The Cascade Ridge PTSA uses a variety of different communication means to disseminate information to our community of parents, students, and teachers.  As a program coordinator or committee member, you need to get the word out about your program and make sure everyone knows about event dates, deadlines, forms, and other information.  Here are the communication tools you can use.  If you have any questions, we're here to help ... just email info@cascaderidgeptsa.org.

Coyote Connection

The Coyote Connection is a weekly email newsletter that gets sent out every Thursday.  It is published by the school's office staff, and can include school news, district news, and PTSA news.  The length of an announcement in the Connection is somewhat limited, and generally should not exceed one paragraph and should not contain images. However, the announcement can contain a link to a page on our PTSA website, and that web page can contain full details with images.  The announcement may also contain links to documents or forms, which can be hosted on our PTSA website.  To submit an announcement for the Connection, send your announcement to connection@cascaderidgeptsa.org.  The submission deadline is 10:00am on Wednesdays, in order to make the Thursday publication date.

Coyote Howler

The Coyote Howler is a monthly email newsletter that gets sent out the first week of every month.  It is published by the PTSA, and can include school news, district news, and PTSA news.  The Howler is a lengthier newsletter, usually about 7-10 pages.  Articles in the Howler can be longer if necessary (anywhere from a quarter page to a full page), and can include images and links.  The Howler submission deadlines are listed here.  To submit an article for the Howler, send your article to howler@cascaderidgeptsa.org.

PTSA website

Our PTSA website (cascaderidgeptsa.org) has several areas that are useful for you to post information.  Any dates or deadlines associated with your program should be posted to the website calendar.  In addition, our home page can host short announcements or other lengthier articles.  Documents and forms can also be posted on our website, and you can then link to those documents from emails or newsletters.  Finally, if you have a lot of information you need to communicate, we can build an entire page or a set of pages for your program.  To submit information to the PTSA website, send email to info@cascaderidgeptsa.org. Please help us out by being as specific as possible, and including the exact text that you would like posted.

Signs and posters

The walls of our school are a great place to advertise your program.  Kids will definitely see your signs/posters as they walk around and they will be talking about it all day long!  We also have hundreds of parent volunteers who help out in classrooms on a daily basis, and they will see your signs as well.  Please work with the school's front office on placement of your signs and posters.  Your signs will need to be tastefully done ... instead of handwriting, make sure you use stencils, letter cut outs, or printed text.  Visit the downstairs workroom for supplies and tools.  Pictures and graphics help a lot.  Signs should be large enough to see from a distance ... not a tiny little 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper.

Bulletin board

There is a bulletin board located on the landing of the staircase, just across from the main office.  The bulletin board has a section for school news, a section for community flyers, and a section for PTSA news.  This is a great place to post a flyer about your program.  If you would like to post something PTSA related on the bulletin board, please send your flyer to Stefanie Magnuson and Kelly Huber.  If it is not PTSA related, work with the front office staff.

Reader board

The reader board is that giant sign on the front lawn of the school.  It was paid for by the Cascade Ridge PTSA, and made possible by generous donations from Cascade Ridge families.  It is visible to parents during pick up or drop off, and also seen by drivers as they pass by the school.  It includes information about upcoming school and PTSA events and deadlines.  Obviously the space on the reader board is very limited, so at most, you can have a date, a time, and 2-4 words.  To have something posted to the reader board, send email to Lisa Grady.

Classroom emails

Each classroom has a room coordinator, who is a parent volunteer responsible for much of the communication going from the teacher or PTSA to all the parents in that classroom. Classroom emails are sent by the room coordinators to the parents for that classroom, when there are announcements relevant to that classroom.  Programs such as Walkathon, Eager Reader, Caring Thru Sharing, etc. often have classroom-specific components to them, and so this is a good way to get that information out to all of the parents.  To have an email sent out to all parents via classroom email, send your email content to our room coordinator chairperson, Stephanie Whatley.  She will then forward it to all of the room coordinators, who will then forward it to the parents of their classrooms.

Flyers sent home

Occasionally, paper flyers are printed, copied, and sent home with each child.  This is very rare, because it is expensive to make 600 copies of a flyer, and it goes against our goals of being a paperless PTSA.  However, for some larger PTSA events (e.g., Walkathon, Science Fair), it may be appropriate.  To submit a flyer for consideration, send it to Ann Brooks (PTSA President), Helen DiMeco (PTSA Executive VP), and Stefanie Magnuson (PTSA VP of Communications).  It will need to get approved by the PTSA leadership team and the school principal before being distributed.

PTSA direct email blasts

Through our own PTSA website, we have the ability to quickly and easily send out dedicated email blasts to the entire parent community, or a subset of them.  However, PTSA email blasts of this sort are used sparingly because we are sensitive about the number of emails that parents receive from the school and PTSA.  To avoid contributing to email overload, we try to limit the use of dedicated PTSA eblasts.  Eblasts should only be used in very specific circumstances, and these are outlined on this page.  If you have read the rules, and your message meets the requirements, then you may request an eblast by composing the subject and body of the email, and sending it to info@cascaderidgeptsa.org and Stefanie Magnuson.