Events

Calendars

The PTO has events on Niskayuna’s district-wide calendar as well as the VA calendar:

Volunteer opportunities

We need you! Our events are made possible by our amazing Van Antwerp community. Volunteer for an event today! We have lots of opportunities, from helping to plan great events to showing up on the day.

PTO Meetings

The VA PTO Meetings will be held at 7pm EDT. Please see our home page for dates.

VA PTO Events

This calendar provides a general overview of a typical VA year (dates specific to 2023-2024).

Month	Events
August	29 - Grade 6 orientation PTO officer training and continuity
September	20 - Back-to-School night recruiting / tabling 29 - Grade 6 social
October	06 - Community Day 27 - Halloween social 30 - Scholastic fall book fair
November	02 - Turkey Trot 03 - Picture Day 03 - Scholastic fall book fair & ice cream social
December	08 - After-school movie 01-15 - Adopt-a-family fundraising
January	Grade 8 parent program and HS planning 19 - Winter dance [or in spring]
February	PTO nomination committee
March	05 - Brooks Brothers BBQ 08 - Spring dance [or in winter] 18-22 - Scholastic spring book fair & ice cream social 29 - Student council dance PTO nomination committee formed
April	26 - Drama club production PTO nominating committee slate, budget meeting
May	09-10 - Mother’s Day plant sale 17 - Earth Day cleanup / beautification / garden day 29 - Grade 5 parent orientation PTO officer elections
June	20 - Moving Up ceremony & party 24 - VA Jam Day TBD - teacher appreciation
July	PTO officer setup, toolkit / Google Drive access?

Volunteering and fundraising

If you would like to help out, but cannot offer your time, please consider helping in fundraising through one of these sources:

Venmo:

Venmo

Paypal:

Past Years:

A recap of the '20-'21 events:

The Niskayuna PTOs teamed up to hold a successful fundraiser on May 27th for NiskyNOW, with over 300 meals sold & served in the drive-thru event. Giffy's BBQ grilled chicken and pulled pork dinners, which were assembled by the PTO volunteers (see below), including VA's own Mrs. Redman - Cheers! Special thanks to Amanda Hickey from Glencliff's PTO for great organization and helping to arrange nice weather! The event will bring in roughly $2,000 for local families.

We were pleased to be able to hold the annual VA Staff Appreciation Lunch on June 4th this year, and had over 50 teachers and staff participate. Dinosaur BBQ catered the meals and they were as always, a bit hit! This year was a little different, with individually wrapped lunches, also making use of the VA cafe, thanks also to the cafe staff for carving out space for us to use.

The VA Apparel Sale recently wrapped up, thank you to the many families and friends who ordered items. We reached over 100 items ordered with Graphic Edge, and the majority of items ordered used VA student art work. It'll be great to see those in class and around the neighborhood! In add to our student artists, our appreciation goes to Mrs. LaPatra and the Art Department for help in getting VA students engaged and enthusiastic about this sale.

The VA apparel items are in and they look great. Please reach out to us if you have any questions along the way.

A big thank you to the VA and Iroquois staff for helping to arrange the special Drive-In @ Jericho on June 21 to recognize the graduating Middle Schoolers! For many that attended, including ahead of the school videos, it was a fantastic evening and opportunity to reconnect with families, friends and the broader Nisky school community. We had some rain roll through while the students' names were playing, but it was a very nice event - the PTO was happy to be able to help support this unique occasion.

Congrats to the graduating 8th graders -- best of luck in the High School in 2021-2022!

A big thanks to Sarah Bilofsky for help in getting items for the 8th grade Moving Up bags in this unusual year. These included kind donations from Dick's Sporting Goods (bags, masks, certificates for discounts), Stewart's Shops (Free Scoop cards), special stickers and other items given in lieu of the regular dance and Moving Up events.

Again, it was a tough year, many new stresses were felt and challenges had to be overcome. The VA staff and students had to work together closely throughout the year to keep everyone safe while enabling the in-person learning option. It's been wonderful to see the year to come to a positive conclusion for so many, especially in light of the challenges.

Please contact the VA PTO at vanantwerpmspto@gmail.com if you'd like to get PTO updates, and, if you'd like to learn more about potentially joining for one of our open roles.