Minutes, Hardy PTO meeting Dec. 4th 2012

Minutes, Hardy PTO meeting Dec. 4th 2012 Took a quick poll to see how is/isn’t getting the weekly PTO Post (Andy still isn’t). Picture re-take day will be this Friday. Need one or more parents to help out. We’ll ask the 5th grade teachers to spread the word. Directory: room parents have been asked to get info from parents, with opt-out. If we do this in-house next year, we’ll plan on using surveymonkey. Will aim to get it out by new year. Unicef: netted over $1500. Holiday Giving Tree: all stars have been taken! Parent’s Night Out (Jenn Irvine): Planning for Whittemore house, Friday or Saturday, likely in Feb or March. Menotomy Wine will come pour. Space for 100 people; will sell tickets. Possible on-line silent auction. Orgo meeting this Thursday. Winter Concert: we’ll run a breakfast as usual. Skating Party: Lisa P. will check on dates. International Festival: Milagros and Gloria are meeting this Friday, with Pinal, to start the planning. Date TBD. Undecided as yet whether we’ll have it on a Saturday. Literacy Night: Tentatively planned for March 7 (during reading across America week). May do a Dr. Seuss theme, as March 2 is his birthday. Last year we limited it to K - 2; may consider broadening it. Book donation program: Margaret Muirhead suggested expanding a small program that she has been running single-handed – parents donate $12 for the purchase of a book, which has a book plate inserted with their info. Group suggested advertising during Literacy Night, Book Fair, maybe Curriculum Night. We discussed the need to get information about what the PTO does out to parents in a more effective fashion (apparently too many parents don’t read what we send). One idea: permanent informational poster in outside bulletin board. Another: turning the Herald into a blog. Need to form a committee to determine how to spend the $4000 we have set aside for grants. Some of this money is reserved for 4th grade movie making project (about $1000). We discussed the need for more effective fundraising (participation in this year’s Appeal is only ~35%). This led to a discussion of the need for a deeper “bench” of parent volunteers. We will work with room parents to find volunteers for spring events. Victoria suggested asking room parents to send a message with a signup genius link to their parents.

Hardy PTO meeting ,Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Hardy PTO meeting Tuesday, February 5, 2013 Directory is out. Special thanks to Andy for all his work on it! Andy and Pete met with other parents (from other PTOs) to discuss directory production. Discussion with Josh Lobel about data and access to it. Game Night: We have most volunteer slots filled, but still need help with setup and cleanup. We have prizes from Little Fox, and Henry Bear’s Park (to raffle off). Gamewright has given us 30 demo games to try out, and 50 to sell at the event (we keep half the proceeds). Parent’s Night out: scheduled for 2/28. Will take place at Menotomy Beer & Wine. Jenn Irvine is organizing; needs help rounding up raffle items. Winter Concert: need volunteers to bake things, and will try to solicit coffee from Jam’n Java or Starbucks. Skating party: Not clear whether we will hold it this year. Ken Zimmerman may have looked into this. International Festival: Will send out a save-the-date shortly. Date is set for April 27th. Pinal and Gloria are thinking of having food this year, and also soliciting recipes from each table so as to make a cookbook. Literacy Night: We will keep it for K - 2, though we will ask some 5th-graders to help out. Theme: Dr. Seuss (coordinated with Read Across America, right after Dr. Seuss’s birthday). Date is March 7. Margaret and Claire need help with designing and making decorations. May get kids to help. Time: 6 - 7:45. Some kindergarten requests for books and math games are left over from last year; will need to budget these in. Walkathon: Brett, Pat Egan, and Jenn Irvine will all be working on this. Fit Girls: very popular, at least 26 girls have signed up. Sue Franchi will need volunteer help with this! Ned will check with Sue about paying for this. PTO closet: It’s a disaster! We will work on organizing a crew to clean it out. AEF Trivia Bee: Jenn Forbes is hoping that the Hardy community will contribute a team. Financial report: Slow month last month: a little money trickled in from the Annual Appeal, along with some matching gifts. We are now up to $15,635; 91 contributions, 57 at Benefactor level. Outflows: we paid for the directory, along with labels for books in the library. (There is some chance the District will start paying for library books.) Nicole reported on some of our suggestions for possible AEF grants for the upcoming grant cycle: Peaceful Playgrounds; morning yoga for kids (before school). Deb’s report: We have an artist-in-residence coming the last week in February (a percussionist). He will work intensively with 5th-graders for a week. Deb is in conversation with District and Town to figure out who is responsible for maintaining playground structures, which turns out to be complicated. Hardy and Brackett (alone) are under the auspices of the school department. In all the years Deb has been here, the only significant playground repairs/maintenance have been paid for by the afterschool program. Deb is working on changing this, so that the District will, in the future, take more responsibility for this. Deb announced her plans to retire at the end of this school year, and was met by shock, followed by sadness. We will miss her sorely!