School Governance Council & Parent Teacher Organization Meeting

JANUARY 18, 2024

6-7PM

PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATION – PTO

         Meetings are led by parents. Parents come together once per month to support teachers and students.

   *Translation will be provided for those needed

       Purpose

   To enhance parent knowledge of students’ day-to-day, curriculum, what’s happening in child’ classroom, processes, etc…

   To plan:

•   Fundraisers

•       Book Fair

•      Braided Bread and Cake Roll Sale

•   Field Trips

• Family engagement opportunities

·         Parents come to classrooms to help provide support

  After School Activities

•          5th Grade Social

•         Home Depot Build Program

•          100 Day Celebration

•          Black History Month [February]

•    This year’s focus is on art

         PTO is looking to fill following roles:

o   President

o   Vice President

o   Secretary

BUDGET

-          Ms. Goodwin is asking Dr. Youngberg to maintain what we have (e.g., staffing and instructional supplies)

-   Will have a vote in May on budget

-   Have $25k in instructional supplies

-  Most of these supplies support additional items for teachers (e.g., recess materials, teacher chairs, desks, etc…)

FUNDRAISING

-          Next will be selling Smencils

  Main Office staff will manage this fundraiser since PTO does not have an established group at this time.

Pencils will be sold for $1/ea and all money will be routed back to PTO to use.

This fundraiser will take place around February 14th.

FIELD TRIPS

•     $355+ needed for Kindergarten trip to Niantic Children’s Museum in March-

     Monetary and chaperone support needed

•    2nd Grade going to Wadsworth Atheneum in February

•     3rd Grade will participate in:

•    Field studies at Hammonasset Beach State Park (Madison, CT) to look for species

•    Field trip to Mystic Aquarium

•    Mystic Aquarium in-school visit

•    4th Grade going to Wadsworth Atheneum

•     5th grade is participating with EastCONN in Faces of Culture

BOARD OF EDUCATION (BOE)

•      Teachers (Guilermo, Jara, Colin, & Jose) will bring students on Wednesday, January 24th to BOE meeting

•    Each school in the district will present highlights.

•      Meeting will take place at Windham High School but will be held virtually as well. Please attend if you can. 

PARENT/ TEACHER OPEN CHAT

•      Parent inquired about after-school program and if it will continue to be funded by the state as it is a very helpful resource.

•    Ms. Goodwin will look into this and report back.

•      Parent suggested the PTO meet in person at least once per semester to build a feeling of togetherness.

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS – February Meeting [date TBD]

•          Fill vacant PTO roles

•         Afterschool State Funding Update – K. Goodwin

•           Review Current PTO Budget

•          Brainstorm Session

• Fundraising Ideas

•    Family Engagement Events

          How can PTO support teachers/students this month?