We recently transferred my daughter to a new school. At her last school, I was on the PTO board for 6 years beginning her Kingergarten year. She is now in Middle School in a deep-rooted German community. The school's community has a reputation for "community spirit", but I found out they are just now reorganizing and are clueless as to what to do. I have two questions. 1. There is interest in grade level family nights. I would like to have a joint family night to encourage discussion our parent group would like to take AND make it social where they can get to know one another. I would like to do some networking type activities. 2. The campus is located in the middle of a neighborhood which (I understand) are mostly retired members of the community. The school has student counsel, a Builder's Club(sponsored by Kiwanis) and PLAT (Principal's Leadership Advisory Team) that need community hours. How can we tap into this valuable resource of retirees and what types of community assistance can we encourage them with? I would like to see them adopted as "honorary members" and enlist their help and in return offer chores done by these organizations that are harder for elderly citizens to perform. Any ideas? Also, communication is poor. How can I boost communication when their website is being created and I don't know emails addresses? Notes home do not seem dependable. I greatly appreciate any input. This is a new challenge for me and another lady is going to help me.
