Khalsa PTO

Yearbook order forms are in all parent folders, and are due Friday, May 14th.

• Click to download the yearbook form in PDF format.

You can also order ads with this form. Thanks!

Khalsa Montessori School PTO Meeting, May 12, 2010. Elementary Campus

Mission: To enhance the delivery of excellence in education and cultivate the community of Khalsa Montessori Schools.

1. Introductions
   • Officers: Brian, Theresa, Janet, Victoria
   • Attendees introduction
2. Solicit for additional agenda items from attendees
3. Secretary’s Report
4. Treasurer’s Report
5. Fundraising
   • Recurring fundraising items:
     • eScrip and Safeway: khalsapto.org/escrip/
     • Amazon: khalsapto.org/amazon/
     • Box Tops for Education: khalsapto.org/boxtops/
     • Albertson, Osco: khalsapto.org/albertsons/
     • Target: khalsapto.org/target/
     • Sweet Tomatoes: Thursday, 5/20, khalsapto.org/sweet-tomatoes/
     • zPizza: Tuesday, 6/2, khalsapto.org/zpizza/
6. Election for next year’s officers
7. Year-end review and next-year planning
8. Yearbook orders due Friday
9. Administration Report
10. Directress Presentation: Lower Elementary East Directress: Susan Ritchey

The Governor called a special session and it is likely this budget proposal could pass this week. So if you want to contact your legislator, you should do it NOW.

Contact Information:

• To find the contact information for your legislator, go to: http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp
• To find contact information for Governor Brewer, go to: http://www.azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

Talking/Bullet Points (updated March 8, 2010):

You can use the following “talking points” or “bullets” in a letter, email or phone call to the Governor or your legislators

• Governor Brewer released a budget proposal on January 15 that proposes to cut $10 million from the Charter School budget and eliminate funding for full-day Kindergarten (a $218 million cut) for State Fiscal Year 2011 (July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011)
  • http://www.azgovernor.gov/Budget2011.asp
  • See slide 42 of the “media presentation”

• Governor Brewer and the state Legislature will be meeting this week (starting March 8) to pass a state budget proposal – a budget cut to charter schools and full-day Kindergarten are part of the proposed budget being considered

• My child(ren) attend Khalsa Montessori Charter School and these funding cuts would be devastating to our school:
  • Parents of Kindergarten students will have to pay $400 per month in tuition, limiting the ability of some families to send their children to our school; many parents already pay additional tuition for after-school care
  • The $10 million cut in Charter School funding will also impact our school and could result in larger class sizes, less teachers and less funding for important school programs
  • These cuts will come on top of the reduction in Prop 301 teacher funding that our school will have to absorb due to the lower sales tax revenues that fund Prop 301

• Our family chose to send our children to the Khalsa Montessori Charter School because they provide us with a public school setting that meets our family’s needs, specifically, we support Khalsa because (see examples below and elaborate):
  • Academic excellence – Khalsa has outstanding test scores and reputation
  • Unique curriculum that reinforces our family’s values
  • Class size and teacher quality
  • Diversity and multi-culturalism of families that attend
  • Strong community involvement
  • It offers an alternative to a more traditional school setting

• It is important that high-quality charter schools like Khalsa be allowed to have the funds needed to continue to serve families like mine

• Research shows that full-day Kindergarten provides children with the tools needed to obtain stronger academic success long-term

• Failure to fund full-day Kindergarten will mean families will have to find less expensive (and less quality) child-care settings or will have to pay more in tuition at a time when many families are struggling economically

• When considering the budget proposal, please oppose cuts to charter school funding, full-day Kindergarten funding and public school funding in general
• Parent supporters of Khalsa Montessori Charter School actively raise funds and donate money to help support our school; we don’t expect the state to pay for “extras” but we do expect the state to provide our basic funding support

• Arizona’s charter and public schools already receive far less funding than schools in other states and, despite this, public education in Arizona has seen record budget cuts in the past year
  • Between the new cuts proposed and failure to backfill federal stimulus funding that will run out at the end of this year, hundreds of millions of dollars in more cuts to schools are proposed for 2011

• I understand that there is a budget deficit and it is important to get our state back on firm financial footing.  But there are other ways to solve the current budget deficit crisis than balancing it on the backs of schools and children with cuts to public charter and traditional school funding

• An investment in education is needed in good times and in bad – it is important to keep our public charter schools strong and able to educate our children for the jobs of tomorrow

Helpful Hints:

• Act quickly – the budget could be passed and these cuts made final as early as this week

• Keep your letter, email or conversation short and to the point; be polite, thank them for their time

• Only contact the Governor and the Legislators (1 Senator and 2 House members) that represent you personally in the geographic area you live (see below for how to contact your legislators)

• Use the bullet points above but personalize your letter/email so that it doesn’t sound like a “form” letter

• Focus your comments on how this budget proposal would impact you and your family

• Republicans and Democrats have different perspectives on support for charter schools and public education funding. Focus on support for continued “school choice” with Republicans; focus on cuts to charter schools and full-day Kindergarten as part of a “public” education system that is underfunded with Democrats

Follow the news and, if this issue isn’t resolved quickly or to your satisfaction, contact the Governor and your legislators again, even if you are essentially repeating yourself

It’s very appropriate that our first large community-building event of the year involved so many people. Not only was our turnout great, we had a lot of volunteers who made the work easy and fun in the days before the event and the day of. (We were cleaned up and gone in under an hour!)

We also want to thank the Valley Garden Center, who greatly assisted us in every way we asked. We can’t recommend them enough if you have an event that needs a beautiful downtown location.

Here’s a partial list of those who helped, and our apologies to anyone we missed. Please contact us if you’re not on this list, or know someone who should be. Thanks!

Gala Co-Chairs

• Tara Collison & Keely Varvel Hartsell
  These two paid attention to every detail, steered us to a new location and caterer, and organized a brilliant event. Muchas gracias!

Food Sponsors

• Damon & Lily Brasch. The catering was simply amazing. More of their food can be found at green restaurant in Tempe, and That’s a Wrap in Phoenix, just around the corner from Primary.
• Julie Wossak & Mark Weeter of zPizza and Pink Spot Ice Cream. Once again, our kids got some delicious and healthy food.

Financial Sponsors

This is the first year we’ve asked for financial sponsorship of this ever-growing (and more expensive) event. Thank you very much for the help of the following people and businesses:

• Cindie Hastreiter, Arizona Assisted Living Solutions (AZALS.org)
• Tara & John Collison
• James S. Park Law Office
• Angel Jannasch-Pennell & Mike Pennell

Silent Auction

Co-Chairs Amanda Brite and Michael Nattboy did a great job of organizing our auction both online and at the event.

Thanks to these people who contributed items to the Silent Auction: Eric Baim · Mona Fontes · Asit Goel · Rick Hamilton · Keely Varvel Hartsell  (items made by Jacque John and Susan Turner) · Julie Kossak · Keri Mosier · Katosha Nakai · Michael & Paris Nattboy · Natalie Newell · Tim Parsels · Trudy Pekala (items made by Dina Pekala) · Pennell Family · Sami Rank · Leita Reyna · Linda Valenzuela · Verisecha Williams · Melissa Wilson · Barbara Worhle.

Even more volunteers & contributors

• Paris Nattboy (centerpieces)
• Trish Galindo (table runners)
• Lisa Callarman (slideshow)
• Robin & Becky Vining (sound system)
• Julie Ram Das Kaur (poi dancing for the children)
• Ron Johnson & Andrea Bakus (lighting)
• Stephanie Carrico (photography)

The following people worked on event day with set-up, clean-up, silent auction, serving food, working the welcome table, and helped with our centerpieces.

• Ernesto Amaro
• Jennifer Hunter
• Paris Nattboy
• Kathryn Leonard
• Eleanor Tepstra
• T-Marie and Farzad Mahootian and their children
• Sarah Nix
• Janet Wilson
• Victoria Coe
• Lieta Reyna
• Linda Valenzuela
• John Collison

Quite a list! Thank you all!

We received 40 responses to our feedback forms on the night of the gala, and are happy to report mostly positive feedback. We’ll go through all the feedback at the meeting, but here’s a sampling of the good stuff.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with five being good and one being bad, we had quite a few 5’s, and many added plus symbols or the number 6 to “food” and “event location,” which tilted those averages quite high. Below are the averages of our scores.

• Communication/Notice About the Event: 4.725
• Event Day/Time: 4.875
• Event Location: 5
• Parking: 4.3
• Format/Program: 4.55
• Food: 5
• Silent Auction: 4.25
• Child Care Convenience: 4.875
• Child Care Cost: 4.9
• Overall: 4.925

In our comments section, we received notes such as this:

Best ever! Best food ever!

Table displays and decorating were awesome! Food was fantastic!

Could not hear announcements – needed more volume for mix. YAY for Green – food was great. Like the location – everything looks really nice.

So excited about Damon’s food. Didn’t love Coronado Cafe. Appreciated vegetarian food.

Fun time!

The location is great! The food is excellent! (more wings!)

Wonderful event!

Excellent! Thanks for everything!

Great Event

The garden center is a great place. I had no idea it even existed, even though I’ve driven by it hundreds of times. Thanks for the great event!

Love the new location.

It’s a great night. Love it. Thank you.

Good job guys, had a great time, thank you

Great time, thank you

dr. pepper, squirt, :-)

A wonderful venue, a wonderful atmosphere, a great way to meet – able to move around easily but can still see the food etc.

All good!

The place is great and the candlelight was beautiful!! I like the appetizer and gala-ing time in the beginning.

Excellent job Keely & company! Everything was superb! Centerpieces and trees were awesome!

nice lighting

low light at silent auction

thank you! :-)

More lights/signs in parking lot.

Excellent event!

EXCELLENT

Perfect! Excellent food. We need recipes. Thanks. Have a good evening.

Maybe some meat or deli w/ cheese

Yummy hors d’oeuvres and food! Thanks

Free workshops provide a glimpse into the lives of the Valley’s most secretive residents

• Friday, Sept. 18 at 6:15 p.m.

Here’s a fun non-PTO event that the community may enjoy.

Those attending a workshop should park at the commercial building located at 2400 E. Arizona Biltmore Circle. The building is on the northeast corner of 24th Street and Arizona Biltmore Circle, just south of Lincoln Dr. The workshop will be held on the southwest corner of that intersection at the Maricopa County Flood Control District Tunnel, next to the Squaw Peak Police Precinct. It will be marked with signage. The public is encouraged to arrive on time: The bats leave at sunset and won’t wait!

Read more…

If you’re a Safeway shopper, you can earn an extra 10% on products with the 10% school bus logo.

If you’re actively enrolled in eScrip, you’re purchases happen automagically. Or you can bring your receipt tape to any school office after 9/17 and we’ll redeem it for you.

This lasts through September 15th. Visit our eScrip page under Fundraising to sign up.

More info on this program at the 10% Back to Schools website: http://backtoschools.escrip.com/

Our first meeting is Wednesday, September 9, at the elementary community room (upstairs).

The meeting runs from 6 pm to 7 pm, and this year we are making sure the pizzas arrive at 5:45 so you can arrive a bit early and enjoy some food and conversation. As always, the hot and delicious food is from zpizza, and we provide the childcare.

One of our big goals this year is to improve our communication. We’ve redesigned our website, implemented a new email newsletter system, have some phone tree plans, and will continue to place flyers in your student’s folders. Check our site regularly at khalsapto.org, and if you’ve not received one of our emails within the month, let us know and we’ll be sure to get you on the list.

Another big PTO goal is to go as green as we can, and to utilize our local resources and businesses.

We’ll be using 100% recycled paper for our fliers, and minimize the amount and size of fliers by bundling our announcements on one piece of paper. We’ll use recycled and easy-on-the-earth products for our events and recycle everything.

In our local focus, we’ll try to use local and Arizona-based vendors, rather than nationally-based chains. Economic studies show that local businesses tend to give more to their communities, and money spent locally recirculates via wages and taxes, rather than leave the state.

This is a new thing for us, and we welcome any ideas, suggestions, and boots on the ground work.