PFLASA hosted its first meeting of the year and there was a lot to discuss.
First, we explained for new parents what PFLASA is and does. For anyone who doesn’t know we are our non-profit group that exists solely to support LASA. LASA has two parent organizations PTSA (advocacy outside of the school) join them at https://www.lasaptsa.org/ and PFLASA which concentrates on supporting the needs of LASA. We like to focus on the three “C’s”: Community, Communication and Cash. Every LASA parent/guardian, teacher and staff member is automatically a member of PFLASA (no dues or application necessary). PFLASA works hard to support our community not just with supplies and appreciation for teachers but also events for students and parents. In this vein, we held our first community coffee at Central Market North for parents to informally gather and meet each other. There will be more of these so keep checking the Raptor Report (subscribe here to receive our weekly newsletter if you haven’t already).
As for communication, this new tool, the Raptor Report, is our primary one but we also support the zip code and class Google groups, the Facebook page, and Instagram account. We have a few requests to post our meeting minutes and while we can’t do that, I will be providing these recaps for those who can’t make it to meetings. I also highly encourage you to attend a meeting if you can. You can come to any meeting the whole schedule is posted and we have our first evening Zoom meeting coming up on September 9th. I have never attended a meeting where I didn’t learn something important. Our next in person meeting is September 6th at 8:15am in the portable and we will have an update frm our PFLASA Health and Wellness Committee Chair (not to be confused with the LASA Wellness counselors) and much more.
We also had updates from our unofficial fourth “C”, the committees. We are currently trying to fill several vacant chair positions. See our updated graphic (below) but most of our committees are looking for help including appreciations and tutoring. Our first update was from one of the BYPTS (Bring Your Parent to School) Chairs. Mark your calendars for September 18th & 19th and look for information to come about parking, registration, and volunteering.
We also heard from our Master Class chair. Master Classes are online classes sold by PFLASA for fundraising on a variety of topics. If you have an idea for a class or think you could teach one please reach out to us. And keep your eyes peeled for announcements of classes including one on executive functioning.
Great Gatherings are the newly renamed former Happy Hours which is where a parent throws a party or class or activity. These events are in person and in the past were largely grade level based but have opened up to include whatever people dream up. This is another fundraising vehicle that traditionally supports Senior Salute with the ticket sales to these Great Gatherings. Again please reach out about hosting one if you are interested. And look for those to go on sale later in September so that you can mix and mingle with other awesome LASA parents.
And our past president Nicole Trueluck and current Senior Auction Chair spoke about senior fundraising. Nicole oversees the mini-auction and the auction which both raise funds for Project Graduation. Project Graduation is the all-night, drug and alcohol-free lock-in that many schools host on graduation night for their seniors. Graduation night can be the deadliest night of the year for celebrating high school grads and so the US Department of Transportation gives grants to support these events. The grant is a small part of the overall cost to ensure the safety of our community and support our LASA grads. The auction is an online event with classes, gift cards, and items that are sold. But because some events occur before the auction, Project Graduation hosts the mini-auction which is traditionally tickets to UT football games and ACL passes. If you have these items or any other tickets to events that you won’t use please reach out to donate them!
We also had updates from our Grants committee, the PTSA, and Tutoring but please forgive me for not making this recap even longer.
Which leads us to the final “C” – cash. PFLASA strives to support the school and community in numerous ways but to do that we need funds. While we have some creative fundraising events, the bulk of our budget comes from our biggest fundraiser the NHF (the no-hassle fundraiser). And yes, we have lots of acronyms (sorry). This is where PFLASA asks for donations of any amount directly from parents and friends. The NHF will launch on Labor Day with the PM but for now anyone who works for an employer that matches funds we implore you to figure that out now. Also an important reminder from our Treasurer be sure you have selected PFLASA and not LASA high school. Donating the funds to LASA creates red-tape nightmares for the poor LASA bookkeeper.
Regards,
Ellen Stewart-Klein
PFLASA President
