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Pleasant Hill PTA Committee Descriptions
Art Awareness
Art Awareness is a parent run program that brings art appreciation to all grade levels K-6. All materials and directions for lesson plans are provided. Parent Volunteers present an easy ½ hour lesson, approximately once per month, including hands on art preparation, art history and examples of fine art (provided by Art Awareness). Art Awareness is a great opportunity to meet the kids in your child’s class, provide some wonderful art enrichment and enhance their learning at Pleasant Hill.
Beautification
The Beautification Committee helps to beautify our school with plants and flowers in the planters at the entranceway to the school, as well as landscaping around the building. Parent Volunteers help with planting. If you have a green thumb and want to help make Pleasant Hill a more beautiful place, the Beautification committee gives you an opportunity to help!
The bilingual liaison helps in translating PTA documents for our bilingual PTA parents.
The Birthday Book Club is a parent run program to facilitate book donations to the library. Parent Volunteers send out lists of books that the library would like to purchase. Parents select a book in honor of their child’s birthday, and donate the funds to acquire that book. The Birthday Book Club volunteers arrange for pictures to be taken of the children for recognition, print special nameplates for their “birthday book”, and arrange for books to be checked out near the child’s birthday. The Birthday Book Club is a great way to help build Pleasant Hill’s library for all our kids.
Birthday Bulletin Board
The Birthday Bulletin Board recognizes kids birthdays each month with a different theme.
The Pleasant Hill Book Fair is an annual fall event held in the Resource Center at Pleasant Hill School. The book fair is sponsored by the Pleasant Hill PTA and is run and staffed by Pleasant Hill parent volunteers. The fair runs for one week and is open during school hours, and depending on resource availability may be open after school or during evening hours. Scholastic Books provides the books for the fair, and Pleasant Hill receives thousands of books with a wide variety of selections to satisfy readers from pre-school through adults. The students at Pleasant Hill are always enthusiastic participants in this event. It is very rewarding to be in the resource center and help the students make their book selections. Proceeds from this book fair benefit the Pleasant Hill Resource Center. Volunteers are always needed and always welcome.
The Box Tops committee collects box tops, Tyson’s labels and Campbell’s soup labels, and other "rewards" programs, to turn in for cash and awards. These funds support our PTA and its many programs, as well as providing “extras” for our classrooms. Watch for occasional contests with rewards for bringing in the most Box Tops. Parent Volunteers collect, count, and submit the box tops and labels for reimbursement to the PTA.
Calendar
A Calendar of PTA, school and district events is compiled every year at the beginning of the year and distributed to parents. Parent volunteers put together the calendar and distribute it.
Care & Concern
Care & Concern is a committee that organizes efforts to help our Pleasant Hill community members during times of illness or hardship. Parent volunteers organize and distribute meals, cards, and other items of support.
Cultural Arts
The Cultural Arts committee provides the school with interesting, innovative, creative assemblies. From BMX bike riders to historical plays these experiences enrich the educational atmosphere and add to the learning process all students enjoy. Parent volunteers collect and share ideas for future assemblies as well as coordinate and organize the programs for all grade levels. Participating in cultural arts is a great way to meet dynamic people and enhance your childs’ educational experience at Pleasant Hill school.
Directory
The Directory is a valuable resource to PTA parents, containing a listing of all Pleasant Hill PTA members’ addresses and phone numbers (who wish to be in the directory). Parent Volunteers collect the information, assemble and distribute the directory (available to PTA parents only). The Directory is usually available sometime in October.
Environmental Education
Environmental Education is a committee that gathers environmental information for distribution in the newsletter, as well as organizing various recycling events within the school.
Fall Fest is a large social event sponsored by the PTA (Fall Fest is not a fundraiser). Fall Fest is a chance for students, parents and teachers to play games and socialize in a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Parent Volunteers organize and coordinate the event, as well as run the games and activities for students, parents and teachers.
Field Day occurs in the last week or two of school each year and consists of an outdoor-games and contests day that is great fun for parent, teachers and children alike. Field Day is a large event requiring lots of Parent Volunteers to do everything from running games and passing out water bottles, to filling up water balloons and participating in tug-of-war. Field Day is a ½ day event for Kindergarteners and a full day event for Grades 1-6.
Fun Fair/Cougar Carnival
Fun Fair is a large social event, bringing together students, parents and teachers for a night of games, food and fun. Fun Fair usually occurs in the Winter (January or February), and requires lots of Parent Volunteers to coordinate events, run games, distribute food and prizes, among many other activites.
Heath & Safety
Holiday Shop is an event run by Parent Volunteers each holiday season. It provides a “store” at school that children can come to and purchase moderately priced presents for their friends and family for the holidays. Parent Volunteers select the items to be sold and run the Holiday shop.
Hospitality
The Hospitality committee provides refreshments for PTA meetings and other PTA functions. Parent Volunteers purchase snacks and drinks (reimbursed by PTA) and puts out refreshments at the PTA function.
The Ice Cream Social occurs each April during Open House. Open House is a chance for parents to come into their child’s room and see what they have been working on during the year. After the Open House, PTA hosts an ice cream social. Parent Volunteers organize the social and serve ice cream.
Jr. Great Books is a PTA sponsored program which encourages children to read “great books” and discus them in a small group format. Parent volunteers help conduct the discussion sessions.
Make A Difference Club
The Make A Difference Club is a parent driven club that promotes and coordinates community service activities that make an impact within the school, local, state, national and international communities.
Student volunteers have had
an opportunity to
participate in a variety of
activities such as: Palatine
"Adopt a Family" program,
military support activities,
Heifer International,
District 15 Walk a Thon,
Special Olympic Track Meet,
School Plant sale
and school planting.
The club meets 1-2 times a month during the student's lunch
hour. Parent volunteers are
always needed to help
facilitate the community
service project.
If you are aware of an organization that would benefit from
our Club's assistance or
would like additional
information regarding the
Club please contact, Judy
Benka at
judybenka@yahoo.com.
Manna is a program where parents, teachers and staff can purchase gift cards through their school. You buy the gift cards at face value, and the school receives between 3% - 14% of the gift card value as cash-back.
The parent education committee collects information on parenting and schooling issues for parents for the newsletter and webpage.
PTA Newsletter
The PTA Newsletter is published once per month. You can receive the Newsletter via paper (in your child’s backpack) or via email. The newsletter is also available on the webpage. Parent Volunteers coordinate, publish and distribute the newsletter.
Plum Grove Liaison
Volunteer will attend Plum Grove Junior PTA Meetings and make a brief report to the PH PTA Board about any pertinent information which may be relevant to future PG Junior High students and/or provide updates on former PH students.
Publicity
The Publicity committee is in charge of publicizing events and recognitions for Pleasant Hill PTA and students. Parent volunteers contact local media to provide information about upcoming events.
Read to Succeed
The Read to Succeed program is a PTA sponsored program to encourage kids to read during the winter by providing free tickets to Six Flags Great America as an incentive. Parent Volunteers coordinate the program and hand out prizes.
Recreation Nights are PTA sponsored nights of fun in the gym. Parent volunteers coordinate and run games and sports during recreation nights, providing an opportunity for students and parents to play and socialize. This is a great opportunity for parents to play, socialize and have fun along with their child(ren)!
Reflections is a creative venue sponsored by the PTA to recognize and encourage students in the areas of writing, art, photography and musical composition. This years theme is "My Favorite Place". Entries are due in November. Entries are evaluated based on the submitter's age, creative category, and content. Entries are recognized at the local, council, and national levels.
Each winter, the PTA sponsors a roller skating party at a local roller skating rink. It is an opportunity for kids and parents to socialize outside of school.
Each classroom has one or two room parents who assist the teacher in coordinating room parties, volunteers and other activities. Parent volunteers help find room parents for every classroom.
Scholarship
Each year Illinois PTA gives two scholarships to students within our Northwest Suburban Council. Parent Volunteers distribute information regarding the Shop & Share program for the Scholarship Fund and facilitate the selection of PTA award recipients
School Kits are pre-assembled boxes of the necessary school supplies for each grade level. Parents purchase them in April and they are available the following August on Meet the Teacher Day. School Kits are a PTA service to parents, and are not a fundraiser. Parent Volunteers coordinate the ordering of School Kits and distribute them in the fall.
SPARK (Special Education Parents Accessing Resources and Knowledge)
SPARK is a northwest suburban coucil PTA committee serving families of children with special needs in CCSD15. SPARK was formed in response to the growing needs of families whose children learn differently or have special needs. As parents trying to navigate the system, we realize the importance of providing:
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relevant resource programs related to special education
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Opportunities to network
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Links to parents with outside resources
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Publications and books on various special education topics
SPARK believes in providing a means to educate parents, provide resources, network and support the families of all children receiving special education. This is accomplished at the district level through monthly evening programs with outside speakers. We also have SPARK representatives at each school building who are a local contact and resource to individual schools. Our hope is that parents will access this group for the benefit of their children, themselves and others. SPARK programs are usually held the last Tuesday of each month at Plum Grove Jr. High from 7-8:30pm in the Learning Resource Center (see calendar). They are free and open to all parents and educators. The programs can be found on the District 15 website.
Each fall, various Cougar Character spiritwear is available for purchase through the PTA. This is a PTA service to parents, and is not a fundraiser. Parent Volunteers take spiritwear orders and distribute spiritwear items when the arrive.
Staff Appreciation
Staff Appreciation consists of coordinated efforts to show the staff at Pleasant Hill how much PTA appreciates their work and efforts in the school with our children. A breakfast is held before school starts with various additional events planned for throughout the year. A final luncheon is held during staff appreciation week. Parent volunteers coordinate the events.
Each spring, the PTA puts on a variety show. Kids from all grade levels are encouraged to participate. Parent Volunteers coordinate the show and participants.
Volunteer Coordinator
The Volunteer Coordinator helps to recruit and coordinate volunteers for PTA’s many social and fundraising events. The Volunteer Coordinator also tracks all the volunteers hours.
Web Page
The Welcome committee publishes information useful to parents and teachers. The website serves as a communication tool to provide timely and accurate information to the Pleasant Hill PTA community.
Welcome
The Welcome committee organizes events to welcome new parents to Pleasant Hill and encourage parents to volunteer and join PTA.
The Yearbook committee of parent volunteers photographs Pleasant Hill students, families, school organizations, events, and projects throughout the year to create a GREAT keepsake yearbook for the students. Each yearbook has class pictures as well as events, clubs and activities pictures. Parent Volunteers assemble, publish and distribute the yearbook. The Yearbook committee also coordinates school portrait days in the fall and early spring.