Attendees: Mark Prince, Diana Spurgin, Margot O’Connor, Joy Howard, Sarah Auerbach, Kristen Ford, and Mary Kiely. Minutes will be given to attendees and to all other members of the PTO Steering Committee. These notes will also be made available to the Wildwood public via a Wildwood Wire link.
Agreed-upon jobs are in boldface.
I. Review of Minutes from Last Meeting
No one in attendance had additions or corrections to the minutes of our Nov.6 meeting, so the minute were approved as written.
II. Upcoming School Council Elections
The Wildwood School Council, whose existence is mandated by state law and which provides advice on strategic decisions that impact our school, currently consists of 4 parents, 3 teachers and the principal. At the moment there is one opening for a parent representative on the School Council and two openings for teachers. Forms have already been out to the Wildwood community soliciting names of interested parents. As soon as candidates have been identified, elections will be held within the parent/guardian community. The PTO will count the ballots, with Diana, Joy, and Margot acting as our representatives (thanks, guys). If no parents step forward to fill the empty seat on the Council, then the number of teachers on the Council will be reduced to maintain a 50/50 balance between parent reps and school staff reps.
III. Electronics Recycling Day
Fliers for Wildwood’s first Electronics Recycling Day fundraiser, scheduled to be held on
There was discussion at the meeting about other ways in which we might publicize (especially to the communities beyond our school) this very worthwhile event. Suggestions were made that we might advertise in the Gazette (possibly even getting a story about the fundraiser), send information to other PTOs, and have the sixth-graders staple fliers to telephone poles downtown and ask for permission to post fliers in shop windows/bulletin boards. For the time being, Kristen will speak to Bob from the Gazette about getting newspaper coverage of this event.
IV. Fundraising Updates
Margot reported that the Brown Envelope fundraiser netted $2,226.04 this year, an increase of approximately $550 over last year’s effort. Congratulations and many thanks both to Susan Waite, who helped draft the solicitation letter, and to Margot and her kids, who did all the rest of the work on this critically important fundraiser that supports our arts programs at Wildwood.
The Coffee Fundraiser racked up another impressive month, netting $349 from the December order. Way to go, Molly! We appreciate your continued hard work on this.
Margot also reported that we received a check for $37.84 from Goodsearch.com, which pays Wildwood $.01 for every Internet search done under its umbrella by a Wildwood subscriber. If you don’t currently use the Goodsearch service for your searches but are interested in helping to earn money for Wildwood in this way, go to http:www.goodsearch.com/. Once on the website, go to the bottom where it says “I’m supporting” and enter “Wildwood” and click “Verify.” You’ll then see the option
V. Update on Ready, Set, Relax Event
Mark reported that regretfully, Deb Krumholz had had to cancel the “Ready, Set, Relax” event that she was planning to hold in March because she was unable to find enough volunteers to help her plan, organize and run the event town-wide.
The question was raised as to whether Deb might possibly be interested in running a much more low-key version of the event at Wildwood only. Sarah will follow up with Deb to see whether Deb might be interested in that kind of smaller-scale event, and report back to the Steering Committee at our next meeting.
VI. Scrips Update
Diana noted that we are now completely sold out of Big Y gift cards. The Scrips program as a whole (which at this point involves gift cards from Big Y and Stop & Shop, and a 5% sales credit from Atkins) has earned over $850 since September. Well done, Diana and Andrea!
Diana said that she and Andrea would be looking into the possibility of expanding the program to other stores, especially Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, which had not been participants in Scrips-type arrangements in the past. (Editor’s note: Since our meeting, Diana has been able to verify that Trader Joe’s does not have a Scrips plan now and does not intend to offer one in future, since their prices reportedly only allow for very slim profit margins as is.)
VII. School Directory
Joy had brought sample copies of the new school directory to the meeting, and everyone was very admiring of the thoughtfulness and the artistry and the great care that so clearly had gone into its planning and execution. Congratulations to the directory leadership group (Joy, Baer Tierkel, Susan Waite, and Bill Miller) for this standard-setting product (which, apart from being beautiful and useful, is also raising funds for Wildwood for the first time). And thanks from all of us for the many, many hours of effort that obviously went into it. Cheers all around!
Joy reported that approximately 475 copies had been printed at a cost of $530, and that she expected the copies to be going home in backpacks within the week. (Editor’s note: The directory has since been distributed.)
VIII. MCAS Night
On Jan. 10 from
X. Open House Babysitting Survey
The survey forms that the subcommittee on Open House babysitting prepared and had distributed to parents and guardians have now been returned and are ready for review. Sarah will collect the survey forms and arrange for a follow-up meeting in early January of the following people: herself, Mark, Diana, Joy, Elaine Shumway, Taryn LaRaja, and Mary Kiely.
XI. Other Upcoming Events
-Bookswap: (tentative date) Feb. 7
-Family Reading Night: Feb. 8 or 9
-March 5: Parent/Guardian Education Forum. Topic: the Math Curriculum at Wildwood.
-Teacher/Staff Appreciation Breakfast: March 7. (Sarah and Kristen will help with this. Other people have also signed up.)
-May 8: last Parent/Guardian Education Forum for the year, possibly on the topic of the Educational Quality Assurance review process that the district goes through every five years.
XII. Next Meeting
Our next PTO Steering Committee meeting will take place on Jan. 18 at
The question was raised as to whether the idea of giving the PTO a more formal structure (i.e., by establishing by-laws and terms of service for officers, and obtaining 501c3 status, etc.) should be discussed in detail at the next meeting. It was agreed that the most productive approach might be to mention this issue briefly at our next meeting and then to form a subcommittee of interested people to look into this issue in more detail and to formulate recommendations for the larger group.
That’s it for now. Thanks to everyone, as always, for your efforts (sung and unsung) on behalf of our school community. And best wishes for a happy and healthy 2007!
