Dear Members of the Grady Elementary Community,

This has been an absolutely wonderful school year! A great big thank you to all of you for supporting our fundraisers, for coming to our events, and for volunteering your time. Thanks to you we have accomplished so much!

This year has seen record amounts of parents, grandparents and friends volunteering at our school.  We have again won the Hillsborough County PTA's award for Volunteerism and Participation in our PTA.  This award is a credit to the fine work of so many of YOU and our wonderful teachers!!  We know you, volunteers and teachers, are doing the heavy lifting of raising the standards of education in our school.  We are grateful for your work.

Grady Elementary also won the Hillsborough County PTA's Superintendent's Award for excellence in increased membership.  The Award was presented by Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins.  We were delighted and surprised to win this award, but it is a testament to the commitment of teachers, parents, grandparents and friends to join together to support our school.  This year, we had 333 members, which is a 22% increase over last year and constitutes 100% membership (PTA membership is considered 100% when membership exceeds 75% of the number of students enrolled at the school.  This is because some families have more than one student at a school).

I want to recap some of the financial aspects of this year.  In terms of fundraising, our Fall Fundraiser raised $9,700 in profit for Grady Elementary and our biggest fundraiser, Tiger Trek, raised $15,000 for our school.  We used much of the fall money to pay $7,000 toward the ELP tutoring program that occurred after school during the second, third and fourth grading periods.  We also funded $6,000 in mini-grants for teachers, and we spent $4,000 on teacher classroom supplies by providing each classroom with a $100 Lakeshore Learning gift card.   We also purchased T-shirts for Math Bowl, and Spelling Bee, and funded the registration fees and trophies for the Spelling Bee.  Moreover, we spent $2,000 on teacher appreciation week, $1,000 on the back to school lunch, and $850 on conference night expenses.  We incurred some expenses in instituting the new after school enrichment program, but those expenses were off-set by the club fees paid by parents.

This year we completed the installation of the first phase of our fence replacement. The first phase cost $54,600. $10,750 was raised from people sponsoring fence panels and the remainder was paid for using funds from last year's surplus and some of this year's fundraising.  Next year, we begin the drive to complete the second phase of the fence replacement.  The entire project will cost $102,412, and we have $47,812 yet to raise to complete the project.

I leave the position of President in good hands.  Kris House, currently VP of Community Outreach, will serve as President in 2015-16.  Kris has served this board for many years and is ready to lead.  Our Grady Elementary PTA Nominating Committee, which includes Kris and Patricia Cannon and Krista Harvie, have nominated, and the PTA has elected the following officers:

President - Kris House

VP Membership - MaryAnn Hoffman

VP Outreach - Ellen Lyons

VP Sponsorships - Jessica Schentrup

VP Communications - Amy Zink

VP Volunteers- Chely Sierra

VP Events - Elizabeth Weekes and Annette Simeon-Lopez (not formally elected yet)

VP Fundraising - Open

Treasurer- Debbie Bresnahan

Secretary - Avery Maniscalco

We are still seeking a VP of Fundraising, as well as committee chairs and committee members.  If you are interested in serving on a board or committee (Committees include Yearbook (Chaired by Janella Enajibi), ASE Clubs (chaired by Moni Sears), Spelling Bee, Membership, Events and Volunteers), please talk to any board member on this list or email us via the website.   You may also speak with Nominating Committee members, Patricia Cannon and Krista Harvie.  Thank you to the Nominating Committee for finding such a great slate of officers to lead us next year.

The goal of the Grady PTA is to enhance the educational experience for our children, and you all are doing a fabulous job!  Thank you for your commitment!

Sincerely,

Debbie Bresnahan, President, Grady Elementary PTA