Dear Happy Valley Parents,

 

Every once in a while I have one of those weeks…things get crazy busy and I get so caught up in the minutia that I fail to see the big picture.  Thankfully I am surrounded by an amazing group of parents who provide words of wisdom that help me refocus.  This week it was Lisa Shepherd who put everything into perspective, reminding me how lucky we are to reside in a school district that works hard to put our children’s best interests first. 

 

As both Wendy Patterson and I have mentioned, the district is undergoing a review of its Strategic Goals.   This is a process completely focused on determining and committing to priorities for bettering our children’s educational experiences here in Lafayette.  Over the next few weeks there will be several opportunities for each of you to participate in this important endeavor.  Here are some dates I hope each of you will add to your calendars and make time to attend:

 

·        February 8^th from 6 -7:30 pm – Strategic Planning “Community Kick-Off Meeting” in the Stanley MUR.

o   The district will provide a current “state of the district” and review the strategic planning process.

·        February 21^st from 7-9:00 pm – Happy Valley Town Hall Meeting in our Library

o   This is an opportunity for each of you to share your thoughts, wishes and desires for bettering your child’s educational experience.  Your input will be used to help define the strategic goals the district will use for the next five years.

 

In addition to attending these meetings, I also encourage you to visit the Strategic Planning Section on the district’s website.  There you will find further information on the planning process as well as information about the district’s current areas of focus.

 

I know I sound a little like an infomercial but Lisa’s words rang loud and clear…we ARE lucky to live in a district where we each have an opportunity to voice our opinions and help define the experiences our children will have over the next five years. 

 

Best,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President

Dear Happy Valley Parents,

 

What a great weekend!  The weather was beautiful and LPIE threw a great party.  Thank you to all the families who supported our educational foundation by attending the Crab Feed, donating items and/or purchasing raffle tickets.   And a special thank you to our LPIE Fundraising Chairs Tina Frechman and Andrea Hilsabeck who both worked tirelessly to procure donations and sell raffle tickets on our school’s behalf.  It is truly rewarding to see so many people come together to show support for our schools and our children’s education.  

 

Speaking of parties, we have a slight change to our Spring Social date and location.   The new date for the event is Saturday, April 21^st and it will now take place at The Faculty Club on the Cal campus.  Please mark your calendars with this new date.  Official invite to follow by early March.  

 

Lastly I wanted to expand on Wendy’s thank you to our Teacher Appreciation Chairs and Room Reps.  In September you may remember donating money to be used towards staff gifts and appreciation.  One of those “appreciations” is staff lunches.  This is a great way for the parent community to acknowledge our entire school staff for their dedication to our kids.  In November the fifth grade hosted and this past week the fourth grade hosted.  Thank you to our Teacher Appreciation Chairs Alicia Rowell, Carrie Daughters and Julia Bates for overseeing the organization of these meals.  Thank you to Erin Dissman, Gwen Helvey, Sharlene Foox, and Jennifer Aaker who helped with each of their grade-level details.   And last but not least, thank you parents for your kind donations that make these lunches possible! 

 

With gratitude,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President

Dear Happy Valley Parents,

 

I loved hearing the pitter-patter of rain falling on my roof this weekend - who would have thought after last year’s deluge I’d be so excited for rain?!   One song we definitely are not singing this year in our house is “Rain, rain, go away”! 

 

Although the arrival of the rain may have been late, Parents Club is trying to stay on time planning for the upcoming school year.  In an earlier communication I asked for volunteers to help fill the open committee chair positions for 2012-13.  We are very fortunate to have a lot of continuing chairs, leaving us with only a hand-full of open committee chair positions.  Please consider helping fill these positions by serving on the Nominating Committee.  The time commitment is minimal, meeting just a few times in February and March.  We currently need two parents from grades 2, 3 and 4; one parent from K; and two parents from grades K-4 to serve as alternates.  If you are interested in serving on the committee or would like to know more about what this role entails, please contact Kat O’Donnell at katodon06@yahoo.com. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the Happy Valley Movie Night on Friday.  Thank you to Carrie Daughters and Tina Frechman for organizing.  And a BIG thank you to our Dad’s Club members Tony LaFrance, Hector Chao, Tim Jones, Jose Gonzales, Steve Smith, Dan Leones, Alex Flagg, David Mosley, Kevin Bates and Wil Koenig who all graciously worked the evening event!  Next movie night is March 2nd – mark your calendars.

Lastly, my sincere apologies for not mentioning the postponement of our January 19^th Parents Club meeting in last week’s message.  This was an oversight on my behalf and I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion I may have caused.  We will be rescheduling the meeting for the near future – and I promise to not forget to announce!

 

Go Niners!

 

Best,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President

Dear Happy Valley Parents,

 

I am very excited to announce the launch of our new Happy Valley Community Group on Lamorinda Web.  What is this you might ask?  Simply put, it is a section on Lamorinda Web devoted specifically to community happenings and announcements important to Happy Valley. 

 

The development of this community forum was in direct response to the overwhelming amount of announcements we’re asked to post in Highlights but cannot because they fall outside the ability of Parents Club to promote.   We felt this was the best solution for sharing and receiving community-related announcements and information.   We hope you will find this to be a valuable tool.

 

Some important things to know about joining this group:

·        Anyone can join. 

·        Anyone can post an announcement. 

·        There are a lot of things already posted on the site.  This was done by Sabrina Foster to get the forum up and running.  Moving forward, anyone wanting to post new information will be responsible for joining the group and posting information themselves.

·        This will be a community forum and as such, we hope everyone will use it in a responsible manner. 

 

How to Join:

1. Visit: http://www.lamorindaweb.com
2. Go to MEMBERS (along the top bar); then to JOIN
3. Click green button: Join Us Now, It’s Free
4. User Info (Please fill out and check terms & conditions)
5. Register New User (Complete required fields and lock for desired privacy levels); Click Register; Change Avatar or Click Skip
6. User Registered – Wait for Activation link to your email address.  You must activate before you can login.
7. Open Account Details email from Lamorinda Web & Click on Link or Copy/Paste web address in your browser
8. Log In (Input email and password)
9. Go to MEMBERS (along the top bar); Go to My Account; Go to Join a Group; Go to Happy Valley; Click Join Group

 

I owe a great deal of gratitude to Sabrina Foster and Tariporn Olsen, the founder of Lamorinda Web, for making this new forum possible.  Sabrina has worked tirelessly as our Highlights Editor for the past few years.  She has brought a tremendous amount of professionalism and dedication to the job, always acting with great integrity. Thank you Sabrina!  And a big thank you to Tariporn at Lamorinda Web.  She went above and beyond to customize the “group” section of the site to meet our unique needs.  For those who have not visited Lamorinda Web (www.lamorindaweb.com), it is a fantastic resource for all things local.  I hope this new partnership will connect us more with what’s happening not only within the Happy Valley community but throughout Lamorinda.

 

Happy posting, connecting and communicating!

 

Best,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President

Dear Happy Valley Parents,

 

One of the most fulfilling aspects of my job is seeing our donation dollars making an impact.  This past week our dollars did just that with the opening of our school library at lunchtime!  With an additional allocation of Parent Club dollars we are able to fund an instructional aide to oversee our library space during the mid-day break Mondays - Thursdays.  We are also funding additional technology aide support time.  And starting in February, we’ll be funding support for writing skill development across all grade levels, providing focused assistance to children needing to further grow their fine motor skills, writing mechanics, and/or proper sentence and paragraph formation.  It’s exciting to be adding valuable programming to our school!

 

On a totally different note, we are hosting our first Movie Night on Friday, January 20^th featuring Dolphin Tales.  Details are below.  Thank you to Tina Frechman and Carrie Daughters for organizing this special event! 

 

Lastly, there are only a few tickets left for the LPIE Crab Feed and Auction.  This is always a really fun event and an opportunity to socialize with parents across the whole district.  To purchase tickets, click here.

 

Have a great week!

 

Best,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President

Dear Happy Valley Families,
 
Happy New Year! I love fresh starts and there is nothing better than a new number on the calendar to rejuvenate me. And it's a good thing I'm feeling refreshed cause there is a lot going on! As 2012 kicks-off, here are a few of the exciting things Parents Club is working on....
 
Library Refresh Update
In December a group of parent volunteers met to begin planning our Library Refresh. We are extremely lucky to not only have a passionate group of parents helping but to also have an architect, Sherman Koo (who specializes in school designs!) and interior designer Emily Fettig helping guide us through this exciting project! In January we plan to visit Havens School in Piedmont to view their new library and we'll begin developing design plans. We are hoping that come February we'll be in a position to share some visual ideas of our plans.
 
Spring Social - April 28, 2012
We've decided to take things up a notch and are pleased to announce we'll be hosting a full-blown spring social this year. It became clear to the Executive Board that our parent community was looking for an "event", something more substantial than a cocktail party. So we decided to host a Animal House Party at the Bancroft Hotel in Berkeley! Although this will not be an "auction" per se, there will be a few select things to bid on (e.g. - the parking space) and we'll be soliciting direct monetary "fund-a-need" donations at the event to help support specific educational programming. If you would like to be part of the Spring Social Planning Committee, please contact me (shantague@gmail.com) or Gilly Malmquist (jim_malmquist@yahoo.com). More information on the event to follow in the coming weeks. In the meantime, make sure to mark your calendars.
 
2012-13 Committee Chair Nominating Committee
Last year we created a new group called the Nominating Committee to help with identifying and filling the various committee chair positions. Although it may seem early to be thinking about the 2012-13 school year, we actually aim to have all the lead committee volunteer positions filled by April. To help fill the open Committee Chair positions we are currently looking for two parents from each grade level K-4 plus two alternates to serve on the Nominating Committee. If you are interested in serving on the committee or would like to know more about what this role entails, please contact Kat O'Donnell at  katodon06@yahoo.com.
 
 
Welcome back!
 
Best,
Shannon Tague
HVPC President

 

I also want to thank everyone who generously responded to our plea for donations for the LPIE Crab Feed and Auction.  In a matter of a week, we fulfilled all our auction donation obligations!  Thank you, thank you!

 

I am blessed to be part of such a wonderful community of parents, children and teachers.  Wishing you each a happy, healthy, restful and festive holiday season.  Looking forward to seeing you all in 2012.

 

Best,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President

Dear Happy Valley Families,

 

I’m sure many of you are thinking the “Season of Giving” should be renamed the “Season of Asking!”  In response to the many recent donation requests, especially the LPIE “ask” communications, I thought I would use this week’s message to clarify a few things about these various appeals.  In regards to LPIE, there are actually two different things that are being requested:

 

1)      Annual Give Campaign – We are conducting our follow-up campaign for the LPIE Annual Give. Currently 73% of Happy Valley families have donated. A sincere thank you to those who have supported LPIE and our children’s education. Unfortunately LPIE remains $500,000 short of their $2.2 million goal.  It is for this reason we are reminding our families who have yet to donate that your contributions are greatly needed.

LPIE has requested a donation of $800 per student but please remember that a donation in any amount  helps get us closer to our goal and qualifies your family as participating in the campaign.  Payment plans are available for those who would like to spread their payments over time. If you have not yet donated, please consider doing so and helping us reach our goal of 100% participation.  Donations can be made online to Lafayette Partners in Education by clicking here or sending a check to Lafayette Partners in Education, P.O. Box 923, Lafayette, CA 94549.

 

2)      Crab Feed and Auction – LPIE’s annual event is taking place on Saturday, January 28^th (event invites for follow soon).  Each school in the district has been asked to provide items for the event’s auction.  Below please find a list of the items by class that Happy Valley is responsible for providing.  Thank you to the many families who have already donated.  It is important we fulfill ALL the items on this list.  Please consider donating one of the remaining items or dividing the items by the number of students in your class (in most cases, this would only be a $2-3 monetary contribution per person). 

 

·        Somers: 3 bottles of red (valued at $20 or more each) (Received 2 bottles - thank you!)

·        Wedell: 1 Baker and 2($20) monetary donation towards massage at Lavande (FULFILLED -THANK YOU!)

·        MacDonald: 3 bottles of white wine (valued at $20 or more each) (Received 2 bottles - thank you!)

·        McSherry: 3 ($20) donation towards Lavande massage (1 baker and rest is on the way)

·        Facer: 2 Pinkies Pedicures Gift Certificates

·        Hainley: 2 Pinkies Pedicures Gift Certificates (FULFILLED – THANK YOU!)

·        Singh/Small: 4 ($15) Gift cards for La Boulange

·        Hellmann: 3 bottles of white wine (valued at $20 or more) (FULFILLED- THANK YOU!)

·        Morris: 1 Baker and 1 bottle of red wine (valued at $20 and up) (Have 1 baker - thank you!)

·        Fisher: 1 Baker and 1 bottle of white wine (valued at $20 and up) (Have 1 baker - thank you!)

·        Broad/Stern: 1 Baker and $20 monetary donation for massage (FULFILLED - THANK YOU!)

·        Tompkins/Giorgianni: 4 Champagne glasses and 1 bottle of champagne

·        Dykstra: 3 bottles of white wine (valued at $20 or more) (Received ONE bottle/ rest on the way - Thank you!)

·        Wallis: 3 ($20) monetary donation towards massage (FULFILLED - THANK YOU!)

·        Kassover:  3 bottles of red wine (valued $20 and up) (FULFILLED - THANK YOU!)

·        Duncan: (3) $20 monetary donation towards massage (FULFILLED - THANK YOU!)

·        Blair/McSweeney:  3 bottles of red wine (valued at $20 and up) (Received 1 bottle - Thank you!)

·        Anyone: Two Pay-to-Play Parties

If you have any questions regarding the auction donations for the Crab Feed, please contact either Tina Frechman at tfrechman@comcast.net or Andrea Hilsabeck at a.hilsabeck@comcast.net.    

Parents Club tries to be very sensitive to the number of donation requests we send to our parents.  LPIE remains our primary fundraising focus and we will try to communicate with you about their needs in a reasonable and responsible manner.  We also understand the desire for the community to promote charitable efforts that fall outside of Parents Club’s purview.  To better accommodate these requests we will soon be launching a “Happy Valley Community Group” site in partnership with Lamorinda Web.  This will allow for the sharing of important community-based information, happenings and announcements. Stay-tuned for more on this new site in the coming weeks.

With great gratitude for all you each do (and give!) to enrich our children and our community!

Shannon Tague,

HVPC President

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 4^th and 5^th grade production of Mulan.  As I watched the enthusiastic cast of students sing and dance, it was easy to see the benefits music provides our children.  

 

We are very fortunate to live in a community that values education and invests in extra programming such as music.   But our private funding of such programs is simply a band aid.  Regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on, I think almost everyone can agree that California’s financing of education is broken.  The problem is deep and multifaceted, and there are lots of opinions on how to best solve the issue. 

 

I won’t stand on my soapbox sharing opinions on the topic but I would like to encourage each of you to become informed on the state of education in California so you can formulate your own opinions and hopefully advocate for a solution.  There are lots of great, non-partisan resources available that will provide baseline information about how California funds education, how we rank against other states, and how we got into this situation.  My personal favorite is EdSource, an online resource dedicated to clarifying educational issues specific to California (www.edsource.org).  I also encourage you to attend an upcoming event being sponsored by Lafayette for Education – details below.  This grassroots effort is one example of people coming together to bring about change.  I hope to see many of you there.

 

Should you have questions or want more information about education funding, please don’t hesitate to contact me. 

 

Best,

Shannon Tague

HVPC President