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Social/Emotional Health of Our Students

In support of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs goal to "advocate for, promote and support student social/emotional/physical health," the PTA Council has arranged a series of Parent Education events and materials addressing student mental and emotional well-being, bullying, and stress.

  • See our Parent/Teacher Education events entitled "Breaking the Cycle of Bullying," "Helping Our Children Thrive," and "How is my Middle-Schooler Really Doing?"
  • Watch Video Highlights from the "SOS-Stressed Out Students" Keynote Event that was held September 26 at Stanford University. Order the DVD here.
  • Take the 7-minute PowerPoint quiz to see how our kids are doing.

Celebrating PTA's Community Partnership and Honoring Community Volunteers for Exemplary Service to Children, Youth and Families

The Palo Alto Council of PTAs held its annual Honorary Service Awards Luncheon today at the Cabaņa Hotel. More than 200 people were on hand to honor 14 recipients. A contribution to PTA's Scholarship and Grant Program is made in honor of each award recipient. Scholarships are granted to further various kinds of higher learning and are available to graduating high school seniors and education professionals to commend them for their extensive volunteer service in the school and community. District honorees were retiring administrator Scott Laurence and retiring principals Susan Charles and Don Cox for their combined service of more than half of a century to PAUSD. Community volunteer honorees included Carrie Manley and Wendy Kandasamy for providing our community with dynamic and innovative parent education events, PTA Council President Dan Dykwel for his for many years of exemplary volunteer service within the school community and within the wider community, Christian Music Theatre's Karen Salveson for giving thousands of Palo Alto children and their families wonderful theater experiences, Richard Swent for more than a decade's dedication to traffic safety and bringing up Palo Alto's youth bicyclists, Karen Saxena in recognition of her many years of inspiring thousands of children and adults within our community to run and have fun with the Juana Run, Julie Williams in recognition of her outstanding service to our students, school district and our community, Erwin Morton for tirelessly tracking legislative attacks on our school budgets and for his creative building of online information resources, Marvina White and Florence Srinivasan for their relentless pursuit on the issues of the achievement gap and outreach to students and parents of color, and finally, Darice Koo in recognition of her many years of dedicated service to schools, PTA Council and myriad community organizations.

Artworks from Reflections