Can you believe it? Summer is just weeks away.
We've had a productive year! We got the color side of the electronic board installed, helped get the track and did lots of grounds improvement, we had 2 successful Health and Fitness Nights, a fantastic Fall Festival and a terrific Teacher Appreciation Week! We've had Kona Days and All Pro Family Breakfasts nearly every month. We've been busy!! As PTA President the last 2 years, I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. I feel there's so much more I'd like to have done. This past November, I learned I had to battle cancer again so it kept me very busy with many surgeries, procedures, and appointments. That being said, one thing on the list was to keep this website updated more frequently. That can be a goal for this coming school year. :-) Also on the list was more frequent printed newsletters, and afternoon and evening general PTA meetings. Here's something that's coming up: We have a new program, called SchoolKidz. It's through Staples and its a school supply pre-order program. It works by paying for a box before summer and just before school, your almost all your child's school supplies are delivered. Easy and convenient. You can check it out and orderat www.shopttkits.com and enter 33460 for account number. Paper order forms are coming home soon. PTA passed their discount to families so the boxes are the lowest price possible. Thanks again for the honor of serving you and our entire John E Ford family these past 2 years. Looking forward to being available to assist our next PTA President and continuing to help make John E Ford the best it can be. So far this year, we have done lots to improve the school and its grounds. We have had 2 Greening of the Grounds days (December and March) where we have repaired raised garden beds, planted new plants or seeds, laid mulch, and improved the butterfly garden. We also replaced some large planters that were falling apart.
Still to come, are new umbrellas for the courtyard where our middle school students regularly have lunch, and where our elementary students occasionally picnic or visit. Also, buddy benches and peace tables for the playground are being looked into. We are in the process of obtaining quotes from vendors. PTA is also looking to partner with the school to have an evening Town Hall meeting where families can come and discuss issues they'd like to address. Meanwhile, we've also discussed having general quarterly PTA meetings at 3:30pm and at 5:30pm. We're hoping to start that soon. We were able to purchase a new laminator for the school as the old one was broken and very outdated. PTA has also looked into having a formal dance for our middle school students. We do not have enough support yet for this as its a big undertaking. Lastly, we are also looking into a movie night on the lawn. This probably won't happen until the Fall as we have so much going on each week through the end of school. Do you have any questions, comments, or suggestions? Please reach out in the contact section of this website. Hope this entry finds you doing well in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
The fundraiser did well enough for us to purchase the school a new laminator! We will even be able to do some grounds improvement like benches. Thanks for your part in making the fundraiser a success. Due to the hurricane causing school closures, the products will be delivered to the school next week. We are waiting to hear if Monday October 17 is confirmed. Health and Fitness Night was fantastic. We had many vendors present to educate and inform. There were lots of freebies as well as drawings for all kinds of great items. Hope you had to opportunity to come! This Friday is our Fall Festival. Flyers and preorder forms were sent home before hurricane Matthew. Feel free to print out the preorder form with attached funds with your child. You can also ask the front office to sent a copy home (630-6540.) Credit cards/debit cards can be taken in person at the festival. We will have so much going on for the festival and fun for all ages. There will be a silent auction, a DJ, a firetruck, human hamster wheel, train, bounce houses, horse and pony, and a video game truck! And that's not all that will be there! The silent auction is lots of fun - there are always great baskets to bid on and try to win. This year, there will be 4 Disney tickets, 2 Busch Garden's tickets, Sweet Pete's (candy store/restaurant) gift cards, and more. We usually put some sneak peak pics on our Facebook site the day before. We'll have lots of food for sale as well. Click here to see the planned menu. Would you like to help? Let us know! ([email protected].) We need a facepainter, and volunteers to help things run smoothly. From checking armbands, to preparing and selling food, to helping set up or take down, there's something for everyone. We also need tables (plastic folding ones) and canopies (for shade if its pretty warm.) You can even sign up here. Truly hope you get to attend! It will be a fun-filled few hours that we our sweet children will enjoy thoroughly. Health and Fitness Night is this Thursday, September 29 from 6pm to 7pm. Flyers should have come home, or will be coming home soon. We will have a general PTA meeting beforehand at 5:45 to vote in our budget.
We plan to have Kona Ice and another food truck present with food/shaved ice for purchase. Moe's Southwest Grill will be giving out nachos and salsa while Tropical Smoothie Cafe will be giving out smoothie samples. Click here to view the flyer. (Can't figure out how to get it to show without making it a link. But you can view it to the right.) Hope you can come. It will be lots of fun and we have lots of great giveaways, and door prizes like gift cards and merchandise, This past Wednesday, we had our first All-Pro Family Breakfast. We spoke about being healthy, updated those who could attend about what's going on with PTA, and encouraged membership. We'd like to thank The Donut Shoppe for their generous donation of 5 dozen donuts. We were also able to serve other light breakfast items like bananas, sausage biscuits, sausage pancake sticks, GoGurt, juice and coffee. Friday October 14, is our Fall Festival. This is one of PTA's biggest events and we need help. If you or another adult are able to volunteer your time to help us set up the day before, the day of and run the event, that would be fantastic. We also are in need of canopy tents to borrow. You can email us at [email protected]. There are even more local benefits to being a PTA member, so check it out on the membership page. The updated file has been posted there. One of JEF PTA's board members was able to attend the monthly DCCPTA (Duval City Council of PTA's) meeting the morning of Tuesday 8/23, at the school board. Each month, school PTA Presidents and/or a designee can attend these meetings which are very informative about PTA and our schools.
At the meeting, it was encouraged to make sure to vote. There are people running for school board in districts 5 and 7 and those candidates spoke to those who attended the meeting. Early voting is going on now so find out about the candidates that can impact you and your family. There is a House Bill - 7029 - that our school board representative, Paula Wright informed us about. A small part of this bill states students would be allowed to attend any school, anywhere, as long as there is room and they have their own transportation. This could have a lot of both positive and negative effects on community schools. Dr. Vitti, the superintendent of Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) also came to speak.and answer questions. He answered many questions, addressed the 50-60% of buses that don't have air conditioning, and addressed recess on an elementary level. He stated all elementary schools have built in time during the day for recess. He spoke of the challenges of losing instructional time to have extra mandated recess and outside time, but he emphasized teachers may use their judgement with taking their kids outside as much as they want.. The state statute requirement for physical activity is 150 minutes a week and DCPS are compliant with that. That's all the main points from the meeting. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We are all a team and we're better together. :-) Orientations are taking place and school starts Monday, August 15th!
We are so excited for a new school year. This year, PTA's goals are a new laminator for the school, more lanes in our new track, a surface computer lab and improving the school grounds. We'll firm up these goals at our first board meeting. Board meetings take place the first Tuesday of the month at 8am and general meetings will be before each evening event at 5:45pm. If you'd like to be involved, whether a lot or a little, please come to a board meeting and check it out. Hope to see and hear from you soon! We are nearing half way through the school year already.
How are we, John E Ford's PTA doing? We have tons and tons of ideas and things we'd love to implement. We are working hard to try and get a track for the school, get more business partners, communicate excellently and bring a sense of closeness between parents, teachers, school staff and the students. We are. however, in need of help. In order to keep up with memberships, write newsletters, emails, Facebook posts, update the website, write correspondence, try to gain business partners, and plan and carry out PTA-sponsored activities, time is needed. We all lead full busy lives so it's not taken lightly that we are asking for your time. Anything you are willing to do, anytime, we'd appreciate. Like what, do you ask? Small tasks that can be done from home, like writing out thank you cards to businesses that donate to us would be so helpful. Or researching good articles we can share on the Facebook page. Or asking businesses you know may be willing to partner with our school. to do just that. Have time off during the school day? Our fantastic librarian, Mrs. Shelley could always use help with getting books shelved, and occasionally with passing out textbooks to classrooms when a shipment comes in. It seems when it comes to education, a teacher/staff member's job is never done because there are endless things that they would love to do, if they only had the time, resources and help. Again, we appreciate your support in just reading this blog. Any additional support you can give, be it your time, ideas, or labor would be much appreciated. We are happy to be part of your PTA and we look forward to continue to grow and improve. |