Highland Park PTA

Next PTA General Meeting

OUR LAST GENERAL PTA MEETING WILL BE ON MAY 20th AT 6:30. This is an important meeting as we will be approving our 2008-2009 budget. Our plan is to raise $195,000!! As a reminder, this is vitally important to our school as it pays for the salaries of all or part of 4 of our staff members, provides grade levels and special areas with additional funding for classroom support, gives Tammie the opportunity to fund professional development of staff, builds the collection of books in our library and so much more. Child care will be provided- please RSVP to Sally Hunter at shunter@austinisd.org .

Winner of 2008-2009 Scottie Spirit T-Shirt Design Contest

CONGRATULATIONS to Phoebe Ayres, the winner of the 2008--2009 Scottie Spirit T-Shirt Design Contest. Phoebe's design, "iScottie" will be printed on the school spirit shirts for the 2008-2009 school year. They will be available at Rally Day in August. Our students submitted 75 designs! Our faculty & staff narrowed that number down to the three finalists, and our students voted to determine the winner. THANKS to all of the students who submitted design and to our finalists, Miranda Ayres and Katy Conway-Malott.

Click here to see the winning design!

Many HP Alumni Recognized by Duke Talent Search!

AISD Seventh Graders Honored in Duke University Talent Search

The Austin School District honored 105 seventh grade students recognized by Duke University in its 2008 National Talent Identification Program at a Recognition Reception on Monday, May 5. The students’ selection is based upon scores these students achieved on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) — tests designed as rigorous college entrance examinations for high school students in eleventh and twelfth grades. Ten Austin seventh graders earned Grand Level Recognition for a SAT Math score of at least 660, and Critical Reading score of at least 650; or ACT scores of at least: 27-Math, 28-English, 29-Reading, and 26-Science. State Level Recognition was awarded to another 95 Austin students who achieved a SAT Math score of at least 520 and a Critical Reading score of at least 510; or ACT scores of at least 21 in each subtest — Math, English, Reading, and Science. Grand Level Recognized students will be invited to the Grand Ceremony to be held May 19 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. State Level honorees will be invited to attend ceremonies at one of five Texas universities during May and June. Nationwide, more than 81,000 seventh graders participated in the 2008 Duke University National Talent Identification Program. More information about program is available online at http://www.tip.duke.edu/

Austin students honored in the 2008 Duke University National Talent Identification Program are:
Grand Level Recognition
Kealing Middle School — Yury Aglyamov, Elizabeth Buehler, Arthur Lee, Katherine Nehyba, Rebecca Pittel, Allan Sadun, Courtney Trutna, and Arlen Walker.
Murchison Middle School — Evan Gulick.
O. Henry Middle School — William Pope.
State Level Recognition
Bailey Middle School — Jonathan Christian, Houston Fowler, Molly Harney, Lorna Min, Elana Myers, David Park, Brionna Wilson, and Issac Yi.
Covington Middle School — Kyle Hoppner.
Fulmore Middle School — Katelyn Alexander, Elijah Blumofe, Ana De Santiago, Amanda Faulkner, Michael Gist, Samantha Luzader, Devon Pankratz, Adrienne Rivers, Narda Salinas, Callie Stribling, and Charlotte Waters.
Kealing Middle School — John Adkins, Kerry Anderson, Alexandra Basquette, Abdulkarim Bora, Elizabeth Bowie, Willa Brown, Roger Cain, Sinead Carolan, George Chen, Aidan Chladil, Sydney Cho, Emma Daily, Alexandra Dolan, Caitri Feddeler, Jacob Fisher, Christopher Germain, Benjamin Goldstein, Matthew Goodman, John Gormley, Zoe Graham, Albert Hawkins, Harper Hill, Amy Hong, Daniel House, Regan Hsu, Danish Hussain, Lucy Kalar, Matias Kalaswad, Joon Tae Kim, Kevin Luo, Juan Madero Flores, Thomas Massad, Marci McClenon, Gabrielle McRoberts, Myles Miller, Roy Niblett, Zachary Nirenberg, Connor Praterburgess, Rebekah Pruett, Delaney Rawson, Ramon Rodriguez, Ashvin Roharia, Bailey Shelton, Samuel Shook, Benjamin Suydam, Evan Taylor Adair, Kason Tey, Alexander Trubowitz, Emily Tubbs, Mai Anh Vu, Molly Wear, Avram Webberman, Michael Weems, Lucy Williams, Rachel Zein, and Xue Zhang.
Lamar Middle School — Nicholas Abbs, Rose Banks, Clinton Reed, and Benjamin Vetters.
Murchison Middle School — John Bunde, Colin Harvey, Leon Kozinakov, Hunter Rudd, Robert Schmidt, and Hanna Tyson.
O. Henry Middle School — Bailey Cochran, Maya Kelp, Kathryn McClellan, and Justin Williams.
Small Middle School — Jordan Baker, Coleman Counihan, Emily Fuller, Nate Hattersley, and Vitali Tarant

Make Time to Talk About Child Safety

Take 25 to Help Kids Stay Safer
Ensuring children's safety is a primary parenting concern. That's why PTA supports Take 25, a campaign from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® designed to heighten awareness about children's safety issues and encourage parents, through resources and events, to teach their children ways to be safer. Take 25 commemorates National Missing Children's Day on May 25.

More parent resources on child safety are available on PTA.org. The next issue of the PTA Parent will focus on safety.

Take 25 minutes on May 25 to talk to your kids about staying safer:

Teach younger children their full names, address, and telephone numbers. All children should also know their parents' and guardians' full names.
Take your children on a walking tour of the neighborhood and tell them whose homes they may visit without you.
Teach your children how and when to use 911, and make sure they have a trusted adult to call if they're scared or have an emergency.
Set up "what if" situations and ask your children how they would respond. "What if someone asked you to help them find a lost puppy? What would you do?"
Volunteer your time to help with local Take 25 events. Visit http://www.take25.org/ to find out what Take 25 events are planned in your community. For "25 Things to Do as a Parent," go to www.pta.org/take25.

HP Students Rank #1 for Technology Competence!

Did you know that AISD tests students for technology competencies every

year in 5th grade? Most AISD parents are probably not aware of this, & most Highland Park parents are probably not aware that our school ranked #1 out of 74 elementary schools in AISD last year in this assessment - Wow! - this is great news for our Blue Ribbon school! For a closer look at how we stack up in this regard, go to our website & check the "About Our School" section & you will find several graphs documenting our success, or try this link:

http://www.hipark.austinisd.org/about/AISD-elem-06-07.pdf - congrats to all Scottie Power Nerds!!

Kindergarten Roundup

Highland Park Elementary School will hold its annual Kindergarten Roundup at 9 a.m. on May 6th in the cafeteria.

Parents will receive information about curriculum, schedules,
attendance requirements and preparations for starting school. Children
who will be 5 on or before Sept. 1 are eligible to be enrolled. Parents
should bring their child's birth certificate, current immunization
records and proof of the parent's residence in the school district,
such as a current utility bill or lease agreement.

Austin parents who do not know which school their child is to attend
may call (512) 414-1726 or visit www.austinisd.org

AISD 2008 School Bond Election May 10th 2008

After months of intensive study and review, the Austin School District Board of Trustees has called for a $343.7 million Bond Election for May 10, 2008. For more detailed Bond Program information, see the AISD website, www.austinisd.org

There are propositions listed for many of the schools which will affect our children, including Highland Park Elementary(technology upgrades)For more information, go to the website above, or check out the question & answers pdf here; http://www.austin.isd.tenet.edu/inside/docs/2008Bond_YellowBook_20080326.pdf

where you will have questions like the one below answered. If these bonds don't get passed now, they cannot go up for vote again until 2011.

How will AISD students benefit from the bond program? How will the bond program improve the education in Austin?

This bond program will:

Meet immediate and critical needs, i.e., failing air-conditioning and heating systems, which, if left unattended, could lead to expensive remediation.
Meet new legislative mandates that increase graduation requirements to four years of science and math, which will require additional science classroom laboratories and upgrades in all District high schools.Address overcrowding and provide more permanent classrooms for schools that have had large numbers of portable buildings over several years.
Meet most current Health Department code requirements for school kitchens.
Upgrade aging classroom and business technology.

Check out the AISD for more details and PLEASE get out vote May 10th!

Science Rocks at HP!

The following students participated in the Austin Energy Regional Science Fest: First place - Nikhil Joyce, Pilar Salazar, Hannah Whellan, Lucas Brown, Allison McHorse, Gabe Dancy, Ethan Williams, Laura Cole, Will Savage, Reagan Tims, Madeline Chastain, Brianna Williams, Elena Villalon;

Second place - Marley Chilton In addition, Laura Cole was one of the top 10% of fifth grade projects identified to compete for the national award from the Society for Science and the Public program. We should be hearing soon if she was selected as one of 300 semifinalists and ultimately 30 finalists for this award.

All in all, a great year for HP at the regional fair!

New Partner In Education for Highland Park

Partners In Education News

We have a new Partner In Education! Jeff & Hellen Pennell, parents of Riley & Cassie, are owners of the Massage Envy in the Arbor Walk. They are excited to donate 2% of all revenue brought in from Highland Park families, friends and staff for the rest of the school year. They will leave a sign at the front desk asking for receipts. If you forget to leave your receipt there, you can drop it off in the Partners box in the PTA room. This percentage will be good for all services: massages, memberships and gift certificates.

Massage Envy is located in the Arbor Walk at:

10515 N. Mopac Express Way NB Suite 210 B Austin, TX 78758 (512) 834–ENVY ( 3689)

Go HP Staff!!!

Austin Partners in Education recognizes an outstanding teacher each year with its Teacher of the Year Award. As you know, our own Laine Leibick is a finalist for this year’s award. In addition, our Principal Tammie Workman is also being recognized as a finalist for Principal of the Year! Please congratulate both of our finalists and thank them for their hard work and dedication. They have both done great jobs for us at Highland Park!