President Message from Open House
Hi All!
My name is Jill Simon and this is my second year as the Culbreth PTSA president. I have an 11th grader, and an 8th grader, and we’ve been in the CHCCS schools since kindergarten!
So, what is the PTSA and why is it important?
Formally, the PTSA is a non profit, 501c3 that operates independently of the school and district. It’s an organization of local groups of teachers and the parents of their students that works for the improvement of the schools and the benefit of the kids.
The real deal is that we support the school. Sometimes we can work faster and smarter and without the bureaucracy and restrictions that the school/state/and district impose.
Perfect example, the teachers have been here since before school started today, and they won’t leave until after you do. We fed them dinner. We have the flexibility to do things that make life a little easier for our underfunded, underpaid, overworked staff.
So let’s back up.
P-T-S-A- Parent, Teacher, Student Association. This collaborative effort amongst those participants is designed to enhance and supplement things that the school does not have the ability to fund.
Sometimes that is with human effort, like helping out in the classrooms, staffing dances, making casseroles and bringing in cookies, or weeding gardens and school beautification.
Sometimes it’s with community outreach and connections using our vast network of parents and their expertise, like bringing people in for STEAM day, connecting teachers to resources at places of employment, field trips, or outreach for grants.
Sometimes it’s with dollars. Buying something the school can’t get fast enough, or out of range of the scope of their spending. Supporting families directly with our food for students program, or with the social worker’s school supply closet.
ALWAYS, it’s with your voice and your ideas. We have a calendar laid out of the ideas we hope to support this year. We have time set aside to hear ideas from teachers about what they would like to see come to life.
We are constantly answering these questions:
How can we best support our students?
How can we best support our families?
How can we best support our staff?
How can we best use the talents of our families to meet these needs?
How can we stretch our funds?
How can we supplement the things the school is already doing more efficiently?
And one to not be overlooked, as an organization separate from the school and district, how can we use our voices to advocate for educational needs in our school, district, and state?
Our teachers desire and deserve respect, autonomy and competitive salaries. While the PTSA is not in a position to offer the latter two to our teachers, together as a group we can show them the respect and appreciation we know they deserve. We can supply their classrooms with the tools they need. We can ease a few burdens of some families and help to keep our students engaged. And we can put out a heck of a hospitality spread.
We ask for your membership at minimal cost to you, just $10, and we will sponsor it if that is a hardship. When you join you will receive the PTSA weekly e-newsletter, which will clue you in on our meeting plans and upcoming events.
We ask for your donation of time, thoughts or funds. Our budget for the year is about $45000, which amounts to about $60 per student. If it is within your means, we hope you will consider a donation to fund one or more students…
We will ask you for a few things throughout this year-this fund drive, some hospitality home cookin’, and a holiday gift fund that runs outside of the PTSA.
Most of all, we ask for your voice. The next meeting is on September 29 at 5PM via zoom. Your ideas, your thoughts, and your voice is needed to help make Culbreth the school we know our teachers and students deserve.