Sixth District Spring Training: Saturday, May 19th

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Exciting news!!
Council Officers can attend this year’s Spring Training for FREE!
We have found a common problem throughout our units this year has been the result of miscommunication and conflict. We are excited to have California State PTA VP of Leadership, Tom Horn, present a workshop to help us deal with these issues:
Managing People and Conflict
  • This workshop will focus on developing leadership skills to assist in creating and managing cohesive relationships in your PTA work.  We will walk you through practical steps to prevent and manage conflict, and the information learned in this workshop can also be useful in other aspects of your personal life.
Council officers who sign up for this workshop can also attend any other workshops for FREE! If you are attending the whole day, you will also receive free lunch.
Diane Foote will be presenting two workshops specific to Council officers:
Council 1: Officer Training
  • It’s different outside the individual unit!  Understand your new role as a council leader.  Required officer positions will be covered.  You are an important link in the PTA structure, and there are resources and tools to help you support your members. 
Council 2: Unit Financials provide a window into the Unit
  • Council and District PTAs have the responsibility to collect and review financial reports and tax filings. What does that mean?  Let’s get together and discuss the financial documents you should be collecting (and forwarding to Sixth District), what you’re looking for in these documents, and how to communicate with units what you found in reviewing their financial documentation.  We have the cheat sheets and can help you develop a strategy for collecting and reviewing.  Financial health is only one indication of the health of a PTA.
We encourage all council officers to attend these workshops.
You may want to attend the regular workshop for your position so that you can be prepared to lead training in your councils as needed.
Check www.capta6.org/training for training day information and the registration link.
Use discount code: COUNCIL to set the registration fee to $0. You will be billed the full fee if the Conflict workshop is not included in your registration, or you do not cancel by 5/11/18.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Peterson Middle School
1380 Rosalia Dr., Sunnyvale 94087

Teacher Appreciation Week: May 7 – 11, 2018

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Teacher Appreciation Week
May 7 – 11, 2018
PTA Teacher Appreciation Week is just around the corner from May 7 – 11. It’s the perfect time to personally thank your students’ teachers and staff for their sacrifices and support for children throughout the year.
The California State PTA understands the importance of staff appreciation in building a stronger home-to-school connection. PTA resources may be used for this type of expense.
  • Acceptable expenditures may include a staff lunch as long as the expenses follow PTA guidelines and the expenses are approved by the membership.
  • Personal gifts or gifts for individuals cannot be purchased with PTA funds.
  • If the membership wishes to present teachers and staff with personal gifts, the individual members can make personal donations to purchase the designated items. These donations should not be commingled with PTA funds.
National PTA – Promotional Toolkit including certificates, digital and social media graphics
Teacher/Staff Appreciation Question:
If PTA funds cannot be used to purchase gifts, what our options?
  • Involving no funds: Children can write thank you notes to their teacher and staff.
  • Personal Funds: Parents can buy gifts and give gifts directly to their child’s teacher.
  • Personal Funds: Room parents can collect money and present the teacher with a gift from the whole class (whether each family donated or not). The donations do not go through the PTA.
  • PTA Funds: PTA can provide staff lunches, breakfast, coffee carts, etc. which are for the whole staff.  The limitation is that less than 5% of the PTA budget should be spent on these types of purchases for the entire year. This includes food provided by the PTA at meetings, principal’s coffees, and cafecitos, etc.

Election Time – Job Descriptions

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PTA elections are taking place this month…..check out the job descriptions:

Board Job Descriptions – Council

Positions currently filled for next year….and available positions:

Position                                  Name

President                                Laura Raimondi

Executive Vice President    Open

1st VP, Membership             Marc McGeever

2nd VP, Communication      Open

3rd VP, Parent Education    Open

Secretary                                Open

Treasurer                               Terri Jimenez

Financial Secretary              Christine Gray

Auditor                                   Open

Historian                                Open

Barbara Emerich High School Senior Scholarship – Due April 10th

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Barbara Emerich High School Senior Scholarship
Barbara Emerich held PTA leadership positions for over 50 years. Sixth District PTA proudly honors her extraordinary service by awarding scholarships to two high school seniors who best exemplify her dedication to youth and families.
More information about the scholarship.
Applications must be postmarked by Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

San José Unified Spring Town Hall – April 30th @ Lincoln High

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San José Unified will host the third and final districtwide town hall meeting of the school year on Monday, April 30th, from 6-8pm in the Lincoln High School Media Center. All families, students, staff, and community members are encouraged to attend.

The district portion of this town hall will focus on the use of Measure Y parcel tax funds. Options will be presented for feedback from the public. There will be an open forum after that. Board, Council, and Cabinet members will be in attendance and will respond questions, comments, and concerns as time permits. The district office will publish formal responses following the meeting.

You can download the event flyer in English and Spanish

Please eRSVP on Eventbrite.

SJUSD Town Hall 180430 Flyer ENG

Tasting the Future

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On a gloomy Tuesday afternoon, elementary students from San José Unified fired up the kitchen at Gunderson High School for the annual Future Chefs live cooking competition, and the results were nothing short of delicious.
Future Chefs is a national initiative from our nutrition partners at Sodexo. Now in its eighth year, it’s designed to inspire kids to make healthy eating choices and develop their cooking skills. The theme for this year’s competition is Healthy Asian Fusion.
Hundreds of our students submitted recipes, and nine were selected to participate in the live districtwide finals on March 20th. Working with seasoned professionals from our student nutrition staff, finalists had one hour to prepare their creations, which were rated for their creativity, taste, ease of preparation, use of healthy ingredients, kid friendliness, and presentation.
A panel of celebrity judges, including administrators and principals from San José Unified, had the lucky distinction of sampling all of the dishes, and after a quick tally, here are the results:
  • 1st Place – Kate Routon, 4th Grade, Willow Glen, Asian Chicken Wonton Tacos
  • 2nd Place – Aashna Raval, 4th Grade, Simonds, Thaiquito
  • 3rd Place – Chyaniss Pate, 5th Grade, Olinder, Pork Fried “Rice”
  • 4th Place – Brianna Cavano, 4th Grade, Los Alamitos, Fantastic Fried Rice
  • 4th Place – Cristian Santos, 3rd Grade, Grant, Ginger Noodle Soup
  • 4th Place – Ellie Luke, 3rd Grade, Booksin, Korean Short Rib Quesadilla
  • 4th Place – Gracie Gsoell, 4th Grade, Almaden, Gracie’s Cashew Chicken
  • 4th Place – Isabella Jones, 3rd Grade, Booksin, Thai Rice Noodle Salad
  • 4th Place – Natalie Malak, 4th Grade, Los Alamitos, Too Cool Teriyaki Tacos
Congratulations to Kate and all of the finalists for a job well done. Kate will be considered along with the winning students from other participating school districts for a regional finalist award. Selected regional finalists will compete to become the national champion in an online vote, so get your thumbs and clicker fingers ready!
Future Chefs is just one example of how our Student Nutrition team makes eating right fun and engaging for kids. Every day, they serve more than 17,000 healthy meals in our 41 schools, ensuring that students go to class ready to learn. If you’d like to learn more, visit go.sjusd.org/food.
Tasting the future