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Pleasant Hill School
Survival Guide
Whether you’ve been through it all or are just starting out here at Pleasant Hill School (PH), you may be interested in some behind-the-scenes scoop on the various events, both PTA and not, coming up this and most every year. The Pleasant Hill PTA calendar is mailed home to each Pleasant Hill household in August.
This is the first installment of the Survival Guide. There’s a lot to swallow here, so we’ll hit ya with the rest of the year later on. In the meantime, welcome back, and we hope you and your children have a fantastic year here at Pleasant Hill School!
Description: In the spring of every year, PH families are offered the opportunity to order school kits for their children. A School Kit is literally a box that contains all of the supplies requested for a particular grade level. Kits are ordered in the spring for the following year and then are picked up on Meet the Teacher Day and/or another day specified on the calendar.
Location: Gym
Purpose: Pick up school supply kits ordered last year in the spring; check with school kit person if you are unsure if you ordered last year
Time: See calendar for days and times
Cost: None, as payment is made in the spring at time of ordering
New Family Coffee
Description: Families new to Pleasant Hill may attend this informal gathering in order to talk with the principal and/or assistant principal and learn more about the school and the PTA. Various PTA committee members are on hand to talk about PTA events to be held during the year.
Location: Cafeteria (café)
Purpose: New families hopefully feel more comfortable at their new school!
Time: See calendar for day/time
Cost: None
Meet the Teacher Day
Description: One-hour long window in which parents and students can see their new classrooms and meet their new teachers.
Location: Your child’s classroom
Purpose: Children meet their teachers and drop off their school supplies in their lockers, supply boxes, or desks
Time: See PTA calendar for time; generally, day before school starts
Cost: Bring some dollar bills since this is one of two days when money is collected for various classroom-related items such as party money (used by room parents to finance school parties for Halloween and Valentine’s Day), magazine subscriptions, classroom binders, etc.
First Day of School (grades 1-6)
Description: First day of school (full day) in which parents drop off their children at the designated outside doors and wave good-bye as the school year officially begins
Location: Door 10 (to west of front door) or door 6 (main back door off back parking lot) for grades 1 & 2; middle back door for grades 3 & 4; eastern-most back door for grades 5 & 6
Time: Morning bell rings at 8:45am; school starts at 8:50am (see PTA calendar for date); school ends at 3:20pm
Cost: None (but emotional!)
First Day of Kindergarten
Description: First day of school (full day) in which parents drop off their children at the designated outside doors and wave good-bye as the school year officially begins
Location: Kindergarten door for AM students; front door (inside by office) for PM students
Time: Day after 1st day of school for grades 1-6; morning starts at 8:50am and ends at 11:20am, while afternoon starts at 1:50pm and ends at 3:20pm (see school calendar or PTA calendar for date)
Cost: Again, none (but emotional!)
Room Parent Meeting
Description: Anytime during the year, you can send an email to the Room Parent committee chair to request to be a room parent for one of your children’s classrooms in the following year; the committee chair then notifies parents of their room parent assignments the week or so before school starts
Location: Cafeteria (Café)
Purpose: Room Parent committee chair(s) explain the ins and outs of being a room parent and answers any questions anyone may have
Time: See PTA calendar for date and time
Cost: None
Other: If you need to bring your children to this because the meeting is scheduled at a time when they are with you, go ahead. It’s an informational meeting, and, although you may get more out of it without little people bugging you, it’s no big deal to have them there.
Parent Orientation/PTA Meeting
Description: These events occur on the same evening with orientation for grades K-3 at the beginning or end of the event timeframe, grades 4-6 opposite that, and the PTA meeting in the middle of it all. As an example, you may go to your 4th-grader’s room and listen to his/her teacher from 6-6:45pm, then you’d go to the cafeteria for the general membership meeting from 6:45-7pm, and then you’d head to your 2nd-grader’s classroom to get the scoop from his/her teacher from 7-7:45pm.
Location: Your children’s classrooms for the orientation part(s) and cafeteria (café) for the PTA meeting
Purpose: This is the parents’ opportunity to hear all about what their children will be doing/learning in school this year. Generally, teachers have parents sign up for parent-teacher conference times on this night as well (so bring your calendar—November seems a long way off!). The PTA meeting is one of two general membership meetings held during the school year. At this one, the PTA membership votes whether or not to approve the current year’s budget. Copies of the proposed budget are available in the cafeteria prior to the meeting. You will have received a form in the mailing from school in August that needs to be completed in order to join the PTA. Once you’ve completed the form and sent it in to school, you may vote on the budget. Being a PTA member also entitles you to receive a copy of the Pleasant Hill PTA directory, which is invaluable as you attempt to reach all of your child’s friends for playdates or birthday parties!
Time: Check the PTA calendar for date and time, but it’s usually during the first full week of school
Cost: Keep the dollar bills in hand since this is the other time, besides on Meet the Teacher day, that you may be asked for small bills to pay for the little classroom incidentals; if you don’t have the cash at this time, you can send it to school with your child later, so don’t sweat it!
Other: This event is parents only—parents are encouraged to attend without their children.
Wrapping Paper Sale
Description: This is the major fundraiser put on by the PTA; it is responsible for funding the majority of the events put on by the PTA throughout the year such as New Family Welcome, Fall Fest, Cougar Carnival (formerly, Fun Fair), Dads & Donuts, to name a few, as well as funding the many PTA committee activities aimed at providing our students with enhanced educational opportunities; students are asked to sell wrapping paper and other gift items with the help of their parents
Purpose: The wrapping paper sale is one of two fundraisers held by the PTA each year. The sale is launched at the very beginning of the year for two reasons: first, the money the PTA brings in from this sale (our main fundraiser) supports all of the activities we plan to hold during the coming year, so we need the money as soon as possible; second, the catalog through which we order wrapping paper and other gift items guarantees us delivery of our product prior to the holidays, which is important since many of the items purchased are for gift-giving (we usually receive the goods around Halloween)
Time: The fundraiser goes on for approximately two weeks; students have a launch date on which they are shown the products and, more importantly to them, the prizes that can be earned based on sales; students sell the items outside of school and turn in the order sheet and money by the end of the fundraising period (see PTA calendar for dates)
Cost: Simply turn in the money collected for sales made
Other: When the orders come in, students will receive the products they ordered at school; the PTA does try to alert parents as to when students will be bringing their orders home in case someone has a huge order that may be difficult to walk home with!
School Pride Day
Purpose: Students show school spirit by wearing Pleasant Hill gear or red & white to school on the first Friday of every month (dates are on the PTA calendar)
Other: Note that Pleasant Hill gear will be sold during the year; contact Spirit Wear committee chairs for dates
PTA Meetings
Location: Teachers’ lounge
Purpose: Monthly meetings are held to discuss various events/issues pertaining to the school, the students, or PTA itself; although when voting on various items, only the committee chairs that make up the PTA board can vote, all PTA members are welcome to attend meetings
Time: Meetings take place on Tuesdays and alternate by month between night and morning meetings; check the PTA calendar for dates/times
Other: Attendees are encouraged to attend without children.
Room Parent Tea
Description: Informal meeting of room parents and teachers to discuss the plan of attack for class parties for Halloween and Valentine’s Day and schedules for AR (Accelerated Reader program) and centers, if applicable
Location: Cafeteria (café)
Purpose: Room parents meet with teachers to go over classroom needs from a volunteer and party supply standpoint
Time: Check PTA calendar for date/time.
Picture Day
Description: This is a day-long event in which each student’s photo is taken individually and as part of his/her class for inclusion in the yearbook (available to purchase at the end of the year) and for purchase by the student’s family
Location: Café
Purpose: Take individual pictures of each Pleasant Hill student for inclusion in the Pleasant Hill Yearbook received at the end of the school year
Time: Classrooms are assigned times to come to the café to get students’ pictures taken; pictures are taken all day long, except during the lunch periods (check the PTA calendar for the date)
Other: There are volunteers there that day to help students with hair and clothing issues; there is also a picture retake day (check the PTA calendar for that date); contact the School Pictures committee chair with any questions
Dads & Donuts
Description: Dads take their children to school early to have donuts and juice in the café with a bunch of other dads and children; everyone just hangs out and eats and chats and tries to keep the kids from spilling all over themselves before school; siblings can attend
Location: Café
Purpose: This is our first family social event of the year!
Time: Usually it starts about a ˝ hour to 45 minutes before school starts and you hang out until school starts; check the PTA calendar for date (there are two dates and you attend based on the first letter of your last name) and time
Musicals
Location: Café
Purpose: The music teacher works with each grade to put together a program to put on for parents one night during the year. Grades pair up for the programs with grades 1 & 2 together, grades 3 & 4 together, and grades 5 & 6 together. Kindergarten puts on a program of their own with the kindergarten teachers.
Time: The grade 1-6 programs are all evening programs, generally starting at 7pm. The students usually need to be there at least 15 minutes early, and so do the parents, if you want good seats. Check the PTA calendar for dates/times.
Other: If you have the time and the opportunity and want to be able to more easily videotape the performances, each program is put on for the school during the day on the date of the evening performance. Check at the office for the official start time—they usually have chairs set up in the back of the café (that opens up to the gym) for parents that come for the day performance. It’s a lot easier to videotape at that one—there’s just less people in the way! There’s also generally a DVD available for purchase from the evening performance.
Halloween
Description: This is the first of two classroom parties for the year. This is a biggie—students’ lunch hours are combined to allow them to go home to change into their costumes for the afternoon. Students may also change at school. Students may only wear their costumes in the afternoon. Shortly after lunch, students return to their classrooms to organize for the all school parade around the school block (Illinois Ave, Cedar, Pleasant Hill Blvd, Bennet, and back to Illinois) where parents are welcome to gather outside to see the array of costumes—both students’ and teachers’! Students then return to classrooms for their parties, which are generally the last hour of the day. The room parents put on the parties and ask for parent assistance.
Location: Around Pleasant Hill outside and in the classrooms
Purpose: Celebrate!
Time: All afternoon on the celebration day—as close to the day of Halloween as possible—check the PTA calendar for the party date
Cost: None—the party money you donated is now paying off!
Special Persons Day
Description: This used to be Grandparents Day but was changed to incorporate any special people that children want to ask to share the day with them. Special people come to school in the morning and gather in the cafeteria (café) to have coffee and mingle while teachers and students ready their classrooms. Special people then go to their children’s classrooms where they generally do a craft or some other project with their students.
Location: Meet in cafeteria and then go to classrooms (there are student volunteers in the hallways ready to help with directions!)
Purpose: To honor the special people in our children’s lives beside we parents!
Time: See the PTA calendar for the date and look for a note to come home prior to the day with specific times
Cost: None
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Description: This is the parents’ chance to meet with their children’s teachers one-on-one to discuss their children’s progress (usually 10-15 minutes).
Location: Your child’s classroom
Time: The time you signed up for at Parent Orientation WAY back in August! You’ll get a reminder from the teacher generally as to what time that was exactly.
Cost: None
Other: You may bring your children, but they usually stay out in the hallway so that your meeting is truly one-on-one with the teacher. Teachers often have activities set up outside their rooms, or you can bring something for them to do there quietly.
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