Opening School Take 1

Our PTA Conductors support our school in priceless ways and the past two days have certainly been no different! Everywhere you looked, outfitted in hot pink Chets Creek t-shirts, the volunteers donated countless hours of their time to assist in making sure the faculty felt valued and appreciated, and the minutia of opening a school for a new year was handled.

Yesterday morning started on a high note with our annual Teacher Appreciation breakfast for faculty and staff. The hospitality committee did an outstanding job setting up and decorating for the event in the Dining Room, and gifting each teacher with their new themed Chets Creek t-shirts and gifts from Sally Foster. Hosting a breakfast as a way to say thank you to the staff is always so greatly appreciated. In addition, thanks to one of our faculty reps, Karen Morris, many of the teachers joined PTA at the breakfast and walked away with a I Joined PTA Today sticker to show their unwavering support. Thank you to each of you who made this tradition a grand performance!

At the conclusion of the breakfast, volunteers gathered in the Dining Room to stuff over 1,300 Orientation Packets! They worked tirelessly, with a smile, creating stacks of packets, and waiting on the UPS man to deliver the folders the packets needed stuffed in. Thank you to each volunteer, adults and children alike, for taking on such a monumental task and easing the work burden for the office staff and teachers. Volunteers like this earn their place on their pedestals!

Membership was hard at work, too. Organizing rosters and setting up for their annual Membership drive, and on Orientation Day collecting hundreds of membership envelopes from our newest PTA members. We know, that with their hard work and dedication, this drive will yield 100% faculty and parent participation. In addition, PTA store was set up in the lobby selling items like t-shirts, license plates, and ribbons to enable people to show their support. And, the Chets Creek Rewards Program was announced and flyers displayed.

Thank you to each of you who whistled in this tune, before the school year even began, to assist in creating this year's grand composition. You are the best and it wouldn't have happened without you.

Correction on the Master Calendar Dates

Due to master calendar conflicts that have arisen, there have been changes made to several dates I gave you at our meeting. Please take note of these changes:

Open House K/2/4 September 17 6:30 pm
Open House 1/3/5 September 24 6:30 pm

Volunteer Orientations:
On the nights of Open House, any volunteer wishing to receive a 2009/2010 badge, will remain in the classroom after Open House. Principal Phillips and I will conduct a volunteer orientation via WCCE (closed circuit tv), and then volunteers will go to the dining room to get their pictures taken. We are doing this to prevent parents from having to come to an Open House, September Family Night, and a Volunteer Orientation. So, we will be needing upwards of about 15 PTA volunteers to be in the dining room to take pictures. If you are interested in assisting, please drop me an email at shalls@duvalschools.org.

August Meeting

The PTA met this morning for our August meeting. The main area of business was the 2009/2010 budget. Committees requested projected budgets to cover this year's costs. The budget will be available for analysis and voted upon on Thursday, September 24, 2009.


Other topics of conversation included:

Principal's Report: Everything to prepare for school opening is in full swing. The building cleaning is almost complete and teachers are beginning to set up their classrooms. KK, Karen, and JB went to pick up three pianos which will be displayed in the front lobby of the school to support this year's theme, Orchestrating a Symphony of Student Success. The themed t-shirts have arrived and board members will receive them after the meeting. Open House dates have been set for Thursday, September 24th for Kindergarten, Third, and Fifth grades. The general PTA meeting will be held on Sept 24 before the Open House. Open House for First, Second, and Fourth grade will be held on Thursday, October 1st. Open Houses will begin at 7 pm.

Orientation Packets: Items to be copied for packets include the Volunteer Interest Form, Boo Hoo Breakfast Invitation, Brag Sheet, BUD's Club Flyer, Membership Envelopes, and Corporate Contribution Contest announcement. All items except membership envelopes should be emailed to Suzanne by Thursday afternoon and will be copied on Friday and Monday for stuffing of packets. (The membership committee will print the membership envelopes.) Packets will be stuffed by volunteers on Thursday, August 20th in the Dining Room. Babysitting services will be available from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Any high schooler who would like to accumulate service hours is encouraged to volunteer to stuff packets from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm on this day.

Faculty Breakfast: PTA will sponsor a welcome back faculty breakfast for the CCE staff on Thursday, August 20 at 8:30 am. Volunteers are encouraged to help set up from 7:30-8:30, and then stay after clean up for Orientation Packet stuffing.

Family Bingo Night: Family Bingo has been added to the calendar for March 26, 2010.

Holiday Shop: In order to continue the Holiday Shop, we need two or three dedicated volunteers. In the past, we've had the shop open for 5 full days. (Thanks, Valerie!) This is labor intensive on the volunteer side for that week due to keeping inventory and running the shop. If we have someone willing to spearhead this initiative, we can continue to offer the service to students. If not, we will not place the event on this year's calendar. Are there any takers? If so, email Suzanne.

Corporate Contributions: Several contests will be held this year to encourage donation of items including box tops, coke rewards, Campbell labels, Tyson's, ink cartridges, and cell phones. First and Second grades will compete from September 1-15; Kindergarten will compete from Oct 1-15; Third grade will compete from November 1-15; Fourth and Fifth grade will compete from January 11-25. Prizes for winning classes will include either a pizza party or ice cream party based on classroom preference. A letter/flyer, being created by the committee, will be included in the Orientation packet to introduce this contest to parents, students, and teachers. Points will be allocated per donation for the contest to be fairly scored. Teachers are encouraged to announce and gain support for the program through their classroom newsletters. Capri Suns will not be included in this contest, because we do not want sticky containers attracting insects in the classroom. We will however have Capri Sun drop off in the Dining Room recycle containers.

Chick-Fil-A: Chick-Fil-A night to support Chets Creek continues to be held the 2nd Monday of each month at the Hodges Beach location. Mrs. Phillips', via the PIC committee, will be asking each grade level to select a month to come and support this fundraiser.

Support Chets Creek. Com: Chets Creek has a Shop to Earn program set up at http://www.supportchetscreek.com/. By going to the site and ordering from the links, CCE earns dollars for each purchase. We discussed ways to get this information out to all our stakeholders. Publicizing this opportunity could be a great fundraising opportunity.

Orientation: Friday, August 21st. Kindergarten and Second grade will be from 8:00 am to 9:00 am; First and Fourth grade will be from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm; Third and Fifth grade will be from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. We will have a Membership booth and a PTA Store booth set up in the lobby during these times. The Membership booth will be run by Jackie and Pam for the 8-9 time slot. Diane, Lisa, Kathi, Leslie, and Lisa M will man the booth from 11-12, and Linda, Maria, and Angela will man the booth for the 2-3 time slot. The booth should be open approximately 30 minutes before the Orientation begins. The PTA Store booth will be run for the 8-9 time slot by Laura and Pam, for the 11-12 slot by Kristin, Jackie and Lisa M, and the 2-3 time slot by Deb and Maria.

Volunteer Orientation: Dates and times coming soon.

Dates to Remember:
8-17-09 Teachers’ First Day
8-20-09 Welcome Back Breakfast for Teachers / Orientation Packet Stuffing
8-21-09 Orientation
8-24-09 Students’ First Day
8-31-09 Entertainment Book Sales Begin
9-14-09 PTA Board Meeting; Entertainment Book Sales End
9-18-09 Pancake Pigout sponsored by the BUD's club
9-24-09 Open House (K, 3 ,5)
9-26-09 Campus Clean-Up
9-28-09 Sally Foster Sale Begins
10-1-09 Open House (1, 2, 4)

Our Summer Social

Last evening, the 2008/2009 PTA Board and incoming 2009/2010 Board gathered at Principal Phillips' house for an evening of friends and fellowship. The celebration commemorated all the hard work and tireless service hours these dedicated parents and teachers gave to make our Chets Creek journey a great success this past year. The gathering also gave incoming board members the opportunity to meet and get to know the current members setting the tone for a great new year.

We know that a summer gathering, with the principal as the hostess, may not be common place at other schools, but we are grateful for this tradition at Chets Creek. After all, building relationships and long lasting memories are the cornerstone of our work.