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!