~Last Day of School~

Find out more from the American Academy of Pediatrics on outdoor and on-the-go safety concerns like:

Feliz Cumpleaños Dir. Dr. Barrosa

No School - Winter Recess

Advocacy Communicator

The May 2020 issue of the Advocacy Communicator is available online! Please click here to view it.

Every year, California creates a budget for public education. How does that work, actually? Who creates and influences it, and when are the decisions made? How can you get involved and have an influence?
...and how does the pandemic change things?  
Here is a good article how funding works for education:  CLICK HERE

 In this issue: 

• The National PTA is calling for action.  We need to contact our federal legislators and tell them that our schools need more money to recover from this pandemic. CLICK HERE.
  • The newsletter has a couple of articles that highlight why we need federal help. A blog by former California State PTA President Carol Kocivar describes five actions that need to be taken right away, most of which involve federal funding increases.
  • A blog by Jeff Camp talks about the reasons why California’s school funding is insufficient.
• The Communicator also lists several articles at EdSource.org that provide important information about how California schools will deal with the pandemic.
• School districts will not be required to submit their Local Control and Accountability Plans by July 1 this year.  Instead they will develop one-year plans describing how they will meet the challenges of this pandemic.  Those reports are due to the county department of education by December 15.
• Petitions to put the Schools and Communities First initiative on the November 2020 ballot were turned in with more than 1.7 million signatures. The petition would change property tax requirements only for commercial and industrial property and would raise up to $12 billion in additional funding per year, with 40 percent of that going to schools.  

If you have any questions, please email our Advocacy Representative, Danitza Pulskamp: Advocacy@HolaLasPalmas.org. 

We're here for YOU!

Volunteers - Report Your Hours

Please take the time to enter your volunteer Off-Campus Hours for the 2019-20 school year!   Your timely response is much appreciated!

Here are the instructions: 

• ALL Volunteers log into the website to input their hours. 
• To enter hours, Home Page, click on Volunteer, see drop down 2^nd option is “enter off campus hours”.
• Once your information is entered, click on Submit. 

Are Your Volunteer Hours Being Counted?
The tally should include all hours of volunteer service since the beginning date of the unit’s year.   All activities related to PTA functions are counted as volunteer hours, including:

• Attendance at meetings, workshops, and other functions as a representative of PTA.
• Convention attendance (except time eating and sleeping).
• Travel time to and from PTA activities.
• Telephone time regarding PTA business.
• E-mail time regarding PTA business.
• Time spent writing PTA agendas, minutes, correspondence, reports, newsletter articles, etc.
• Time spent on PTA-related activities at school or within your community.
• If your PTA is in charge of recruiting, training, and coordinating room parents, all of that time in the classroom is counted.

Why Do We Track Our Volunteer Hours?
Tracking and recording volunteer hours helps PTA to maintain its federal tax exempt status. An organization granted nonprofit charitable status must receive one-third of its support from the general public, and that may include service hours expended in carrying out the purposes of the organization.

Thank you!

Julie Lee, Historian