Drawing will be held on Friday, June 11. Be sure to put the student's name and room number on the bag when turning it in. Look for the collection box in the entryway at school.

For more info on what types of items are accepted, check out the Cartridges for Kids website at:

www.CartridgesForKids.com

Or Contact Rachel Harrison at:
moc.liaMG|nosirraHElehcaR#moc.liaMG|nosirraHElehcaR or (206) 725-7299

The graphs are here, on pages 4 and 7: http://bit.ly/18OOpU

It used to be that Graham Hill was demonstrably the most racially diverse elementary in Southeast Seattle. I don't know what's happened in other schools, but in the last three years our diversity index has increased some more, from 3.35 to 3.58. According to district projections, our index would drop back a little, to 3.46. They think there would be fewer black and white students, more asian and latino students. So while the school's racial makeup would change, the evenness of our diversity wouldn't change very much.

Another change would be in the number of students in the free & reduced lunch program. Up to 70% from the current 55%.

And there would be more bilingual students, up from 20% to 29%.

Again, I have no strong faith that the District demographers can predict this stuff accurately. But intuitively I guess it feels right. Graham Hill's demographics are influenced by the neighborhood's, but also by a system that favors families who choose and have the wherewithal to advocate and make their choice happen.

We started our discussion by defining the current major pieces of our web presence which are: this wiki, the Yahoo! group and the main website and defining the role and strengths/weaknesses of each.

Yahoo! group

Role

Facilitates direct notification to subscribers (a "push" model of distribution)

Strengths

Easy to understand how to use — short learning curve

Allows any member to share information with all other subscribers

Great for meeting announcements and relatively time-sensitive information

Is fairly self-sufficient — doesn't require much administration

Weaknesses

Not a great tool for storing or accessing reference infomation — poor search functionality

It's a "closed" system — it difficult to integrate information from group into other sources (e.g. the calendar)

Wiki

Role

Functions as the main storehouse for reference information for the internal community (i.e. current families)

Strengths

Anyone is (theoretically) able to add/edit information

Allows sharing of a diverse array of content (web links, files, photos, calendars etc.)

Integrated Google Translate functionality may facilitate accessibility for non-English community members

Weaknesses

Editing and page creation is too intimidating for many users

Information will tend to become "stale" over time without diligent oversight

Look and feel is less than ideal — not very user-friendly or welcoming

Website

Role

The external "face" of the school for anyone outside the school community

Strengths

Overall design is pretty decent

Structure (as a "blog") is workable

Weaknesses

Content is woefully out of date

Current content may not be appropriate for the purpose — content should mostly be "evergreen"

That's a decent recap of the current state of things. I'll continue the discussion as to what changes we want to implement in my next post. Please feel free to share your opinions and concerns.

Hi all,

Thank you for everyone's great thoughts and input which you sent or told me about prior to last night's meeting with Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools. My biggeset takeaways from the night were 1)Being Superintendent has got to be one of the toughest jobs there is, and 2)the system of Seattle Public Schools is really…well, I can't think of any tactful way to say it, the words that just stick in my head are that the system is really, incredibly messed up! I'm sorry to say.

Dr. Goodloe-Johnson explained that part of why we are where we are with such dichotomies in school performance and resources is because the system for many years now has completely enabled and empowered principals to freely run the schools, the curriculum, the administration, the discipline techniques, learning styles and community/parental involvement, etc. as they see fit. It is has been completely left up to the individual principals. Thanks goodness, that Graham Hill has had strong principals like Christine, who welcome parental involvement and set up programs that parents want to see their children attend. The Montessori program was mentioned several times during the meeting, including that the program will be replicated in other Seattle schools. So, from the stories I heard last night, Graham Hill is doing everything right and going in ALL the right directions for the future.

There were several Graham Hill, current & former, parents there last night. Thankfully, the school was very well represented, and I hope some of you will chime in with your thoughts on the meeting as well. Due to our number, we had ample opportunity to tout Graham Hill's successes and values and use the school as an example of what parents are seeking in their decisions about their children's education like choice of programs, clearly understanding of what it is Graham Hill offers, delivers upon, and how our students go on to be successful in their middle & high school years, and high quality of education.

There was a lot of discussion about the obvious challenges like budget shortfalls, class sizes being too large for teachers to be able to offer quality educational guidance to all students, school violence for the middle and high schools, family involvement being non-existent in some schools, etc.

There were also good points made around getting schools more involved in their local communities so if the neighbors are meeitng children from their neighborhood school, they might actually decide to send their children there.

The most significant opportunity we have that Dr. Goodloe-Johnson made in my mind has to do with lobbying. She believes our State Legislature would be making different budget decisions if they heard more regularly and more loudly from Seattle Public School parents. She made a good point that lots of other industries, health care, etc. have organized lobbying efforts, and therefore stay in the forefront of the minds of budgeting legislators and she thinks more money would come to the public school system to help (things like reducing class size, specialized programs within schools, providing tutors, social workers, etc.) if parents made their voices heard in Olympia. She suggested that the PTA is a legal entity and through that organization, parents should coordinate one day/month to go to Olympia, meet with our Legislators and explain our needs for the public education system.

There were of course many other things discussed and some wonderful examples of parents making a difference at certain schools. February 9-13th is bring your family to school week and Cleveland H.S. is doing some wonderfully innovated things around helping all parents feel welcome at the school and therefore increasing invovlvement.

I do want to provide one final note wrt school closures. Graham Hill was mentioned at least twice by Dr. Goodlove-Johnson as a successful school that they are going to replicate elsewhere in the district. I don't have a crystal ball, but I did feel confident leaving the meeting that we will not see Graham Hill on the closure list this
year.

That's all I have time to write before my dinner guests arrive. I hope this will spark some good discussions, and I will certainly be bringing input to the next PTA board meeting and hope we can continue to pursue excellence at Graham Hill Elementary.

Keep up the great work everyone! Please stay involved, or if you're not yet, get involved in Graham Hill. Its one of the most wonderful & generous things you can do for your children, to give them the gift of an excellent education, and show them you care deeply about where they are spending every weekday to grow as people and future world
citizens.

Cheers and happy weekend!

Deena McCloskey
Mom of Mc's

Since last Monday's meeting, I've spoken to a couple of people who have reiterated the argument that the monetary (and community) return from an auction may not match the effort expended. Both Scott Ringgold and Cambria Cox have independently presented similar ideas to me for smaller-scale events.

Scott has suggested approaching the Columbia City Cinema about showing a family-friendly matinee with a portion of the proceeds to GH. He also suggested that a benefit concert (a la the Pearl Django show of a few years ago) would be a good event.

Cambria has an idea to do a holiday shopping benefit with some of the stores and restaurants in Columbia City (Retroactive Kids, La Medusa, the Cinema, etc.) in addition to a child artwork focused auction (perhaps held at the C-City Gallery?). These might be two distinct events with the auction held in the spring. The holiday benefit could also involve a matinee at the Cinema as well as gift-wrapping service. Cambria expressed that she would be willing to take the lead on planning events of this type.

I hate to keep circling back around with this because I feel there is an urgency to start work on whatever event we will hold, but (with a couple of exceptions) I have not sensed much enthusiasm for a full-blown auction. It will take determined leadership to pull off this type of event and we don't have that at this point.

We currently have a fundraising gap of $18,000 in the 2008-09 PTA budget. This gap is the impetus behind the auction. In analyzing how other schools in the city are raising money, it seems that those schools which are raising more than GH all rely heavily on an auction. It seems as though an auction is the most likely way to raise this sort of figure in a single event. However, maybe it makes sense for us to chip away at this goal with two or three smaller-scale events. Maybe one of these smaller events could mature into something that would generate more funding in the years ahead.

Another prong in our strategy could be to devote more resources to the Annual Fund drive and grantwriting efforts. A suggestion has been made to produce more polished Annual Fund literature in a push to broaden the audience that might reach. I feel that the expense that we would incur for printing could be easily offset by the gains in giving.

What are your thoughts on what the mix of fundraising efforts should be?

This is a win-win-win for you, for sustainable local living, and for Graham Hill.

Chinook Book is a coupon book that supports local businesses and gives straightforward and simple ideas about improving health and reducing impacts on the environment. Coupons are easy to use: for food, services, and fun family activities.

A couple trips to the grocery store pay for the book — the rest is gravy.

Please take a look at the Chinook Book website for a listing of all coupons. Each book sells for $20, and the school receives $10 of that.

2) We started about 5 ish and gave about $1.50 a week. By 10 we were
giving $3.00 a week. At 12 we give $3.00 (one to save, one for
charity, and one for him—now forced saving and charity) and 2-3 more
dollars depending on if he has been sassy, done his morning and
evening routines well, gotten to bed on time and to school without
being late and kept his room cleanish. I sometimes note a plus, check
or minus on the calendar for the morning and evening and we look it
over together when Sunday comes and it is time for allowance.

I know these are low rates. It is intentional. I have seen my son
become amazingly good with money in the last 7 years and prior to
that he just let it lie around and played with it. On trips we give
him $1.00 /day sometimes a bit of a round up and we pay for ice
creams, gum, etc. He buys his "things". He is reflective and makes
good purchases, of course with some regrets (the learning process).
We discourage taking things back.

He has demonstrated no great tendency to go out and buy candy etc.
with his money. We occasionally will split something expensive with
him. He has been encouraged to work (he got paid a penny a pinecone
that he picked up in our yard and even advertised and did it for
someone else when he was 8—otherwise his chores are part of his
responsibility). He currently is a mother's helper one day a week and
uses that money plus allowance for things he wants.

He makes money in other ways (he has several"stores" and kids love
his products) but this is all for the official policy.

I will be interested in the compile. It is a hassle to track.teaching
kids about money but I think well worth it. I love the vacation
policy as it has stopped his wanting everything he sees —he saves
his money until he really wants something on a trip and takes the
purchase seriously and loves what he buys. To me, that is success.

3) We have given an allowance to our 6 and 9 year old sons for about
9 months. It's a little loose in that we often forget. We give them
each $2.00 a week, payday is on Saturday. I do not attach any
chore/expectation to the money. We felt it was important to keep them
separate so we were not using the money as motivation to do chores.
It is their responsibility as members of the family to help out. I
know some families who base the amount on age. I think it's unfair to
pay siblings different amounts. Both of my kids have bank accounts.
Ideally we'd go to the bank and deposit some of the money that sits
in their piggy banks. They are unwilling to part with it, so there it
sits, until they spot a new Lego product the can't live without.

4) We have just started this. Our six year old has to complete a set
of chores to get her $6 allowance. She has only suceeded in this two
times since we set it up six months ago – both times when she was
highly motivated by a toy she wanted to buy. So I'd say that I don't
feel like our system is working that well. I've read $1 per year of
age/week and I've heard arguments on both sides of tying to chores or
not. Also, some people use allowance to teach 1/3 for spending, 1/3
for saving, 1/3 for charity. I think this is a good idea and maybe
we'll try instituting it. I'd love to hear what other people are
doing.

5) We just started giving our 8 yr old an allowance of $1 per week,
which he gets in quarters. He has 2 banks, 1 for spending and one
for saving. The deal is he has to put one quarter from every week
into the savings. We make no stipulations as to what he can spend
the rest on. He has done chores for a couple years now so the two
are pretty unrelated.
Love to hear what others are doing!

6) We give our child (a 7 yr old girl) 25 cent for each chore she
does like feeding the dog, setting the table, loading the dishwasher
etc… This does not include things that she is expected just to do
like cleaning her room, picking up her toys, practicing piano… Then
we tally them up at the end of the week and that is what she gets for
allowance. We started about 6 months ago. She used some of her
money to buy Halloween stuff at the party store and some used books
at Half priced books. One of the ways we combat the entitlement
issue is talking about people who are less fortunate that we are,
making sure she always sends thank you notes that she made to people
who have given her gifts, and tying having too much stuff to
environmental issues. I hope this gives you some ideas.

7) We started our son out with some really small amount like $1.50 a
week when he was in first grade but it wasn't enough to actually buy
anything with so we heard of the $1 per year of age idea and started
that awhile later. He gets to have 1/3 for spending, 1/3 goes to
savings, and 1/3 goes to charity. The charity part is sent to the
charity of his choice at the end of the year. The savings part we
haven't been really concrete about - he can't just spend it
impulsively but as long as he's had it tucked away for a couple of
months we let him spend it how he'd like. He usually just forgets
about it. His spending money is his to spend on whatever he wants
which can be hard because he'll blow it on something really silly
sometimes but that's a lesson for him to learn. It's not tied to
chores - we tried that but then he thought he should always get paid
for chores and we put an end to that. So chores are just part of our
family routine.

8) I think we started allowance when our oldest son was in 2nd
grade, middle was in Kindie and when youngest could put napkins on
the table. We started with $1.00 a week for the boys. They are now
up to $3.00, with the idea that it includes garbage & occasional
dishwash emptying. This is new, so it doesn't always happen. But
the expectation is that they get it every week for doing normal stuff-
at our house, that includes setting the dinner table, taking dishes
to the sink, & cleaning their room when asked . The boys do their own
laundry with some coaxing, and although I help with this, they're
pretty good about putting clothes away-so is my daughter. I'm not
super strict about it, it seems to work most of the time.
Occasionally a child will say (s)he doesn't want to do whatever, and
we skip allowance that week. My oldest also does special jobs like
mowing the lawn that pay $10.00(usually outside jobs).
Couple of things to keep in mind-I pay on Sundays,and don't always
have the right change, which makes it easy for me to forget. Also,
it's helpful if when you give them money, they put it away
immediately-this saves from losing money, mixing it up with someone
else's, etc.
Hope this is helpful-probably best to start small & build.

9) We started allowance last year, at ages 7 and 11.
½ of age and no rounding…i.e the 11 year old got $5 and $6 when she
turned twelve. Per all we read, it is definitely NOT linked to
chores. That being said, all have chores…it's the small price they
pay for living in a warm, wonderful home and having food, rides all
the PRIVILEDGES that come with being a "wealthy" kid in the city….

It is SO nice, because now at the toy store/dime store/coffee shop,
requests can be met with "if you really want that, you can buy it
with your own money". Then they HAVE to decide whether it's worth it.
Interestingly, 9 times out of 10, they say no…or really think about
it, and we go back and buy it another day.
It has definitely reduced clutter!

We DO NOT make them buy birthday gifts or other presents for friends.
They do not buy meals..etc. We have heard of friends who do that.
Seems a bit much.

Both kids have also successfully saved for a "big ticket item"….and
against "advice" we have also allowed them to buy something big, and
march out the allowances they "owe" on the calendar…i.e if they don't
have $12, they can get the toy, and then mark on the calendar when
allowance should resume…That's not teaching good saving, but don't we
all have credit cards????

It's a good thing…tho at first, we drug our feet doing it…

10) Hi there, I came across this local organization a few years ago.
I would include Moonjar in your compile. They have an awesome
approach to helping kids understand the value of saving/spending and
sharing. It is not an allowance answer but a great tool to use with
allowances.

11) Allowances & Chores (long)
Our philosophy re: allowances: Our primary value/goal/purpose was
to use allowances as a tool for educating our daughter about money
management. The #1 comment experienced parents of young adult
children told us they would change about their parenting of their
kids when younger was, "We didn't do a very good job of teaching
money management, setting up consequences, creating a dialogue about
choices and responsibility re: spending and saving money." So we more
or less created our own curriculum (and there are several excellent
books for parents about all of your choices for teaching money
management to your children, at all ages), which has expanded with
each year.
We started at age 5 — weekly allowance, payable at beginning of the
week, set/negotiated annually every August before the start of the
next school year. We did not tie allowances to paying for chores or
behavior because this greatly complicates the accountability for
money management. We chose to separate "employment [chores]
supervision" from allowance pay. Our philosophy is that everyone in
a family/group living situation has a responsibility to contribute to
managing and caring for the home, as part of living there — not
because you get paid, but because you're a member of the household.
[Who pays you to wash your own dishes when you're an adult?]
Allowance would always be increased every year — and, as she got
older, she got better at supporting her arguments for more vs. less
— i.e. what her expenses were, what our contribution should be to
them vs. hers, etc. If, for example, your child pays for lunch every
day at school, you can include all the costs of lunch in the
allowance — this increases the $ the kid has to handle/remember/
manage every day. Likewise with other regular necessities — or
possibly gifts for friends' birthdays (i.e., you budget an amount
and include in allowance, then give management to child).
From the get-go, we required her to divide up her allowance every
week, physically, into four (4) jars, according to what we had agreed
would be the "budget" amount for each category: savings, charity,
gifts, and personal (her "mad money" — entirely her discretion).
The jars (and necessity for giving cash in proper denominations to fit
into budgeted amounts in the jars) is definitely a minor
administrative hassle, but excellent visual learning about what a
budget "looks like." We always had a strict policy vs. loans from us
(then you become a creditor and, while that can be another level of
learning, we liked the philosophy of only buying when you have enough
money to pay for it now). By about age 8, helped her set up an
account book, in which she would write income and expenses paid out
for each of these 4 accounts, checking to see if the cash in the jar
equalled the written accounting. This could also be done on Quicken.
For quite a few years, it was necessary for parent to sit down with
her, to support/help with the written accounts. This required a great
deal of parental discipline and determination to keep this up (and
adolescent arguments, "None of my friends' parents make them do any
of these dumb accounts!"), and sometimes difficult conversations
about why we required accounting and other parents would just hand
their kids cash (and usually lots of it) on a totally random basis,
without any discussions at all. By about age 12 or so, we went to
the bank and set up checking and savings accounts (also savings
accounts designated "gifts" and "charity"), so she learned a little
about bank management "the old-fashioned way." We repeatedly gave
her the opportunity to have an annual clothing allowance (and 100%
responsibility for all her clothing from that sum for the year), and
she repeatedly declined (she probably would have rec'd more $ for
clothing than we ended up buying for her) — but clothing allowance
is an excellent opportunity to put a large amount of cash in the
hands of your teenager, to manage (and expect that, at least for the
first year, it will all be gone 6 months or less into the year, and
be prepared to be tough).
Our decisions and choices about the money "curriculum" haven't let
up now that our daughter is in college (in fact, they continue to
increase). But we did make our own decisions by the time she was in
9th grade about what our expectations/commitments would be to
helping finance her college education (and we have stuck to them) —
and talked about them frequently, so she would have this information
clearly in her mind by the time she was making decisions about her
choice of college. (This appears to be another area in which parents
often don't have the crucial conversations sooner, which creates
conflicts in expectations later on.) She knows what portion of her
college costs/expense are her own responsibility, and she knows what
we are/are not going to pay for. I think that even if we had the
discretionary funds to send her $300 per month for her own personal
"mad money" at college now, we wouldn't choose to do that. And now
the conversations just continue on additional issues — credit card
management, credit card solicitations, debit cards, advance planning,
segregating your book budget from the year from your latte budget,
evaluating good/bad choices made, accounting and more accounting.

Re: chores (separate from allowance): At age 6, each year — we
discussed and negotiated every August (separate from allowance
meeting) what our daughter's new house chore/job would be for the
coming year. Then each year, the new chore would be added to the
chores she had been doing in the past. First year/chore, we assigned
table setting. Then added table clearing and loading the dishwasher.
Then added washing all the cooking dishes that don't go in
dishwasher. About then we started giving her 3-4 choices of her new
chore for the coming year — complete with job description
(frequency, what needed to be done) — and she'd choose which one to
add on. [We were amazed when she chose cleaning the bathrooms every
2 weeks to doing weekly garbage, which we thought was an easier,
less time-consuming job. But she totally got into doing bathrooms,
and has really learned how to do it right — a great life skill.
More amazement when she chose vacuuming over garbage.] So by the
time she went to college, she has a complete skill set of basic tasks
required to care for a home — and contribute to the family.
Just keep asking what your own behavior is teaching your child, at
whatever age. Just like every other choice we make as parents. [And,
reflect back on how your parents taught (or didn't teach) you money
management — and what your own issues are with money not that you're
an adult, what your own strengths & weaknesses are.]

12) We plan to give our 7 year old $3.50/week ($0.50 per year of
age). We are treating this as more of a salary than a direct chores-
for-cash idea. Basically, as a member of this household, your job is
to do things around the house. As a member of this household, you
also get spending money. We aren't going to have specific penalties -
given his personality, I worry about him saying "fine, dock my pay, I
don't want to do that chore". I know that's what I would've done :-
). We do have a chore chart as a guideline (he's only 7 - we want
to make sure he's reminded somehow :-)), but he knows that he has
other responsibilities that aren't listed - some things we will ask
him directly, and some he may take it upon himself to do. We were
against the idea of just handing over money without any
responsibility tied to it, since that's not how things really are in
the world, and we want him to have some kind of a work ethic and to
realize "hey, I worked hard for this, I'm going to be careful with
it".

As for charity, we are leaving that out of the allowance equation for
now, but we are going to have him go through his toys for toy drives,
and we've always talked to him about how important it is to give in
some way. We'll definitely continue to include him in that. I'm not
worried about a separate savings account just yet - he's such a
squirrel, he's going to save most of it for longer term goals anyway
(he piddled away money that he got at the beginning of the summer and
I think he likes the fact that he can save up). We've had a moonjar
for each kid for years (www.moonjar.com),
but haven't used it. I'm sure that will be incorporated somehow later.

We'll still be getting birthday presents for his friends, and we'll
still have outings that we'll pay for. This is for extra stuff that
we wouldn't normally get for him. We still have the right to veto
what he gets, of course (no 5 pound bags of candy or MA video games :-
)). If he's saved for a long time for something big, we will pay the
sales tax for him (which here, is almost 9%).

We haven't fine-tuned this yet, but we would also would like to have
him, at allowance time, tell us why he thinks that he should get his
allowance. We figure beefing up the verbal skills isn't a bad
thing. He could use his chore chart as a tool, and use it as an
opportunity to tell us things that we may not have noticed ("I didn't
pick up my toys yesterday because I was helping my sister get her
show-and-tell for school."). We may decide to award a bonus to
his "salary" depending on the week that he had. I really also wanted
the idea of adding a "random act of kindness" to his chore chart, but
I never want that to be forced or paid for directly. I like the idea
of a special "chore jar" for when he wants to earn extra money -
stuff that we don't expect him to do but can handle, like pulling
weeds and filling the yard waste container.

It is assumed that the PTA will continue to fund all of the programs that we have paid for in the past. These amounted to nearly $15,000 for the past year. So, if we choose to go ahead with everything, we'll be looking at spending just under $70,000 in the coming school year.

The difficulty comes in that we need to make commitment to these new programs in the next month or so (i.e. before we have the money in hand to fully fund them).

In the current year, the PTA has raised roughly $25,000. The amount of fundraising has been increasing slowly throughout the past several years. We have around $35,000 in the bank.

We've begun to identify several ways in which we might increase fundraising, such as:

• integrating fundraising into existing events
• creating new fundraising events (auctions, benefit concerts, etc.)
• increasing promotion and emphasis on the Annual Fund
• pursuing grants
• doing more sales
• enhanced community outreach efforts (to local businesses and community members)
• etc.

Of these, I believe that grants have the potential to provide the biggest monetary impact. However, the catch is that there is usually a relatively long lead time between applying for a grant and receiving funds. We are now only in the exploratory phase of identifying grants to which we may apply. There is also a learning curve to the application process that we have to surmount. Therefore, I don't feel confident that we can project to have any grant dollars in the budget for the coming year. Obviously, I'm hopeful that we will, but I don't think that we can plan on it at this point.

That leaves the prospect of almost tripling our fundraising goals using basically the same methods that we have used in the past. Our cash reserves provide some cushion, but it would be a shame to deplete that hard-earned savings. Ideally, I'd like to be in a position that we are funding one year ahead, i.e. we have enough money in the bank at the end of each school year to fund all or our expenses for the subsequent year.

Do you feel confident in committing to raising $70,000 next year?

Should we (as the fundraising team) recommend that the PTA consider sticking to a smaller budget, either by denying funding for one or more of the new programs or cutting some existing programs?

Should we just “go for it” and rely on our savings if we fall short?

This interesting report from the Seattle Council PTSA shows total school funding for all schools in the district for the 2005-2006 school year. The "Self-help" column can be used to evaluate PTA funding (there are a couple of other items in that bucket, which are explained at the bottom, but I don't believe they're very significant overall).

You can see that the total amount of "Self-help" funding for all elementary schools was over $3.6 million, for an average of over $56,000 per school. When you take a closer look at the numbers you can see that there is a huge discrepancy among fundraising among the schools — a couple of schools brought in over $250,000 while a few others raised less than $5,000. The median amount raised by elementary schools was around $30,000.

I don't expect Graham Hill to ever "catch up" with some of these other schools simply due to demographics, but there's definitely room to grow our fundraising efforts.

Fundraising events:

1. Auction (live or silent) - this is a major fundraiser for many schools. Parents solicit businesses to donate items which are then auctioned, generally at some sort of banquet-type function. I'm pretty ambivalent about this approach, especially given the wide disparity in incomes within our community — my feeling is that a large portion of the school community may feel excluded. For an expanded discussion of both sides of this issue, see this post on the Save Seattle Schools blog.
2. Art and/or Experience Auction - auctioning student artwork and things like hosted dinners, outings, etc.
3. Carnival
4. Walk-a-thon (or Anything-a-thon)
5. Holiday Bazaar / Craft Fair
6. Book Fair (w/ Barnes & Noble or another bookstore) - Barnes & Noble agrees to donate a percentage of sales for a specific day to the school.
7. Family Bingo Night
8. Dine Out Night - local restaurants donate some percentage of their proceeds on a given day to the school
9. Benefit concert
10. Bunko/Poker Nights - an admission fee is charged ($20-30) a small portion of which is used to offset the cost of refreshments supplied by the host/hostess

Fundraising sales:

1. Giftwrap sales
2. Plant sales
3. Holiday Wreathes / Trees
4. Coffee
5. Rummage Sales

My preference is for fundraisers that can help solicit funds from outside the school community. In light of that, things that I think might be a good fit for GH would be a Dine Out for GH night (maybe Pizzuto's, Tuttabella, Jones BBQ, Geraldine's, Lotties, La Medusa, El Sombrero, Kawali Grill, Roy's, Kallaloo, etc. would participate) or a benefit concert (anyone have contacts with any local bands?)

Another half-baked idea that I had while not sleeping last night: an outdoor movie series. I'm envisioning something modeled on the Fremont Outdoor Cinema. We could earn money through charging a small admission fee as well as selling refreshments. We could do it on the school playground. It's definitely a half-baked idea in that I know nothing about getting a projector, movies (and exhibit fees), a screen, etc. I also don't know what the rules and restrictions might be for having it on school property. If it can't be done at the school, another potential site might be the Seward Park amphitheatre. Obviously there are some questions to answer, but I don't know of anything else like it happening in the south end and it could be a great way to connect with our community.

Any other ideas?

http://www.pacificpublishingcompany.com/site/tab3.cfm?newsid=18834348&BRD=855&PAG=461&dept_id=515262&rfi=6

http://www.teachstreet.com/

A description of the problem

Part 1: Is education important to you and your community?
Part 2: Disengaged parents
Part 3: Disengaged parents, continued
Part 4: Teachers
Part 5: Teachers' Unions
Part 6: Guidance department
Part 7: Are you "Comfortably Numb" about education
Part 8: Principals pulled in many directions
Part 9: Extra-curricular and "co-curricular" activities
Part 10: PTAs and parental involvement
Part 11: Could School Boards improve schools?
Part 12: Washington State School Directors' Association isn't part of the solution
Part 13: A role for community organizations
Part 14: The role of state agencies - ESD. SBE & OSPI
Part 15: The role of the legislature
Part 16: Can superintendents solve the problem?
Part 17: Can a governor solve the problem?

Proposed solutions

Part 1: The Singapore model
Part 2: Applying lessons from manufacturing
Part 3: "It takes a village"
Part 4: Where can we find some "great" high schools?
Part 5: Failure to teach children that actions have consequences

General rants

Irrational Exuberance over WASL scores?

I can't say that I agree with all of this columnist's analysis, but he nonetheless presents an interesting viewpoint.

Update: the more I read, the more I'm convinced that the writer, Charlie Hoff, is little more than a crank. Twenty-some columns in and I have yet to read an actionable proposal on how we can begin to solve the problem.

Any ideas/debate on why this might be?

Outdoor Education Overnight sounds like a really meaningful chance to engage the kids with each other and with a place.

I did something like this in fifth grade, and it still has a prominent place in my memory. I remember specifically many of the things I learned there. The experience also had an effect on what I chose to do afterward.

Wilderness Awareness School seems to be a great outfit. I've also heard and read about Island Wood. There's some interesting background about their design and mission in a recent Metropolis Magazine article.

What are the factors in choosing which program? Is there any chance we could ramp this up to a yearly event instead of bi-annually?

"I have a confession to make: I like commercials. Even though they can be boring, insulting, and just plain bothersome, on some level they intrigue me. I often wonder why certain ads fail miserably while others succeed in catapulting a brand to the forefront of store shelves. I like commercials because I enjoy guessing which will sink the product and which marketing genius will get a promotion. But what I hadn’t considered until I had children was how much power commercials seem to have over us." …

Read full article

At what age do you let your children experience the Internet? What strategies do you use to protect them online?

http://www.wastefreelunches.org This website has great lunch making ideas and information.
http://www.laptoplunches.com This website has reusable lunch systems for sale.

So, the laptop lunches website sells lunch supplies including a laptop lunch which is a rectangular plastic box with several individual plastic boxes that all fit together into the box. It also includes a water bottle, silverware and an idea booklet. No more ziploc bags, juice boxes, etc. The price is a little high, but not unreasonable considering the savings from not buying individually packed snacks and juice, ziploc bags, plastic silverware, etc. To buy one individual kit is $34.99 but they give a discount with the more you buy. I am wondering if others may be interested in going together to get a better deal. If we order 24 the price is only $13 each. If several families get these, then they won't feel like an oddball either. We could start a new and earthfriendly trend at Graham Hill. So, if you are interested, check out the website and then send me an email (remember to reply to me alone, not the whole yahoo group) at lawetzel@comca st.net.

Have a great summer!

Lisa Wetzel (a.k.a. mother of Timothy-grade 3 and Lauren-grade 1)

— originally posted to the GH Yahoo! Group by Lisa Wetzel

Seattle Times - Education's missing link: parents
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003937556_lynne10.html

— originally posted to the GH Yahoo! group by Jennifer Carter

During that conversation, we expressed our dismay with the lack of course offerings and programs in the middle and high schools in the South End. At the time, Aki's programs were watered down (hence Fionnula's move to Mercer) and neither Franklin nor Rainier Beach offered much in the way of AP or eccelerated classes and the arts. (Students at Franklin often end up in classes one grade-level up and likely to do "Running Start" by their senior year.) My query was prompted by web searches and the comparison between the course offerings at Rainier Beach and Roosevelt. I was saddened that my child would not have the opportunities that Roosevelt students would have just because of our geographic location.

Cheryl asked what it would take for us to consider Rainier Beach (she knew Elaina was at Washington and Dakota was at an independent school). We told her: a strong curriculum, AP and honors classes, music and the performing arts. We remarked that it was a crime that the fabulous performace space so recently built did not have a quality program (like Roosevelt's) to back it up.

Lo and behold, when the District unveiled it's new plan for the schools there was The Southeast Initiative—giving us pretty much everything we asked for!

It is important to note that at that meeting, Cheryl did confirm that the District was working toward the elimination of yellow bus transportation at the high school level—and that this would come about soon. The elimination of these buses will effectively narrow "choice" for everyone in the city. For example, it would be somewhat difficult for Seward Park residents to get to Sealth via city bus, and West Seattle AP students to get to Garfield.

If this is combined with a tightening of the "quadrants" for choice, it is highly likely that by 2008-9, our neighborhood will only have the choice of RB, Franklin, Cleveland…and possibly the alternative schools like NOVA. I would assume, at this point, that official AP students (those that came up through the ranks at Lowell and Washington) will still have access to Garfield—though there are rumors that even that program is not sacred.

So…where is this leading? For me, Rainier Beach has a year to show me what it can do and offer. Many of you know that I chose a small, independent middle school for Dakota. For various reasons I will not go into here, it was a perfect fit for her and our family, and, as hoped, is giving her the tools she needs to succeed in high school and beyond. Aside from the obvious expense (thank you Grandparents) it has been an incredible experience and she is flourishing.

In closing. We all have to do what is best for OUR child. My job is to give Dakota the tools she will need to achieve her potential in life. If the public school system can offer me those tools, I will gladly take them. I'd be thrilled to be able to have her ride her bike the mile or so to Rainier Beach. I believe it's a possibility and will continue to work to that end. As Mark Epstein noted, right now the school is small and can offer very personal attention (what I'm looking for). The curriculum will have to be challenging and the environment safe (ie., the CITY has got to deal with the apartments across the street).

However…my biggest fear has more to do with the District itself than one individual school. Until the District shows me that they will not keep shuffling poor-performance principals from school to school, I can never be confident that ANY school I choose will retain its quality. Those of us who came through Graham Hill know first-hand how a principal can make or break a school! Hooray for Chris Morningstar!

I advise EVERYONE to stay on the District's back, demanding an equitable education for ALL of the children in the South End. We have a new superintendent who believes in standardized curriculum, so we have a chance. The next step will be to work on the principal's union to make it easier to prune deadwood.

Andie

— originally posted to the GH Yahoo! Group by aptak5118@…

Read the entire press release.

— Originally posted to the GH Yahoo! group by Jennifer Carter

Read the full article from the International Herald Tribune/The Boston Globe (8/5/2007)

— originally posted to the GH Yahoo! group by Jennifer Carter

ResQMe is a keychain with a built-in seatbelt cutter and a spring-loaded pin designed to break vehicle side windows. Small and lightweight, the rescue tool detaches from the keychain with just a sharp tug.

LifeHammer is a double-sided hammer for breaking side and rear windows, and also contains a seatbelt cutter. Amazon.com sells versions that glow in the dark.
Both make inexpensive additions to your vehicle emergency kit, at just under $10 and $15.
Tip: Attach the LifeHammer with double-sided Velcro within easy reach of the driver's side. Hang a second ResQMe keychain to the back of your headrest, for passengers.

2. Self-Powered Flashlight and Radio
Murphy's Law clearly states that your flashlight batteries will die (or turn out to not be in your flashlight at all) just when you need to use it.
The solution? Carry a self-powered flashlight that you charge by winding a crank.

3. Emergency Mylar Blanket
Also called "solar" or "space" blankets, Mylar blankets are windproof, waterproof, and can reflect 80% to 90% of your body heat back to you.
When folded they are only about the size of a pack of cigarettes, so at a price of just over a dollar each it makes sense to keep several in your glove compartment.

4. Multi-Tool
So, you're waiting out the storm in your car when you remember that you have canned food in the back. (But unfortunately, no can opener!) Or perhaps you could have used a pair of needle nose pliers earlier that day to clamp down on an engine hose?

The Smith & Wesson® 44 Mag Tool® contains eighteen tools in one, including pliers, wire cutters, scissors, screwdrivers, blades, and can and bottle openers. Although extremely inexpensive compared to its competitors (it is currently priced at $9.95), it consistently gets good reviews on Amazon.com.

5. Emergency Cell Phone Battery Recharger
Your cell phone can be your lifeline during an emergency, so it makes sense to never be stranded with a low battery and no way to recharge it.

— originally post to the GH Yahoo! group by Fionnuala O'Sullivan

Read Full Story

— originally posted to the GH Yahoo! group by Jennifer Carter

Definitely worth 20 minutes of your time!!

If anyone wants to check them out, please report back here on what you find.

I'm not suggesting that this is something that we should be doing — in fact, I am against the practice from the standpoint of fairness and equality. On the other hand, I want to make sure that we are operating on as level a playing field as possible, and if others are doing it, I'd like to know why we do not even have the option.

Can anyone identify who it was that made this statement and on what grounds it was based?

The report on Graham Hill that the site provides is a bit stale (2003 is the most recent update). I am looking into what it takes to get this information updated.

Is anyone familiar with this site? Have we used it in the past? Is there any interest in exploiting it further? The only downside I see is that they charge a 4.75% fee on donations. However, the donor is given the option of paying this fee themselves. It would also seem that this amount might be offset by donations that we might not otherwise due to the sheer simplicity of donating on-line.

It would be pretty simple to add a link on our website directing potential donors to this service. Anyone have a differing viewpoint?

Basically, this service could provide us with:

• Custom e-mail addresses (e.g. JohnDoe@GrahamHillElementary.org) with service provided by a specially branded version of Gmail
• A common place to store and collaborate on documents (i.e. meeting minutes, flyers, budget spreadsheets, presentations, etc.)

It seems like we could leverage the custom e-mail to provide more permanent, generic type addresses (e.g. PTAPresident@GrahamHillElementary.org) which could simplify communication and facilitate more seamless transitions when responsibilities change. Mail can be set up to forward automatically to another address if someone doesn't want to have another e-mail account to manage.

The other thing that we could do is create distribution lists. For example, we can create a PTABoard@GrahamHillElementary.org that would forward to everyone on the board. Another example of where this could be incorporated is a the classroom level (e.g. Room101@GrahamHillElementary.org).

Does anyone else feel that there might be some value in this type of service? If so, I'd be happy to pursue it further.

I visited the site and I found that Graham Hill apparently has an account on this service (ID: 110621). However, I haven't heard anything about it from anyone involved with the school or the PTA. I know that some other PTAs participate with this site, so I'm not so much concerned about whether it's a legitimate site, but more that perhaps the contact and payment information may be stale.

Does anyone know who the "Champion" might be for GH with Schoolpop?

I've noticed that several other local PTAs are participating in this program and it looks like a dead simple way to generate some additional revenue.

More details:
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join

Any thoughts?

Hi Betina, Chandra & Eric:

Now might be a good time to raise this idea with you three.

I've been puzzling over how best to get people engaged in the school community using online tools.

We've got a couple websites:
http://www.grahamhillelementary.org — lovely, bright, personalized, quiet.
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/main/ShowSchool?ElementarySel=220&ElementaryBtn.x=10&ElementaryBtn.y=14 — more staid and centralized, the URL doesn't quite trip off the tongue, also quiet.

We've got a yahoogroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrahamHill/ —170 members, pretty chatty and active.

These resources can be great, especially when they're active, interesting, and well moderated. The websites are good places to store information. The listserv is a great place for anyone to announce an idea or get something started. I'm wondering if there's value in starting something that fits between the two.

For the past couple months I've been noodling around with wikis, thinking that it should be a good way to connect people and information where they are these days, which tends to be where you are — in front of your computer. PTA meetings just don't have the grip they used to — and we've got records from the '50s to prove it.

A wiki is a website that anyone can edit. Here's a draft explanation:
http://grahamhill.wikidot.com/why

I've been nudging the PTA board to start collaborating online, like this:
http://grahamhill.wikidot.com/test

We've tried out posting meeting agendas and minutes, like this:
http://grahamhill.wikidot.com/minutes

It seems to be an idea and tool the Board is getting used to, especially if there's something specific to do, like signing up for something.

I'm not ready to make this widely available yet, and I don't know that the Board is either. So please don't forward this message on.

It would be good to hear your ideas about how this resource might help parents get engaged with all the hard work to be done this year. I'd also like your ideas for how the wiki can complement the yahoogroup and the websites, so they all work to their best potential.

Elaine, I've cc'd you — I heard you're this year's leader of the communications team.

Let me know your thoughts.

S.