Blog – Maurice Hawk PTA

2017-2018 End of the Year Letter

Dear Parents and Students of Maurice Hawk for the 2017-2018 school year,

I have to begin by saying it has been my privilege to serve as President of the Maurice Hawk PTA. I have repeatedly witnessed what a devoted community can do to expand their children’s environment for success. Dozens of volunteers devoted hundreds of hours to make our PTA events, programs, and activities a huge success.

On behalf of the PTA Executive Board, I want to thank our entire school community for their support of our many programs and events for the students at Maurice Hawk Elementary School. From basic membership to chairing an event or program, from volunteering to simply attending an event, your contributions of time, effort, and/or money validates and broadens your child’s educational experience. Further, your support of the PTA expands every child’s opportunity for growth.

Here are some highlights from 2017-2018:
The PTA funded student assemblies which showcased Science Circus by Liberty Science Center, Musical Drama by Dennis Korbay, Hip Hop fundamentals from Philly. Some of the PTA special events for parents included: Inside a math classroom, understanding the various testing for K-3, Meet the Specials, Volunteers Social, PTA Breakfast.

Parent Volunteers put on very successful Field Days, Dad’s Coffee, Candy Bar Bingo, 2 very successful Book fairs, Blanket the World, Literacy Festival, Visiting Authors Day, Trenton Thunder Family Outing, Faculty Appreciation Coffee, Plainsboro Food Pantry Drive, Original Artworks, Science Fair, A very successful themed Staff Appreciation week with a staff lunch, International Fair, Family Carnival, 3^rd Grade Picnic, produced an awesome yearbook for our graduating 3^rd graders.

Our annual teachers mini-grants helped fund additional drum sets, manipulatives for math for our 1^st graders, non-fiction books for our 2^nd graders book clubs, non-fiction library for reading recovery program, Bee-bots for Media Center, STEM strategy games and materials for our Kindergartners, Materials for Math workshop, OSMO and more.

Join our Facebook Page to check out all the fun and memorable moments from this year. To join the PTA (starting August 1 for next year), sign up to volunteer, or for more information on events, please visit hawkpta.org or contact a board member.

None of this would have been possible without your membership and support from the staff, teachers, parents, and many volunteers, not to mention the significant contribution and exceptional talents of my fellow board members: Stephanie Thomas, Melinda Van Dillen, Neelam Kapoor Khanna, Vasanti Anand, Graelynn McKeown, and Sejal Pandya. We will miss Melinda and Stephanie, but we welcome Padma Katapalli and Minhwa Cho to the Executive Board and are grateful to them for volunteering their time to continue to make Maurice Hawk a school of which we are all proud.

Have a great summer and remember “Stay Safe! Have fun! Read! Do math every day! Above all else, do the right thing!” And speaking of doing the right thing, I encourage you to sign up for something new next year, and you can see for yourself what an amazing school we have the privilege of calling our own. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409054ea5a622a20-hawk20

Sonia Gawas, President MH PTA

P.S. Back to School Social will be here before we know it. See you then!

2018-2019 PTA Executive Board
Sonia Gawas, President
Sejal Pandya, Vice President
Padma Katapalli, Secretary
Minhwa Cho, Treasurer
Vasanti Anand, VP Communications
Graelynn McKeown, VP Events
Neelam Kapoor Khanna, VP Membership

–Contact Us—
This is your PTA and we want to hear from you. Comments or questions? Let us know at president@hawkpta.org or find us online at: http://www.hawkpta.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/mhawkpta/

January 2018 PTA General Meeting Minutes

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
MAURICE HAWK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PTA

Thursday, January 11, 2018- 7:30pm

Call to Order: Sonia Gawas called the meeting to order at 7:40 pm
17 people in attendance.

Secretary’s Report: Minutes from October 2017 meeting were presented and approved.

Treasurer’s Report:
• 2017 Audit has been completed and submitted. Only finding was that our PTA needs two signatures on ALL checks regardless of dollar amount.
• Current financial report was made available for review. No questions were posed.
•
Committee Reports:
• Garden committee – call to action. A new committee chair is needed as the current chair has moved out of state.
• Teacher appreciation breakfast – the event has been approved to move from a breakfast event to a hosted coffee. A call to action will go out shortly for food donations.
• Nominating committee – all four members were announced. Padma Katapalli, Minhwa Cho, Graelynn McKeown and Stephanie Thomas. Elections will be held at the May General PTA Meeting. Anyone interested in a Board position should contact a member of the nominating committee.
• Upcoming events: Candy Bar Bingo on January 26th. Science Fair, February 10th.

Main program: Assessments in K-3 presented by Principal Trish Buell and Dr. Erin Faulk.

• What they are: how we measure progress. What they are not: a standardized test.
• The goal of an assessment is to gather data about students and use it in the Responsive Teaching model. Responsive Teaching uses what is known to guide instruction. Responsive Teaching data inputs include:
o Assessments of learning styles and interests
o Daily conference notes
o Class work
o Observation
o Formative assessments
o Self-reflection

• Four type of assessment used at Maurice Hawk
o Fountas and Pinnell K-3. This is a reading assessment done at the beginning and end of year
o MAP. A measure of a student’s academic progress. It helps identify areas where support may be needed for each child and is done in the fall and spring.
o InView. This is a cognitive ability assessment done in 2nd and 5th grades in the first half of the year. It measures reasoning skills, both verbal and non-verbal.
o PARCC. A statewide assessment of a range of Common Core goals. It assesses literacy (reading and writing) as well as math.
 This year the PARCC takes place April 16 – May 25.
 PARCC is 3 units each of literacy and math and we typically schedule 1 unit per day. Each unit takes about 1-1/2 hours to complete.
Principal’s Report
• Ms. Buell recapped end of year and recent events including:
o 3rd Grade trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum with Mrs. Carr
o 1st trimester report cards
o Successful Barnes and Noble Book Fair organized by Mrs. Ferguson

• The school now has full-day security guard from 7 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
• Currently Hawk admin is part of a strategic planning initiative. A team has been appointed and the planning and goals are centered on the principles of Every Child, Global Child and Whole Child.
• Hawk is participating in a pilot dual-language immersion program to begin in the 2018/2019 year
o Program in K-5. Hawk is one of 2 schools in the program.
• Dr. Aderholt will be presenting to the school about the upcoming addition and renovation. The date is TBD.
• Hawk is part of a Sustainable NJ initiative
o 270 students joined the green team to help educate all students about green practices and come up with new ideas.
o Two programs to run are the recycling of dead magic markers (happening now) and a partner program with Trek to recycle plastic bags (launch TBA)
• Recently had a teacher leave the district – Stacy McGuirl (2nd grade) has relocated.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Melinda Van Dillen, Maurice Hawk Elementary PTA Secretary

Hawk Walk 2018 To Benefit Ronald McDonald House

The annual Hawk Walk to benefit the Ronald McDonald House is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5th at 9:30 am (AM K and 1st – 3rd grades) & 1:30 pm (PM K) with a rain date of June 6th. The Hawk P.E. teachers and PTA are looking for volunteers to help with the water station in the Kindergarten Circle. You need to be available for an hour and a half. If you can volunteer for both the rain date as well, please sign up for both as Mother Nature has been quite unpredictable this Spring!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409054ea5a622a20-hawk21

Thank you in advance for your help!

The Maurice Hawk PTA

Location: Kindergarten Circle

Family Carnival 2018

Our annual Family Carnival is June 5th from 5:30 to 8:00 pm, with a rain date of June 6th!

Tickets for the carnival are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. You may order them using the form that came home in your child’s backpack or online. Please use our signup to donate an item to our Cakewalk game and/or sign up to volunteer; there are slots for selling tickets and running games, each either 45 minutes or an hour to give you plenty of time to enjoy the carnival yourself!

Signup Genius for Volunteer Slots

To order tickets, use the hard copy form that came home in your child’s backpack, print the flyer, or use the following form to order tickets online and pay via PayPal; the form will be active through May 26th.

PTA Carnival 2018

Online payment form:

http://hawkpta.org/machform/view.php?id=20330

2018 End-of-year BoxTops Contest!

Contest Dates: May 14-31

We are running an end-of-year BoxTops contest! Send in your BoxTops during the last three weeks of May, and the winning class in EACH GRADE will get a special popsicle recess! Popsicles will be ordered through the cafeteria and will be nut-free.

In addition, the child with the most BoxTops collected EACH WEEK of the contest will receive a special certificate and have their name read on the morning announcements!

We ask that you print and use our special Hawk BoxTop collection sheet. Write in your child’s name at the top, the teacher’s name at the bottom, paste or tape your BoxTops on, and send it to school! Your child will then drop it in the special BoxTops collection box outside the library. Please use this sheet even if you can’t fill it completely with BoxTops, as it will make it easier for us to count! Due date for BoxTops is May 31.

Download the sheet here: BTFE_collectionsheet_25_Hawk.pdf

Thank you to our Rebates Program chairs, Eileen Azzara and Danielle Salapatas who will be counting the BoxTops!

Questions? Contact Stephanie at vicepresident@hawkpta.org!

TRENTON THUNDER IS HERE !

The deadline for Trenton Thunder ticket orders is May 11th. This is a HARD deadline as we are calling in our ticket order on the next day! Cash or checks made out to “Maurice Hawk PTA” are accepted, make sure to include your child’s teacher and mark the envelope “PTA Trenton Thunder”. If you have any questions, please contact D’arcy Keleman at dkele14@yahoo.com.

Mercer County Council PTA Spring Meeting

Last week on April 19, 2018, a few members of the executive board, and Principal Buell had the opportunity to attend the MCCPTA Spring Dinner. The event was held in recognition of the various volunteers in our community and to celebrate the PTA leaders as well. The host PTA was Klockner Elementary School, Hamilton.

Several PTA representatives from the WW-P district were present. The President, secretary and treasurer reports were presented. Raffles, 50/50, several generous gifts donated by local vendors were auctioned off. Overall, the President, Amelia Chloe discussed increasing PTA membership, volunteers, and other fundraising ideas.

On June 11, 2018, there is a free informational/training session (ABCs of PTA) for all current officers, recently elected or soon to be elected officers, and other interested PTA members. The event will be held from 6:30PM-9:30PM at Crockett Middle School, 2631 Kuser Rd, Hamilton, NJ 08691.

RSVP is June 6, 2018. achloe@njpta.org

RACE TO END HUNGER

Last year, the Send Hunger Packing West Windsor-Plainsboro a program of Mercer Street Friends began here in our school district. Many do not realize the number of food insecure children in our district but working with the schools and the guidance offices, over 110 children each week are supplied with weekend meals. To assure that this vital program continues, SHuP WW-P is holding what should be a fun event on Sunday, May 20 at the WAC and we are looking for teams to participate in this fundraising 5K run/ 1 mile fun walk. We are asking that you put together a team consisting of parents, students (any age), teachers or staff representing your school.

All of the proceeds will go to Send Hunger Packing- West Windsor Plainsboro, a program of Mercer Street Friends, which provides free weekend meals to WW-P schoolchildren who qualify for free and reduced fee lunches. We will provide T shirts to all participants who register before May 1. We will offer prizes to the best male and female runner in each age category and one for the best costume for the fun run. We hope that your organization located in the Mercer/Middlesex Counties of New Jersey will support this event by running a team.

If you have any questions please feel free to call or email me. And yes, the District Office knows to the event and is behind the program. And yes, the Township knows about this event and we hope to see some of our Township folks at the event as well.

Please email the flyer to anyone you think would be interested or print out and post.

Hope to see you at the event.
Cheers!

Mhager272aol.com
609.275.3889 would be interested or print out and post.

Hope to see you at the event.
Cheers!

Mhager272aol.com
609.275.3889

PTA General Meeting 2018

We will be holding elections for the upcoming school year. Please join us end of the year updates and to announce our PTA officers slate. Any current PTA members may run for the office, including teachers.
It is that time of year again, when it is time to look ahead and line up our PTA officers for the next school year.
The nominating committee has put together a slate of one person for each office, of which we have 7: President, Secretary, Treasurer, and 4 Vice-Presidents.

The meeting will be held at Hawk on May 24, 7-9 PM.

Hawk Staff Appreciation Week 2018

“A teacher affects eternity; he/she can never tell where his/her influence stops.” Henry Brooks Adams

“Not all superheroes have capes, some have Teaching Degrees.” Author Unknown

Staff Appreciation Week-
We are now collecting donations and volunteers for the luncheon on May 11! Please help us honor our hard working, dedicated teachers and their outstanding support staff during National Teacher Appreciation Week. Donate desserts or gift cards for the raffle, dollars for catering, or your time at the event itself. Help us give the staff a “Super Thank You!”

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409054ea5a622a20-20171. Questions: Reach the committee at hawkstaffapp@gmail.com