Welcome Back!

We are about to start an exciting new year. I love this year's theme of "Together We Can". In a world of economic struggles, moral decay, and self doubt, we can rise above all this Together! Our children can have strong educations, safe homes, caring adults and positive self esteem as we work Together to make this happen. One step at a time, one person at a time, we will make it happen.

Regional Meeting March 4th

Please plan to attend our regional meeting and hear Secretary of State Ben Ysursa speak to us about Endowment Lands. These lands produce money for public education. Also we will be hearing from District 25 about their levy election coming up.
It is very important that our leaders know we are concerned and hear our voice.

District 25 Levy

The district would like to make presentations to all school PTA's about the levy in the month of February. Please contact Shelly Allen at the district office to set up a time. This will be an informational meeting. If your PTA would like to choose to vote about supporting the levy or not, that is up to your local PTA to hold a vote.

Our March 4th regional meeting will also have a levy presentation and we will vote as a region whether to support the levy or not. Please come and let your voices be heard!

Legislative Day

Please make plans to attend the state Legislative Day in Boise. It is on Feb. 11th starting at 7:30am and going to about 4pm. Check out the state website through our link on this blog for more information and to register. With very little revenue for our state government to work with, it is very important that our representatives see public education as an essential building block for our future. We can't pay for lobbyist to be at the capital, but we can have a voice. Our region has some money to pay for entrance fees if people need help with that. Please contact me, Brandi Barnes, at 238-2118.

Parent website to accompany new math program

At our December Region 5 PTA meeting we discussed the new math program. Several parents expressed that this math is different than the math that many of our parents learned growing up and they find it more difficult to help their children with homework. Our panel was very helpful and Mr Hyde from Tendoy was willing to find and share the website that is linked to the new math program so that us as parents can go there and reference any questions we might have. The web site is www.eduplace.com. Hope this is helpful.

Region 5 PTA meeting - December 10, 2009

REGIONAL PTA MEETING – DEC 10, 2009

* In attendance – 15

* Homestay for international students at ISU (exchange students)
· Looking for families – you are compensated $500/month
· Most are Asian and Saudi Arabian
· Contact Rita Haggardt if interested – 282-5201

* Watched endowment land video
· Idaho has 3.6 million acres for endowment land
· Revenue from this land is used to fund schools of Idaho

* Panel Questions discussed
· What program the district has in place to deal with bullying
· 6th graders in middle school, how is it working? School district will discuss this more at their meeting in March
· New math program – a web site linked to new program to help parents is www.eduplace.com
· Discussion on trimester school

PTA meeting 10-15-09

PTA MEETING – 10/15/09

In attendance: Brandi Barnes, Tonya Walton, Andrea Southwick, Dorothy Rogers, Cindy Critchfield and Kris Mullen.

December 10 PTA advocacy meeting 7-8:30
Reflections due date: December 10 at District PTA meeting.
Advocacy panel: 2 Teachers (elementary and secondary), principal, administrator, school board member, state representative

Festival of Trees: December 1 -5 (Dec 1-4, 12P to 9P) (Dec 5th, 10A – 9M)
Getting volunteers, Tuesday – (Kris Mullen), Wednesday (Tonya Walton), Thursday (Cindy Critchfield), Friday (Andrea Southwick), Saturday (Brandi Barnes)
Stevens Performing Art Center
Setup Monday Nov 30. Take down Saturday Dec 5.
PTA responsible for gift shop. Half of the gift shop will be book fair with scholastic. Ask about 5 home consultants to bring inventory and sell giving PTA a portion of the cut.

Money for regional projector to be brought up at next general meeting.

Advocacy Conference – November 14th If anyone is interested in going please let us know.