Agenda
South River School PTO
Meeting date: Thursday, October 20, 2016
Meeting location: SRS Cafeteria 2:00 pm
Welcome
Meeting opened by Nancy Belezos 2:00 pm
PTO update: PTO budget ~ $40,000 to raise & spend; voted in Spring 2016: $17,000 Chromebooks, iPads, SRS
garden (11/6 to move), gym equipment & blacktop painting in back of school, funding for planners for grades
3-5, $600 in budget to cover cost of chaperones on field trips
Enrichment: $6500 budget/year and have come in under that $ in the past.
Please consider chaperone cost in program/field trip cost/budget.
Enrichment:
Enrichment grid/calendar: Mrs. Fultz started plugging in events last year - incoming & outgoing programs by
grade and all-school. It is in draft form and was copied and distributed to teachers.
Field trips by grade: ideal is 1 outgoing, 1 incoming
What works? Do you want to change? Or is current plan good? For example, EWS: did Legoland instead of Zoo.
Was well received.
Do you collaborate with other schools for programs? Costs can be reduced by having programs at multiple
schools the same day.
Challenges: waiting too book – miss out (Johnny the K for K graduation), PTO changes year to year and without
documentation and process in place, we lose the background and knowledge of outgoing volunteer.
Town-wide PTO Facebook page – suggest teachers join to see what’s going on, post what they are doing
IDEAL plan for Enrichment: overlay yearly plan with 2-5 year plan; ex: FoodPlay not every year, how often?
Helps w/ budgeting. Example: Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart – haven’t been in for a few years
Scheduling – who owns which program? Does PTO book & schedule or does teacher/administration for each
program?
Cultural grant: 2014 used grant $ for Penguins/Aquarium; 2015 used grant $ for Plimoth Plantation for $2500.
Cultural Grant Committee: As of Monday (10/17) half the number of submissions as last year ~ 15)
This year apply toward Jeff Nathan/Incredible Assemblies/ Curriculaughs http://incredibleassemblies.com/
Has grant writer that will write Cultural Grant, tailored program by grade. A handout with examples of his
programs was provided.
Teacher input:
Mrs. Lawrence: 1st grade: shift in science standards so new topics to teach. The 3 1st grade teachers worked on
a plan together recently. They will share some ideas with other grades. Mrs. Brady: found 2 websites: Science
Made Fun https://sciencemadefun.net/- examples of experiments that are easy & fun and
www.sciencemadefunne.net - come to school for programs, meets new science standards, adjust by grade;
program examples: wave motion, Morse code, technology, physical & life sciences; $9.25/student, minimum
$325 but might be able to get discounts – time of year before holiday, during September, more grades to do it;
90 minute/session.
Mr. Goodman: 3-year shift in science standards, adding topics gradually
Mrs. Coffey: could PTO do booking? Possible outcome. First need information about what to book, contact
information, what are deadlines to book, etc.
Mrs. Fultz: whole school programs so far: fire safety last week; Nov 15th: No Bully Zone rebooked; this will
have 2 sessions: K-2 & 3-5.
Take-aways/action items: Cultural Grant submitted 10/17; moving forward to book program in the meantime
(decision for grants are not announced until ~ January). Ideas of topics to be solicited around January to
teachers; program to be booked week of Jan 23rd (need to confirm date).
Have teacher representative & parent contacts work together. Teachers to look at draft calendar and make
corrections, edits, ideas to Mrs. Fultz by 11/15 (next PTO meeting). Kerry Glynn & Darcy Beston are PTO
Enrichment co-chairs.
Black Journals:
The PTO thanked the teachers for embracing the black journals, which were introduced 2 years ago from a
tradition at EWS. The PTO funds the black journals (a new one for each incoming Kindergartener) and each
year work samples are added. When they “graduate” in 5th grade, they will take their journals with them as a
keepsake of their 6 years at SRS. The PTO wants to recognize the labor and time necessary in putting the
journals together, especially for the younger grades who can’t necessarily do them on their own. It was
discussed that the PTO would like to assist with recruiting volunteers to periodically help fill the journals. A
teacher suggested that twice per year would be helpful. Ms. Pollard added that she keeps a numbered folder
for each child and when she has a work piece she would like added to the journals, she first trims them (to fit
the journal pages) and puts them in the folder. When volunteers come in, they just have to glue the pages in
journals, taking approximately 20 minutes instead of more than an hour. Mr. Goodman requested that after
each grade’s work is put in the journal to please leave a few pages blank because 5 th graders have the option
of adding writing samples that have been saved since Kindergarten. These samples used to be sent to the
middle school but this is no longer required. Mrs. Serra mentioned the high cost of printing pictures. Nancy
mentioned hopefully getting a DropBox account to have a centralized place to put pictures. Mrs. Pozner
mentioned we would have to make sure pictures of kids on privacy list are not published.
Take-aways/action items: PTO to reach out to teachers to find out their needs for scheduling volunteers, how
many, how often. Make sure volunteers leave a few pages between each grade’s work.
SRS Dine-out at McDonald’s: Last year’s dine-out at McDonald’s (generously offered by the Napoli family) was
a huge hit! The kids loved to see the teachers and principals working behind the counter and at the drivethrough and it was an event that included the whole SRS community. It was a win-win for all, raising $567 for
SRS and with the coverage in the Mariner, gave McDonald’s some exposure. The PTO recognizes that this is
totally voluntary participation on the staff’s part and wanted to discuss this prior to booking the dine-out again
this year. The general consensus was that the staff had a lot of fun and were willing to do it again this year.
Take-aways/action items: Erika Hawkes to contact McDonald’s to schedule a date. Staff would like it to be
scheduled outside busy times at school, such as conference time.
Adjourn 2:50pm