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The North Bend Eagle


 

NBE parents organize PTA

by Nathan Arneal
Published 10/19/11

A group of local parents are looking for ways to get families more involved with their kids’ education.

Their solution: forming a Parent-Teacher Association for North Bend Elementary.

“When families are more involved at home and at school, kids do better,” Jenni Peters said. “They do better with self esteem, with grades, the test scores go up. The school is just better when more families are involved.”

Peters and Katie Pospisil make up the Community/Activities Committee of the newly formed PTA.

Peters and Pospisil said the goal of the PTA is to get the community involved in supporting the teachers and students of the school in any way it can. Yearly dues of $10 per individual or $15 for a family will support several activities, the first of which will be a supper for the teachers that have to be at school all evening for the upcoming parent-teacher conferences.

NBE teachers have also made lists of things they need for their classrooms, anything from art supplies to volunteers.

“So many of our teachers are literally spending their paychecks for their own supplies,” Peters said.

Down the line, the PTA is planning activities to get children more physically active, family fun nights, carnivals, movie nights, or a “read a book with your kid” night.

“We’re just trying to start small and do activities with the kids that are not expensive,” Peters said. “We can do book reading nights and stuff like that for basically nothing. It still gets the families into the school. There are so many kids whose parents never get into the school. So if they can come in the evening and bring their parents, some of those little kids really enjoy that.”

Peters said the PTA will also look to help NBE students in the upper grades with class projects where they might not have the supplies or the parental support at home to complete.

“Our thought is to maybe bring the kids in the evening and provide the supplies as a PTA so that everyone gets a chance to work on the project just like everyone else in the class,” Peters said.

About 25 NBE parents are already on board, and the group’s recently elected officers include president Jessica Colvin, vice president Tammy Buresh, secretary Jennifer Wesely, co-treasurers Stacy Ray and Nichole Ruzicka. Sara Bourek is heading the membership committee while Dean Simanek is chairing the reflections committee.

The North Bend PTA has been working with the Nebraska PTA to get organized and chartered. Anybody is welcome to join the PTA, even if they don’t have kids in grades K-6. The group will have a information and membership drive at NBE during parent-teacher conferences, which will run 5-8 p.m. Oct. 24 and 26.

Anyone who cannot attend conferences and is interested in joining the PTA can contact Bourek at sarabourek@hotmail.com or 402-652-8129.

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