Livonia PTSA Council Courier

We made it through the first month of school! Congratulations to all the units on your successful Back to School events! Lots of great things coming up this month. Don't forget, you get PEP points just for celebrating your successes by submitting an article for this newsletter. The Livonia PTAs/PTSAs do great things and by submitting articles you help give fellow units ideas. We can all learn and grow with each other!

Keep up the great work!

Laura Ulaszek

PTSA Council, newsletter chair

Monday, October 16 at 5:45 pm in the Patriot Room at Central Office (second floor). All PTA/PTSA board members are welcome to come meet our superintendent, members of the school board, and members of cabinet. It's your chance to learn what these individuals do for our district and who can help you with what. Please join us for this short session before the school board meeting.

Click on picture above and save to post to your social media platforms. You can also save the pdf below.

The Livonia PTSA Council Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Committee is looking for new members. Members of the committee would act as the DEIB chair of their unit and meet with the committee on a monthly basis. Our goal is to ensure that all PTA/PTSA events and programs are inclusive and that everyone in our school communities feels like the PTA/PTSA is a place where they belong. This year we will also be working with the district to provide the parent/guardian perspective in their DEIB work. We would love to have a DEIB chair for each unit this year. Please send the name and email address for your DEIB chair(s) to DEI@livoniaptsacouncil.org. Our first meeting will be October 3 at 6 p.m. via Google Meet.

Debbie Yates

Livonia PTSA Council Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee chair

The school year has started - our students are back into the swings of things, activities have started up, and this year is in full swing! Have you had a membership drive yet? If so, let us know what you did and how you did in the next newsletter. We'd love to know how it went for your PTA/PTSA.

Your membership numbers could already be growing. Remember to send your dues to Michigan PTA by the 28th of every month for all new members that month.

Have you had your first PTA/PTSA meeting yet? Has your budget been approved? If so, don't forget to send in your Livonia PTSA Council annual dues and a completed form. The address to send/deliver this to is on the form. Please DO NOT send this form or payment to Central Office. The form is below. Every email address on the form will receive an email when the form and funds have been received for your records.

We can't wait to see how many members you can gain this year!

Nicole Dant

Livonia PTSA Council, membership chair

PEP email is working again! You can now send everything PEP related to PEP@livoniaptsacouncil.org to receive credit, ask questions, or for anything else PEP related.

PEP is off to a great start this year! Submissions are coming in and those points are adding up nicely! Be sure to check the PEP Checklist to make sure items are submitted on time to receive PEP credit for them. There were some items that are due by October 1st. If you have not already turned those in, please still do so as they are important. Don't forget to invite your liaison every month to your monthly meetings, and CC PEP for an easy 100 points. Also, when you submit a newsletter article, be sure to CC PEP and receive another easy 100 points.

The year has just begun! There are a LOT of PEP opportunities yet to come. Keep doing amazing work with your unit and sending in those submissions.

Sara Bennett

Livonia PTSA Council, PEP chair

We have had an exciting couple weeks here at Buchanan. We hosted our fall book fair, which is always such a fun event. We love being able to help kids pick out books and encourage reading.

We also hosted our first color run. This has been our first fun run event since before covid and we had a record number of fundraising and great incentives from our community.

The PTA is happy to welcome all of our new special teachers and we're happy to provide shelving for the gym as well as new curriculum development for music.

Cleveland PTA held our first ever SCHOOL-WIDE color run on 9/29! This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and our Eagles are well on their way to reaching their goal! We're using Givebacks to collect and track donations, and the PTA is providing every student with a race kit that contains a shirt and sunglasses. We're extremely grateful to BJ's Brewhouse for donating cookies for our event, as well as several other local sponsors whose generosity helped us knock this event out of the park!

Our year at Coolidge is off to a great start! Kids and teachers are settling into the new routines of the new year. Our PTA had their first meeting of the year in September and voted on our budget. We talked about fundraising and some events to come around Coolidge.

The PTA and school will be kicking off the year with a joint fundraiser … and we couldn’t be more excited! The students had a special assembly to get excited about selling World’s Finest Chocolate at the end of September and it will run through the first couple weeks of October. Chocolate bars only cost $1 so if you have friends or family that are part of Coolidge Elementary School, we would appreciate your support!

The kids are working hard to earn the chance to have our Family Fall Festival this year as

an incentive! Our fall festival is a special night where we bring Coolidge families together for food, games, and it’s a chance for the kids to dress up in their Halloween costumes.

Be on the lookout for information from our special committee chairs ...

This month Coolidge’s DEI committee will be putting up an informational bulletin board for students to learn about National Hispanic Heritage Month. Students, staff, and families are encouraged to check it out and learn something new!

The BUZZ is our Youth Making a Difference program will be rolling out near the end of October. Students are encouraged to BEE the change they wish to see in the world with various community service activities they may complete over the next several months.

Reflections is a wonderful program to get involved with and for students to learn the importance of fine arts. Our chair Mrs. Stark is a wonderful resource for students and families, and we look forward to having so much involvement from our Coolidge Cougars.

School is in full swing and so is our PTA. We had our Welcome Back BBQ on Thursday, September 14 and it was well attended. The PTA was delighted to have numerous LPS staff from Grant help in serving food and handing out beverages.

In September, we started our largest fundraiser for the year, World's Finest Chocolate.

Wow! September flew by at Hoover! We have been busy!!

We started on Wednesday, September 6th with curriculum night, in which 80% of our families attended! Our PTA set up an informational bulletin board, along with our PTA table in the main vestibule to welcome people and inform them on exactly what the PTA does for our school! We also had Heavenly Hot Dogs food truck there as well as Dan the Kona Man!

We also hosted Outdoor Movie night on Friday, September 8th. This was always a pre-covid event at Hoover, and we were so happy to be able to bring it back! It was very well received and attended, definitely more than we expected! The kids had a great time running around, eating snacks, popcorn, kona ice and watching Super Mario Brothers, of course!

Also had our first PTA Meeting September 13th!

We also had our 2nd Annual Color Run fundraising in full swing! Our event was at the end of September!

Back-to-school at Kennedy has been nothing short of fun!

The PTA offered a yummy dine-out at the Plymouth Depot on 8/25! It was a perfect way for students to catch up after finding out their classroom assignments the day prior.

Our PTA’s annual Chalk-the-Walk was a success as well! Many students and their families wrote encouraging messages and drew fun pictures the Sunday before the first day of school. The chalk brings smiles to the faces of students and staff alike and continues to be highly anticipated year after year.

In addition, our staff was provided a Back-to-School luncheon sponsored by the PTA to enjoy before heading into curriculum night. As always, it was appreciated and a hit.

Kennedy’s annual color run took place at the end of September and students took home prizes for the money they’ve earned.

The PTA has also paired up with Garden City Miniature Golf to offer a fun family outing opportunity in September. Students and their families happily enjoyed a discounted game of putt-putt while benefitting Kennedy at the same time.

Overall, it’s been a great start to the school year at Kennedy Elementary.

We had a fantastic beginning of our school year! The PTA helped welcome our students and families back at our Randolph curriculum night. We had Crazy Craig who entertained our students while the parents and teachers met. He is always a fan favorite! We had a table set up for teachers and PTA. Parents were able to sign up for the PTA or offer to help with our teacher wish lists! We are excited to note that as of 9/6 our membership number was 76 and it is still growing. We ended last year with a membership total of 109 and we are on trend this year to go beyond that number. Thank you to all the parents and teachers who always show support to our PTA.

Our Color Run fundraiser took place on 9/22. This will be our only big fundraiser this semester and we are excited about the success we had! On 9/30 we had our drawing for some awesome prizes. It was fun for all!

We’ve hit the ground runnin’ … Raptor Running into our largest fundraiser of the year, our newly revamped Fun Run. We are celebrating our school’s mascot change from the Risso's (dolphin) to Raptors! We will be providing every student that participates a Rosedale Raptors silicone bracelet, and we’ve added a color run portion to this Rosedale Tradition.

Up next will be our annual Trunk or Treat night, which is always a fun night for our families!

Our meeting attendance has been fantastic and we are really appreciative of the positive feedback, ideas, and volunteering our families are providing! We know its going to be an amazing year here at Rosedale!

We have had an exciting start to the school year here at Webster Elementary. We welcomed several new RISE classrooms to our building consisting of ASD students and MoCI students. We hope they feel welcomed and included. We've also welcomed a new 5/6 teacher and PLTW teacher. We welcomed our families back with some chalk art and welcome back signs. That drew a lot of smiles from parents dropping off. The PTA board has been busy drumming up memberships and planning our school fundraiser and fall fest. To entice staff to join PTA, we made goodie bags for those who already joined. We are already a third of the way to our "race to raise" fundraising goal culminating in a party on the playground on October 6th. The classes seem excited to compete against each other for most money raised. We hope you are all having a great start to the school year!

Mark your calendars NOW for Founders’ Day, Officer’s Training, and the Audit Party!

2023

9/20 – LPTSA Council Meeting |6 – 8 p.m. | Central Office

10/3 – Costume Closet | 6 – 8 p.m. | Franklin High School

10/16 – Council Meet and Greet | 5:45 p.m. | Central Office, Patriot Room

October – IEP Binder Organization Event | TBD

11/15 – LPTSA Council Meeting & Workshop |6 – 8 p.m. | Central Office

11/16 – Food Service Appreciation

December – LPTSA Council Family STEM Event | TBD

2024

1/17 – LPTSA Council Meeting | 6 – 8 p.m. | Central Office

1/20 – LPTSA Council Chili Cook-Off | 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. | TBD

January – Reflections Ceremony | 6 p.m. | TBD

2/21 – Founders’ Day | 6 p.m. | TBD

3/20 – LPTSA Council Meeting & Workshop | 6 – 8 p.m. | Central Office

3/21 – Transportation, Maintenance & Warehouse Appreciation

4/17 – LPTSA Council Meeting & Elections | 6 – 8 p.m. | Central Office

4/24 – YMAD Celebration | 6 p.m. | Churchill High School

5/22 – Officer’s Training | 6 – 8 p.m. | TBD

6/12 – LPTSA Council Meeting | 6 – 8 p.m. | Central Office

7/17 – Audit Party | 6 – 8 p.m.| Central Office

If you are a PTA/PTSA officer or committee chair, please make sure to join our group for important information, discussions, and more! Be sure to answer the questions when you request to join. A lot of great information is shared on this closed group page. It's also a great way to network with other units, share ideas, and ask for help.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/541318689333449/

Michigan PTA Website: https://www.michiganpta.org/

Michigan PTA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/everychildonevoice

National PTA Website: https://www.pta.org/

National PTA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ParentTeacherAssociation

National PTA Blog: https://onevoice.pta.org/

The Livonia PTSA Council is a group of 22 local PTA/PTSA Units within the Livonia Public Schools District. The Council is organized under the authority of the Michigan PTA for the purpose of promoting conferences, communications, leadership development and coordination of the efforts of the local units.

Interested in joining Council? There are chair opportunities available! Contact President Andrea Malenfant at andrea.malenfant@livoniaptsacouncil.org

Email: newsletter@livoniaptsacouncil.org
Website: www.livoniaptsacouncil.org
Location: 15125 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI, USA
Phone: .
Facebook: facebook.com/LivoniaPTSACouncil
Twitter: @LivoniaPTSAC