MJ PTA:  Committees & Chairs

Student Education & Cultural Awareness

After School Clubs: Throughout the school year, the Marion Jordan PTA will offer various after school clubs.  This chairperson will work with outside club vendors to advertise club offerings and also ensure space is reserved at Marion Jordan.  Past after school club offerings have included Spanish and French language learning, chess club and Lego design.

Field Day: Help plan and execute field day activities for all students at Marion Jordan.  This event takes place near the end of the school year in May.

Reflections: The National PTA Reflections program encourages students to explore their talents and express themselves through the arts. Students create original works of art inspired by a yearly theme in any of six categories: dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. One chairperson is responsible for the coordination of Marion Jordan entries. The process begins by organizing, promoting and judging a contest at the school level. Marion Jordan winning entries for each age group are sent to the Northwest Cook Region District competition. District winners then advance to state competition and then possibly the National level. (Responsibilities begin early fall and end with submission of winning entries to the district level, early January.)

Run Club: In the fall, Run Club will facilitate after school training for students to promote physical fitness and build running stamina.  The Run Club season will culminate with a 5k in September/October.  The chair of Run Club will promote enrollment school-wide, oversee after school training events, including snack facilitation and coordinate the 5k.  Typically, participants receive a Run Club shirt as well as participation awards.

SIP Liaison: The SIP liaison is a year-long role that helps to facilitate inclusion of the students in our SIP (Structured for Independence) Program for all PTA events.  This role also works with the administration/staff to promote the PTA’s  involvement in the various buddy programs between our SIP and general education students.

Six Grade Committee:  The 6th Grade Committee runs year-long planning various activities for our 6th graders. Typically, the committee will help design 6th grade spirit wear, host various social events and coordinate a service project.  The committee is usually made up of a chairperson and 3-5 additional people who run sub-committees.  If the budget permits, the class provides a gift to the school.   Plan to meet about three times throughout the school year.  

Spark Representative: A representative attends monthly SPARK meetings and provides Marion Jordan representation. SPARK (Special Education Parents Accessing Resources and Knowledge) meetings are designed to give parents information to help them in their current and future steps of the journey of parenting children with unique needs. Meetings provide relevant programs and resources related to special education; networking opportunities, support and help; and connections for parents with outside sources. (Responsibilities run year-long.)

Community & Family Events

Back to School Event:  To help promote community, a committee head will plan to have a special treat out by the playground during the one hour of Meet the Teacher.  In the past years, an icee truck has been very successful.    

Breakfast Buddies:  As an opportunity for students to have breakfast with a guest before school begins, students can bring a guest of their choice (mom, dad, uncle, aunt, special friend).  Held twice a year, this aligns with the Book fair on Thursday and Friday morning before school, once in the fall and once in the spring.  The committee chair will organize breakfast, décor, and even an activity.  The event is from 8:00- 8:30AM and usually serves donuts, pastries, juice and coffee.  The students come in to school early to have a breakfast treat and then shop the book fair with their special adult.  

Kindergarten Social:  Both kindergarten classes, along with their parents, meet at North Park in Inverness the day before school starts.  Typically, the chair coordinates with the Kindergarten teacher and organizes a snack.  This event is a great way for students – and parents – to make new friends! 

MJ Cares:  Throughout the school year, MJ Cares organizes philanthropies for students and families to participate in that will benefit our local community.  Although some ask for financial donations, others as for donations of food, clothing, books, and holiday gifts, to name a few. 

Families Helping Families:  A subset of MJ Cares, this team’s sole function is to help the families within our immediate Marion Jordan community, families of students and teachers.  Depending on the need, Families Helping Families will provide meals, groceries, gift cards, fundraising support and household necessities for MJ families in crisis due to home destruction, major illness, death in the family or severe financial hardship, for example. Assistance may be provided anonymously. We have an extremely generous community, so we encourage anyone to take advantage of the resources available.

MJ Fest:  An outdoor family event to be held in May to celebrate the end of the school year. 

Talent Show:  This event is a great way for students to showcase their talents!  Grades K – 6 can participate.  Working with a team of volunteers, plan to create parameters for the students, host auditions, rehearse with them as a whole group, market the Talent Show, organize the show timeline, and execute the event.  Typically, this is a Spring event.   

School, Teacher, & Staff Support

Classroom Support:  Each year the PTA provides the Marion Jordan Certified Teaching Staff is provided with a stipend to use for purchasing classroom materials. 

Holiday Luncheon:  As a way to treat the teachers, the PTA caters lunch for our MJ staff during the week prior to the December holiday break.

School Supplies:  As a service to parents, the PTA sells school supply kits which includes all supplies needed for the upcoming school year.  The committee chair has a little involvement in the decision making process in the spring and then will oversee school supply box distribution at the beginning of school.

Staff Appreciation:  We love our MJ Staff!  To show our appreciation, we honor our hard working custodial staff in October, our librarian and bus drivers in April,  our principal and assistant principal, and our lunch provider and school nurse in May. 

Teacher Back to School:  To welcome the teachers back to school, a committee chair, along with a team of volunteers, holds a breakfast for teachers and staff to kick off the new school year!

Veteran's Day:  Assist the school in putting together a day that honors our veteran’s.  

Volunteer Support:  Organize volunteers throughout the year for school events.

Commnications

Ways & Means

Amazon Smile: MJ families have an opportunity to support the school by shopping on Amazon Smile. By choosing Marion Jordan as your charity, Amazon donates 0.5% your purchase to the school. The chairperson is responsible for communicating these details to MJ families via email and/or print throughout the school year.

Book Fair: The Book Fair held at Marion Jordan is an opportunity for families to purchase books at a discounted price. Marion Jordan PTA earns money to purchase educational products for the school. Chairpersons plan, promote, and run the Book Fair in the fall and spring. They also help determine what to do with the funds the PTA receives from the book fair, including coordinating author visits with the school librarian.  The commitments involve helping to set up or take down the Book Fair, which usually involves a few hours on a given day.  Many volunteers are also needed during the week-long event to help ring up purchases or to help students/parents find books that they might be interested in reading. Responsibilities run heavily during the fall and spring.

Corporate Match Program: Chairperson is responsible for offering company match program details to MJ families and communicating this via email and/or print. This opportunity provides another way for families to help raise money for the PTA through their employer.

Direct Donations:  Collect direct donation forms from the school and submit to the PTA treasurer.

Fundraisers: Marion Jordan PTA provides many opportunities for students funded by money raised from the PTA fundraisers. It helps pay for many student and staff events throughout the year. The fundraisers can include, but is not limited to: No-Stress Fundraiser and Parents Night Out, depending on the year. The chairperson is responsible for coordinating fundraisers, finding volunteers to help run events and communicating fundraising details to MJ families via email and/or print.

Spirit Wear:  Show your Marion Jordan pride by purchasing custom MJ spirit wear for your family or as a gift to others! This committee offers apparel, highlighting MJ products for purchase. The committee chooses a vendor and apparel to advertise for sale. Volunteers advertise the sale dates, collect and total orders and distribute merchandise when it is delivered. This opportunity is typically offered in the fall, during the holiday season and sometimes at the end of the school year. Chairpersons communicate throughout the year.

PTA Support

Audit Committee:  Responsible for performing the annual audit of PTA finances, the audit committee must certify the books and financial records of the PTA.  The audit should demonstrate that the organization’s funds and resources were well managed.  The audit committee will require three committee members, best to have a background in business or finance.  Responsibility is one day in early July.

Nominating Committee:  This committee is responsible for presenting the best qualified nominees to hold officer positions.  Comprised of an uneven number of PTA members, the nominating committee must be voted on before they begin to work.  Responsibilities should begin mid-winter and will include being responsible for slating officer nominees one month prior to the last PTA meeting where an election takes place.