PTA News Letter

December 10, 2012 Contents

Dear parents, P1 PTA membership fee (for the year 2012~2013) P1 Usage of PTA membership fee and the introduction of Bid system P2 Change of organization; PTA to PTSA
MIS in winter day

Its an early morning - before kids come.

Dear Parents,
P2

This is Yuzo Goda, the Chairman of Makuhari International School PTA. Today I am writing this letter to let you know what we are thinking about the PTA. First of all, I would like to express my apologies for our very limited activities as PTA. As you understand, MIS PTA is based upon the volunteers from the parents and teachers, we never have forced and will never force the parents to do something as PTA. We apply the same rule to the PTA Executive Board,

Voices from the school P2 Notice of PTA Coffee Morning and PTA General Meeting P3

so we need to manage everything in the PTA by two members who have jobs in the daytime; actually, we do not have enough time to visit the school in weekdays. After spending some time in the discussion with interested parties at the school including the Board members and teachers. I would like to how we are thinking about the direction of MIS PTA in this year and from April 2013, sharing the result of the discussion.

PTA membership fee (for the year 2012~2013)

As I mentioned above, our activities are very limited at this moment. However, the school has much expectation on the PTA activities including the donation to the school for the enrichment of the school facilities. There are two ways to hand in your PTA donation: 1) I am attaching the envelope to this letter, so please enclose the membership fee (JPY3,000) in the envelope with your name on it and pass it to the class teacher by Dec/17/2012. We will send you the receipt later. 2) If you would like to hand out it directly to the PTA Board members, please bring the envelope with your name on at the Christmas Performance on Dec/12 and 13. Shirai-san of G4G will be at the PTA desk and will be happy to receive your donation. I will explain what and how PTA spends money in the next section.

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What we are discussing

Usage of PTA fee and the introduction of Bid system
We would like to plan how to use the PTA fund to improve the school facilities this year because we cannot take initiative in the PTA activities in actual. We received lots of requests from the school for items that might be referred to as extra to the usual budget, such as more sunshades, a large display for the media center, and extra outside play equipment. So we would like to propose a Bid system which helps us determine the use of the funds pretty fairly. A Bid system is like an auction, we can make a bid for the proposals on the school facilities. The British School In Tokyo and other schools have introduced the system for the PTA fund. We would also like to allow students to make a proposal in addition to the parents and teachers. It is likely that bids would be given in once a term and money given out at the end of that term. The PTA is also interested in possibly setting a target for the money it raises here at MIS. In Staff Meetings, teachers have discussed ideas for such a goal and have given their opinions in the yearly school evaluation questionnaire. The questionnaire also focuses on parent and student ideas as to how to improve the school facilities linking in to one of the key goals of the PTA. These ideas have been shared at PTA meetings, they include using some/all of the money for more shading and improved outdoor play equipment e.g. quiet garden, climbing walls, big games, etc. As you can see, the PTA is trying to use information that the school has gathered from children, teachers and parents to improve the quality of education on offer at MIS.

Kids loves bouncy castle at Sport Day! We did good shopping last year.

Change of organization; PTA to PTSA

As I described previously, we are planning to involve the students in the discussion on the use of the PTA fund. Not to mention, the school is for the students, so I believe we should ask the students to join the discussion. That way they can develop the loyalty to the school. So, I would like to propose to dissolve the PTA (Parent & Teacher Association) at the end of this academic year (March 2013) and establish the PTSA (Parent, Teacher and Student Association) from the next year (April 2013). After discussing with teachers, older members of the School Council can attend the PTSA General Meeting as a representative of the class. They will join in the discussions of the usage of PTSA fund, the goal of fund raising, PTSAs role in the school event, and the plan of PTSA event. Some international schools such as Yokohama International School organize a PTSA, which is appreciated as the place for the students to nurture their independency. From Teachers We understand it is not easy to ask the parents to volunteer the PTA, but we do not want to force parents to carry on the PTA as typical Japanese schools do. The ideal management is the voluntary involvement of the school, parents, and students. We would like to discuss the way we improve the school at the PTA. MIS parents always put the highest priority on the students, so we believe we can make things happen by leveraging our passion for the school and students.

Voices from the school

Lastly, I would like to summarize the opinions from the school. I am really happy to know that everyone considers the PTA very positively. At the same time, I feel very sorry that I have done nothing to meet their expectations. I will focus on ways to build the basis of the PTSA for the rest of this academic year so that the next Board Members can launch their activities proactively. From Board members We appreciate that the PTA proposed the ideas to improve the school facilities such as the ground coating and the sunshade. However, we have to take it carefully because the capital investment is not an easy decision making. We would like to listen to the parents voice more often. It is a good thing to reflect the parents view on the school management through the PTA activities.

Winter has come.

We would like the PTA to unite the school, parents, and students. We believe the reorganization to PTSA will be the first step for the goal.
Most teachers think it necessary to have more outside facilities in the school. Everyone has different ideas, so it would be appreciated if the PTA could help us prepare the facilities using a Bid System.

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Notice of PTA Coffee Morning and PTA General Meeting

Please feel free to give us your feedback if you have any comments or queries on the discussion. If you would like to have a little chat on the matter, we are planning to hold a PTA Coffee Morning and PTA General Meeting as follows. PTA Coffee Morning Date & Time: Saturday, Jan/19/2012, 10:00-12:00 Place: Makuhari International School Media Center PTA General Meeting Date & Time: Friday, Jan/25/2012, 14:00-15:00 Place: Makuhari International School Media Center

Makuhari International School PTA

261-0014 Wakaba 3-2-9, Mihama-ku, Chiba-city, Chiba TEL: 043-296-0277 E-Mail: mis-pta-qagooglegroups.com

Wish you have Wonderful Holidays! Is it too early?

Your voice matters

We would like to hear your opinions on these proposed changes to the PTA at MIS, in particular with regard to the idea of the Bid System and setting a funding goal. If you have any comments regarding these matters, please write them on the slip at the end of this letter and put it the donation envelope, together with the PTA fee. Alternatively, you wish to come along to the next PTA meeting to share your thoughts and ideas over a cup of coffee. Sincerely, Yuzo Goda, Chairman of MIS PTA

Childs name (Not required) Grade & Class (Not required)