Your $10 tax-deductible membership fee gives you a voice in the PTA and a vote at Rolling Hills PTA Association meetings. It makes you a member of the National PTA, which has been working on behalf of children since 1898. More than six million people belong to the National PTA (including almost 300 at Rolling Hills), making it the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the United States.

At Rolling Hills, the PTA produces the school newsletter, yearbook and directory and provides volunteers for many school activities. We put on fun, family-oriented events such as the Halloween Party and Renaissance Faire. We raise funds that we invest in programs and services such as school assemblies, student awards, transportation for field trips, classroom supplies, the Community Liaison position, Peaceful Playground equipment, the Learning Resource Center and the student chorus.

Anyone! Parents, grandparents, other family members, friends, neighbors, local businesspeople — they all may join. More than one member of the same family may join. Your $10 annual membership fee is tax-deductible.

Joining the PTA is simple — Fill out a membership envelope, put $10 in it for each new membership (make checks payable to Rolling Hills PTA) and return it to school. You should be able to get a membership envelope in the school office; if not, please contact the PTA President and he will make sure you get one. Joining the PTA does not oblige you to go to meetings or become a school volunteer.

You can volunteer for the PTA Board. Plenty of opportunities, with differing levels of time commitment, are available if you want to get involved. And, yes, we have need of volunteers to do things at home as well as at school. As a PTA Board member, you help to shape decisions that have a direct impact on your child's life and provide a voice for all children. You stay well informed about what's going on in the Rolling Hills community. You make a difference. Please contact the PTA President if you would like more information. If you are interested in volunteering to help at Rolling Hills, but not as a PTA Board member, please visit the school's Volunteers web page. http://www.powayusd.com/pusdrhes/parentsplace/vol.htm) Whether you volunteer for the school as a whole or the PTA in particular, the important thing is that you volunteer. We have big jobs, little jobs, easy jobs, quiet jobs — and all of them benefit our kids. Please join us!

The Executive Board runs the Rolling Hills PTA. All of the PTA officers and committee chair-people are board members. The board meets monthly, on the second Tuesday of the month, at 6:30 p.m., usually in the Family Center (Room 17). Meetings are listed in the monthly school calendar published in Puma Tracks. If you would like to attend a meeting, please contact the PTA President to double-check the date, time and location.

You are, if you are a Rolling Hills PTA member. Every dues-paying PTA member is an Association member. The Association meets five times per year, in September, November, February, April and June. It usually meets on the second Thursday of the month in the Multi-Purpose Room, but not always. All Association meetings are publicized in Puma Tracks.

Any member of the Rolling Hills community may attend Association meetings. To vote, you must have been a dues-paying PTA member for at least 30 days prior to the meeting. If you want to have more input into what the PTA does, volunteer to become an officer or committee chairperson. We can always use the help!

The PTA holds fund-raisers to raise money that we invest in programs and services that benefit our students and school, including:

• School assemblies
• Student awards
• Transportation for field trips
• Classroom grants for teachers
• Peaceful Playground equipment
• The Learning Resource Center
• The student chorus

Rolling Hills PTA Executive Board members worked together to establish the following goals for the 2007-08 school year. The goals represent areas that we wish to emphasize in the coming year. They give us targets to strive for, plans for needed changes and things we can look back on and measure at the end of the school year. In addition to the areas described in these goals, we will continue the activities that we have done successfully in the past,

Student support

• Support the school’s Character Counts program by organizing events and providing information through appropriate venues.  (VP – Programs)
• Encourage students to read by working with the school and the district to complete the Literacy Garden, and by supporting the Reading Olympics program. (VP – Programs)
• Increase student participation in Reflections by working jointly with staff to promote the program. (VP – Programs)

Family involvement

• Promote family involvement in the Rolling Hills community by organizing regular family fun nights and community involvement activities. (VP – Community Programs)
• Provide useful resources to parents by conducting educational forums in cooperation with the school counselor and the Family Center and by using other venues such as Puma Tracks and the PTA website. (VP – Programs)

Communication

• Provide useful, timely information about the PTA by maintaining and promoting its independent website, which is linked to the Rolling Hills website. (President, VP – Membership)
• Publish and distribute the Puma Tracks newsletter in both paper and electronic formats to reach as many readers as possible. (VP – Membership)

Outreach and advocacy

• Increase unit membership by 5 percent compared to 2006-07 (to at least 295) through various recruiting and retention strategies throughout the school year. (VP – Membership)
• Increase teacher involvement in PTA-sponsored activities (President)
• Support the advocacy efforts of Palomar Council, Ninth District, the California PTA and the National PTA by responding to action calls from those organizations as they occur. (VP – Community Programs, President)

Internal

• Continue to expand the field of potential financial supporters for our PTA by changing the nature of our fundraising activities away from those that rely entirely on Rolling Hills families. (VP – Ways & Means)
• Maintain and expand the Puma Fund fundraiser– through which people make an annual contribution to support our PTA – as a reliable, ongoing funding source. (VP – Ways & Means)
• Gauge how well PTA activities meet the needs of the school community by conducting separate surveys of parents and staff by January and responding to the input that is received. (President)
• Improve our PTA’s performance by encouraging Board members to attend available council and district training programs. (President)

Puma Tracks and this website are your best information sources. Read the newsletter for articles about PTA activities. Also, you may check the monthly school calendar, which is published in the Puma Tracks as well. Bookmark this website and visit it periodically for new information. Check your child's backpack for flyers, which tend to come home on every Thursday or Friday as part of the weekly information packet.