PTO Events and Meetings
Meeting Notes
PTO Meeting, January 6, 2010
Attendees: approximately 11
Agenda
Dinner
6-6:15 Chief Leonard Stell with information regarding Child ID programs
6:15-6:30- review PTO mission and bylaws (Coordinators were asked to begin outlining what their roles are, I have not completed this task to date so lets plan on doing the rest together!)
6:30-6:35 Update on family night
6:35-7 further discussion of recess, playground and cafeteria
February meeting, Faculty follies date?
Notes
Chief Stell: came to speak about the child ID program. The majority of these programs are geared around making money vs. “protecting” children. For these programs there isn’t a central depository because it is against state law for the police to store such information.
Recommended education on prevention, in the past the focus was on strangers, but now the focus needs to include cell phones, texting, etc.
Recommended getting together with the Lion’s Club to create a DNA kit that fingerprints and a DNA swab. It would not include a photo but photos today are readily available. The Lion’s club helps you complete the kit and then the parents take it home. Use a school photo and a hair sample or Q-tip with swab from inside mouth.
Chief Stell will also look into getting booklets to share with parents and teens.
There are booklets out there going over the misuse of social network sites. There has been a decrease in chat rooms, but an increase in social networking, one of the issues is kids let too many people into their space.
Targeting to include this at Family Night on February 11th
Mary Wood will work with Chief Stell
Family Night: focus is on Health and Wellness linked to safety with a Circus theme. There will be juggling, Tai Chi, Zumba, Family Drumming, Seat Belt Safety, Workshops on VKAT (VT Kids Against Tobacco), Family photo with a trunk full of clown outfits, popcorn machines, cooking with families,
Usually have 300 to 400 attendees. 6:00 – 7:30, setting up a volunteer meeting.
PTO Missions and By-Laws
Send Missy any updates to your coordinator position
Playground and Lunchroom issues
Get All-Pro Dads involved
Have the vendor attend a meeting
Handicap accessibility
Indoor Recess
Interactions
Positive Behavior and support in the lunch room
Come in and sit down
Make the kids be quiet before leaving the lunch room
Running out of food twice
Amount of serving time, last kids do not have a lot of time to eat
Making sure they don’t forget about inviting up the tables
Holiday dinners
February Meeting
VT Family Network – parent support group
Functional Behavioral Assessment and Positive Behavior Interventions – regular meeting time, February 3rd
Why do kids do what they do?
Faculty Follies – will include one or two things that students do (the Pirates Play and drum performance) Thursday, April 1st
March – what’s the new topic?
April – playground meeting.
Meeting Notes
Swanton Elementary PTO Meeting
November 4, 2009 (6:00 – 9:00 p.m.)
Attendees: 30 +
6-6:10 Arrival- please help yourself to dinner and begin reading the WestEd article that is in your packet (childcare is in the band room)
6:10-6:30 PTO business
Fundraising update-Missy Forey
The Fundraiser went well, all boxes have been delivered, we increased our participation, thank you to everyone for their participation.
Activities update- Mrs. Wood
Movie night is on November 6th, Horton Hears a Who will be playing.
December 10th is the community dinner and the theme will be BBQ Picnic
February 11th is Family Night and the theme will be health and wellness
1-800-THE-LOST- request by Mrs. Longe
Sarah showed people a copy of the document, reviewing the statistics that are held in the document and asked if this is something that people are interested in.
People have heard of Home Depot doing something similar to this, have seen this at the Health Fair in St. Albans and recommended contacting the local police department to see if this is something they want to work on with us.
Talked about having this be one of the sections at Family night in February
Inside Recess Request- Missy Forey
A $3,000 grant was approved to provide activities for inside recess
New Business
No additional business
Next meeting Wednesday December 2nd 6PM
Topics will be planning, PTO mission and bylaws
6:30-7:45PM
Kindergarten Full vs Half Day
Julie Benay gave a brief presentation on the history and some statistics about kindergarten
Full Day Kindergarten in Vermont – 2008 – 2009
76.6% of the schools have a full day Kindergarten
Kindergarten in Franklin County:
40% of Franklin County schools offer a full day (Bakersfield, Enosburg, Montgomery, Fairfield, St. Albans City and St. Albans Town).
40% of Franklin County schools offer a part day only (Berkshire, Fairfax, Fletcher, Franklin, Highgate, and Richford). Fairfax plans to go full day.
20% of Franklin County schools are a combination of full/half (Sheldon, Swanton and Georgia)
Instead of the small group discussions there was a question and answer period.
Staff and School Board were present.
There was a template for parents to fill out to send to the Mr. Collins letting the school board know what them know if they support half day or full day Kindergarten.
If parents are interested in full day Kindergarten we will need to work together to notify the public and get people to participate in voting.
PTO Meeting
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 6:30 p.m.
Agenda
1. Eric Astleford- information regarding All Pro Dads
2. Brief update on upcoming fundraiser
3. Any addition committee updates (please keep these brief as we want to spend most of our time on #4)
4. Continued discussions on restructuring
5. Upcoming dates and meetings
Eric Astleford and All Pro Dads program
Eric showed the group a video about All Pro Dads. The goal of the program is to get dad’s involved with their children, the community and school. Eric requested a donation from the PTO for $100 for additional supplies to prepare for the first breakfast in September. The PTO agreed to donate $200 to help with supplies and raffle items.
Story Walk on the Rail Trail
Fit Family Coalition is setting up a story walk on the Rail Trail and they contacted the PTO for suggestions. Suggestions: VT Authors, Mystery, Animals. It was also recommended that they contact the library to get suggestions. If anyone has any suggestions they can send them to Sarah.
Fundraiser
Brochures out for Great American on 9/2/09
Orders are due on 9/17
Product Pick up 10/16
Action Item: Julie will have custodians available on product pick up date to help
Group requested that next year we do not have the Reachout booklets due the next day because it is tough to get them back so quickly. At this point we have not adhered to a deadline to get the prize that is offered.
Open House
The Swanton Library will sell pencils at Open House on Sept. 24th
Picture with the Principal will be the only PTO fundraiser
Banners
Banners for Central Cafeteria were made and the cost is $1,900, requesting money from the PTO. There is conference money available in the budget, however if a conference comes up Julie would like to be able to send the teachers. Decision tabled to next meeting.
October 7th is the next scheduled PTO meeting. We will move up the meeting time to 6:00 p.m.
The meeting will be a Math Boot Camp to go over math and how parents can help with homework. Lynn will work with the Math Specialists to discuss what will be presented and if there will be additional meetings scheduled.
Action item: Send out a notice regarding time change and meeting topic
UPDATE: October meeting will now be Wednesday October 14th at 6PM with a light dinner and childcare provided. Topic will now be Progress Notes/ Report Cards and conferences. The date change is to accommodate Mrs. Benay as she will be presenting and was not available on the regular date.
PTO Meeting
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 6:30 p.m.
Restructuring
We have two years to make a plan for restructuring.
What does it mean to restructure?
Julie has asked or feedback from the state representative that she is working with.
Julie is also working with Darlene for a way to track on-line data
Next steps?
Talked about the 909090 research conducted where school system with 90% poverty, 90% language issues had 90% of the students meeting the standards
Share what the teachers think will make a difference
Standards are regional, we belong to NECAP
NAPE is a National Test for 4th grade
What works, what’s the research?
Reading recovery started in Kindergarten in October. Some families choose not to take the extended day.
Need to give more time to the kids that are struggling
Lab model – small group of kids with two adults – able to see kids catch up and stay caught up.
Essex model – what is this?
Kindergarten to be a topic as part of the restructuring – November
Julie is having additional conversations with Chamber, Community and Faith
November PTO meeting with results of questions
Additional Meetings to discuss the big themes
Discussion on discipline
Cultural Assembly Budget
Cultural Assembly budget was presented from Mrs. Ewell. This money is from the Tabor fund to support Cultural Assemblies. This year the residency will be an African Drum Ensemble. If any companies contact her with additional cultural opportunities when they are in the area she will get in touch with the PTO to find out if it is something we are able to fund.
Playground
Julie will be setting up a small committee to review play ground options, what will we need in the future and how much money do we need.
At our last meeting there was discussion about purchasing games for inside recess that the classrooms can use, how to fix the ice in the playground area to reduce the amount of inside recess, what is there for the older kids to do, supervision for the older grades so they can play basketball and soccer.
