PTO Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Members Present:
Brittany Dwyer
Dorothy Ruggiero
Becky Joyal
Christine Cannon
Margot Martello
Melissa Cianci
Refer to sign in sheet for parents present
New Minutes:
Teacher Experience Raffle had a lot of teacher buy in thus far! Many have signed up. This should be really exciting for kids, and is great for PTO, as it costs us nothing! All activities will happen at the school for this year, either during the school day or 30 minutes before or after.
Halloween Happenings was a huge success…the kids loved it! The decorations were amazing, and the 8 Trunk or Treat cars went way above and beyond with their themes and decorations! Perhaps 20 minutes a grade level next year…40 minutes was a bit long. The whole day was made up of donations. Idea for next year: can we place a donation box at a store for people to donate items? For the recess stations: can we show kids options for tattoos prior to them coming up to the table? Or can they choose their tattoo from a jar and bring it to the table? It may move things along. For next year, we definitely need more stencils…they “wore out” after a bit. Megaphones are needed to call classes to the table. Is there another activity that might be more appealing to the 4th and 5th graders instead of tattoos and face paintings? Water bottle stickers? Let’s think about that for next year!
Science Center: They will do a fundraiser where we sell discounted admission tickets for $16 (ish), and $5 of each ticket comes back to us. Tickets are good for a year. Thinking of picking a weekend day in January and calling it “Somers Day…” have a PTO table set up to welcome Somers guests. They suggest a 3 week sale….we collect all money, send it in to them, then they get the tickets to us (or we pick them up) and we distribute them. Thinking about starting the sale in December so we can aim for the last weekend in January for a “Somers Day” (even though tickets can be used for an entire year). UPDATE: Let’s move this event to March!!
Harlem Wizards: We have the high school gym on February 23rd. Just waiting for the superintendent to put his final stamp of approval! Teachers play in the game, teachers sell the concessions. The last time they came, we made over $10,000! Ticket sales will start in January. Stay tuned for more information, but this is sure to be an incredible event again!
Michael Rex - Author visit at SES! He is currently available the first two weeks of May. $1,400 for the day, and he will do 3 presentations (K/1, 2/3, and 4/5). PTO will provide him with a lunch.
Movie Night: SES will have a Family Movie Night…maybe January???? TBD.
MBA Ice Cream Social will be in March
Reading Intervention Program needed some new chapter books, so PTO donated $300 worth of books to their program! Awesome!
Scarecrows looked great at MBA! Each advisory made a scarecrow, and the winning 4 classrooms received a PTO sponsored donut party.
SES has a PTO bulletin board with pictures of our events! So far the “9 at 9” classroom winning events and Halloween Happenings have been featured!
Color Run - Brittany would like to try this and make it a free event if possible. End of the year “fun” for MBA and SES. Run times would vary depending on age. High school students could volunteer to “throw” the color (under adult supervision). It works best if the shirts are a little wet first, so they would need to run through some sort of a misting fan first. Can we get donations of t-shirts, color powder, etc? Can businesses sponsor games? Can we get Downtown Brown to DJ?
Veterans Day - PTO is donating a rose to every veteran and they will each get a cookie and a water. Assemblies at MBA and SES.
Zombie dance at the middle school on November 18th. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!! Specifically for food and photo booth.
Healthy Kids Running Series Community Coordinator - Karen O’Donnell: Kids ages 2-14 run on Sundays for 5 weeks at Field Road. Next “season” starts as early as April 16th (skip Memorial Day). 50% of registrations are given back to the hosting organization, as well as a portion of paid sponsors fees. Last spring there were 170 kids, this fall there were 107! $40 per child for the season. Advertising is all on social media, Karen has yard signs, and all registration is done online. Karen is looking for volunteers to help take this on. Starts at 3:00, usually over by 4! Community Coordinators just need to have a background check through the Healthy Kids Running Series. Local businesses can help sponsor additional items as well - Big Y, Costco, Geisslers, etc. for healthy snacks. Insurance is through Healthy Kids. Permission needs to be granted by Rec Dept for the field space each season. Parents loved it, and the feedback was very positive. Sponsors can come to each race and set up a table if they want, their logo goes on all emails, etc. and their sponsorship helps to offset the cost of the medals, trophies, and t-shirts. The course needs to be flagged out prior to each race, so the coordinators need to be there at least an hour early.
Squire Farms fundraiser - not allowed to publicize through the school, so it was just posted on the PTO page. Online fundraising…order from them online (wreaths, centerpieces, candles, etc.), and you go pick it up at their farm in Longmeadow. We get 20% of sales, but Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts also do this fundraiser so we’ll see how it goes! It was free to participate, so we can’t lose trying it out for this year.
MBA had their SBAC Growth Breakfast at the high school for students who met their attainable target growth goals in ELA and Math. It was catered, there were raffle prizes, and Senator Kissel spoke. It recognized many successful students, even those who have never been able to be honored for academic achievement in the past…not just the top scorers. PTO would love to donate a raffle prize for next year! 60 students were honored at his breakfast!
Next Meeting in person and also offered on Zoom:
December 14th at 5:30
Meeting adjourned at 6:45.
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Members Present:
Brittany Dwyer
Dorothy Ruggiero
Becky Joyal
Christine Cannon
Margot Martello
Melissa Cianci
Refer to sign in sheet for parents present
New Minutes:
Teacher Experience Raffle had a lot of teacher buy in thus far! Many have signed up. This should be really exciting for kids, and is great for PTO, as it costs us nothing! All activities will happen at the school for this year, either during the school day or 30 minutes before or after.
Halloween Happenings was a huge success…the kids loved it! The decorations were amazing, and the 8 Trunk or Treat cars went way above and beyond with their themes and decorations! Perhaps 20 minutes a grade level next year…40 minutes was a bit long. The whole day was made up of donations. Idea for next year: can we place a donation box at a store for people to donate items? For the recess stations: can we show kids options for tattoos prior to them coming up to the table? Or can they choose their tattoo from a jar and bring it to the table? It may move things along. For next year, we definitely need more stencils…they “wore out” after a bit. Megaphones are needed to call classes to the table. Is there another activity that might be more appealing to the 4th and 5th graders instead of tattoos and face paintings? Water bottle stickers? Let’s think about that for next year!
Science Center: They will do a fundraiser where we sell discounted admission tickets for $16 (ish), and $5 of each ticket comes back to us. Tickets are good for a year. Thinking of picking a weekend day in January and calling it “Somers Day…” have a PTO table set up to welcome Somers guests. They suggest a 3 week sale….we collect all money, send it in to them, then they get the tickets to us (or we pick them up) and we distribute them. Thinking about starting the sale in December so we can aim for the last weekend in January for a “Somers Day” (even though tickets can be used for an entire year). UPDATE: Let’s move this event to March!!
Harlem Wizards: We have the high school gym on February 23rd. Just waiting for the superintendent to put his final stamp of approval! Teachers play in the game, teachers sell the concessions. The last time they came, we made over $10,000! Ticket sales will start in January. Stay tuned for more information, but this is sure to be an incredible event again!
Michael Rex - Author visit at SES! He is currently available the first two weeks of May. $1,400 for the day, and he will do 3 presentations (K/1, 2/3, and 4/5). PTO will provide him with a lunch.
Movie Night: SES will have a Family Movie Night…maybe January???? TBD.
MBA Ice Cream Social will be in March
Reading Intervention Program needed some new chapter books, so PTO donated $300 worth of books to their program! Awesome!
Scarecrows looked great at MBA! Each advisory made a scarecrow, and the winning 4 classrooms received a PTO sponsored donut party.
SES has a PTO bulletin board with pictures of our events! So far the “9 at 9” classroom winning events and Halloween Happenings have been featured!
Color Run - Brittany would like to try this and make it a free event if possible. End of the year “fun” for MBA and SES. Run times would vary depending on age. High school students could volunteer to “throw” the color (under adult supervision). It works best if the shirts are a little wet first, so they would need to run through some sort of a misting fan first. Can we get donations of t-shirts, color powder, etc? Can businesses sponsor games? Can we get Downtown Brown to DJ?
Veterans Day - PTO is donating a rose to every veteran and they will each get a cookie and a water. Assemblies at MBA and SES.
Zombie dance at the middle school on November 18th. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!! Specifically for food and photo booth.
Healthy Kids Running Series Community Coordinator - Karen O’Donnell: Kids ages 2-14 run on Sundays for 5 weeks at Field Road. Next “season” starts as early as April 16th (skip Memorial Day). 50% of registrations are given back to the hosting organization, as well as a portion of paid sponsors fees. Last spring there were 170 kids, this fall there were 107! $40 per child for the season. Advertising is all on social media, Karen has yard signs, and all registration is done online. Karen is looking for volunteers to help take this on. Starts at 3:00, usually over by 4! Community Coordinators just need to have a background check through the Healthy Kids Running Series. Local businesses can help sponsor additional items as well - Big Y, Costco, Geisslers, etc. for healthy snacks. Insurance is through Healthy Kids. Permission needs to be granted by Rec Dept for the field space each season. Parents loved it, and the feedback was very positive. Sponsors can come to each race and set up a table if they want, their logo goes on all emails, etc. and their sponsorship helps to offset the cost of the medals, trophies, and t-shirts. The course needs to be flagged out prior to each race, so the coordinators need to be there at least an hour early.
Squire Farms fundraiser - not allowed to publicize through the school, so it was just posted on the PTO page. Online fundraising…order from them online (wreaths, centerpieces, candles, etc.), and you go pick it up at their farm in Longmeadow. We get 20% of sales, but Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts also do this fundraiser so we’ll see how it goes! It was free to participate, so we can’t lose trying it out for this year.
MBA had their SBAC Growth Breakfast at the high school for students who met their attainable target growth goals in ELA and Math. It was catered, there were raffle prizes, and Senator Kissel spoke. It recognized many successful students, even those who have never been able to be honored for academic achievement in the past…not just the top scorers. PTO would love to donate a raffle prize for next year! 60 students were honored at his breakfast!
Next Meeting in person and also offered on Zoom:
December 14th at 5:30
Meeting adjourned at 6:45.