Serving
Riverside County
Council Spotlight
Alvord | Corona/Norco | Hemet/San Jacinto | Jurupa | Lake Elsinore | Menifee
Moreno Valley | Murrieta | Riverside | Temecula
Corona-Norco Council-Growing Stronger
By Mary Ybarra, 2005-07 Corona-Norco PTA Council president
Corona-Norco PTA Council has been an active partner with the Corona-Norco Unified School District for 80 years. Last year our membership was 24,000 members strong to advocate for our children. In 2006 we are adding four new schools, meaning four new PTAs - one elementary school, one intermediate school and two high schools. We expect to continue opening a few more schools and PTAs in 2007. We have 39 schools, with 37 active PTAs.
The Corona-Norco area is one of the fastest growing in Riverside County. Sitting on the west side of Riverside County, Corona-Norco incorporated in 1896 as a small farming community best know for its produce. We are now a quality community with a population of more than 149,000 and a very diverse economic base.
We are strong participants in our community. Our PTA council has won many awards for organizing many blood drives. Having council executive board members sit on different community organizations makes us stronger. Corona-Norco knows PTA is strong in the community; we make sure to send out our monthly newsletter to our Mayor and cabinet, Chief of Police, Fire Chief and Chamber of Commerce President. This helps get the word out of our upcoming events. We have an annual Back-to-school program with the Corona-Norco Settlement House in assisting lower-income families with new shoes and undergarments; and each unit holds food and clothing drives to aid this program.
Our Red Ribbon Community Committee is made up of our PTA council and PTA parents who enjoy getting together with city members to plan activities for “our children” to be involved in during the month of October. This year our PTA council, together with donations from our community businesses, purchased enough red wrist-bands for every student and staff member at our 39 schools, along with the 3 private area schools. Teaching our students to “say no to drugs” is one important item on our agenda.
Corona-Norco PTA Council is also planning a city wide “Health & Safety Fair.” Inviting the community to come and receive free immunizations and free check ups by physicians is one way of giving back to the people of our community.
We have a strong leadership team which allows our council to shine. Several of our units, along with council, have been recipients of the California State PTA Outstanding Unit and Council Awards, Creative Membership Awards, and My PTA/PTSA Awards. Council board members have gone on to become city council members, school board members, CSPTA Student Reps, Twenty-third District PTA leaders, and state PTA leaders. We are very proud of our accomplishments and encourage our children to be leaders too! We are also known as the competitive council.
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Tonya Snyder – 2005-07 Hemet/San Jacinto PTA Council President
There are several things that attract newcomers to Hemet and the San Jacinto Valley, some of which are the family values and the integrity of our residents. One of our newest attractions is the Diamond Valley Lake. This reservoir holds roughly 260 billion gallons of water – a lifeline for Southern California in times of a drought. Our valley is located 32 miles SE of Riverside.
Life has truly been in the fast lane for our PTA Council. As our community grows, our two school districts have been busy building beautiful new school facilities to educate our children. To date enrollment of the combined school districts is approximately 31,000. One of the first requests as these schools reach completion is to join the ranks of PTA. We currently have 18 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, 2 high schools and 2 K-12 schools as part of our council. We are very appreciative of the PTA support from Dr. Phil Pendley, Hemet Unified Superintendent and Mrs. Myrna Rohr, interim San Jacinto Unified Superintendent. We are pleased to welcome Mrs. Shari Fox, San Jacinto Unified’s newly appointed Superintendent, and look forward to working with her.
Our council goals for this term are to educate and train our units to help them meet their goals. We will be focusing on membership and finances. We will be encouraging all of our units to attend State Convention in Anaheim, this May.
We have partnered with Target again this year and were recently awarded $1,500 to help support the Reflections Program. We give back to our community each spring by participating in “The Day of The Child,” sponsored by our neighboring Mt. San Jacinto College.
We are proud of what PTA is accomplishing in our valley. Keep your eyes open for more to come from our PTA - Life in the Fast Lane
By Carrie Varcados, 2005-2006 Jurupa Valley Council President
Jurupa Valley is a collection of distinct unincorporated communities located in the northwest section of Riverside. The Jurupa Valley has a rich education history that has evolved from its first adobe school, built in1856, to the Jurupa Unified School District, which currently includes 24 schools serving approximately 21,000 students.
The Jurupa Council PTA, formed in 1964, serves 17 units: 13 elementary school units; 2 middle school units; 2 high school units. This year, in addition to promoting participation in the varied programs and training opportunities available through PTA, our council has partnered with community members to create a new program: D.A.D.S. (Dads: Assuring, Dedicated and Special). Our mission is simple: to promote male involvement in education and increase the number of male mentors.
Lake Elsinore!
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Menifee Valley
Moreno Valley Council : Where Students Are #1
By Rhonda Torrez, 2005-07Moreno Valley Council PTA President
In Moreno Valley, we believe that one of our most important roles as PTA volunteers is to improve the quality of life for all children, either at school sites, or in the community at large. Because of this philosophy the Moreno Valley Council PTA is proud of all of our programs that directly involve students.
Currently, we have four high school students who serve on our Council Board and hold various Chairmanships. All of these students are amazing leaders who have contributed greatly to the success of not only our student programs, but also our entire board. Their input and insight has helped us to better understand how to recognize, reward and help the students in our council.
One of our most gratifying programs is our partnership with Amelia's Light. Amelia's Light is a transitional housing facility that gives temporary housing to homeless women and their children. Through this partnership, the Moreno Valley Council PTA provides on-site programs for all of the families at the facility, including story reading, crafts, games and holiday events.
Another of our contributions to Amelia's Light is that we work to bring needed supplies to the facility. When the families are in need of certain items, such as furniture, baby supplies, books or food for the food pantry, we reach out to our community and ask for donations. To date we have facilitated the donations of school supplies, diapers, clothes, food, books, and even furniture for the apartments.
In addition to our Amelia's Light partnership, the Moreno Valley Council PTA supports several other student programs. We participate in the National PTA Reflections program, we offer monetary scholarships to graduating seniors, and we hold Student Recognition programs to honor student improvement.
We are so proud of all of our student programs, none of which would be possible without the support of many dedicated individuals and businesses. We would like to thank the following for all of their generous support:
Altura Credit Union
Flexsteel Industries
Moreno Valley Unified School District
Office Depot
Vistera Credit Union
By Paula Webb, 2005-07 Murrieta Valley Council President
Murrieta Valley Council PTA was chartered in 1992 with six units. Today, we are 13 PTA units strong. Murrieta is continuing to grow and opening new schools. We hope to have four new schools charter as PTAs in the next few years.
Murrieta Council focuses on assisting our units with all their needs. We provide leadership training and each unit has a council liaison. In the time that Murrieta Council has been in existence, we have proudly been recognized by the California State PTA as the “Outstanding Council,” three times!
While council PTAs does not usually conduct fundraisers, this past year, we were compelled to do so. Last year Murrieta lost a student due to cardiac arrest. If an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) had been on campus, the student may have survived. Since the student’s death, his father has lobbied to have an AED on each Murrieta campus. Our School District furnished some of our schools with AED. Council PTA was happy to assist in raising funds to supply them for the remaining schools. Each AED costs about $2,300.00. We have raised enough money for one AED and will continue to think of other ways to raise more money. We have asked the units to fundraise or donate whatever they can also. We hope that all schools will have an AED soon.
By Deedee Anderson, 2005-07 Riverside Council President
How exciting to have the oldest, Liberty and Longfellow chartered in 1913, and the newest, Islamic Academy chartered in January 2006, units in the district!
Riverside council chartered in August 1928, serves 39 units stretching out in a 92 square mile radius. Over 45% of our students receive free/reduced lunches with over 75% going on to post secondary education. 7 units are California Distinguished Schools and 2 are National Blue Ribbon Schools. 6 of our Elementary Schools have the Farmers Salad Bar Program with the expectation of all of them having it. 3 of our High Schools are on the top 1200 Best School List. We know the volunteers at these units make a difference; they connect with the school to help with their success.
Our District’s Superintendent, Dr. Sue Rainey, works closely with our council offering great support at every level. Dr. Rainey knows how important it is to have the parents be involved as much as possible at the units and encourages the partnerships. We wouldn’t know what to do without Dianne Pavia who helps to promote all the great accomplishments of our units and their students.
Riverside Council is very proud of our units, their volunteers and mostly the students.
This term our goal was on training. We encouraged our units to take advantage of the State and District training, but we didn’t stop there. Sandy Ramirez and Kay Klatt offered several workshops of our own, and when a unit couldn’t come to our house, we would go to theirs, doing one on one training. Our parliamentarian, Bennee Hetzner, does individual sessions with the units, walking them through the horror of bylaws; it isn’t so scary to them when they are finished. For the first time this year Sherri Power did an auditor’s workshop in December to help get those mid-year audits done.
This year Jane Rose is working hard to rejuvenate the Yellow Ribbon Program, suicide prevention, we have supported in the past. She is working on coordinating a community information night. We are also looking into the “Challenge Day” program to bring to our units and communities. This is a program to help stop teen violence and alienation.
Again this year we are please to offer our Carol Rude Scholarship. $1000.00 awarded to deserving high school seniors, based on volunteerism and they must be a PTA member of their high school. Tammie Blackmore is our scholarship chairman, please contact her for more information or if you would like to donate to our scholarship fund.
Thank you to all the officers of Riverside Council PTA. Your undying devotion to our children is invaluable. You all work together to provide the best support possible to our Units.
By Susan Elliott, 2005-07 Temecula Valley Council President
Temecula is the southernmost of the ten Councils in 23rd District PTA. We have a population of 93,923 and have had a 347% increase in population since 1990. Temecula is known for its Old Town with western charm, antique shopping, the Wine and Balloon Festival, championship golf, mall shopping, Las Vegas style shows and gambling at Pechanga Casino, olive oil production, children’s museum, community theatre, two libraries, 36 parks and 27 wineries.
Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) covers 148 square miles. We have 27,000 students enrolled at 29 campuses, which includes two charter schools, one K-8 home school, an independent study high school and a continuation high school.
There are 25 PTA units, which include three high schools, six middle schools and sixteen elementary schools. The Temecula Valley Council was chartered in 1989 and we’ll turn 18 in June.
Our first PTA unit was at Vail Elementary School; chartered in May 1985. Our next charter should occur in May 2007 at Temecula Lusieno Elementary. There are plans to build a new high school in a few years as well as two more middle and elementary schools.
As of January 2007 our PTA membership in Temecula is almost 12.000 people.
We have sixteen members on the TVC PTA Executive Committee, which includes three high school students. We meet once a month, a half hour before the monthly Executive Board Meeting with all the unit presidents.
TVC PTA provides educational information or a speaker at each Executive Board Meeting. Every Unit President presents a “Unit Spotlight Report.” We average about four presentations per meeting.
We have two Council meetings a year: one in September where we have provided job training and one in February to celebrate Founders Day and hold elections biennially. TVC PTA also provides Financial Training and we have a website, http://tvcpta.org, which is an informative resource that is updated regularly.
As a Council we host blood drives and hold food drives. We have a strong relationship with our Superintendents and School Board. A Unit President reports at every School Board Meeting. We have representation on the TVUSD Wellness Policy Committee, the TVUSD Technology Committee, the Local Drug and Gang Task Force, as well as the Library’s Temecula Reads Program Committee. Team Temecula Valley Council PTA participated in the Susan G. Komen Walk for Breast Cancer in October. We also hosted a School Board Candidates’ Forum in October and we share legislative information with all of the units. A Council Liaison is assigned to each PTA unit, who maintains at least a monthly contact and is available to them for any support needed. Our Founders Day Dinner is a major production as is our Reflections Gallery and Awards Ceremony. We offer three scholarships to graduating seniors. At least two Council Representatives attend the California State PTA Convention annually. TVC PTA strives to be a constant source of information and assistance to our units.