Somers PTA Council - Committees

To contact PTA Council committee chairs,
obtain phone numbers from the school directories
or send a contact request via Ask the Elephant.

Book Dedication

Katie Coppola, Chair

This committee is responsible for promoting and administering, For the Love of Reading: A Book Dedication Program. This program is designed to provide a wonderful and unique way to commemorate special events, to honor children, teachers and friends, or to memorialize a loved one.

Donations to the program are used to purchase new books for the school library of the donor’s choice. A bookplate is placed inside each book purchased indicating the name of the donor and recipient and the occasion for which it was given. A letter, printed on school stationary and signed by the school librarian, is sent to the person or family being honored.

This committee works closely with the Library Media Specialists, the school newsletter editors, book vendors and the council treasurer to ensure the success of this ongoing program. Our goal is to promote the program town wide through other community groups.

Click here to download the book dedication form.

Book Swap

Laura Olert, Chair

This committee is responsible for annually promoting, collecting, sorting and distributing donated books that can be used in our school and classroom libraries. Parents are reminded throughout the year to hold on to books, appropriate for K- 12 grade that they no longer wish to keep. Books are collected at each school; and arrangements can be made for large donation pick-ups.

Bus Driver Appreciation

Erica Sherman &
Angela Welsh, Co-Chairs

This committee organizes and hosts a breakfast each spring for the district's bus drivers and other transportation personnel. We provide food, goodie bags, and also raffle off gift baskets, most of which is donated by our parents. Volunteers are needed to help gather and keep track of donations, and to work the day of the breakfast with setting up and serving.

Education Committee

chair needed! Please consider volunteering. Click for more information.

The council education chair mentors the chairs of all the PTA education committees in the Somers schools and acts as a liaison between them and the council, as well as sharing information and resources from the New York State PTA. When appropriate, the council chair will help coordinate the activities of these committees in some council-wide project. PTA education committees are groups of parents, teachers, administrators, and sometimes students who meet monthly to discuss and take action on a wide variety of educational topics, such as homework, study skills, testing and other assessments, student progress reports, etc. These committees work especially hard to strengthen cooperation between teachers and parents in order to enhance the education of all the students in each school.

Green Week Committee

Helen Brady, Chair

Legislation

Lex Kessler

The function of the Legislation Chair is to keep an eye on a variety of legislative or law-making subjects that affect our children's education. This includes topics being looked at the local, state and national level. Use this information to write articles for the various school PTA Newsletters. Look for opportunities to involve parents by participating in letter-writing campaigns that support the PTA position for a variety of subjects.

Membership Committee

Debbie Deirmendjian, Chair

The Membership Committee Chair works with the district office and the Membership chairs at each school to provide families that are new members of the Somers school district with helpful information and a friendly contact for guidance in an effort to make their transition an easier one. New students have their names published in school newsletters welcoming them and welcome breakfasts/coffees are held at each school in August.

Parent Programs

Cathy Vinci, Chair

We provide information and education to parents on various subjects, based on your feedback and interests. Some recent topics have included: The Concerned Parents Guide to Competitive Sports, Do Your Kids Take You Seriously, Internet Safety, Raising Confident & Competent Kids, Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children About Drugs and Choices, Women's Health - 30 & Beyond. Typically Parent Programs brings a keynote speaker in the fall and the spring. Additional speakers are featured throughout the course of the school year. Whether your interests lie in helping to bring speaker(s) to a specific Somers School, or to the District, handling hospitality at these events or coordinating logistics (i.e. registration, surveys, producing flyers, helping with Public Relations) your help is needed and appreciated. Once a speaker is selected, the committee meets as necessary to prepare all logistics for the event.

Public Relations

Lex Kessler, Chair

Our goals are to increase awareness of PTA in Somers & sustain consistency of message through each of the Somers PTAs. Our objectives are increasing membership in each of the PTAs, coordinated with increasing financial support of PTA.

We meet monthly and involve ourselves in the various mediums that the PTAs of Somers communicate the various activities and messages to help achieve the objectives.

Reflections

Laura Sweig, Chair

Reflections is a PTA national arts recognition and achievement program open to students in pre- school through grade 12 in the areas of literature, musical composition, photography and visual arts. Students are encouraged to create original works of art in each of these areas to support a pre-selected theme.

The works of art are judged by professionals in the respective arts areas and selected works will be advanced to the Westchester East Putnam regional competition. The program culminates with national recognition and awards.

Website

Patti Callauti & Laura Sweig, Co-Webmasters

The Council website is the place to go for information about your PTA council and your unit/school PTA’s. Click on the “Ask the Elephant” to get in touch with your officers at any time, or if you would like to help out with the design and maintenance of the site.

Ways & Means

Linda Graffitti, Chair

This major fundraiser allows parents, family, and friends to purchase high quality wrapping paper, gifts, and cookie dough to fund many PTA-sponsored programs for the children of the Somers School District. You will find a great selection of products, reasonably priced, and perfect for holiday gift giving. Our schools receive 50% profit on all purchases.

Wellness

Alexis Freiman

The Somers PTA Council’s Health and Safety Committee focuses on matters involving the health and safety of our students. We keep the Somers PTA Council informed of health and safety news on a local, state, and national level. The committee has worked closely with the Somers Central School District Administration to develop a four tier busing system to eliminate the congestion on our Intermediate School and Middle School campus and to reduce transit time for our students. We have also worked with the District and our School Lunch Manager, Norma Zeller, to gain an understanding of school lunch programs. This partnership has lead to the introduction of “Wellness Wednesdays” in Primrose and SIS. Wellness Wednesday is a part of a national initiative to improve the dietary choices our children make in hopes of reducing childhood obesity. Next year this program will be expanded into the SMS. We always welcome input from our parents and students alike.