Partners in Leadership—September 2008

PTA Healthy Lifestyles Planning

Application Deadline: Parent Involvement Schools of Excellence Certification

Promote Let’s Fight Flu Together! Community Influenza Vaccination Program

EMLC Deadline Approaching

OMDR Plus Nearing Launch

Hearst Awards Update: Application Details Now Available!

PTA Take Your Family to School Week and the $1,897 Awards

Read for the Record—The State PTA’s Role

2008 Arts Enhancement Grants Awarded

Commitment to America’s Children Gala Tickets on Sale

Election Education

Start the Art Week: More Art + Education = Student Success

Watching Movies and Television with Your Children

Calendar

PTA Healthy Lifestyles Planning

What are local units in your state planning for this November’s PTA Healthy Lifestyles Month celebration?

Last year, PTAs planned health fairs, recipe contests, parent education nights, walking clubs, sports tournaments, and more. This year—judging from the PTA Healthy Lifestyles Award applications we’ve received—we expect even greater enthusiasm.

Please encourage units to continue planning programs to promote healthy habits in their communities, whether or not they applied for a Healthy Lifestyles Award, and whether or not they receive one. Healthy habits provide their own much greater rewards.

• Link to pta.org/healthylifestyles, with its event ideas, planning tools, and other resources, in your state newsletter and website.
• Celebrate local units that host Healthy Lifestyles events: Recognize them in your newsletters and website, or present them with a certificate or other incentive, like recess supplies.
• Plan state Healthy Lifestyles activities: Host a healthy breakfast for PTA partners at your state office. Put a morning walk on the agenda of your next state board meeting.

To receive a list of the units in your state that submitted Healthy Lifestyles Award applications, e-mail HealthyLifestyles@pta.org.

Please post this message on the state PTA website, in newsletters, and at conferences and meetings.

After December 31, 2008, PTA will no longer accept applications for Parent Involvement Schools of Excellence Certification.

Schools that have already begun or would like to begin the certification process have until December 31, 2008, to submit their applications. Schools currently certified as Schools of Excellence will retain that honor through their original three-year term.

Since 2003, PTA has honored more than 700 schools as examples of how PTA’s National Standards can strengthen family-school partnerships. The spirit of the certification program will be continued in the new Phoebe Apperson Hearst Family-School Partnership Awards. Congratulations to those schools that have received Certification of Excellence and those that will receive it before the end of the year.

By now all PTA local units should have received their Influenza Education & Vaccination Outreach Kit. The kit provides turn-key materials for them to schedule and host an influenza vaccination clinic at their PTA school. There is a CD with a series of template flyers, press releases, and other promotional materials for units to tailor and use to generate awareness among students, parents, school officials, community, and local media. They will also find suggestions on how to increase attendance by using the materials to reach these key audiences.

The cost for each shot is $30.00, of which $1.00 will be donated to the state PTA, and $4.00 will be donated to the local PTA hosting the clinic. Free vaccinations are available to those that meet the qualifications of the federal Vaccine for Children (VFC) program.

Clinics can be scheduled now through January 2009. In order to optimize preparation time and help ensure a successful event, local units should select the date(s) for their influenza clinic as soon as possible. Once they have chosen their date(s), they should schedule the influenza clinic with Flu Busters either online at PTA.org/FluShotClinics or call 866-FLU-BUST. It is recommended that Flu Busters be contacted 30 days prior to the selected dates.

If units have not yet received your Influenza Education & Vaccination Outreach Kit, or if you have any questions regarding the Let’s Fight Flu Together! Community Influenza Vaccination Program, please visit PTA.org/FluShotClinics.

The 2008 Emerging Minority Leaders Conference will take place in Oak Brook, IL from October 31–November 2, and the deadline to register is Friday, September 26. The national office will reimburse each state PTA for the cost of registration, airfare, hotel, and per diem for two of its members, but registration is open to all state, local, council, district, and region leaders. More information and registration is available online through pta.org/emlc.

With the initial release of OMDR Plus powered by Just Between Friends imminent, PTA and Just Between Friends has conducted webinar demos for the first group of states that have signed up to implement the new system statewide. To put your state on the list or to receive more information regarding the implementation, please e-mail Julia Sheffler.

The application instructions and downloadable application form for the new Phoebe Apperson Hearst Family-School Partnership Awards is now available at pta.org/hearst.

As state leaders, familiarize yourself with the new application requirements, and promote the awards to local, council, district, and region PTAs, all of whom are eligible to apply.

Special recognition will be given at the 2009 PTA National Convention to the state that has the highest percentage of PTAs apply.

For the application details, visit pta.org/hearst. Keep an eye on the site for the online application, coming soon!

Encourage local PTAs, in partnership with their schools, to plan events for PTA Take Your Family to School Week, February 8-14, 2009, to engage all families in their children’s school experience. And encourage PTAs to apply for an $1,897 Award to support those plans.

All units should receive an award application by mail in the first part of October. An online application form and updated planning materials will be available online starting next week at pta.org/familytoschool.

Award applications are due Friday, November 7, 2008. Spread the word!

Awards funded by AXA Foundation, Proud National Sponsor of PTA.

Each year, the PTA national organization awards a limited number of matching grants of up to $1,000 to local PTAs for student-centered arts education programs. Congratulations to this year’s Mary Lou Anderson Reflections Arts Enhancement Grant recipients:

Chestnut Elementary School PTA in Painesville, Ohio, will employ an artist in residence to stage a bilingual production of The Wizard of Oz as an after-school program. The artist in residence will direct the production while parent, school, and community volunteers head teams of students in set design, costuming, music, and acting.

Crittenden Middle School PTA in Mountain View, California, will host a "poetry year" featuring a poet in residence who will conduct four weeks of poetry workshops for all 7th-graders and a two-hour professional development seminar for all teachers on integrating poetry into lessons plans. The year will also include VIP poetry readings by members of the community among other poetry reading, writing, and performing activities.

Berwyn Heights Elementary School PTA in Berwyn Heights, Maryland, will connect science and art by engaging the entire school—plus school visitors and community members—in creating a mosaic mural of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. This collaborative "Web of Life" mosaic, to be a permanent fixture on the exterior of the school, will be grounded in students’ classroom learning.

Read the press release announcing these grant recipients.

To learn more about the grant program, go online.

PTA invites you to join us for the 4th Annual Commitment to America's Children Gala, an evening which will honor those who have dedicated themselves to children, education, and community service. The gala will be held on Thursday, October 30, 2008 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago and will include performances from children and celebrities, including singer CeCe Peniston. Come celebrate the commitment of PTA to America's children combined with the unique opportunity to network with members of the PTA Board, other business, organization and community leaders, and our honorees.

PTA is thrilled to be honoring Mathew and Tina Knowles for their dedication and service to children. Mathew and Tina Knowles have helped establish the Survivor Foundation, as well as the Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, and continue to provide support to various groups that bring hope and light to children.

For more information, please contact David Erickson at (312) 670-6782 Ext. 382 or e-mail derickson@pta.org.

Election Education

November 4 is Election Day. What is your PTA doing to help educate families about what makes a strong candidate for children?

Being educated about and voting for candidates for public office is critical to advocating effectively for children. Through informed decision making at the ballot box, PTA members can make a direct difference on the issues that affect our children and public schools. When PTA votes, we become a powerful voice for all children.

There are many ways PTA members can participate in the election process. PTAs can hold candidate forums, publish candidates’ responses to a questionnaire, help register new voters, and remind members to vote. As an advocate for children, however, casting a ballot is the most important thing you can do in an election.

To learn more about what PTAs may and may not do around elections—and for information on ballot measures, candidate forums, where to vote, and more—visit pta.org/vote.

PTA, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization, does not endorse the election or defeat of any candidate or party.

PTA Start the Art Week, October 6-11, 2008, is an opportunity to provide your school’s students with arts experiences. It’s also an ideal time to inform families of the benefits of arts education and gain the support of the community. Show your PTA’s commitment to arts education by observing PTA Start the Art Week with a one-day event or a weeklong celebration.

Event ideas, a timeline, templates, planning ideas, and a poster download are all available online. Give your students the gift of music, dance, theater, literature, and the visual arts! Start the Art—and keep it going!

Media messages from television, movies, music, and the Internet are a daily part of our children's lives. While electronic media can open up new worlds of rich learning experiences to children, they can also convey messages about violence, sex, commercialism, stereotyping, and other themes that worry parents.

When children are exposed to images and messages they do not understand and are unable to interpret, parents will want to intervene. For example, when children see smoking, drinking, and drug use in the media, parents will want talk about it with their children and guide them in taking a critical look at how cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs are portrayed.

• Movies can be a great way to jump-start difficult conversations with your children. If you are having a hard time finding a way to talk about a particular issue or event, find a quality, age-appropriate movie in which the characters face a similar issue or situation. After watching the movie with your children, take some time to have a conversation about your reactions to what you just watched.
  
  
• Having a family movie night is a great way to spend time together. Make sure all selections are appropriate for everyone, and make sure each family member gets a chance to pick a movie for the whole group to watch.
  
  
• Movies can offer glimpses into different cultures or historic events. They are a way to expose children to stories that might not otherwise grab their attention.

Everyone can support PTA through the PTA Video Store. Encourage people to visit ptavideostore.com today.