Open PTA Positions

The PTA is starting to plan ahead for the 2007-2008 school year. There will be lots of great opportunities to get involved and we’re hoping to enrich the school year with fun events, great programs and key fundraising events. First on our agenda is filling key committee chair positions.

Committee chairs are a vital part of the PTA. These people are the leaders of a team of people that works together to bring a program or event to the school; without them, we simply cannot function. The chairs will be well-supported by an enthusiastic and dedicated executive board who can answer questions, help problem-solve and make sure that the chairs have the information, tools and resources that they need to move forward!

If you are interested in becoming a committee chair, please contact Kristen Allen-Bentsen at kallenbentsen@hotmail.com or 425.427.6487

Open Chair Positions for the 2007-2008 School Year

Family Fun Night: Are you great at throwing a party? Than this is a job for you. Help create, define and organize a fun, family-centered evening at Issaquah Valley Elementary. Plan a sock-hop, ice cream social, game night or spaghetti dinner or cultural exchange night. The sky’s the limit (but not the budget) ? Wanted: Co-chairs for fall event, co-chairs for winter event, co-chairs for spring event. (This is a relatively short time commitment as you plan and execute the event).

Popcorn: The kids at IVE love their Friday popcorn treat that the PTA provides. This chair organizes and trains a crew of people to pop popcorn on Fridays and keeps supplies stocked and the money in order. (This is a full year commitment)

Staff Appreciation Luncheon Chair: Traditionally, we have celebrated our teachers in royal style one week a year. Without sacrificing the royal treatment, we’d like to change our luncheons from one a day for five days to once a month. Staff Appreciation Luncheon Chair would create themed luncheon menus, recruit bakers, cooks, plan and create decorations and arrange for the set up and clean up of the once a month luncheon. Lunches will probably be on Wednesdays and Fridays and dates will be set by the principal and the chair jointly. (This is a full year commitment)

Staff Appreciation Gift Chair: Do you love to shop? Are you gifted at the gift-basket? Can you make a dollar stretch? Do you always bring the perfect gift? Then this position is just right for you. The Staff Appreciation Gift Chair would put a team of people together to help create gifts, signs, posters, cards and gift baskets to be distributed during staff appreciation week at IVE. This person would keep track of the budget and put together a team of people to take care of our staff at IVE in style! (This job would be a couple of months in the spring, culminating with the Staff appreciation week which is generally the second week of May).

Reflections: Are you an artist? A writer? A lover and supporter of the arts? The reflections program is sponsored by the National PTA and seeks to promote the arts in elementary school. The chair of this program (which begins in October and is done by the beginning of December) puts the reflections packets together (there is a ton of information about Reflections on the National PTA website), collects the art and writing pieces as they come in, organizes judging from outside of the school community and puts together a school Arts night (in conjunction with the Art Docent) to recognize the participants.

Walk-A-Thon: Does fundraising run in your blood or perhaps in your career background? Can you squeeze blood out of a turnip? Have some creative ideas to inspire our IVE kids to walk towards earning money for our school? The walk-a-thon is traditionally IVE’s biggest fundraiser. In the past few years, we’ve earned most of our PTA monies through this activity. It’s a big job that includes organizing the day of the walk-a-thon, inspiring and motivating the kids to get involved, planning and running assemblies, creating flyers and bulletin boards, keeping track of money as it comes in and planning an awards ceremony and awards party. The walk-a-thon directly and positively impacts each and every student at IVE. This is a way to really make a difference! This commitment begins in December and runs through the end of the school year.

Back-to-School Coordinator: If by August you are ready for a break from your kiddos and looking forward to school starting up, this might be the perfect job for you, particularly if you like to email or talk on the phone. You will be the contact person for Jill Dougherty and Wendee Fowler (our fabulous front office staff) for back-to-school packet coordination. Once you have a date from them, you will call volunteers (who signed up in the spring) and let them know the details about helping stuff packets in the main office. (A very short time commitment…a few hours of your summer!)

Room Parent Coordinator: If you have always been a room parent, know the school pretty well and like to attend PTA meetings, this could be your dream volunteer job! The room parent coordinator will simply be a conduit of information from the PTA to room parents about what is happening in the school. When we are short on volunteers, this person will let their room parents know; when we are brainstorming ideas for teacher gifts, or class auction art or want to know how effective a particular PTA program is, this person will hop on the phone or type some emails and help us create bonds with our classroom “families.” A year long commitment, but not a ton of time or stress.

Silent Auction Coordinator: Auction! Auction! If those words make you excited rather than panicked, then raise your paddle to help us put on a mini-auction this year at IVE! We need a chair with auction experience who is organized and a good communicator to plan, coordinate and execute a dinner or breakfast and small silent auction to help us raise some extra funds at IVE. This is a big job that will require a team so team-building skills will be great too. The board is all fired up about this one so we promise to be supportive and helpful!

Vision and Hearing: If you would love to help but would like to do so in short, intense blasts, helping out with vision and hearing is the perfect job for you! One day in October (yet to be named) the nurse at IVE has to screen each and every child for vision and hearing. This requires many volunteers (about 25) and a plan to run and get kids, get them in lines, test them and get them back to class. The chairperson will work directly with the nurse on the plan, VP of Volunteers on recruiting people and Hospitality to provide lunch for our hardworking volunteers.

2007 Issaquah Valley Elementary Walk-A-Thon

IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE!  We got our feet in the WAT and had a great time!

We couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better crowd!  The sun was shining, great music was playing and the kids were walking and running.  In fact they made more than 5,500 laps altogether!

This year, we measured out the course and realized there was not enough room for a 1/3 mile course (as previously advertised).  The laps were bigger than in the past, but measured 1/4 mile.  So IVE students walked over 1380 miles!  That’s an average of 3.2 miles per student.

Pledges are still being collected, so we look forward to the final results and announcing all the winners at the Awards Assembly, June 8^th and hosting a Carnival Awards Party on June 19^th for top lap walkers and pledge earners as well as the classes with 80% participation of at least $75 in pledges.  And if we hit the $25,000 mark, we will have a dunk tank also on June 19^th!

THANK YOU Walk-a-thon volunteers!  We couldn’t have done this without you.

Birgit Aarrestad
Kristen Allen-Bentsen
Tiffany Aske
Pete Bayron
Bill & Connie Bellas
Nancy Blue
Jodi Boatright
Heather Chamberlain
Kathy Crisafulli
Brenda Devore
Robbi Duff
Marissa Gastwirth
Leah Gibson
Martha Ginthner
Annie Graber
Jule Gunn
Colleen Gurkin
Natalie Hancock
Penny Hanson
Liz Heffernan
Melissa Herschman
Sherida Humbyrd
Ana Jimenez-Inman
Kerri Jensen
Bert Jones
Stacey & Stephen Kim
Caroline King
Cara Kovac
Lynne Kunitz
Michelle Lancaster
Anne Livingston
Leslie MacInnes
Susan McDonald
Sally Moore
Kim Nardi
Jodi Novotny
Lorna Pflaumer
Debra Reynolds
Onti Rosen
Liz Rudolph
Debbie Shiozaki
Ron Sordahl
Kim Tally
Shelley Tang
Sandy Torrey
Karie Underwood
Shelia Wallace
Anne Watanabe
Sheryl Whalen
Kellie Woodford

And to the IVE Staff who also helped so much... 

Diane Bankson
Jill Doherty
Dusty Duke
Wendee Fowler
Jennell Reece
Dan Ullom

Congratulations to this month's Cougar Award winners!

K

Grace Y

Sarah S

1st

Joey U

2nd

April K

Mickayla C

Isabel R

Zoe B

Andrew L

Jesus O

Jordan M

3rd

Blake T

Tetsu L

Daniel R

Nicole O

Holly K

Corbin G

Emma B

Nathan D

Sage A

4th

Courtney H

5th

Ryan W

YEAR END FOOD DRIVE to benefit the Issaquah Food Bank

The IVE PTA will be hosting a year end Food Drive to benefit the Issaquah Food Bank. The Food Drive will begin on Wednesday May 30th and end on Friday June 15th. Non-Perishable Items and/or Grocery Store Gift Cards can be placed in the boxes located in the Community Outreach Area, across from the Front Office. If you have questions or would like to volunteer on the load day, please contact Mariah Bettise, mbettise@qwest.net 425-369-8151.

Community Outreach Committee

Summer Office Hours

June 26th 9:00-3:00.

June 27th closed for District Meeting.

June 28th & 29th 9:00-3:00.

The Office will reopen August 13th.

'07-'08 Supply Lists

'07-'08 Supply Lists will be in the report card envelopes that go home on the last day of school.

Postcard Notification

By September 1st your child should receive a postcard from their new teacher. If you do not receive this postcard please call the office at 425-837-7200.

'07 - '08 Bell Schedule:

Grades 1-5 & FDK         MTThF  8:30-2:53       

WED  8:15-12:30

 

AMK                    MTThF  8:30-11:03      

WED  8:15-11:03

 

PMK                      MTThF  11:42-2:53      

WED  NO SCHOOL

5th Grade Parents

Issaquah Middle School is already preparing to welcome your student in the fall. One of the first tasks for both parents and students is Back to School Check-In where students and parents fill out forms for the business office and nurse's files, have their photos taken for their ASB (student body) cards, get their lockers and gym uniforms and learn about the PTSA. This three day event needs many volunteers to make it run smoothly. This year Back to School Check-In will be held Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, August 20th, 21st and 22nd from 10:00am to 1:00pm.
Volunteers are needed for two hours shifts, either 9:30 - 11:30 or 11:30 - 1:30. This is a great way to become familiar with the school before your child starts in September. If you are able to help, please contact Sally Brunette, 425-562-2670, sallybru@comcast.net.

IMS WalkAbout

If your child will be attending IMS in the fall, you'll be happy to know that there is a fun and rewarding program called WalkAbout where parent volunteers walk through the campus at peak times of the school day (before and after school, and all lunches) as a positive and friendly presence.  It is another set of eyes and ears for the staff and administrators with the goal being to discourage negative behaviors on campus such as bullying and harassment.  The added benefit is the opportunity to interact with students, staff and other IMS parents.  It's a great way to get connected with the school without a huge time commitment.  Volunteers can work as often as their schedule allows!  Flexible scheduling makes it easy for working moms and dads to participate.  A one-time-only parent training session is required in order to participate.  Mark your calendars for September 10, 2007 from 7:00-9:00pm in the IMS Commons.  Questions?  Check out the IMS Walkabout website at https://home.comcast.net/~imswalkabout/ or contact Patty Flynn (pattyflynn@comcast.net) or Blair Baumer (b.baumer@comcast.net).

Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Drill

Issaquah Valley’s Safety Committee and staff continue to pursue our goal of ensuring that IVE is prepared for any emergency or disaster scenario. We conduct monthly fire drills, have practiced lockdown and earthquake procedures with our students and continue to review policy and procedure in this regard. We will be conducting our annual Disaster Drill on Monday June 11. Students and staff will participate in a mock earthquake scenario beginning around 1:30 pm. Students will be out on the field for approximately 45 minutes while we conduct the drill. Students are encouraged to dress appropriately fro the drill. The date and schedule for the drill are subject to change due to weather conditions. If you have any questions please contact Ms. Reece at 425/837-7201.

Janet Barry Celebration

Ten years leading the District and “Never a Dull Moment” for Superintendent Janet Barry! Come ready with your favorite memory to a community celebration of her retirement from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday, June 20, at Pickering Barn, 1730 10th Ave. N.W. Appetizers and refreshments will be served. Please bring a message, memory, well wishes, or photos on a piece of paper no bigger than 8-by-11 inches that can be included in a scrapbook.

Seattle Chamber Music Society

 Summer Festival at The Overlake School

2007 FAMILY CONCERT 

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 

featuring Seattle’s Klassikon String Quartet,  

including cellist and KUOW announcer Dave Beck 

The 45-minute performance begins at 7:00 pm, and is especially suited for children ages 6-12.  The concert is preceded by free hotdogs and lemonade outside on the lawn at 6:00 pm. 

General admission tickets are only $8.00.   

The Overlake School is located at 20301 NE 108^th Street in Redmond.   

For tickets or more information, call (206) 283-8808 or visit http://www.seattlechambermusic.org.