spring ga dist11 newsletter

11th DistrictBoard of Directors

DEIRDRE PIERCEDistrict Director

404-243-8960 (h)404-291-8960 (c)

[email protected]

THOMAS RAYTONAsst. District Director

PATRICIA WOODARDSecretary/Treasurer

EVELYN JOHNSONParliamentarian &Membership Chair

SANDY PURKETTLegislation

MARCIA COWARDDeKalb Council President

STEPHANIE MOORERockdale Council President

ABDUL AKBARDiversity – National Ex-Officio (District)

ADRIAN W. COXHealth/Wellness Chair

GA PTAEx-Officio (District)

MAMIE BUTTSNewsletter Editor

everychild. onevoice.cadaniño. unavoz.

Newsle�er

The official publication of District 11 Georgia PTA

Volume 1, Issue 2 | Spring 2012

DeKalb RockdaleNewton

“Endless Possibilities”

Greetings from District 11 DirectorHello Awesome 11th District Leaders!

Ihope this letter finds all of you doing well and still mak-ing great strides with your fellow Board officers, schoolsystem leaders and membership.

For many of you, February and March are the months ofNominating Committee elections. If that is the case, pleaseremember to follow the guidelines in your Bylaws, and startlooking around for those dedicated members who possess thetype of leadership skills necessary to lead your LUs and Coun-cils to the next level of success.

As leaders we have a responsibility to ensure that our members fully understand thetrue meaning of PTA, and more importantly, the mission of PTA! Providing informa-tion at our LU, Council and District events would certainly help them begin to ab-sorb the impact PTA has had on children and their families worldwide. Although wedo a great job of supporting our schools with fundraising, let’s make sure we bal-ance that with powerful Advocacy efforts!

PTA Day at the Capitol proves that our voice is being heard in the legislature and isan event well worth attending; hosting Legislative Forums where all candidatesand/or legislators are invited to share their views with constituents proves to be aneffective event and PTSA Day at the Capitol, that was held recently, is a great wayof introducing our youth to the power of Advocacy. The larger the numbers, thegreater the impact!

When transitioning with your new officers, please encourage them to include a fund-ing line item for District, Council and state (CLT) training sessions and those advo-cacy events mentioned earlier. Training and adherence to protocol are your keys tosuccess! If help is needed, please remember that we are here to do just that.

In closing, and as always, thank you for your dedicated serviceto your local units, Councils and our 11th District! I hope tosee you at our Spring Conference on Thursday, March 22 at the Rock-dale Career Academy.

PowerPoint: If you lead with integrity, purpose and professionalism,your legacy will speak for itself! Lead Well!

Sincerely,

Wx|ÜwÜx11th District Director, GA PTA

2 | Endless Possibilities Spring 2012

District Superintendents

Excellence in Education Plan

Dear students, parents, educators, and all of our partnersin the DeKalb community:

On January 24, we marked our first ninety days as thenew leadership of the DeKalb County School District

and the completion of our Ninety-Day Plan:http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/superintendent/ninety-day-plan.

The Ninety-Day Plan was designed for us to listen and learnabout our school system and our community, and includedmeetings to encourage feedback from students, parents, teach-ers, employees, and community leaders. This process has beencritical, as it has informed our strategy for moving the schoolsystem forward.

In addition to the Ninety-Day Plan, members of the commu-nity have met to discuss school system goals through our strate-gic plan process. We have also learned important facts fromaudits of key departments. At the same time, we have heardinput and counsel from members of the Board of Education.

These efforts haveculminated in a draftframework of the Ex-cellence in EducationPlan, our blueprint for improving our schoolsand our students’ success. Our next step isto take the next few weeks to go back to thecommunity for further feedback.

This version of our plan is a draft. Aswe accept feedback and suggestions fromall of those who touch the school system,we will complete a final version to be sub-mitted to the Board of Education for approval at some time inFebruary.

We look forward to hearing the community’s feedback andsharing our plans to make DeKalb County Schools a district-wide school system of excellence.

Greetings from DeKalb County Superintendent

Dear 11th District Rockdale Leaders…

It takes the continued support and involvement of all stake-holders to garner results such as the following. We truly valuethe role of the PTA and are delighted with recent expansionand engagement at the high school level in our district. Weurge all parents to stay involved in their child’s education andjoining the PTA is a great way to start!

Rockdale County Public Schools Receives MoreState Honors

Rockdale County Public Schools has recently received ahost of state recognitions for student achievement

throughout the district.

Beginning with elementary, Pine StreetElementary was named a Georgia School ofExcellence by the Georgia Department ofEducation and had a special visit from thestate superintendent to deliver the award.

Lorraine Elementary was recentlyawarded the Silver Award for Highest Per-formance from the Governor’s Office ofStudent Achievement. Heritage High Schoolreceived two awards from the same office, aPlatinum Award for Greatest Gains and aBronze Award for Highest Performance.

[Continued on page 3]

Greetings from Rockdale County Superintendent

Dr. Cheryl L. H.Atkinson

Samuel T.King, Ed.D.

Dr. Phyllis Edwards – CitySchools of Decatur — Superintendent's Beliefs

All students will be successful learners ifwe: • Create a comfortable and supportive

learning environment.• Provide them with work which is ener-

gizing, challenging, and relevant.• Strive for student engagement which is

“minds on” not only “hands on.” Useappropriate techniques which are cog-nizant of a variety of learning styles.

• Hold high expectations and provide on-going assistance.

• Have a “whatever it takes attitude.”Guiding Tenets:• Treat every student as if they were your

own child or the child of someone very

important to you.• What we do and how we act in every

situation speaks volumes above whatwe say.

• A rapport of caring and fairness mustset the groundwork for academic suc-cess.

• Creating an authentically engaginglearning environment for all studentsmust be the work of the schools.

Informal Goals:• To see improvement in academic

achievement for the overall studentpopulation and each subgroup of stu-dents.

• To provide a safe and secure campus forall of our students and employees.

• To be fiscally responsible at both theschool and district level

• To treat every child, parent, communitymember, and staff member with re-spect and dignity

• To cultivate a spirit of loyalty, commit-ment, and teamwork among all districtemployees

• To make every decision based on whatis best for students not on what willmake our lives easier.

Greetings from Decatur City Superintendent

Dear PTA Leaders, Colleagues and Friends,

As President of the oldest child advocacyassociation, I am inspired by every PTAleader I meet, whether in person or read

about in a newsletter or report. The work we do to-gether is vital, relevant and collaborative and is focused onequity, empowerment and excellence in education for allstudents. As we wind down this school year, we know thatthere is still much to be done and accomplish!

The successful and powerful events that wehave had – just in February – are PTA Youth AdvocacyDay, the Family Engagement Conference, and PTA Day atthe Capitol. Dynamic, incredible and impacting are just afew words that capture the spirit of each event. My hope isthat you were there to be a part of the history that wasmade. If not, connect to someone who was and in that dia-logue you have with that person – become better connectedto this team called PTA.

March is a strong rally month! Our final member-ship campaign of the year is focused on the men in our lives.Men – we are asking you to stand and be counted! Becomea part of this support system for all children in our schoolcommunities. The elementary, middle or high schoolPTA/PTSA with the most Male Members submitted duringthe month of March will receive an Atlanta Braves auto-graphed baseball and bat and four (4) game tickets. Submita list of male members and their email addresses with theDues Transmittal Form, postmarked by April 2 – as our wayof saying congratulations and thank you for joining us!

The final leg of this school year’s journey is transitioning,which simply means doing all the closing activities in prepa-ration for the upcoming school year. If you are not surewhat all those activities are – ask your Council and DistrictPTA teams. These folks are your first direct line of supportto your Local Unit PTA leadership. Finishing strong is ouronly course of action!

Thank you for all you continue to do for the students,families and communities in Georgia! Together, we can makeevery child’s potential a reality!

Donna Kosicki, PresidentGeorgia PTA - 2011 —2013

Spring 2012 Endless Possibilities | 3

Georgia PTA

Sydney Seabron (8th) Redan Advocacy Topic: School Nurses

Tiffany Jennings (8th) Redan Advocacy Topic: Arts in Education

Zhane Ford-Carter (12th) Redan HSAdvocacy Topic: Lowering Drop Out Age

Uchenna Redding (12th) Redan HSAdvocacy Topic: Increasing the Graduation Rate

Marcus Kirkpatrick (12th) Redan HS StudentLegislative Coach

Greetings from Georgia PTA President Greetings from Georgia PTA President-ElectGreetings! As you all know, when National PTA was

founded on February 17, 1897, it was the beginning of anationwide child advocacy movement. We have emergedinto the largest and oldest child advocacy association onthis planet! District 11 is definitely a moving force behindthe advocacy work of our association. How do I know that?Take a look at the following:

While attending the Student Advocacy Day a couple of weeksago that was hosted by the Georgia PTA Legislative Commit-tee, I had the privilege of observing some remarkable legisla-tive presentations by a very special group of young people outof your District. Sandy Purkett organized the following groupof students from District 11 schools that spoke at this event:

During my tenure as 2009-2011 Georgia PTA Member-ship Chair, one of Redan High School’s students, MarcusBenning, served as the student representative on the Mem-bership Committee. I am so very proud of all of Marcus’accomplishments. He was a Bill Gates Scholar and receiveda full ride to Duke University when he graduated in 2010.He is currently a sophomore Political Science major. Hewon both Freshman and Sophomore Senate nominationand spent the summer of 2011 as an intern on Wall Streetin New York City, NY.

If all of this is not enough, guess what else I learnedabout District 11? The January 2012 edition of Atlanta Mag-azine featured the high schools that were named the BEST inthe city. Out of the top 50, the DeKalb School of the Arts is no.6! In the category marked, “percentage college prep,” theyreceived a 100% rating. [Continued on page 4]

Continuing with high school recogni-tions, all high schools and the RockdaleCareer Academy were named AP (Ad-vanced Placement) Honor Schools by thestate superintendent. Specifically, Rock-dale County High School receivedawards in three categories, AP Accessand Support, AP STEM, and AP STEMAchievement.

Heritage High School was awarded

with AP Access and Support and APSTEM, and Salem High School and theRockdale Career Academy were given APSTEM awards. STEM stands for Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathemat-ics which are fields of study with high de-mands in the current and future globalworkforce. All RCPS high schools havesignificantly increased Advanced Place-ment class offerings and enrollment in

these classes. Research shows that stu-dents who take AP classes are morelikely to enroll in and complete highereducation.

In addition to the recent honors, forsix consecutive years the district has madeAdequate Yearly Progress (AYP) with itshighest graduation rate in the era of ac-countability at 86% and a low dropoutrate of 2.9%.

Greetings from Rockdale County Superintendent [Continued from page 2]


Greetings Georgia PTA

Greetings from Georgia PTA President-Elect[Continued from page 3]There is something else remarkable about this school – As of the January 2012 YTD membership report, they had a 3% in-crease from last 2010-2011. I do not know about you, but it sounds to me like they are also busy with the work of advo-cating.

In the eloquent words of your District Director, Deirdre Pierce, “and the children will lead.” In closing, keep in mindthat advocacy efforts are much stronger when we have the membership numbers backing it up. For any of you studentsthat have not yet joined the PTSA, please take steps to do so immediately. To all of the PTA leaders in the Mighty District11 – “keep doing what you are doing.” I will be speaking at your upcoming District 11 Conference in Rockdale County andam looking forward to meeting many of you there!

Rita Erves/President-Elect/Georgia PTA114 Baker Street, NE | Atlanta, GA 30308404-314-3583 | [email protected]@earthlink.net | www.georgiapta.org

Greetings from Georgia PTA Office StaffGreetings District 11 from the State Office Staff!

Thank you for all you do to serve the parents, teachers, and students in your school communities. It is our pleasure toassist you with your duties and help you solve problems. As you start to think about wrapping up your PTA responsibili-ties, we would like to give you some reminders and helpful hints:

We need for you to complete the IRS 990 Filing Verification Form and forward to us when you submit the990. See page 106 of the Leadership Resource Guide or go to the following web address for help -www.georgiapta.org/docu-ments/IRS_990_Filing_Verification.pdf. If you have missed your filing date, file anyway! Filing the 990N on-linepostcard for PTAs grossing less than $50,000 takes less than 10 minutes. This is what we use to check off your PTA forGood Standing requirement.

We need both pages of the PTA Audit/Financial Review Form. If information is not complete, we can’t mark as receivedand Karen send you an email.

If your local unit is incorporated, be sure Shiree receives your annual renewal payment by next week. The Sec-retary of State is not as nice as we are and doesn’t allow any wiggle room.

DECA, DESA and DSA, Flat Shoals (Rockdale), Flat Shoals (Decatur), Stone Mountain ES, Stone Mountain MS, StoneMountain HS….HELP! Please give us your PTA name and local unit number. We get so confused!

Reports are due March 9. You may not be interested in receiving recognition, but reports are an importantpart of PTA work. Reports are a record of your work, programs, and accomplishments. They

provide incoming officers a documented history of work completed, what worked, what did not work, and why. If youare not working on your report(s) already, we hope you will consider doing so. We would love to see the outstanding workand efforts of District 11.

One more thing we want you to know. Training makes all the difference in your experience as a PTA leader. It is im-portant for you to take advantage of every training opportunity. We can always tell what PTAs send their leadership toConvention Leadership Training and we can tell what PTAs participate in council events and programs.

We wish you much success in the coming months. As always, let us know how we can help you.

Debbie, Shiree, Karen, Doreen, Kaitlin and Pam404-659-0214 | [email protected]

Sneak in fitness!No time to sneak in fitness? No time for the 30 minutes of exercise a day proven to help protect against colon,breast, endometrial, prostate and lung cancers? Sneak it in with a little vacuuming and scrubbing: In an IndianaUniversity study, the most-fit subjects were the ones with the cleanest homes! “If you’re busy, it can be hard to getexercise,” notes Dr. Katz. “Yet brisk bouts of housework can be an inexpensive, convenient and surprisingly easyway to meet your fitness goals.”


Legislatively Speaking

Legislatively SpeakingDistrict 11 PTA Legislative Chair: Sandy Purkett

February 2012 —Senate/House Updates

In House Rules

HB 673, Georgia's Return toPlay Act, also known as the concussion bill

HB 705, amending the definition of direct class-room expenditure related to the requirement tospend 65% of all funds in the classroom

HB 896/HR 1150, Constitutional amendmentto limit the SPLOST distribution between cityand county school districts to an FTE basis

HB 705 has been held up in a dispute over in-cluding transportation funds in the calculationof expenditures. The state apparently has adire need for more schools free of all theserules, but cannot manage to let go of that onefor traditional schools.

In Senate Rules

SB 381, amending the school budget informa-tion that must be sent to the Vinson Institute

SB 403, school nurse funding recommendationfrom the Education Finance Study Commissionplus an expenditure control on the funding theCommission did not recommend (Can they justnot help themselves?)

SB 404, staff development funding recommen-dation from the Education Finance Study Com-mission

SB 49, raising the mandatory age of atten-dance to 16.5

SB 87, extending the current voucher programto include dependents of military personnel,students with a 504 plan, and students who areor have been in foster care

SR 480, urging healthy options in school vend-ing machines

SR 590, relating to CPR training

Nine School Districts Receive StrivingReader Literacy Grants

February 24, 2012 — The State Board of Education last week ap-proved State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge's recommenda-tion to award nine school districts, representing 63 schools andcenters, a Striving Reader Comprehensive Literacy Grant. “I offermy sincere congratulations to these school districts for receiving aStriving Reader Comprehensive Literacy Grant,” said Superinten-dent. “These grants will provide funding necessary for schools tobuild literacy plans for their students. Research is clear that stu-dents, who are reading on grade level, especially after 3rd grade,will be more likely to graduate from high school and be preparedfor college and careers. Districts submitted literacy plans and weregranted a portion of the $24,752,919.00 in Federal funds: FultonCounty, Clarke County, Bartow County, Jeff Davis County, MorganCounty, Jefferson County, Rome City, Brantley County, andCartersville City. Winning Schools and School Districts:https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=1262&AID=359021&MID=21842

Matt CardozaDirector of Communications

Praise for our own in Legislation Our very own Otha Thornton, Former Leg-islative Chairperson, Georgia State PTA nowNational President-Elect of National PTA is rec-ognized in Atlanta Journal & Constitution. Frommilitary ranks to PTA President-elect! Way to goOtha! See the complete article athttp://www.ajc.com/news/from-military-ranks-to-1361481.html

Children’s Day at the Capitol

Children’s Day at the Capitol was Tuesday, Feb. 28 from 9 am to 2 pm!The Voices for Georgia’s Children and 24 partner organizations hostedthe first-ever Children’s Day at theCapitol. Children’s Day is an opportunityfor elected officials, decision makers and the public to learn more about theissues that affect Georgia’s children—issues ranging from early childhood to education.


Legislatively Speaking

Update on the Charter School Resolution:

HR 1162, the constitutional amendment that would allow thestate to create charter schools was held while changes to itwere negotiated. Language from HR 1335 was added to helpdefine the funding restrictions and to clearly define what con-stituted a charter school. The funding restriction reads: “Thestate is authorized to expend state funds for the support andmaintenance of special schools in such amount and manner asmay be provided by law; providing, however, no deduction shall bemade to any state funding which a local school system is otherwise au-thorized to receive pursuant to general law as a direct result or conse-quence of the enrollment in a state charter school of a specific studentor students who reside within the geographic boundaries of the localschool system. (Italicized areas are the changes.) The intent isthat no funds earned through QBE or otherwise could be with-held as an offset to funding the new charter schools. A newline item expressly for funding the new charter schools wouldbe added.

The charter school definition is identical to that which isalready on the books for other charter schools. Languageadded to HR 1162: “Special schools may include state charterschools; provided, however, that special schools shall only be publicschools. A state charter school under this section shall mean a publicschool that operates under the terms of a charter between the StateBoard of Education and a charter petitioner; provided, however, thatsuch state charter schools shall not include private, sectarian, religiousor for profit schools or private educational institutions.

Under discussion still is the language of the ballot ques-tion. While the first two changes were seen Thursday, the bal-lot question language has yet to be seen. Also not seen yet isthe enabling legislation that will be incorporated into HB 797.

On a related note, at the State Board of Ed meeting, theAmended Charter School Report for 2010-11 was released de-tailing the performance of the charter schools. The bottom lineis that charter schools are no better than public schools in edu-cating children of similar demographics and have made similarlevels of AYP.

HR 1162 will likely come up for a vote this Thursday.While the changes that have been made, thanks in part to theadvocacy of our members, have resolved some of the major is-sues with this legislation there are still issues that need to beaddressed: The enabling legislation has not been seen or dis-cussed. The wording of the ballot question is still misleading.And the question of funding is still not really addressed. If thestate can’t afford to fully fund public education (the state stillunderfunds public education by over $1B annually) where willthey get the funds to fund new charter schools? Until thesequestions are addressed support for this amendment shouldbe withheld.

Legislation Update:

School Maps: Every school district and commission district mustbe redone to account for changes in population since the last

census. While several districts passed their mapsduring the special legislative session this sum-mer, the majority of the maps are being re-drawn and submitted for approval during thislegislative session. Each county delegation(comprised of all house and senate legisla-tors who have a portion of that county)has the final say in how the district linesare drawn and may or may not takeinput from the local officials whose dis-tricts are being redrawn. PTA membersare urged to pay attention to the pro-posed changes.

SB 183: School nurses may contactoffsite medical assistance remotely (telemed) and must followproper medical protocol. Passed both House and Senate.

HB 824: Equalization. Changes the calculation of equalization sothat every county is now compared to a state average ratherthan being equalized to the 75thpercentile. In calculating thestate average the top and bottom 5%, the outliers, (whichequates to nine systems at each end) will be removed from theaveraging numbers. The remaining counties average propertywealth is then averaged to create a state average. The intent isto create a more stable mechanism so districts can better pre-dict if they will be recipients. The intent is also to have theearned equalization more nearly align with what the state hasto pay out though its collections. Donor counties are not af-fected by this legislation. Passed House

SB 289: Students starting high school in the 2013-14 year wouldbe required to complete at least one course online. By 2014-15EOCTs would be taken online. One issue not addressed is whathappens to a student who doesn’t own a computer anddoesn’t wish to take the course at school. Passed Sen. Ed.

SB 127/HB 641: Child Protection and Public Safety Act: Compre-hensive revision of the juvenile code. Reorganizes the code andbrings it into compliance with federal law applicable to juvenilecourt proceedings. Covers: juvenile court administration, delin-quency, dependency, children in needs of services (CHINS),termination of parental rights, parental notification, emancipa-tion, independent living services and child advocate for theprotection of the child. Passed Senate Judiciary (HB 641 whichwill get heard this week in committee) SUPPORT

New Legislation to Watch:

HB 981: Would allow guns in many areas not currently al-lowed including schools. OPPOSE

Karen Hallacy, Georgia PTA - Legislative Chair

GA PTA Legislative Recap — Feb. 19, 2012

The information contained in this communication does not represent the opinions of the 11thDistrict GA PTA Legislative Committee but is information relative to Legislative Issues af-fecting Education. Questions and concerns relative to the information in this article may bedirected to Sandy Purkett @ [email protected]


DeKalb Council News

The VALUE of Establishing COMMUNITY Collaborations

As a council we havespent a great deal oftime talking about all

of the needs of our studentsand families. However, theunfortunate reality is thatwhile we have tons of great

ideas, there is never enough financial re-sources to carry out our grand plans! Acreative way in bringing additional re-sources (financial and otherwise) to your

organization, is building collaborative partnerships. Wecan begin to make this happen by recognizing the value ofCommunity Collaborations . The fact that Communityleaders expect schools to prepare students to become pro-ductive members of society, they too have a vested interestin becoming a part of the process.

Each collaboration brings its own unique resources; eachcan reach students and families in ways the others cannot;and each influences young people’s behaviors in differentways. Together, as partners in a well coordinated effort, wecan provide programs and resources that would not nor-mally be possible. Community partnership with clear, con-cise responsibilities and expectations for each participantwhich allows for flexibility in organization and implementa-tion, can only result in a win-win for both sides. We mustalso acknowledge that partnerships require a time commit-ment and that initial gains may be small.

The benefits of Collaborations• Develops shared resources and authority among the or-

ganizations.• Achieves goals which would not normally be achieved

independently because of financial restraints• Improves the delivery of educational and human services

Here are some of the great Community Collaborations theDeKalb County Council has forged this past year:

K&G — Sponsored our “Dress Up To Win” program by pro-viding speakers for assemblies as well as a commitmentto $36,000.00 in gift cards, as incentive to the stu-dents who participated in the program.

General Mills — Contributed box tops for educationbonus points to schools that participated in the “Feed-ing The Dreams” program. Local units were able to rec-ognize and celebrate everyday community volunteersand local heroes and were awarded product gif t packsfor all attendees

Sevenanda — We are participants in their “Be The Change”program that allows us to participate in capacity build-ing training and other healthy foods demonstrationsand lectures,, as well as advertising in their monthlymagazine. We also benefit financially by way of instore donations from patrons and a 10% register dona-tions from a selected day’s proceeds to benefit ourhealth initiatives.

Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Art s — This collabora-tive effort affords us the opportunity to expose our stu-dents who participate in our Culinary Competition , toreal world experiences in a world class culinary facility.

JC Penny — Serves as a resource outlet for our Jim CherryClothing Fund that provides financial support for ourfamilies experiencing catastrophic events

100 Black Men of DeKalb County — Collaborates on ef-forts delivering programs that directly benefits ourmale Youth population with our schools. Most recentactivity was the delivery of the “So You Want To BeRich” Seminar for our middle and High School boys.

DeKalb County School System — Provides office, meetingand event spaces as well human resources at no addi-tional cost to the council

DeKalb Board of Health — provides access to the manyprogram offerings relating to Tobacco and Alcoholprevention, safe routes to school initiatives, dental pro-grams for school aged children and other preventativeservices for families. They have allowed us to tap intothese services and brings the services to our local PTAs.

At its core, creating and strengthening Community Col-laborations is more about equity and can prove to bemore valuable than the total sum of Dollars in your bankaccounts. Additionally, by partnering with an organizationthat is providing grass roots community programs andprojects such as ours, a company can increase its socialstanding and knowledge of the community. The increasedknowledge can lead to an improved ability to developproducts and services to meet community needs. Withoutour community partnerships, we wouldnot have been able to afford the manygreat programs we have brought to ourDeKalb schools Countywide.

Marcia CowardDeKalb County Council of PTAs


DeKalb Council News

11th District PTA Spring Conference & Awards GalaThursday, March 22, 2012 | 6: 00 PM

Hosted by Rockdale County CouncilDirections: www.mapquest.comRockdale Career Academy

1064 Culpepper Drive SW | Conyers, GA 30094

Legislative Leaders, dedicated community PTA supporters,Principals, Teachers, schools with increased membership andour City Schools of Decatur, DeKalb and Rockdale Superin-tendents.

Refreshments provided by Career Academy Culinary students.

RSVP no later than March19, 2012 to 11th District Secre-tary/Treasurer, Patricia Woodard - [email protected].


DeKalb Council News

Membership Reminder!Congratulations to all schools that have met their 10% increase over last year. We look forward to honoring you atthe Spring Conference

Membership Goal: 34.787“Join Us, As We Grow 11th District Membership

By Leaps and Bounds!”

11th District Membership Awards for 2011-12Certificates to all schools with 10% membership increase over last year’s total.

Plaques to the Elementary, Middle and High School with the largest percent of increase over last year’s totalin the Decatur City Schools/DeKalb Council, and Rockdale Council.

Note: Your school must be in good standing.

Parliamentary TipsAs you enter the final months of the school year here are a few reminders of things to do.

> Continue to use your PTA resources from Georgia and National PTA to help you have a smooth transition from thisyear to next year

> Continue your membership drive throughout the school year and send the dues to Georgia PTA at the end of eachmonth

> Elect your nominating committee at least a month before your election month

> Refer to your bylaws to know who are your officers and how many members makes your quorum to conduct busi-ness

> Refer to the Georgia PTA resources on the website on Nominations and Elections to follow the procedure for con-ducting an election(contested/non-contested).

> Secretaries, send a copy of the new officers to Georgia PTA by May 1, 2012

> Schedule a transition meeting with the newly elected officers as soon as possible after the election meeting to goover all policies and procedures, success and failures, and pass on all procedure books. Remind new officers thatbeginning next school term the amount of dues to Georgia PTA will be $3.75. ($2.25 for National PTA and $1.50 forGeorgia PTA)

> Treasurers, arrange for the Audit of the treasury books to be done immediately after the last day of school with theforms required by Georgia PTA.

> Send as many officers as possible to the Convention and Leadership Training in Athens, July 12 -14, at the ClassicCenter (amend your budget if this is not a line item for this year)

> Refer to the parliamentary procedures in your Resource Guide and Robert's Rules of Order, newly revised 10th edi-tion as you conduct the business of your PTA/PTSA

Submitted by,Evelyn W. Johnson, parliamentarian


Health Tips

Erin Croom, Georgia Organics Farm to School Coordinator

Kids eating kale, popping radishes like candy,hands-on cooking classes with local chefs, fieldtrips to local farms and learning math in theschool garden. These are just a few things you and your child mayexperience in school this next year, as farm to school programs con-tinue to grow in popularity. These programs are a fast emerging trendin Georgia-- already over 10 districts including DeKalb County Schoolsand City Schools of Decatur are serving fresh, local food regularly inschool meals through “Harvest of the Month” programs. In the class-room, more teachers are incorporating food, farm and nutrition intotheir standards based lessons.

While most parents intuitively understand that their kids should be eat-ing more fresh fruits and vegetables, many struggle to find the time tocook with their kids, or simply don’t want to force their kids to eatbroccoli. Farm to school programs can help with this challenge — re-search shows that kids who that have an opportunity to grow vegeta-bles, are more likely to prefer them… and ultimately eat them. While ittakes an entire community of school nutrition staff, teachers, princi-pals, farmers, and students to build a farm to school program, parentsplay a key role in supporting these efforts at school and reinforcing good eating habits at home.

Georgia Organics is currently partnering with DeKalb County School System to offer hands-on trainings for teachersand cafeteria staff, and recently awarded 8 mini-grants to implement farm to school projects in schools this Spring. Inaddition, DeKalb County School System is currently revising its School Wellness Policy and is considering adopting lan-guage that supports farm to school in its revision.

For more helpful tips and tools for parents, teachers and students, check out our website athttp://www.georgiaorganics.org/farmtoschool.aspx

Farm to SchoolPrograms...Growing in Georgia!

Here are a few farm to schoolactivities you can do to supportyour school:

• Arrange a field trip to a local farm or garden

• Coordinate a taste test of fresh, local vegetables

• Help promote the Harvest of the Month dayat your school.

• Research other farm to school programs online to see what works in other communi-ties—there are over 2,000 programs in 48states!

• Plant a few seeds or seedlings with yourchild and incorporate it into a meal to-gether— try radishes, they grow in just 30days!

March MadnessMale InitiativeDistrict-wide “Dunking” Doughnuts & Discussion with Dads andGuardians was held on Friday, March 16, 2012, 8:15 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.The discussion was about “Men being involved in PTA!”

The Basketball Selection day and First-Round event have past. TheChampionship Game is scheduled for April 2, 2012, Louisiana Super-dome (New Orleans).


Rockdale Council News

Rockdale PTA CouncilRockdale Council has had a good year. We have added two newlocal units, Salem High School and C. J. Hicks Elementary. Wehave 10 qualifying units. We just Celebrated Rockdale PTA Dayat the State Capitol, with State Senator Ronald Ramsey. We havealso had our second meeting of the year with Rockdale Superin-tendent. We are looking forward to hosting the next Districtmeeting here in Rockdale at The Career Academy, as well as OurAnnual Recognition Luncheon in April.

My name is Randall Ware. I am the CAP Coordinator, for the Community AlliancePartner (CAP) program in Georgia. As our schools brace for more budget cutsand local businesses in the community struggle to remain profitable, the need towork together to achieve our unique goals is needed now more than ever before.For these reasons and more I would like to invite your PTA to participate in theCAP program.

The objective of the CAP program is to increase the value of the PTA member-ship card for all PTAs in Georgia.

Click on the link below to see how the CAP program can benefit your PTA andbusinesses in your community: http://www.gaptaperks.com/uploads/Latest_CAP_PTA_Presentation_January_28.pdf

To sign up for the CAP program go to:• www.capperks.com

• Once your PTA’s CAP account has been setup; Log into your account and print out your PTAs cus-tomized coded business invitation letters

• Hand out your PTA’s business invitation letter to businesses that your PTA currently works with andbusinesses in the community

• When businesses in your community use your PTAs business invitation letter to join CAP program yourPTA gets $50 residual income every year for as long as the business remains signed up with the CAP theprogram. See sample business invitation letter: http://www.247econnect.com/cap_bus_invitation_letter.cfm?let-ter_language=English&s=5

See some of the CAP Benefit Providers in your District: http://www.gaptaperks.com/District_11.html

If you have any questions please give me a call at 678-732-4315 or email me at [email protected]

I look forward to working with your PTA!

Hello 11th DistrictLeaders…Become a CommunityAlliance Partner!


For Your Information

PTA and the World!

Shanghai, China

The Chinese calligraphy class at San Wan ChouPrimary School

The Principal of San Wan ChouPrimary School

The aver-age class

size at SanWan ChouPrimarySchool

The San Wan Chou Primary School Band



PTA and the World!

Yangzhou University Kindergarten

The Principal of Yangzhou University Kindergarten

Part of the Summer Palace complexin Beijing

Visiting thestudents of

Xinhua MiddleSchool

The Principal of XinhuaMiddle School

An Englishlanguage mu-sical danceat YangzhouUniversity

Kindergarten



The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes

Nominate a student (age 8-18) who has been the primemover of a service activity. Each year, the Barron Prizehonors 25 winners nationwide. Half of the winners havefocused on helping their communities and fellow beings,while the other half have focused on protecting the healthand sustainability of the environment. The goal of theBarron Prize is to celebrate such heroic young people—and to inspire others to do their part. If you have solidknowledge of a young person’s heroic activities, and youare not related to the nominee, please tell us all aboutyour young hero. That student could be awarded $2,500to be applied to his or her higher education or serviceproject.

Application deadline: April 30, 2012For more information: www.barronprize.org

ASCD Outstanding Young EducatorAward

Nominees for the ASCD Outstanding Young EducatorAward should be preK-12 education professionals, 40years of age or younger, and demonstrate exemplarycommitment and exceptional contribution to theprofession. The winner will receive a check for $10,000,be profiled in Educational Leadership Magazine, and behonored during a general session at the ASCD AnnualConference. The winner will also receive an ASCDInstitutional Membership for his or her school or district.

Application deadline: August 1, 2012For more information: www.ascd.org

Grants&Scholarships

PTSA Dayat the

Capitolwas held onFeb. 9, 2012

Youth across Georgia attended thePTSA Day at the Capitol!


National PTA


PTA National Standards

In this issueDistrict Superintendents ...........................................2

Georgia PTA..........................................................3-4

Legislatively Speaking.............................................5-6

DeKalb Council News ............................................7-9

Health Tips.............................................................10

Rockdale Council....................................................11

Become a Community Alliance Partner ....................11

PTA and the World ............................................12-13

For Your Information ..............................................14

National PTA..........................................................15

PTA National Standards.....................................16-20



“The only way to be truly satisfied is todo what you believe is great work, andthe only way to do great work is to lovewhat you do.”

– Steve Jobs

spring ga dist11 newsletter

Documents