Drinks anybody?

Three things today...

One...

So, PACE has been kind enough to donate some money to buy snacks for Saturday's event, but we're hoping we can get some of our members to donate drinks for the festivities. We're looking to go with bottles and cans to keep things a little more portable in case people want to stop by and take off.

So, we're asking you to donate a 12pk (or more if you're feeling generous) of your favorite soda. Feel free to swing by the high school and drop off the drinks by the end of the day Friday (if you're at the elementary school, remember that we're in session before you guys are, so you can just roll up front and give the case to the front desk to deliver to Lonnie Dusch if you want to). We'll take Coke or Pepsi, bottled tea or water, orange or grape, diet or regular (no adult beverages, we'll save those for once we get this thing on the ballot). We're not proud. We'll get things cooled down and ready to serve on Saturday then. If you are willing to donate,  please email PACEForKids@gmail.com so we know what to expect.

Two...

We had a signer at Heritage Hill ask if we had a Montgomery County petition available. Initially we didn't, but we do now. So, if you're from Montgomery County and weren't able to sign earlier, give Becky Brown a holler (or just email PACEForKids@gmail.com), and we'll get you all hooked up.

Third...

A few folks passed along today that they saw/heard in the news that a recent survey suggested that fifty-four percent of those surveyed are in favor of repealing Senate Bill 5. That's obviously not the same as saying fifty-four percent are willing to come out to the ballot box in November, but it's at least encouraging news. Now we just need to get all those people to sign our petitions.

Stewart, here we come. We'll see you folks Thursday afternoon. We're hoping to roll to Evendale on Friday before we go food shopping.

PS - Just heard that Lisa McDaniel will be at the Back Porch Saloon on Thursday (5/19) afternoon from 3:30-5ish with her Hamilton County petition. She'll be there with some of the PCMS staff who are saying goodbye to some of their departing colleagues. Stop by if you haven't had a chance to see us at any of our other events.

Where else can I sign?

Yes, we desperately want you at this Saturday's event at Washington Park. I think we've mentioned that.

Heck, we want you at Stewart Elementary School this Thursday afternoon after 4pm when we'll be there with petitions.

But, we desperately need you to sign, and if you're going to give your signature to a different organization, we'll put up with that, too. So where else could you sign other than at our events?

Well, there's the Lakota Education Association's couple of upcoming events...

• West Chester Public Library - 10am-2pm on Saturday, 5/21 (yes, opposite our big community event)
• Voice of America Park - 2:30-5pm on Wednesday, 5/25

We Are Ohio's website has tons of resources for the campaign, and their Facebook wall has a great and constantly-updating list of upcoming signings (including a mention of our Saturday Community Event.) Their twitter feed is also pretty quickly and constantly updated, but c'mon, who uses Twitter anymore?

We can't quite figure out where the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers is taking their petitions, but they're still offering a lot of training opportunities. (Speaking of which, you can still get your own petition by emailing us. We have a few still to give out.)

The Hamilton County Democratic Party has a community canvasing planned for this weekend (seriously, May 21 is apparently popular) and has petitions available seven days a week at their office on Tennessee Ave.

The Butler County Democratic Party also has a bunch of events - in Oxford, Hamilton, West Chester, Middletown, and Monroe. They're busy all over the place.

Heck, if you're a Montgomery County voter, the Democratic Party of Montgomery County has a website and Facebook page, but it mostly sounds like they have petitions at their offices from 10am-5pm (not necessarily all that convenient if you're driving home from room 520 of Princeton High School (or from Heritage Hill as we learned on Monday afternoon). Luckily, we have a Montgomery County petition now.

The Warren County Democratic Party doesn't have much posted online, but the Clermont County Democratic Party will be in Old Milford this weekend (10am-12pm).

The Wyoming Education Association doesn't have anything posted on their site. The Northwest Association of Educators hasn't apparently been updated online since 2007.

Honestly, it looks like we're doing a pretty good job of keeping you folks updated. Wanna reward us? Bring lots of people out this weekend.

Things are heating up...literally...

This afternoon was magnificent.

We got most of the Glendale staff signed on the petition and handed out three blank petitions to Glendale staffers, all of whom promised us at least fifty signatures by taking it around their neighborhoods, to their local police force, through the stands at soccer and baseball games, and generally finding anybody and everybody who wants Senate Bill 5 repealed. That's the kind of excitement and dedication that we're looking for.

Then, after a brief break in the air conditioning (and we use the term loosely) of PHS, we headed out into the swelter of the warmest day of the year so far to receive a bountiful blessing from the Princeton community on their way into for the final choir concert of the year (and of Jamie Holdren's PHS tenure, congrats, Jamie). We saw parents, aunts, uncles, retired staffers, alumni, current teachers, and lots of our union brothers and sisters signing for us. We saw wives telling their husbands to sign, parents bringing back their graduated children as they'd promised us from Monday night. We saw seniors filling out their voter registration forms just so they could sign and support their schools.

We've filled two petitions entirely and have nearly full Butler and Warren county petitions. Those'll be turned in to Ann Bayou on Friday so we can get new petitions and hand those out as well.

Our Glendale connection came through, so now we just have to get Glendale to give the okay to us using the park (we don't think it'll be a problem, but the form has to filed). Hopefully May 21st will work out just fine.

Heritage's signing has been moved to Monday of next week, and we're still on to see the Sharonville staff at the Blue Goose on Friday. Let's make this one a three-way signing by bringing out Evendale and Stewart, too. Anybody on either of those staffs willing to do the organizing work to get people excited? Heck, I'll promise to buy a drink for the first Stewart and first Evendale person who stops in at the Goose. Just to make it fair, I'll buy one for the first Sharonville staffer, too.

Where from here?

First, off, thanks to the staff of Lincoln Heights for hosting a fun happy hour/signing event at The Pike on 747. Never been there before. Think I'll be going back.

Second, coming up this week we have our first public event - Monday night on the sidewalk (we can't be on school grounds but the public sidewalk at the school is fair game) at the PHS Jazz Band Ice Cream Social. To see what the event is like, check out these photos from a couple of years ago. Hopefully it'll give some of our more active/involved parents a chance to get their names on the petition.

Third, Wednesday afternoon we'll be at O'Charley's in Tri-County to see the Glendale folks. It'd be a great chance for any staffers from the other schools - whether they're ones we've already visited or ones we haven't visited yet - to stop by and help us out.

Fourth, turns out that Sharon Woods is all booked for the 21st, but Glendale has a couple of nice parks - Summit and Washington - that would be perfect for our purposes. We'll need a resident of Glendale to get the actual reservation, but I'm thinking that's do-able. PACE had already agreed to foot the bill for the shelter house at Sharon Woods, and the Glendale reservations are even cheaper (free with a deposit) so we should be able to have some food to grill out there. Plus there's space for cornhole and nice playgrounds around. Bring the kids out...have some fun.

What we need from you...

• Talk to everybody in your building to make sure everyone has signed the petitions. If they haven't send 'em our way on Wednesday at O'Charley's.
• If you're at Heritage Hill, Evendale, Stewart, or Woodlawn, we need to know when and where you want us to have the petitions to get your staff signed up. Feel free to make Wednesday's O'Charley's visit a multiple-school event, but if you want one of your own, we need to know soon.
• Start talking up the May 21st event with parents and staffers. We're going to want to get friends, family, EVERYBODY out to sign on that afternoon.

It's been great to get out and see folks from schools that we don't get to visit often. Thanks for everybody at PCMS, PHS, Springdale, and Lincoln Heights especially for getting on board early.

Oustanding work today, folks

We're still counting up the signatures, but we can say with no doubt that Springdale and PHS made today a fine start toward getting the 231,149 signatures that we need state-wide.

The afternoon started at PHS with dozens of staffers clad in their I Helped Make Princeton Excellent shirts (thanks, PACE, for getting those printed, by the way) showing their solidarity and signing the petitions to repeal SB5. We even got a visit and signature from one of our building administrators.

From there we headed to the UDF across the street from Springdale Elementary where nearly the entire Springdale staff found us tucked under shelter from the threatening skies and signed their names to the petitions.

Today was a great show of support, folks, and tomorrow will only be better as we'll be at Princeton Community Middle School's library from 3:15 (if that's the end of the Middle School contract day, it might be 3:30) for an hour.

If anybody from PHS missed their chance today, come on over to PCMS.

If anybody from Springdale missed your chance, come on over to PCMS. We'll wait for you.

If anybody from Glendale or any of the other elementary schools wants to go ahead and sign, come on over.

We're still looking to nail down details of visits to

• Woodlawn and Lincoln Heights (Looks like maybe at The Pike on Friday afternoon)
• Glendale (what about the Friendly Stop so our CO folks can visit, too?)
  
• Heritage Hill (Is there a better option than Crescentville Rec?)
  
• Sharonville (Anybody wanna spend some time in Gower Park?)
• Evendale (Would the church across the way let us hang out for an hour?)
• Stewart (I'm pulling for a shelter house at Francis Recreacres.)

We'll also have the petitions on the sidewalk at the Jazz Band Ice Cream Social at PHS on Monday evening, May 9 if anybody wants to bring some friends in.

We're thinking that an all-Princeton event on the afternoon of May 21 would be a great way to bring the whole district together - friends, families, neighbors, everyone.

Here's my question for you - where is the best public place (park shelter house, rec center, somewhere cheap/free) that we should have a large, district-wide event?

Bonus: Governor Kasich made a proclamation that this week is Public Service Appreciation Week. Seriously.