Just wanted to make folks aware that we offer a free newsletter tool called
Parent Express Email
. It's a simple way to create emails and newsletters that will get noticed by your school community.
I do a "Spotlight On" section each month in our newsletter. I begin with one grade and work my way through, i.e. September's newsletter will have "Spotlight on 1st Grade". I then talk to all the teachers in that grade level and get information on what they are doing, upcoming events they may be having, suggestions for parental help in the grade, etc. It has been a big hit.
Besides that, we have the President's letter (written by me and my co-president), a principals corner with information from the principal, upcoming events, etc. Our first newsletter also includes our proposed budget for the year, including each event we have planned broken down.
Something else we came up with to try this year is a page where parents can purchase a business card size ad to their child. They can wish them Happy Birthday, tell them they are proud of an accomplishment or just tell them they love them. We are charging $1 per ad to help us offset the costs of the copying of the newsletter.
I write the school's newsletter and am the PTO VP. This is what I put in our:
School happenings/information/changes, ect., teacher needs, wants, class info.
For PTO info I include information on next meeting dates, fundrasing info (what's coming up next, results of last fundraiser, purchases, money provided, etc.) What help is needed, who to contact for different committees. Just general info that the parents may have missed if they didn't attend the last meeting.
