Greetings from your PTA President!

We are so excited about what the 2010-11 school year is going to bring! People are asking "WHY should I join the PTA if I already volunteer in my child's classroom?" Good Question. . .

What the PTA allows is the opportunity for the adults in the community to show their commitment to ALL children who attend GES. We are an association that is an advocate for all children. Our focus is to promote a positive relationship between students, parents and school staff.  When we all work together, it will then provide the best educational experience for all. Then how do we do that?

YES that means we do have to sponsor fundraising events.  When we are successful with our fundraising events that allows us as an association to support our school and community in so many different ways.  One way we use our funds is to provide school staff the opportunity to purchase educational materials to use in the classroom. Another way is to help teachers have the opportunity to attend educational conferences.  It is our goal to provide teachers different ways to develop professionally which in turns strengthens student achievement. In addition, we us PTA funds to sponsor educational performances in our school.  That way school budget money is not used to transport students to the venue.  We also use funds to provide fun-filled events for families to attend together.

But the BEST WAY to really know what the PTA means is for people to join, get involved and on the way have the opportunity to get to know the adults and children that are in your child's school and community. We have a great school and we need to support it in anyway possible!

If you have joined already--THANK YOU!! If you haven't, MAKE YOUR MARK and join! Put your handprint on a child's future today!!!

Thanks,
Leah Hopkins
GES PTA President

GES Teachers and Parents -- Made Their Mark!

WOW! What a fantastic Back to School Night! 

It was so exciting to see so many GES families out supporting their school. We started the PTA meeting out by recognizing that 100% of the GES staff joined the PTA. What a challenge for our parents to meet! Many families followed the staff's lead and joined. The numbers were so good that we haven't had a chance to get a final total but will get it out as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your support and hope everyone enjoyed their time in their children's classrooms!   We need to thank our Short Pump Town Center's Chick-Fil-A for the very generous donation of a chicken platter that helped provide an appreciation meal our teachers before the meeting.

Hope to see many of you at the volunteer training next Friday at 9am in the GES cafeteria!

Congratulations to the Street Family who were the winners of the iPod shuffle raffle held for all families who had signed up for a PTA membership to date.

Also, we had a separate raffle for GES teachers who joined the PTA and our winner was...
Mrs. Andrea Cachina!

We are overwhelmed with the teacher response this year We have 100% membership from the GES teachers. Incredible! Thank-you!

Come on families, let's match that! 

Many Volunteer Opportunities at the school and with the PTA

An informal Volunteer Training was held today at Goochland elementary where volunteer opportunities within the school as well as PTA committee volunteer opportunities were presented and discussed.

If you were unable to attend but are interested in volunteering for the school please contact Linda Davidson, guidance counselor at GES.  Many volunteer opportunities exist with the PTA,  please contact any PTA board member through the general PTA mailbox gesptavoice@aol.com. If you haven't yet signed up for the PTA, please do so and you can select your committee interest there as well. Forms can be found HERE.

Thanks for being a part of Goochland’s PTA- We appreciate your support!