October 2023 

PTA Digital Newsletter

One of our favorite ways to raise money for the PTA is by taking the night off from making dinner! The PTA will regularly have Dining Out Night with restaurants around town with a portion of the sales coming to our school! TONIGHT, we will have our first dining out night. We hope everyone can help support our PTA by taking a night off from cooking!

When: Monday, October 16th, 4-9pm

Where: Yalla, 7850 SW Capitol Hwy

What: 10% of all dine-in and take-out sales will be donated to Capitol Hill (this is a busy dining out night so book your table or place your to-go order early!)

Fine Print: Please mention Capitol Hill Elementary when you pay. They are donating 10% of ALL sales so please tell your friends, family and neighbors!

**If you have any recommendations for restaurants that would like to participate in a Dining Out Night, contact Grace Wilson at vicepresident@capitolhillelementary.com

The Big Boo is Friday, October 27th 

The Big Boo is our annual Fall Carnival and is such a fun night! Entry is free for everyone but in order to be able to play the games you will need a wristband! For $20, you will receive an unlimited wristband for all the fun games and new activities in the gym and cafeteria as well as access to some fun snack items. Tickets must be purchased online.

CLICK HERE to BUY TICKETS ONLINE

Once you buy your wristbands online, you will be able to pick them up the week of the Big Boo! 

Swing by and pick up your wristbands in front of the school on the following dates:

• Wednesday 10/25 from 2:00-2:30pm
• Thursday 10/26 from 7:45-8:15am
• Friday 10/27 from 7:45-8:15am
• Friday 10/27 from 2:00-2:30pm

For questions about Big Boo tickets, contact Tabitha Ames at amestabs@gmail.com

If your family is unable to purchase wristbands, please reach out to Lucy in the front office. 

The Big Boo also needs a A LOT more volunteers to run the games in the gym and cafeteria. 

If you are able to donate 30 minutes of your time that night, please sign up for a slot at (middle and high schoolers are welcome to join our team of volunteers!)

CLICK HERE to Sign Up to Volunteer

The Auction is our BIGGESTfundraiser of the year! It is a fun night out for parents as we help raise money for our amazing school. 

The auction is made up of a bunch of volunteers doing a bunch of little jobs - put them together and it helps build an amazing night for our school. 

Auction volunteering is great for working parents because all of your time is outside of the school day. We are VERY low on auction volunteers right now. Please consider joining the auction team this year! 

Volunteer Options

• Auction Co-Chair: Work with Nora Blackwell to help lead the auction team of volunteers
• Procurement Lead: Keep track of donations as they arrive. Enter donation information into the auction website. All work done outside of school hours. (January - Auction on 3/9). Melissa Hamilton will support this position.
• Grade Level Art: Work with our AMAZING new art teacher, Ms. Anderson to help students in your child's grade level create a beautiful piece of art (January)
• We are excited to say that we have our Graphic Design Lead (Staci Burgess), Decor Lead (Kasey Maloney), Wine Collection (Rachel Wells) and Teacher Feature Lead (Heather Villanueva) ready to go! 

JOIN THE AUCTION TEAM TODAY!

CLICK HERE to Sign Up Online

EMAIL NORA BLACKWELL IF YOU ARE INTERESTED AT AUCTIONCHE@GMAIL.COM

As you are likely aware, our teachers, as part of the Portland Association of Teachers (the teachers union, PAT) have been in heated contract negotiations with Portland Public Schools for several months. We provided you with an update last month and wanted to provide the most current information.

• We are reaching the end of the 30 day "cooling off" period meant to allow for further attempts to resolve disputes
• If no agreement is reached, PPS can legally and unilaterally impose its final proposals. PAT can legally hold a strike. 
• PAT is currently holding a strike vote for all teachers. Voting closes on 10/19. If the majority of teachers vote yes on striking, the union will then give the district 10 days notice for a strike. 
• **NEW INFO: PPS has informed administrators that if teachers strike, PPS will close all buildings. This will mean that Champions will be unable to provide childcare and our After School Enrichment Classes will be cancelled. 

We will keep you posted as we learn more.

For more information about the negotiations, please see below:

• PPS Human Resources: https://www.pps.net/pat-collective-bargaining
• PAT (union): https://www.pdxteachers.org/bargaining_briefs
• In the News:
  • https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/13/portland-teachers-union-teacher-strikes/
  • https://www.koin.com/news/education/portland-teachers-district-negotiate-strike-possible/

*any position on this matter taken by a PTA Member or PTA Board Member is solely the position of that individual

Yes - it is October but we are already planning Holiday Greenery!! 

Looking for holiday gifts or fresh greenery to decorate your home or office? Look no further than our own Capitol Hill Holiday Greenery Sale!

Beautiful wreaths and garlands may be ordered and picked up at Capitol Hill Elementary or shipped directly to family, friends and clients, even those out of town - making your gift giving effortless. What a festive and easy way to support the Capitol Hill PTA! 

Please be on the lookout soon for additional information!  

Thanks for supporting our great school!

Parenting in 2023 can involve some tough conversations and our school would like to support parents as we navigate some of these conversations with our children. Capitol Hill is inviting a diverse group of Capitol Hill parents to serve on a panel to dive into the complex topic of parenting on the topic of race.

We hope that everyone can join us on November 8th from 6:00pm - 7:30pm in the school cafeteria. Please come join us as we listen, learn, ask questions, and engage in this rich, important and complex topic.

For questions, please reach out to Principal Sauers at msauers@pps.net

If you are interested in volunteering to be a part of this panel please indicate your interest on this form - Interest Form

Every year, the PTA asks teachers and staff members to fill out a list of some of their favorite things. There are gift card ideas, coffees they love and so much more. You can access the list by going to: bit.ly/CHFavThings

Our PTA meetings continue to be filled with parents ready to help support our school in so many ways. Thank you to everyone that comes out on a Wednesday night or tunes in online. Parent involvement at PTA meetings is key to helping us learn more about our school and give feedback on things we can do to help our students and staff. 

Childcare during PTA meetings is available free of charge through our fabulous Champions team. We are so grateful for their help! 

CLICK HERE to join us on Zoom

Meeting ID: 889 0782 5500
Passcode: 030402

Grand Friends Day and the Book Fair ran so well this month and it is all because of our volunteers. A huge thank you to everyone that has volunteered to help in any way they can. 

Thank you to Jill Morgan for leading the Grand Friends Days and making them so special for our families! Thank you to Jessica Volpe and Barbara Marsh for helping raise funds for our school library through the Scholastic Book Fair! 

Thank you also to Jon Sanford and Patrick Moloney for organizing the Walk and Roll to School event last week! The kids had a great time! 

Volunteers are what make events like these possible. We will need new lead volunteers for next year. If you are interested in leading any of these events next year, please reach out to the PTA at volunteer@capitolhillelementary.com

Please make sure to log onto the PTA website and update your family information for the directory. All students have been promoted to the next grade level but their teacher's names have not been updated. Please log on and make sure your information is correct so that other families can find you! 

As a PTA member, you will also have access to the PTA Directory. It is a wonderful way to get connected to people at school and only PTA members have access to the directory. 

We hope you visit our website often to get up to date information about the PTA and our school. Go to www.capitolhillelementary.com to join the PTA today! 

We know how BUSY families are EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! 

We also know that families want to join our PTA meetings!

So Join Us ONLINE!

All our PTA meetings will be available on Zoom so that you can listen in while you are at soccer practice, making dinner or doing all of the 900 other things you have to do on a Wednesday night. 

While we would love to see you at school, we understand that that is not always possible. Please try and make as many in person PTA meetings as you can so we can get to know you better ... but we would also love to see you on Zoom too.

2023-2024 PTA Meeting Dates

6:30PM in the Capitol Hill Library

CLICK HERE to join our meetings via Zoom

November 15th

December 13th 

January 10th 

February 7th 

March 13th 

April 10th 

May 8th

Say what you will about social media ... but it is a great way to get information out to lots of people quickly! For this reason, our PTA is on both Facebook and Instagram. Our Parents Facebook page is also a great place for parents to post questions and get information about things happening in our community. 

It is also a great way to see old photos from PTA events if you are new to our school. ◡̈  

Find us on Facebook: "Capitol Hill School PTA" and "Capitol Hill Elementary Parents Group Portland OR"

Find us on Instagram @capitolhillpta 

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