School is out and summer vacation is upon us! We can hardly wait to dip our toes in the sand and water. Yet for families with Seniors, they may be feeling they want things to slow down just a little, as this momentous occasion—the end of high school and all that entails—swiftly approaches!
At least 4 things are happening next week that Senior families should know about:
• May 31, Graduation Practice (9 am at LASA)
• May 31, Senior Salute (7 pm at Riverbend Center)
• June 1, Graduation (2 pm at Burger Center)
• June 1, Project Graduation (10 pm at East Communities YMCA)
Senior families—you can find more info here https://www.lasahighschool.org/students/senior-info
UPDATES AND THANK YOUS
At our final PFLASA meeting for this school year, I told everyone that I had just found out that this blog had not been going to most subscribers for the entire spring semester! Gah!!
I believe the glitch was fixed. You can check out what you missed here: https://pflasa.org/blog/
I also gave a brief report on Tutoring. We had more than 420 student engagements (the number of times a student signed in for tutoring) this year as of the end of classes. Physics and Chemistry were just about equal in usage and represented the majority of engagements. Algebra 2 and Biology had far fewer. We know that our numbers are likely under-counted, as some students forget to sign in. PFLASA will continue to assess the needs and program approach for next year with respect to tutoring. I am happy to say we have had several parents step up to volunteer to help manage this program next year. Thank you – you know who you are!!!
PFLASA will be moving to the portable by the tennis courts. The move will take place over the summer. Check with our incoming President, Nicole Truelock, with any questions about the process.
And now it’s time for the THANK YOUS!!
First, a HUGE Thank You to this year’s Board Members. Serving on the board is quite a commitment!
• Diana Hubbard, our Treasurer, who will continue as Assistant Treasurer next year and therefore serve for 2 more years.
• Randi Bell, our Assistant Treasurer, who will officially become Treasurer.
• Lisa Lyons, our Grants Committee Chair who also helped with insurance and contract-related matters. She will continue to serve.
• Lori Wallace, our Grants Committee Vice Chair (and a former PFLASA President); she has also been on the PTSA board this year – whew! What a dedicated volunteer! She will continue to serve also.
• Elizabeth Bomba, our Secretary, who is leaving the board for now, but she plans to be back! Thank you so much for your 2 years of service, Elizabeth!
• Tammi Schroeder, our Assistant Secretary, who will become Secretary.
• Nicole Truelock, our VP and incoming President.
• Thank you, also, to Vijay Raghav and Ellen Stewart-Klein, our two new board members who are already ramping up for next year.
We had many volunteers over the year, many chairs, co-chairs, leads and shadows. It is probably impossible to name every person, but I want to recognize the following folks who led events or worked throughout the year on multiple things.
Olga Ovcharenko, who did a great job with all the hospitality events, including the recent 2 weeks of AP breakfasts and snacks!
Mena Ramon, who is chairing Project Graduation (still a work in progress)—It’s going to be awesome!
Kristy Kelly (Neff), who pulled off Coffeehouse AGAIN, even with the switch of venues. This was her 4th Coffeehouse! And Meenaa Gopalsamy and Emily Robson, who took care of ticket sales for the event.
Nalini Kumar and Elise Su, who organized Senior Salute and brought us into a brand-new venue – Riverbend Center! Nalini was also a huge help with AP Breakfast and Snacks, by being there most afternoons.
Nina Miller, who re-invigorated our Wellness Committee and got a bunch of new initiatives off the ground.
Jayne Rosso and Emily Robson, who ran the fall mentoring program (the program that helps applicants to LASA), which was especially challenging this year when the deadlines for applications were compressed.
Virginia Jones and Bharathi Jana, who took care of our recruiting events this year, and helped transition the “Roadshows” to LASA-based events.
Lina Porras and Cristina Hernandez, who led our Latino Outreach Committee and organized multiple activities for Latino LASA families.
Rebecca Cook, who chaired our holiday “Giving Thanks Pie” Event in November.
Kristin Davis, who ran our No Hassle Fundraiser in the fall and has continued to research other fundraising models we might use to help LASA fund staffing shortages.
Ami Cortes-Castillo, who chaired the Project Graduation Auction, and the many parents who helped with the auction, hosted Happy Hours throughout the year and supported other aspects of fundraising.
There were also many parents who helped with various appreciation events, including Sarah Romo de Vivar, Claire Hobbs, Meggan Carcasi, Christal Hood-McDonald, Belinda Roberts, Kristin Benton, Jerry Haddican. Special thanks to Nicole Truelock, who handled the teacher gifts and the luncheon for teachers and staff. Thanks also to Brandy Smallwood and Randi Bell who helped coordinated the appreciation events. Brandy also made and donated many of her beautiful balloon creations!
Many other folks work behind the scenes and every single contribution is valued! To name a few, a huge thank you to:
Care Firestone, our PFLASA webmaster, who made sure our ticket sales and donations could be done online and provided other web edits and assistance.
Nicole Basham – editor of the LOL Newsletter and Karina Goulet, who along with Yolanda Torres, headed up the Spanish translation team for the Newsletter.
No list is complete without thanking and acknowledging our LASA Webmaster, Geeta Suggs, who does SO MUCH communication to help everyone stay organized and provides a lot of the current leadership and structure for the PFLASA parent class representatives groups, and much more. For instance, Geeta organized our recent stressbuster – popsicles for the students on the last day of regular classes. Fun!!!
A SPECIAL and HUGE Thank You to parents who hosted our New Teacher Bus Tour last summer (Karen Rooff and Meghan Riley) and the many parents who mentored 8th grade LASA applicants in the fall and who volunteered to be hall and bathroom monitors during AP exams this spring. We also have many junior parents (and some senior parents and parents from other classes) signed up to help with the upcoming Project Graduation event. Thanks in advance, y’all!
Even with all of these acknowledgements, I am sure I have not even covered every group or event. PFLASA does a LOT of stuff! :). We also know that there are so many parents who can’t chair or serve on a committee, but who show up to work at events when they can, or donate food and supplies, or lend their knowledge, time and expertise in other ways. Each and every contribution is vital. THANK YOU!
Summer
Don’t forget about the awesome Book Clubs for new students hosted by Ms. Switek. More information can be found here. Dates are June 15, July 9 and July 23.
Planning for Next Year (Things that happen in July and August)
Avert your eyes if you don’t want to think about next year yet (I don’t blame you!) 🙂
But these dates can sneak up, so it’s a good idea to put them on your calendar now.
• Taking Care of Business Early (for students) — TCBE is the opportunity for your student to come by the school and get what he or she needs to start the year off right. They happen this year on Tuesday July 25, Wednesday July 26, Wednesday August 2 and Thursday August 3. You can come any of these days. Keep an eye out for more details.
• First Day of School — August 14