I keep our newsletter to PTO related avtivites, programs, etc. I do have a "Dates to Remember" section where I will list community activities if they are for kids and families. The only info I give is date, time, place and a contact if possible. Our schools are happy to include more details for these kinds of things in their newsletter.
School related news were announced to the school by the Principal or via a letter. Our PTO newsletter only announced the PTO-related activities. If you begin to post activities at the library, someone will want you to post the recreation events or those at town hall, or somewhere else.
Our local library sends our schools memos to distribute with their special events listed. It comes out every other month.
Our school principal has offered us a small section in the school weekly newsletter to save us copying expenses. We have accepted her offer. I would think the school should put info out about their own programs in their own newsletter? But adding public info that would be great for kids, like Public Library activities or community activities is a good idea. Either way, it's PTO's decision so I would present this at the next meeting and vote on it. Keep in mind that you need to have a good relationship with the school faculty for your endeavors to run smoothly. We try to include our Teacher's in our events. For example, our Fall Festival we offered to the teacher's to open their classrooms or hallways to do their own games and they would get the proceeds from that and we get our proceeds from our games and consessions. Many teachers were glad to be invited and looking forward to doing their own thing.
Our school publishes a monthly PTO newsletter, and in the past, we've only included PTO activities and events. However, we are receiving many requests from parents and staff to include non-PTO activities in the newsletter - for example, Destination Imagination, Jr. First Lego League, parents advocacy group for gifted and talented students, etc. as well as local public library programs.
Do other PTO newsletters include non-PTO activities? If so, what guidelines (formal or information) do you use for determining which are included?
