FSUS PTSA

Dear FSUS Families,

Since November is the traditional time to appreciate our blessings, let me take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has joined FSUS PTSA this year and who has given their time to support our activities.

A huge thank you goes to our faculty!  This is a record year for teacher memberships.  Another huge thank you to our FSUS families!  We had more participation from middle and high school families for our fall fundraiser than ever before.  A huge thank you to our Executive Board for all their time, effort and planning!  A huge thank you to our hard-working Committee Chairs!

New committees like Family Fun Nights have held Spirit Nights at Beef O’Brady’s and Chick-Fil-A and are planning some great new events.  Our Recycling Committee has distributed new containers on campus and is working with existing recycling efforts to make our campus more environmentally aware and responsible.  Our Reading Programs Committee is back and working on a new Reading Challenge for the elementary kids.  Our Health & Safety Committee is working hard on the school gardens and on rescheduling the Bike Rodeo.  We are also looking forward to our developing Room Parents program.

Our volunteers are the best and whether they are distributing fundraising products or tending to our school garden they are worth their weight in gold!  I know many of you are hoping for an opportunity to volunteer.  November will provide many chances from helping collect food for the Second Harvest to working at the Thanksgiving Luncheon.

Please know that you are an important member of the FSUS PTSA team supporting our students, teachers, staff and administrators.

We’re all in this together!.

Kasey Chapin
PTSA President

Dear Kasey,

Dear FSUS Families,

We are almost at the end of our first nine weeks of school.  Over 450 members have joined FSUS PTSA and working together we have met our school-wide fundraising goal for our Fall Fundraiser.  Thank you all for supporting PTSA, Florida High, our teachers and our students.  We’re all in this together!
Our first General Assembly meeting on September 23rd was well attended.   Members approved the budget, heard from our officers and committee chairs about current and future projects and events, recognized teachers who have been approved for Teacher Mini-grants, enjoyed an update from Principal Trafford about the current and possible future building projects on the FSUS campus, and shared a lovely dessert.  Thanks to Madison Fitzpatrick, the newly elected president of K-Kids, for leading us in our Pledge of Allegiance, to Key Club for providing babysitting during the meeting and to Mrs. Searight and the cafeteria staff for providing beverages.

We have many volunteer opportunities coming up in October and over the course of the school year.  If you have a specific committee you are interested in working with, please click here to sign up.

To volunteer to help out with upcoming PTSA events,  see the section below entitled “Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities.  Electronic sign-ups are available.

Remember that anyone who becomes a FSUS PTSA member by October 31st is eligible for our drawing to win back your student’s school activity fee.  Also, teachers who are PTSA members and submit a mini-grant request by October 31 are eligible for a drawing to win a matching mini-grant.  Both drawings will take place on November 1.  Please contact Marie Aguirre at maguirre@tnc.org with any questions about the drawings.  You will find both membership forms and mini-grant applications on our webpage.

Thanks again for all your support of FSUS PTSA!

Kasey Chapin
PTSA President

Dear Kasey,

Welcome Back FSUS Families!

PTSA is off to a great start this year. I really enjoyed talking to so many of you during our orientation week and back-to-school events.  Everyone seems very excited about this school year and many of you have asked how you can be involved.  You can be involved in a lot of different ways:

1. Join or renew your membership with PTSA.  We will send you this newsletter and other notices filled with information about volunteer opportunities at the school and all the great plans we have to support our faculty, students and their families.
2. Join the FSUS Listserv.  This is the most immediate way to get important school news.  A perfect example of the value of timely information was the unexpected closing of FSUS in anticipation of Tropical Storm Fay.
3. Join our Room Parent program.  PTSA is organizing “Room Parents” to take the lead in gathering and sharing contact information for a class or area.  These parents will keep in touch with the families of your student’s classmates and receive updates of what volunteer opportunities exist in the classrooms.
4. Support our ongoing fall product fundraiser.  This is our main fundraiser for the year and it allows PTSA to provide great programs for the students such as recycling, cyber safety and media literacy, and safe routes to school.  We also hope to increase the number of teacher mini-grants available to the teachers and offer Family Fun Nights.  This is just a small sample of the programs PTSA can do this year if we reach our fundraising goal.
5. Clip and save your Box Tops, Campbell’s Labels, Tyson Panels and Community Coffee Labels for our ongoing Collections Fundraiser.  Your efforts translate into real money and credit for needed supplies for our school.

I strongly encourage you to get involved in your PTSA. Remember you don’t have to make a huge time commitment; an hour of your time can make a difference.

Finally, please join me on Tuesday, September 16 at 6:30PM in the Tomahawk Café for PTSA’s first General Assembly.  We will outline our plans for the year and offer a proposed budget for the membership’s consideration and approval.

Please contact me if you have any questions about PTSA, or if you’d like to join or volunteer.  We have a couple of chair and co-chair positions available for Awards, Teacher-Staff Appreciation, and Health & Safety.  We also need help with website development.  Remember, we’re all in this together and by working together we will have a great year!

Kasey Chapin
FSUS PTSA President

Dear FSUS Family,

Thank you for joining FSUS PTSA.  I am honored to serve as your PTSA President for the 2008-2009 school year.  I was the Technology Chair for the past two years and served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the FSUS Playground Project.  That project really demonstrated what our school and our community can achieve when we pursue a common goal.  Your PTSA Executive Board is very excited to welcome you back to school this month.

Our theme this year is “We’re All in This Together.”   As parents and family members, teachers and staff, students and community members we all have a stake in making FSUS the best environment for our children.  Over the coming school year our educators and our children will each spend over 1,200 hours at the Florida High campus.  Our goal is to help make their “home away from home” as productive, comfortable and safe as possible to promote a dynamic learning environment.  As proud participants in the FSU research school we should expect nothing less for our students.

The first thing you can do for your student is to join or renew your membership in FSUS PTSA.  The FSUS PTSA is a K-12 volunteer organization dedicated to making Florida High the most special place it can be.  Our members contribute to the learning environment at Florida High by supporting our educators with over $5,000 in teacher mini-grants and with back-to-school, holiday and teacher-staff appreciation events.  The PTSA supports book fairs and reading events, Reflections art competition, FCAT snacks, playground maintenance, school gardens, health and safety fair, bike rodeo, wellness activities, scholarships and funding of graduation activities.  As a local unit of PTA we also have a Legislative Affairs liaison monitoring any legislation on a national, state or local level that affects our students.

We are proud to bring you programs such as school-wide recycling, media literacy and safe routes to school.  We have a great new fundraiser planned for this fall that will help us achieve our goals and allow our students and families to work together to bring an exciting BMX show to all of our students. We are hosting three PTSA General Assembly meetings this year and bringing back spirit nights and family fun nights.
Because your time is precious, we will keep you informed about what is happening in our school through this monthly electronic newsletter, Council Oak, and through our webpage www.fsus.fsu.edu/parents/ptsa/.

I believe that whether we work or we stay home, whether we live close by or far away, whether our student is in elementary, middle or high school, we are all in this together.  There will be many opportunities to volunteer and to participate over the upcoming school year.   Your time is valuable and appreciated whether it is for an occasional hour or a more regular time commitment.   Our first volunteer opportunity is the “Welcome Back Breakfast” for FSUS teachers and staff on Monday, August 11.  We need casseroles!  Click here to sign up.

Again, welcome back to another wonderful year at Florida High. I look forward to seeing you at our first FSUS General Assembly Meeting in September.

Sincerely,

Kasey Chapin
FSUS PTSA President
ka_chapin@yahoo.com