PTO Minutes: April 2013

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Hardy PTO meeting minutes, Tuesday, Apr. 2, 2013

Tuesday, Apr. 2, 2013 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. AGENDA 6:30 Introductions 6:35 Principal’s Report Deb reported on kids math activities, with display opposite cafeteria. April is poetry month; Deb is reading a short poem each Monday on loudspeaker, then hiding three copies of the poem in plain sight (finders get to take them back to their classes). Beantown Jumpers will be coming on the 12th to help with Walk-a-thon kickoff. Arlington’s new math coordinator will be holding an elementary school math night on 4/11. 6:50 Events/programs: • Literacy Night update Lisa P. suggested rotating theme every three years or so. Marci suggested setting it up so every child can go to every story. • Fit Girls update Lisa P. reported that there is a large group participating; we need more volunteers. (Tuesdays and Fridays, 2:30 - 3:30) • Int’l Festival (Apr. 27th) Gloria reported that they need more help with desserts, and volunteers to call up restaurants; we will send a letter to room parents to forward to their parents; we may need to nag parents to volunteer for this and other events; need 5-6 people to pick up food on day of, 1-2 people to help follow up with restaurants, 1-2 people to help serve on day of (will get additional help from high school students), and a dessert coordinator. Also need new people to make display tables. Need a preparation day about a week ahead of time to put materials together, either the 20th or 21st. • Teacher Appreciation Week (May 6-10) Jill has recruited one other person to help; format will be similar to last year; more info in coming weeks on how to volunteer; • Walkathon (May 3rd) We have selectman permit; next step is to make forms for assembly; we will probably get rid of the prize tables; • BBQ (June 4th) Marci has contacted Whole Foods, who will help out. We may plan a “battle of the bands” between Hardy & Thompson (Milagros will check this out). Pinal will do henna tatoos. • 3rd Grade Colonial Day (June 5th) • Field Day (June 14th) Victoria and Michael Leen (and probably Susan Dorson) will organize. Lisa nominated her husband John (Paolillo) as well. • 5th Grade Class Night (June 20th) Need 4th grade parent volunteers for the 5th grade party; • PTO Election Committee for 2013-2014 To make recruiting easier, Deb suggested that we could reinstitute child care during PTO meetings; also, we should have presidents meet incoming K parents; 7:30 Financial Report: • Annual appeal update • PTO Grant Committee update 7:45 Other business Date of next PTO Meeting: Tuesday, May 7th

Hardy PTO meeting minutes, Tuesday, Apr. 2, 2013

Hardy PTO meeting minutes, Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Hardy PTO meeting minutes, Tuesday, March 5, 2013 Nagaokakyo Visit – Deb has asked that we give Field Day t-shirts to the visiting students and their chaperones (they will be visiting May 2); we voted to appropriate $$ (on the order of $150) to pay for this. Events: Parent’s Night Out (last Thursday) was lovely, but turnout wasn’t great. Margaret suggested that we may be overdoing events, and thereby dissipating enthusiasm. Betsey commented that too many of our events get handled by the same core group of people. She suggested making a school-wide push for volunteers for the upcoming events. Laura Doherty suggested following the Bishop model, which involves a coordinator who works with room parents; also, each grade is in charge of an event. We also agreed that we need to keep documentation about each event online (probably using google docs). Skating party: it’s up in the air whether we even have someone to coordinate this. Heather suggested we skip it this year, or perhaps join in with HASP. We all agreed that it is fine to skip it this year. International Festival (April 27th): Pinal (co-organizer) raised some questions about the mechanics of soliciting contributions from restaurants. Volunteers will be solicited soon. Literacy Night: Coming this Thursday (March 7); Margaret needs baked goods, and people to help set up 5 - 6. Walkathon: Need a date. Deb suggested May 3 (a Friday), with a rain date of May 10. Plan to kick this off the day before April break (April 12). Heather suggested special Hardy Walk-a-thon pencils as prizes. Fit Girls: There will be a meeting on March 19th; close to 40 girls are now signed up. Teacher Appreciation: Will be May 6 - 10. Jill Swilling is looking for 2 or 3 people who are coordinated and detail-oriented, to help her pull this off. Field Day: Susan Dorson has been asked to coordinate this. We settled on June 14, with the 21st as rain date. Victoria offered to help coordinate. BBQ: We chose June 4th, with a rain date of the 5th. Marci has a contact at the Medford Whole Foods. AEF Trivia Bee (March 24th). Financial Report: Annual Appeal just exceeded its goal. (See attached report.) Principal’s Report: Deb filled in some details about the Sister City visit. Snow days: currently, the last day is June 27th; we have one more snow day left. If we go beyond that, we may have to take a day out of April vacation, or use a Saturday, or part of Good Friday.

Hardy PTO Meeting Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013 6:30 – 8:00 AGENDA 6:30 Introductions 6: 35 – Fit Girls (Sue Franchi) all schools except Thomson & Hardy are engaged in it. 3-mo program for girls to emphasize fitness through walking or running. Ends with 5K race for MWRA. $412 initiation fee per school (we’ll call Thomson and Hardy one school for this purpose). More info at www.fitgirls.org. Comittment is 2 afternoons/week. Runs March - May. We agreed to fund this, provided there is sufficient interest from 4th and 5th grade girls. 6:35 Principal’s Report • Safety update Deb led a discussion about school safety, in light of the Newtown tragedy. She reviewed the lockdown procedures in place at Hardy. 6:50 Review of events/projects and planning for upcoming events: • Picture Company We need to check whether we need a makeup day for 5th-graders. We voted to ask Hayward Photography for a 3-year contract, starting next year. • Hardy/Thompson Directory Andy has prepared a draft directory; we expect to be able to print them within the next couple of weeks. • Game Night Game night may incorporate math games this year; Julie mentioned that Gamewright came to a game night at another school and it was very successful; Julie will contact them; February 7th was proposed as a date. • Parent’s Night Out – proposed date in Mar? Jenn Irvine updated us on the ideas her sub-committee has come up with. Tentative date: Friday, March 1; B&G club will watch kids that night 6 - 9. Possible venue: Fox Library basement. Silent auction may feature teacher offerings, instead of big-ticket things. Waiting for confirmation of this plan from the Arlington Rec folks. • Winter Concert – PTO Breakfast (Feb14th) We’ll send out word via signup genius for bakers, setup, cleanup. • Skating Party (Mar) Will check with Ken Zimmerman to see if he is organizing this. • Int’l Festival (Mar) Pinal and Gloria are working on this; will meet this Friday to begin organizing. Thinking of first Saturday in April (the 6th) as the date. • Literacy Night – proposed date: Thursday, March 7th Claire confirmed at School Council that this is the date. • Walkathon (April/May) – volunteer coordinator update Jenn Irvine will help organize this. Marci will check with town to see if we can close of Lake Street. 7:20 Financial Report: • Annual appeal update • Other financial updates 7:45 Other business Date of next PTO Meeting: Tuesday, Feb. 5th