President’s letter
Dear SAS parents, My first year as PTA President has been challenging, exhilarating and very humbling. I continue to be amazed at the work ethic of my colleagues on the PTA Board and am impressed by the generous contributions from many parents within our community toward events and services undertaken by the PTA. The PTA has had another record fund-raising year, and before I discuss some of this year’s accomplishments, I would first like to say a huge “thank you” to all of the board members whom I have had the privilege of working with and who have made these achievements possible. Another reason for the PTA’s success is the support that the administration and faculty so readily extend to us. We are deeply grateful to them, as well as to the facilities crew, IT team, security personnel and custodians. The support we enjoy is integral to establishing a positive and productive relationship between the PTA and SAS. It is a pleasure to dedicate time and effort to supporting the school when our efforts are so appreciated. As we come to the end of another school year, we are in the fortunate position of disbursing to the school the proceeds of our fund-raising efforts. If you were not able to attend the Volunteer Appreciation Tea on May 19, please read the related article in this issue that outlines some of the items that will be purchased with the $335,000 that you have helped raise. In addition to the funding for those items, the PTA also provided over $21,000 to the High School Community Service Clubs from proceeds raised at its Annual Pumpkin Sale. We also provided $6,400 to HS Interim Semester Scholarships and $30,000 to PTA Senior Scholarships. Early in the school year, each SAS family received a school calendar and directory published with PTA funds. We also provided each graduating senior a present, gave each staff member a gift on Staff Appreciation Day, sponsored an Ice Cream Social at Open House, will provide a reception after the High School graduation ceremony and will pay for advertisements in the High School Islander and Prism. This year we also gave $5,800 toward the publication of the Middle School’s Tiger Tales, over $4,400 to the 8th grade for their year-end Sentosa Island excursion and donated books to the school libraries to commemorate births, adoptions or deaths within our community through our Celebration Books program. The PTA also facilitated the ordering of books in its Scholastic Book program. The volume of orders we generate allows us to accumulate bonus points with Scholastic Inc., and the points are used to order books that are then donated to the school. This year, Scholastic book purchases allowed us to accumulate enough points to provide over $40,000 worth of books to teachers for their classrooms. We are able to provide such significant support to the school due to your ongoing participation. As with the end of every school year, we unfortunately have to say goodbye to many of you as you move on to new opportunities. For those of you who are leaving us, we thank you for all the support that you have given to both the PTA and the school. We wish you the best of luck in your return home or to wherever you may be heading. For those of you leaving for the summer but returning in August, please enjoy a restful and safe summer break, and we look forward to seeing you back refreshed and ready to start the new school year! Mae Anderson PTA President mae.anderson@mac.com
CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Alyssa San Jose, grade 8 for publishing a lovely piece called “Blue-Skied Thunderstorms” in This I Believe on National Public Radio. To read her story, see http://thisibelieve.com/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=63838&lastname=San%20Jose&yval=0&start=0