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Now Recruiting: PTA and Foundation Board Positions for 2019-20 school year


It’s time to fill PTA and Foundation board positions for the 2018-19 school year! Elections will be held at the May PTA meeting, so that we can plan for a smooth transition. If you have any background or interest in the following positions (or would like to suggest someone you think would be great!), please contact the current board member indicated.

More on the PTA and Foundation is here.

Anticipated open positions are as follows:

PTA BOARD

Treasurer-Elect – 2 year commitment. (One year as treasurer-elect and the next as treasurer.) Supports the treasurer in tracking and keeping PTA financial records, preparing monthly reports to the board, depositing funds, and working with foundation board. Accounting or bookkeeping background is helpful, but not a requirement for this position if you are detail-oriented and willing to learn.

Contact Cari Shwerd, schwerd.cari@gmail.com for more information.

Communications Chair – 2 year commitment.  Supports board/event chairs with communications needs. Maintains website, including online calendar. Shares relevant news and information through the year via blog post, social media, e-newsletter and emails. Works with Membership Chair to post Parent Directory and After School/Enrichment listings. Experience with WordPress, Mailchimp, Google office suite (or similar platforms/programs) is helpful, but not required if you are willing to learn.

Contact Helen Shum, chapmanptacomms@gmail.com for more information.

FOUNDATION BOARD

Chair – Works with Foundation Board, PTA and Principal to set fundraising goals – how much to raise and what the funding will be spent on.  Reaches out to parents and local businesses for fundraising and sponsorships. Works with Foundation grant writer to find and submit school grants. Leads Foundation meetings – bi-yearly or quarterly as needed.  Ideally is able to attend PTA meetings.

Contact Nici Griffith, 503-351-1882 or bnqrhefele222@gmail.com for more information.

Treasurer – The foundation treasurer works with the foundation board to identify fundraising needs and with the PTA treasurer to create a budget. Specific duties are minimal and include:

  • Track income and expense in journal
  • Invoice and issue receipts for Turf Banners
  • Coordinate tax filing
  • Issue check to PPS Equity Fund (Once a year)

This is a great way to get involved in the Chapman community. Please contact Anna Dvortcsak: dvortcsak303@hotmail.com for details

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Have an interest in improving our school culture? Still seeking two parent members to serve on Chapman’s site council

Here’s a brief description of what the site council is all about from Principal Van Der Wolf Please contact her if you are interested and can meet once a month with staff at 2:30 p.m.

What is Site Council?

Site Council is a team made of an equal number of parents and teachers, a classified representative (these are our EAs and secretaries), and the principal.

We look specifically at our school improvement plan and come up with ideas to help implement it.

Last year, the main component of our school improvement plan was creating a positive school climate for students and stronger communication with families. The Site Council pushed for the Chimney Flyer, our school newsletter, to come out once a month in a paper format as a way to improve communication. It also reviewed the social-emotional learning curriculum, Caring School Communities, and made a presentation to staff in support of Chapman adopting it for the year.

We meet right after school at 2:30 once a month.  

chapmanswift news, Uncategorized, volunteer

Happy 122nd Birthday PTA and Thank You!

Today is the 122nd anniversary of the founding of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), originally formed as The National Congress of Mothers. In 1897, (before women had the right to vote!) Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst organized what was essentially the first “PTA meeting” by bringing together more than 2,000 supporters to advocate for children’s interests in Washington D.C.

As the largest and oldest volunteer child advocacy organization in nation, the PTA has pushed for programs and reforms that still benefit our children today, including the creation of kindergarten classes, child labor laws, special education and school hot lunch programs. Amazing, right?

At the school level, the Chapman PTA works to build and support family engagement in partnership with teachers and staff. This year, we hope you have noticed:

  • an increased emphasis on events that build family engagement like the Swift Family Run, Community Dinner, and upcoming parent education night, in addition to “old” favorites like the Ice Cream Social, STEM night, Art Ball and Talent Show.
  • easier and more equitable access to after school enrichment classes, school-wide events and auction parties (funded, in large part, by a record-setting outreach  paddle raise at last year’s auction.)
  • sustained and improved efforts to share information of interest to parents via our in-school bulletin board, PTA Coffees, new grade-level representatives, website and social media channels.
  • intentional efforts to grow and expand our volunteer and member base. Our PTA waives membership fees on request because financial barriers should not prevent parents from active engagement in their school community.

We could not and can not do this without YOU! A HUGE shout out to the legions of volunteers who make Chapman a great place to be. 

A strong PTA member base helps us to:

  • more effectively advocate for staffing and other resource needs.
  • more broadly and accurately represent parent voices.
  • more efficiently organize and hear from teachers about we can best support them and their classrooms.

We hope you will help us celebrate this important milestone in child advocacy by joining the PTA, signing up to volunteer and/or attending tomorrow’s March for Students in Salem!  On Friday, Feb. 22, please join us for a special treat along with coffee after round up! 

THANK YOU for believing that public education matters! 

 

 

chapmanswift events, Uncategorized, volunteer

Who’s Ready to Rumble? It’s OBOB Battle Time!

Best of luck to all our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade readers who have been working hard and reading voraciously these past few months in preparation for the annual Oregon Battle of the Books competition.

Special thanks to our volunteer coordinators, Molly Porter and Ashley Walker, our amazing library aide, Cynthia Stevens, and all the parent coaches who help make this so much fun for our students!

Specific battles dates, times and locations are on the Friends of Chapman calendar. Coordinators will let parent coaches know if scheduling changes will need to be made due to weather.

chapmanswift events, fundraising, Uncategorized, volunteer

Urgent: Scholastic Books Needs A Coordinator or Spring Fair Will Be Cancelled

Chapman has held the Scholastic Book Fair in the fall and spring for many years, coordinated by parent Missy Lieser. (Thank you, Missy!)

Revenue from the fair benefits Friends of Chapman and our library. Friends of Chapman also provides outreach funds so that students in need are able to purchase books to take home.

We have struggled to identify a parent volunteer to coordinate this spring’s fair so we will need to cancel the fair if no one steps up by Feb. 6. 

Coordinating the fair is a week-long commitment, along with some administrative duties pre-and post-fair. Molly Porter, volunteer coordinator, will help you recruit parents to set up and run the registers in the mornings and afternoons before and after school.  Contact Missy for more information about what this project entails. It is a great option for a parent (or two) who wants a limited-term/project-based commitment, believes in the power of reading  – and who has some flexibility in their daytime schedule.

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Wanted: MLK Day of Service Project Organizer

From Molly Porter, PTA Volunteer Coordinator:

Looking for a MLK/National Day of Service project? For years I have organized a garden clean up/prep for spring work party at Chapman. I won’t be here this year to organize, but I’m happy to help you with the details if you’d like to make this event happen.

Connect with Molly at mollyehporter@yahoo.com

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Help Needed with Lost and Found

Screen Shot 2018-11-26 at 7.08.49 PMLost and Found Help | Monday, December 3 to Wednesday, December 5. Volunteers sort the clothing, return items with names on them to the right classes, and bag the unidentified items. Once clothes have been bagged people can sign up to take a bag home to wash and return to school. All clean, unclaimed items get sent to the PTA Clothing Center. More information and sign up here.