for Film
• Daisy Lung for Literature
• Anita Chapa for Dance
• Antelmo De Leon for Music

I also wish to thank Cindy Macintyre, Cindy Matlack, Beth Connors, Joanne Burd, Antelmo de Leon, and Maureen Skoloda for assisting with the logistics of judging.

A huge thanks goes out to Ted Hayes for organizing the Countywide Reflections Recognition and Award Ceremony.

Finally, I am grateful to each of the PTA Reflections Chairs at each of the schools that competed. You provided a wonderful canvas (in a manner of speaking) upon which these artists can create and flourish!

Thank you all,

Michael Swisher

Arlington County CCPTA
Reflections Co-Chair

January Meeting Take Aways

New CCPTA Blogsite:   http://arlingtonccpta.blogspot.com/

Reflections Ceremony: The Arlington County Council of  PTA’s (CCPTA) will host a countywide ceremony at 7:00 p.m. preceded by a reception at 6:30 on Thursday, January 17, 2013, in the Washington-Lee High School auditorium to honor Arlington’s  PTA Reflections contest participants who prepared winning entries in six categories on the theme “The Magic of A Moment.”  (A SNOW DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED IF NEEDED)

Community Presentation:  Doorways for Women and Children is a nonprofit organization aimed at assisting women and families out of domestic violence and homelessness.  The presenters underscored the prevalence of homelessness among our APS students and illustrated the effects of homelessness and poverty on these students, including decreased performance and increased drop-out rates.   The attached presentation (will be sent under separate cover) details many ways the APS community can contribute to Doorways.  It was pointed out that since this groups serves children - it is an organization that school age children may be able to identify with and therefore may be interesting partnership for PTAs.

Boundaries: Meg Tuccillo presented on the ongoing process.  

The Boundary Tool is now available and may provide for an interesting exercise for PTAs 

Boundary Survey -  Arlington Public Schools is conducting a survey of the seven schools (Ashlawn, Glebe, Jamestown, McKinley, Nottingham, Taylor and Tuckahoe) involved in boundary decisions for the new elementary school on the Williamsburg site and other boundary adjustments for those existing schools to address capacity issues. 

Budget:  The new budget tool is now open to the public - Click here to start using the tool. The deadline to make suggestions is close of business on Fri, Feb. 1.

Social Networking - APS is now on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArlingtonPublicSchools 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/APSVirginia 

YouTube: APSVAvideo (www.youtube.com/user/apsvavideo)  

Reflections - THIS THURSDAY!!!

The Arlington County Council of PTA’s (CCPTA) will host a countywide ceremony at 7:00 p.m. preceded by a reception at 6:30 on Thursday, January 17, 2013, in the Washington-Lee High School auditorium to honor Arlington’s PTA Reflections contest participants who prepared winning entries in six categories on the theme “The Magic of A Moment.”

Arlington Public Schools Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Murphy, School Board members Dr. Emma Violand-Sánchez (Chair), Sally Baird, James Lander, Abby Raphael, and Noah Simon, and County Council of PTAs president Laura Novak will be on hand to congratulate the students and present awards.

The Reflections ceremony will feature student performances as well as a display of the pieces entered.  All student participants will be announced and recognized on stage. Arlington Educational Television will videotape the ceremony for later broadcast.

The annual Arlington County Reflections program was coordinated by Michael Swisher and Ted Hayes.  The program feeds into the State and National PTA, and is designed to spur students to create works in musical composition, literature, visual arts, photography, dance choreography, and film/video production.  Students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade are eligible to enter; in addition, this year a new category for students with special needs was available.  Arlington students submitted over 1,200 pieces at their local schools under this year’s theme, “The Magic of A Moment.” Top entries received an award of Outstanding Interpretation at the county level and are entered into competition in the Northern Virginia District PTA. The contest continues at the state and national levels.

Ways to Help Sandy Hook ES PTA from the National PTA and Connecticut PTSA Presidents

Dear APS Families:

I know that many of us have struggled with the events that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut last week and some have desired a way to help the students and families of Sandy Hook Elementary.  I am including a message from the National PTA that contains a couple of options for families to consider.  PTAs may wish to coordinate this type of effort, but I ask everyone to talk with your school's principal to decide the best approach for your school community.  In many cases, especially at the elementary level, principals have taken a low key approach when discussing the events of last week with children.  As parents we will continue to think about these events for weeks, months and years; but our children, in most cases, will have moved on after the holidays.  That being said, some parents may wish to use the snowflake project (see below) as a learning and discussion opportunity, or you may want to contribute as a family to the Sandy Hook PTA.  In any case – I wanted to make you aware of these projects.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Laura Novak

CCPTA President

_________________________________________________________________

SUBJECT: Ways to Help Sandy Hook ES PTA from the National PTA and Connecticut PTSA Presidents

Having trouble viewing this email? click here 

December 17, 2012

It is with heavy hearts and the deepest sympathy that we express our condolences to the families and communities affected by the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We have watched with profound sadness, pained that school violence has again claimed so many beloved students and educators. As you read these words, the families in Newtown, Connecticut are enduring unspeakable heartache and loss. Together let us pray that they will receive the comfort they so desperately need.

National PTA and the Connecticut PTSA pledge our unwavering support to the Newtown community. In the past few days, we have met with PTA leaders of all of the schools in Newtown, including the Sandy Hook PTA, and community leaders who have requested our help in supporting the families. For those of us who are looking to be of assistance in the aftermath, we share the following projects in need of your support:

Welcome Students to a Winter Wonderland

When school resumes for Sandy Hook, it will be in a new building. Parent-volunteers are working to ensure that the students are welcomed back by a winter wonderland with the entire school decorated with as many unique snowflakes as possible. We encourage senders to be as creative as possible, remembering that no two snowflakes are alike. Please make and send snowflakes by January 12, 2013 to the Connecticut PTSA address at the end of this email.

Donating and Organizing Fundraisers for Sandy Hook Elementary School

Donations will be accepted indefinitely to the Connecticut PTSA "Sandy Hook Fund" to provide ongoing support to the community. Please send checks to the Connecticut PTSA address listed at the end of this email. Group fundraising projects may include walk-a-thons, spirits days, pajama days, etc., which may be scheduled at your convenience.

For student-run coin drives, please submit all donations by February 14, 2012.

The Newtown community has requested only monetary donations at this time. For service or product donation inquiries, please contact newtownboe@gmail.com. To contact Sandy Hook PTA, please emailsandyhook@ctpta.org.

National PTA Advocacy

Toward the end of the week, we will be prepared to share with you how best to advocate for school safety at the state and federal levels in response to this tragedy. As we said on Friday, National PTA prioritizes the protection of children in all schools and believes it is fundamental to learning. We have several position statements and resolutions related to school violence and child safety, which we will package and share widely very soon. Rest assured, we fully plan to engage our powerful network of nearly 5 million dedicated members to make a difference on this issue.

Resources 
Many parents may feel at a loss about how to approach the subject of school violence with their children. For information on helping your child cope, discussing issues of violence and hate, and keeping your school safe, please visit our website at PTA.org/schoolviolence.

Thank you for your generous support and dedication to the children and families of Newtown, Connecticut.


Warm regards,

Betsy and Jim

Betsy Landers National PTA President

Jim Accomando Connecticut PTSA President

Please send all snowflakes and donations to:  
Connecticut PTSA
60 Connolly Parkway
Building 12, Suite 103
Hamden, CT 06514

Reflections featured in TODAY'S CCPTA "Pre-Meeting" at 6pm

Today's Pre-CCPTA Meeting will feature a review of the Reflections process.  Please join us from 6-7pm at the Education Center, 1426 North Quincy.

October's CCPTA Meeting will be Monday, October 15th

The next CCPTA meeting is scheduled for 7pm-9:30pm on Monday, October 15th, and 1426 North Quincy (the Ed Center).  Agenda to be announced. 

Also, pre-meeting topic to be announced soon.