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every child. one voice.
JUNE 23, 2004
In a year-end report to the members of the Pleasanton Unified School Board, Pleasanton PTA Council President, Debbie Look, noted that PTA volunteers in Pleasanton contributed 118,516 hours or 14,815 full workdays to the schools and district in 2003/2004. The PTA Council includes 8 Pleasanton schools and has 4,791 members.
In its first year of operation the Council was active in a number of areas. Within the Health and Safety arena, Council members worked to build awareness of the dangers to severely food allergic children; held a forum on preventing child sexual abuse; promoted public access to Automatic External Defibrillators (AED’s) in our middle and high schools; and promoted sun safety for our students.
The Go Green initiative was a tremendous success, thanks to the support of the City of Pleasanton, which provided a $45,000 grant. All eight PTA schools participated in this program, which is designed to teach children to be responsible caretakers of the planet; and to heighten community awareness of, and participation in, environmentally responsible behavior. In its first two quarters of operation, the eight Go Green schools collectively recycled enough materials to save 1,176 trees.
The Council was also very active in legislative issues beginning the year by co-sponsoring an all-candidates forum for school board candidates with the League of Women Voters. Members also took action on a number of key bills being considered in Sacramento including those relating to video game violence; class size reduction; student interrogation; and pupil health: self administration of medication. The Council actively supported Propositions 55, 56, 57 & 58 on the March ballot.
Students were encouraged to demonstrate the character traits being taught in our schools by applying for grants for community outreach programs. The Pleasanton PTA Council was able to offer these grants through the generous sponsorship of Masterpiece Cookies. Students purchased books and videos for children’s hospitals, sent school supplies to Liberia, supported the Pleasanton Police’s Giving Tree and wrote about the “Laws of Life”.
In keeping with a statewide PTA focus on the importance of the arts in our schools, the Pleasanton PTA Council sponsored its first annual Reflections Arts Recognition Program. Students from four local schools submitted 161 entries in the areas of visual arts, photography, music and literature. Two students received recognition at the State level: Amy Seaver from Amador Valley High School and Ashley Song from Mohr Elementary, both for visual arts.
For more information, contact Debbie Look (925) 600-0958 or look49@comcast.net