Hi everyone

Thank you so much for your vote of confidence for next year! Change can be a scary thing.... but also exciting.

I, for one, am looking forward to starting a fantastic year at Noble!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Manju. I have a third grader and I am often seen around campus corralling my 2 year old son. My eldest daughter is in middle school now so I have been in and around Noble a lot over the past 4 years.

I am really hoping that we as a parent group can help close the gap in education for our students next year. With budget cuts looming and class sizes threatening to increase, I am hoping that I can inspire all of you to take a step at jumping in and helping our kids not just succeed, but really, really excel!

In my opinion, the state of CA is failing our kids. If I want my child to succeed, I know I have to make sure they have the best education and experiences to grow in a safe environment. I have to fight for my own kids. After all, when I am old and not able to fight for myself, I would expect my kids to do that for me. So I have to make sure my own are educated and well informed.

I assume many of you feel the same way.

At the end of the day, Noble has a lot to offer our kids, but they still need our help. Our teachers need help. Our students need help. It's PTA's goal to be an advocate for the students and the teachers. PTA is a place where your voice can be heard and you can really make a difference. The choice to get involved is yours. If you would like to get involved, let me know.

Nga-Nghi spent the last 2 years making sure our students experienced many assemblies, project cornerstone, read with me, math with me, and had fun at the Fall Festival and Spring Carnival along the way. She had fantastic support from a whole team of parents who were inspired by her dedication.

I'd like to continue the same academic programs that Noble has had in the past. But the fact of the matter is that I would like to do more. I'd like to see our students fly!

I need your help to do that. I want to hear your ideas. What do you want to see at Noble? What kinds of things shall we continue? What works, what doesn't?

We are endeavoring in our first district wide 5KWalk/Run sponsored by the Noble PTA which will be on Sunday October 9 from 8 to 10 am. We are looking for volunteers to set up that website and help in planning.

I am searching for a sponsor to host Movie Nights at Noble Elementary. We are looking for a $750 donation from a business or a private donor. All donations are tax deductible. 

I am trying to get parents to come with me to the district office and talk to our new superintendent about not increasing K to 3rd grade to 30 kids per class. I am trying to get Noble PTA as a vendor on many events over the summer so we can get our fund raising done before school starts. But I can't do it alone.

I am asking for help. Many things are things people can do from their computer at home. I have a great board but we are still only 7 people. I am looking for:

1) A PPC/SEO God or Goddess - although Matt Murphy and Daniel Juarez are busy at work developing a new website for the Noble PTA we need help making our main marketing tool up to date.  If you have any SEO or PPC ideas to contribute that would be great too.

2) A membership chair - Is their any parent who would be willing to make sure we maintain a strong membership and would be willing to ask people to volunteer in their child's classroom or at PTA events? If PTA throws a party like the fall festival, talent show and spring carnival, we need people who will help make sure everything runs smoothly.

3) A parliamentarian - do we have a lawyer in the midst or someone who has experience fighting traffic tickets, making laws, was on mock trial or debate in high school?? I need a parent who will help us revise our by laws, the rules that state what PTA can do and can't do for our kids. The by-laws are our guidebook per se of PTA rules. I am a mom. I can make up rules on the fly like most of you moms out there, but my rules work for my own 3 kids. I'd like more help from other parents to come up with rules for all the kids at Noble. After all, what works for my 3 may not work for your kids.

4) PR Person/Marketing - do any of you have jobs where you contact the news media, online websites, blog, or even just do Facebook PR? It would be great if we could advertise many of the things Noble needs so companies may sponsor us or people are aware of what we need...from school supplies, to laptops to just people to come to our events.

5) Hospitality person - Are you a party planner, or like to plan events? We need someone to plan the back to school events and the teacher’s lunches. We need someone to plan PTA events and encourage others to join.

6) Giving Tree Campaign Chair - Noble PTA sponsors a giving tree around Christmas time every year to help our own Noble Families in need. It's great community service event.

7) Bowling

Chairperson - do you like to bowl? We are looking at having bowling nights next year if we can find a chairperson.

8) Red Ribbon Week - Are you interested in making sure the kids stay drug free? Get involved!

There are lots of other areas I believe that parents can make an impact at Noble to support the teachers and staff. We can be as good as Cupertino or Saratoga schools without paying the higher property taxes if we all just help out a little. But My blog is so long already. So I'll sign off.

If you have passion and are willing to jump in with me, let me know. I can be reached via cell phone at 415-999-7859 and via cell at manjerade@yahoo.com.

 I look forward to sharing ideas for improvement for next year. I believe Noble is a very good school. I'd like to keep it that way!

Thanks for listening!!

Manju

Your Partner in Parenting at Noble Elementary