Who doesn’t have trouble with kids and homework? Ericson PTA is hosting a discussion of the thought-provoking book Ending the Homework Hassle by John Rosemond.

Two separate sessions will be available;

OR,

6:30 p.m. Thursday, February 3.

Parents and family members are invited to attend either session. Child care will be available for participants’ children.

This is not intended as an endorsement of Mr. Rosemond’s philosophies, but rather a springboard for discussion. Read the book, then bring your comments and questions!

For more information, contact John Daley at legislation@ericsonpta.com.

Many thanks to everyone who answered the call for clothing for the nurse’s office. There is now a significant need for new underpants in all child sizes.

Jennifer Kvalvik, the Employer Outreach Specialist from Mira Mesa High School would like to to collect some much-needed items for the tsunami. A special crate will leave Long Beach with clothes, shoes, toys and underwear. If you would like to donate some items or money, please contact Marilyn Rauser at 566-2262, ext. 2225, or contact Jennifer at 566-2262, ext. 2161 for more information. Items can be taken to the M.M. High School media center library, to Room D or Room 301.

It's that time of year again!

Positions to be filled include:

If you are interested in being part of the nominating committee or holding a board office for the 2005-2006 school year, please plan to attend this meeting and please contact

By joining the PTA, you become part of the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the world.

To celebrate the anniversary of the first National Mothers Conference in 1897, Child Welfare Day was established on February 17, 1910. This observance grew into Founders Day, designed to call attention to the organization’s mission and growing political consciousness, and serve as a rallying point for parent-teacher associations to come together and renew their commitment to children.

Founders Day celebrates the PTA’s prominence in local, regional, and national activities supporting parent involvement and promoting efforts that benefit all children. On February 17 or throughout the month, celebrate National PTA’s founders—Alice McLellan Birney, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, and Selena Sloan Butler—and the importance of your local PTA in the community.

The main way that illnesses like colds and flu are spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes. This is called "droplet spread". This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air and are deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby.

It is recommended that hands be washed for

15 to 20 seconds with soap and warm water. That's about the time it takes to sing "Happy

Birthday" twice. So, a way for children to remember how long to wash their hands is to sing Happy Birthday two times when washing their hands.

The Education Coalition believes it is unconscionable that the Governor’s proposed budget breaks the promise he made to California’s students and public schools.

Last year, students and public schools sacrificed $2 billion in ongoing cuts because the Governor promised that our schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenues and would be spared cuts in future years. The Governor’s budget proposal breaks his promise to California’s six million students and takes even more money from our schools.

The Governor’s proposals are a smoke screen designed to divert public attention from the real problems facing our public schools. They do nothing to help public schools and students. Instead, they exacerbate an already inadequate funding problem by adding new requirements without any commitment to adequate and stable funding.

California schools have suffered more than $9.8 billion in cuts in the last four years. This has meant school closures, increases in class size, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortage of librarians, counselors and nurses. Many schools lack basic supplies and instructional materials. California voters passed Proposition 98 in 1988 to protect schools and students from harmful budget

cuts and to establish at least a minimum level of education funding.

The Governor’s plan to cut another $2.3 billion from our schools goes against the will of California voters, fails our students and breaks the education budget agreement approved by the Governor and the Legislature last year. Two recent independent reports concluded that California’s schools were underfunded, had some of the largest class sizes in the country and inadequate teacher salaries. At the same time, studies credit California for having the highest student standards and accountability assessments of any state in the nation. We can’t expect our students to meet those high standards without giving them the resources they need to succeed. Our students and schools deserve better.

Sandra Carsten, President, Association of California School Administrators

Ron Bennett, President, California Association of School Business Officials

Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Ed . Services Association

Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers

Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association

Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association

Carla Niño, President, California State PTA

Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association

Annelle Grajeda, President, Service Employees International Union, California

Want to help, but don’t want to commit to a big project? Have ideas you’d like to share with the PTA board in an informal setting? Enjoy spending an hour chatting and laughing?

Help distribute the March/April issue of the Viking News, Monday, February 28, at 9:00 a.m. Volunteers will meet in the school’s office. This simple project takes less than an hour.

Contact Shannon Daley at communications@ericsonpta.com or

271-0505 for more information.

Practices begin in February and Opening Day is on March 5. The season will wrap up in mid-June.

Registration fees include insurance, uniform, picture package and yearbook.

5 – 8 years old = $65.00

9 – 12 years old = $75.00

13 – 16 years old = $85.00

If interested, please stop by MMWLL fields on Jan 29 from 8:00 am – 12:00 p.m. with your child’s birth certificate. Your child should come ready to try-out (with glove and cleats). The fields are located directly across from the Mira Mesa Rec Center between New Salem Street and Westmore Avenue.

If you have questions or are interested but cannot make the Jan 29^th date, contact League President Kirk Gillard at (619) 890-0154 or Player Agent Vonnie Craig-Parker at (619) 895-6821.

Mira Mesa Girl Scouts currently have a waiting list of 1^st through 3^rd grade girls who want to be Brownie Girl Scouts, and not enough spaces in existing troops to place them! All parents whose daughters would like to be Brownies and anyone interested in volunteering as a Brownie leader, whether or not you have a daughter in Scouting, can find out more at a special 1-hour meeting on Saturday, February 12, at 5:00 p.m. at the Mira Mesa Recreation Center. Please help!

For more information, contact Denise Ervin, Brownie Troop Organizer, at 858-549-1763 or holley53@sbcglobal.net.

Dear Ericson Families,

We’re getting geared up for 2005 and that includes the election of new officers for the 2005-2006 school year. We can always use your help. Consider dedicating some time to a board position or chair a committee to help share the responsibilities of keeping our PTA Unit in business. We’re nothing without a team of volunteers. Contribute what you can to child advocacy and a wonderful organization.

Happy New Year,

President, Ericson PTA

- Susan Semb, Ericson Parent

"Gung Hay Fat Choy!" is a greeting that marks Chinese New Year. It means "Happiness and fortune to you!" February 9 begins the Year of the Rooster. This is the most colorful and exciting holiday in many Asian cultures. In Mira Mesa you may notice signs that some of our neighbors are celebrating this holiday. Look for sets of bright red banners hung at the entrance to a home. The Chinese characters on them make up a poem about good wishes for the coming year. Chinese New Year is celebrated with firecrackers, parades and beating drums. People also clean their homes and eat bowls of noodles for long life during this time.

In the last few years, it has been revealed that the bully is often female. Girls always knew about mean girls. Adults didn't. The secret is out, however, thanks to a spate of recently published books on the subject and the unforgettable TV images of female hazing that came out of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois, last spring.

According to Rachel Simmons in Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, the special kind of cruelty girls direct at each other has a name: relational aggression. At the root of this misbehavior is girls' inability to express anger because our culture teaches them it's inappropriate for females to express angry feelings. So girls use their friendship to reward or punish one another. Jealousy, intense competition (often for boys), and emotional abuse run rampant in the cafeteria, at sleepovers, and on Internet instant message boards. The fact that girls in middle school crave popularity makes for intense power plays.

Your daughter needs help understanding how she contributes to female cruelty. In Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence, author Rosalind Wiseman says that girls play roles in a hierarchy of sorts: "queen bee (the leader), messenger (carries out orders of who's in and [who's] out), sidekick (supporter), floater (a sometime clique member)" to name a few. Other roles we've heard about during workshops we've conducted with girls are enforcer and wannabe. Outside of the queen bee, what all these roles share is that of the bystander to the leader who dictates the mean action. When a girl backs up a leader's or group's teasing of another girl, conspires in the exclusion game, carries the gossip, or remains silent, she contributes to and solidifies the reign of mean queens. And she swallows her anger and stifles her remorse, knowing this behavior is wrong.

To empower girls who feel powerless in the face of mean girls, parents can do the following:

© 2004 National PTA®, Our Children, Vol. 29, No. 3,

pp. 9–10. Reprinted with permission.

Feb 1 Ending the Homework Hassle

Feb 3 Spirit Day

Feb 7 MM Town Council

Feb 11 No School

Feb 14 Valentine’s Day

Feb 15 MM Rec Council Meeting,

Feb 16 Principal’s Chat 8:00 a.m.

Feb 17 Founders Day;

Feb 18 No School

Feb 21 No School

Feb 22 Viking News deadline

Feb 28 Viking News Roundtable;

Labels Collection

SDCS Board of Education meetings are held at Eugene Brucker Education Center Auditorium.

Unless otherwise noted, the schedule is:

Feb 8 - 2:00 p.m. Regular

Don’t forget to personally thank them if you happen to visit these businesses, organizations or community members.

The most current information on PTA and many school events is always available on the Internet at www.ericsonpta.com.

From the site, you can sign up to receive our Monday morning email updates and event reminders. Your email addresses are kept private.

All PTA members can access the National PTA website at www.pta.org using the code on the back of the current membership card.

The California State PTA website at www.capta.org is also a valuable resource. No password is required for access.

Some classrooms have pages on the school’s website at www.ericsonelementary.com where parents and students can contact the teachers or check on assignments.

There is a Unit Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 1, 2005, at 6:30pm in the MU Room. All are welcome to attend.