A&D HS parents – Giving Tuesday is 5 days away!!

More info here.

A&D HS parents – Giving Tuesday is right around the corner!!

Next Tuesday, November 28 is Giving Tuesday. Now in its 6th year, Giving Tuesday was created as an antidote to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is a day to give to favorite charities and non-profit organizations, and is publicized through social media.

Now that we are a non-profit 501(c)3, The Art and Design High School PTA is participating in Giving Tuesday to help raise needed funds. Can you help?

Here’s how:

1. Volunteer to be an Art and Design Social Media Ambassador
The PTA will be posting several Giving Tuesday messages on Facebook on from tomorrow Wednesday November 22nd through Tuesday November 28th. Monday and Tuesday we will be posting multiple times throughout the day.

All you need to do is pledge to share the posts on your own social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, etc) and ask people to support our future graphic designers, architects, cartoonists, illustrators, fashion designers, and more. And have your kids participate as well – they can share on their social media platforms – Tap the Art and Design High School Spirit!!

IMPORTANT: Make sure to include the hashtags #ArtandDesignHS and #GivingTuesday when you share!

2. Donate to the PTA on Giving Tuesday
We know you may get lots of requests for Giving Tuesday, but we hope that you will support a charitable cause that directly supports the students and teachers of Art and Design High School. Our goal is to raise $250 on Giving Tuesday. Any amount is welcome and it’s tax deductible!

3. Head over to http://smile.amazon.com/ and search for our organization, Art and Design High School PTA (unique URL is: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/82-1178832

Your Amazon purchases will benefit the school!

4. Schoola

Clean Out Your Closets, Get Cash for Art and Design The Art and Design HS PTA is participating in a Schoola Clothing Drive. It’s easy to help and won’t cost you anything. Schoola takes donated clothes and items and sells them on their online store. The PTA will get $2 for every $5 worth of items sold. Here’s what you do:

1. Go to https://www.schoola.com/schools/art-and-design-high-school-new-york-ny
2. Click on “request a label” where it says “help our school”
3. Fill a box with good quality, new or gently worn clothes or accessories. For guidelines on what to include, go to https://www.schoola.com/donorfaq
4. Slap the postage paid Schoola mailing label on the box and drop off at the post office or leave for your mail carrier.
5. Enjoy your cleaner closet, knowing you are helping to raise cash to support Art and Design students. As soon as the donations are received, Schoola works to put them online on our store page. We can track where items go once they are sold, and how much we make, so let’s get started!

Thank you!!!!

Our next PTA meeting is Thursday NOVEMBER 2^nd! In the Auditorium from 6:30pm – 8pm.

There are three important topics slated for this week’s meeting – so don’t forget the popcorn!

First, FAFSA and 529’s, important subjects when it comes to college application and savings. 529 Plans are tax free deductions for your child’s college education. Have you enrolled? Because it’s never too early to save.

Second, we also have a HA-YUGE announcement about an upcoming event!

Lastly, the PTA business will cover voting on our new by laws that we introduced for review at the last meeting. Here is another chance to download the draft for you to review.

Coffee, drinks, and light snacks will be served.

Here is the new agenda and here are the unapproved minutes from the last general meeting. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

We are thrilled to report that our bake sale this past Friday was an unqualified success! The end of day total was $885! We had the largest turnout of parent volunteers during this 4 hour event. Ten parents assisted in selling the goods to the students. We would like to thank in no particular order: Maria Ramroop, Erica Bohde, Lory Frassetti, Lissette Anderson, Abbie Ayala, Evie Hantzopoulos, Karen Belgrave, Nilda Chu, Jean Stemm, and Frederica Sayles. Our thanks as well to the many parents that donated their delicious homemade baked goods, you put smiles on many students’ faces.

I bet you’re asking yourselves, “Well where does that money go?” Here’s a perfect (recent) example of what the raised funds from successful events like these go to… Mr. Famiglia of COSA dressed in costume accepted our check of $450 to fund the DJ/Party setup at this Friday’s Halloween Dance, which we heard was a graveyard smash!

Did your teen get mash at this Halloween Bash?! Please send us pics!

Speaking of pics – We also purchased memory cards for the entire incoming sophomore Photography class (17x 32GB SDHC cards) and extra ink supplies for their sleek professional inkjet printer all totaling $500 as budgeted last year. We were happy to hand all these supplies to Ms. McLaughlin and one of her students. Happy picture taking!

Of course we’re not done yet, as more items budgeted will start to come up for funding. An immediate event is the upcoming College Trip to both Skidmore and SUNY Purchase on November 7. As you see, your donations are critical to meet our goals to help as much of the school as possible. Expect more news later as we come up with other ways you can help the PTA raise funds.

Halloween Bake Sale! October 27^th

The PTA will be having its first Bake sale of the year for Halloween on October 27^th during all four lunch periods. That’s 10:30am-1:30pm. For the newcomers, here’s the scoop: parents and students donate baked goods. Parent volunteers will set up a table outside the lunch room and sell the goods to the students and staff.

We need baked goods donated and parent volunteers to help. All grade parents are asked to help but especially SENIOR PARENTS for this bake sale as we gear up for college trips funded by the PTA. Cupcakes and brownies are always a big hit, but any individual packaged items are great. We try to keep all items one dollar for the students, so package accordingly. Please drop items off yourself or send them in with your student the day before or the day of at the main office.

Let us know what baked goods you are donating and if you can help.

I wanna hear you brag about your kids! – Hey parents! Do you love to brag about your kid? Of course you do! We want to hear from you! We’re creating a new gallery series called, “Being Art & Design” where we would love for you to send pictures of your child, and tell us about what they’re doing and what you love about the school! Each month we will feature a family online.

Click here to participate!

All entries become property of the PTA and publication is at the discretion of the exec board. Thank you.

This is Jane. She’s in 9^th Grade and came to HSAD for Architecture. She’s a science whiz and loves to build communities in Minecraft. Though her design skills only pale in comparison to her latest hobby – rolling her eyes at her dad’s jokes.

We announced a month ago how the PTA is paying for a visit to Skidmore College. Well we just heard that SUNY Purchase also wants to host our kids for the day! So we’re funding a SECOND bus for the same day, November 7^th! This is fabulous news as Purchase is one of the most popular colleges for our children. It has excellent art programs and they are rolling out the red carpet for our kids. If you haven’t signed up for the college trips, please click the link below. Preference will be given to seniors as they are in the midst of the college applicaton process. The College and Career office has final say on who will get to go on the visits as there are limited seats but you have to sign up to show interest for your child to attend.

Day one of the very first freshmen bridge program is complete! We hope the students enjoyed the activities led by Global Kids staff. Two more days to go! Led by the school’s own staff.