Hi all,
We hope you are having a great summer! The PTO is hard at work preparing for the new school year. With our new executive board in place, we’ve started planning for upcoming ECE playdates, reaching out to afterschool vendors for exciting new clubs, and setting our events calendar for the year. To stay informed about all of the latest news, please sign up for the PTO email list by signing up here or emailing president.seatonpto@gmail.com!
Call for T-shirt Design Submissions!
The PTO sells adult t-shirts for parents, teachers, caregivers, and community members to help raise funds for our work. This year, we are designing a new shirt, and we need your help! If you have ideas for a new design for an adult shirt, please submit it to president.seatonpto@gmail.com by July 25. Bonus points for using the DC flag, neighborhood or local markers, or anything else to help us represent our school when we’re out in the world. We’ll pick the best one and put it on a shirt that will be available for sale at the beginning of the school year. The winner also gets a free shirt (in addition to the glory of the victory)! Note that uniform t-shirts will remain the same, and we will have those on sale as early as our ECE playdates in August.
Remote Volunteering Opportunities: Quickbooks, Grant-Writing, Fundraising Support, Room Parents
We know that in-person volunteering and attendance can be hard for many parents. In addition to community events and in-person volunteer opportunities, there is plenty of work to be done from the comfort of your computer. As we prepare for the new year, we are looking for parent help with various tasks.
- The PTO has had a few successful fundraising years and is transitioning to Quickbooks to assist in our accounting. If you have the ability to assist us with this transition, please reach out to president.seatonpto@gmail.com and seatontreasurerpto@gmail.com. We would also welcome anybody with nonprofit accounting experience who can advise us as we continue to grow.
- We are working towards applying more broadly for grant funding to supplement our direct fundraising efforts. If you have experience with grant writing, a subscription to grant databases, and the ability to take the lead on seeking out and applying to relevant grants, please contact president.seatonpto@gmail.com.
- Our fundraising team is tiny – it consists of two people! We would love additional volunteers to help. This is a role that can be done almost entirely on your own time, via email, and is easier than it looks. We are specifically in need of volunteers who can help identify potential local business sponsors and auction donors, deal with logistics for fundraising events (like restaurant nights out and wine tasting fundraisers), and follow up with thank yous to donors. If interested, email president.seatonpto@gmail.com and cstongemay@gmail.com.
- Our goal this year is to have a room parent for every classroom. If you are interested in serving as a room parent for the school year, please email president.seatonpto@gmail.com to be connected to our grade-level reps. Room parents can help make sure all families are included in class WhatsApp groups, coordinate communications to each classroom, organize class gifts, and advocate for class-specific needs.
End of Year Survey Results
Thank you to everyone who filled out our end-of-year survey. We had 61 responses, and we received a lot of valuable feedback. If you would still like to provide feedback, you can do so here. Some key takeaways, for those who are interested:
- Our most popular events are Spring Carnival and Fall Movie Night – two of our longest-running events. We were thrilled to see that the new Family Math Night (conceptualized and run by Ms. Hawthorne!) was a close third place, which is not surprising since over 110 students attended it last year. 77% of respondents believed that there were the right amount of events over the course of the year. We also hear your requests for less at the very end of the year, more in the winter, and more opportunities for parents to engage with each other, which we will take into account in the new year!
- We are grateful for the positive feedback on afterschool clubs – over 92% of respondents were very or somewhat satisfied. These were a big endeavor for the PTO, and we were so happy to see that so many families enjoyed these opportunities. The overwhelming consensus is that parents want even more options! The most requested additional options were music and sports. The afterschool clubs committee is working on expanding opportunities, including hiring an afterschool coordinator with the long-term goal of allowing students not enrolled in afterschool to also participate.
- We got helpful feedback on how to make PTO meetings more useful, including requests for advance notice of the agenda, hearing more from teachers, and opportunities to raise issues not on the agenda.
- Finally, we are really grateful for all the positive encouragement we received! It means a lot to hear from you all.
As always, thank you all for your support and engagement. We love our community and are excited for another great year!
