After serving for two terms as your PTA president, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve. I have learned much in these past two years, and one of them is that our community holds exceptional talent and enthusiasm, and you’re willing to put those to work for our children and teachers. Most of you who do so do it with quiet determination and less acknowledgement than you deserve. You give much of yourself and aim high, a reflection of your goal of seeing your children maximize their own potential. Moreover, you wish for our community to be one that they see value in returning to. You’re building a future worthy of living toward.

I also want to express my gratitude to all of you with whom I have had the privilege of volunteering. I’ve often thought of how grateful I am at how our kids have many resourceful, selfless role models among our faculty, staff and parents. Kindness and respectfulness are the norm rather than the exception, and our children’s achievement and manner reflect wonderful things. We saw this very prominently at the recent Interscholastic Reading Competition in late March. Our Benner and BASD children and their coaches proved that high achievement and integrity CAN go hand in hand. In addition, our community has proven that, if asked, they’ll step up to new opportunities as times are changing. No one is immune to change, and the current state of our nation and economy have been a hardship or source of worry for most everyone. However, as we move forward we have new talents among our volunteers (faculty and parents). Those talents and people’s desire to give of them will continue to answer challenges that we have. We will increase the effectiveness of and resources at our Benner PTA website saving natural resources and money. We have parents and faculty skilled at grantwriting who are putting their experience and successes to work. In a tough economy or a healthy one, their skill and savvy can support new resources and replace tired ones for a better learning environment.

On May 10, we held the Benner PTA officer elections. On July 1, your new slate of officers as well as those volunteers who have agreed to serve as committee chairs will officially take their new posts. This year’s officers and chairs are preparing to pass our batons so that the volunteers can hit the ground running. We welcome your suggestions for anything from program topics, to fundraisers, to ways that Benner PTA can make it easier for you to share your talents as a volunteer. We hope that you will share your constructive thoughts at any time with a PTA officer or faculty representative (listed in this newsletter). Thank you to all who have served, past and present. You make so much possible that would not be otherwise.