Category Archives: Helpful Information
Suicide Prevention Webinar
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Join California State PTA Vice President for Health & Community Concerns Shereen Walter and special guest presenter Stan Collins from SuicideIsPreventable.org to learn how to recognize the warning signs for suicide and what to do when you see them.
Find out about trainings and resources available to parents, school staff and youth to increase awareness and help students. Hear how parents can create safe conversations about suicide with their children.
Suicide Prevention Webinar
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
6 – 7 p.m.
Teacher Appreciation Week: May 7 – 11, 2018
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.
CAPTA – Teacher Appreciation Week
National PTA – Promotional Toolkit including certificates, digital and social media graphics
National PTA – View posts tagged with #ThankATeacher
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.
Barbara Emerich High School Senior Scholarship – Due April 10th
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.
Tasting the Future
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.
Parents for Healthy Kids Grants – Up to $1000
Support parent-led physical activity AND nutrition initiatives and help your school become healthier with an Action for Healthy Kids “Parents for Healthy Kids” grant for the 2018-2019 school year.
Funding can go toward but is not limited to equipment for recess, classroom physical activity, play space or gymnasium refurbishing, healthy celebrations and fundraisers, and taste tests.
- Deadline to apply is April 6, 2018.
- Parents for Healthy Kids Grant webinar recording
For additional information, go to School Grants for Healthy Kids or email Kahmed@actionforhealthykids.org
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.
President’s Day
Ed100 has created a great set of resources to share and do with your kids to learn about the President’s Day holiday, its history, as well as about America’s presidents.
- Learning Links
- Presidents in music
- Presidents through the Arts
- Quizzes, Puzzles, and More
Make a Donation to Support Student Meals
At San José Unified, we believe student nutrition is a key component of a well-rounded education. We constantly strive to meet the nutritional needs of our students while ensuring our schools promote a healthy and active learning environment.
All told, our Student Nutrition team prepares and serves more than 18,000 hot and cold meals every day across 40 school sites, from elementary to high school.
We encourage families to use the MySchoolBucks online system to pay for student meals. MySchoolBucks is a safe, simple, and secure way to make meal payments at no additional cost to families, and funds are available the same day they are deposited.
Recently, we’ve heard from members of the community who want to know how they can help to ensure that every student has access to healthy meals on campus. That’s why we’ve partnered with MySchoolBucks to provide an opportunity for you to make tax-deductible donations toward student meals.
Please visit this online portal to make a donation today. Every $2 you give covers the cost of a meal for one of our students, so every dollar truly does count!
If you have any questions or would like to arrange for an offline donation, please contact our Public Information Office at (408) 535-6444.
The Princess Project: Silicon Valley
The Princess Project provides free prom dresses and accessories to teens who could not otherwise afford them.
Dress giveaway days:
March 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, and 20.
Mountain View
All teens must have an appointment. No walk-ins.
Donate a dress
Have a dress in your closet that you would like to donate, here are donation guidelines:
Current styles from 2008 to present
Dry-cleaned and on hangers
Prom dresses, formal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, or fancy party dresses
Short or long dresses accepted
Appropriate for teenagers
Sizes 0 – 30
New and like-new accessories
For information on dates and drop-off locations for donated dresses, or other questions, please email getadressppsv@princessproject.org
San Jose Unified Council of PTAs 