Holly that is GREAT!! I cannot see any negativity about your students benefiting from $8,000 and still having money left over. It sounds like you've done a bang up job this year. Don't let Negative Nelly rain on your parade.

You'll LOVE this one! [img]smile.gif[/img] We voted to have a monthly newsletter in the fall. We had a very successful year this year and decided to GIFT to the school $8000 for instructional materials. That still leaves us with a very nice amount to start our year off with before our fundraiser.

Well, one of our board members that likes to stir things up....not in the good way.... made the comment to her husband that night after our meeting that the school "took" $8000. To me that sounds very different than a GIFT and is negative. So, I mentioned it to our principal and VP and we agreed that I should put out our first newsletter this week (last week of school)to sum up the year and to "watch out for the fun stuff for next year", etc. I made sure I thanked the parents, staff, etc. for helping us have such a successful year and because of this success we were able to GIFT to the school $8000 for instructional materials and that this would benefit each of the 700 students at our school. I also mentioned that this was a unanimous decision by the board (which it was). I'm hoping I can nip some of the negativity in the bud with this before jaws are flapping too much using vocabulary that gives this decision a negative tone instead of the happy tone it deserves.

Thanks for listening!
Holly

Thanks for all of your kind comments!

Angela - I maintain the website, but not as part of the PTO. It is really supposed to be a school employee function (as determined by the district) however, we had a parent volunteer to design the site, and when her child graduated I volunteered to maintain it. So I take my direction from the principal, as far as content. He is very flexible about the PTO portion of the site though. Next year I hope to revamp the PTO section. My policy has been that I can't beg people for content - I don't have enough time to keep following up with all the teachers/staff and committee chairs. So if they send me something I will put it on. The district has specific guidelines of what is allowed and not allowed, so I just make sure it falls within those guidelines. But next year I will be PTO VP, so naturally I will have more information to put on the site.

Nicki - thanks for your comments. We certainly have our share of issues. We did have a successful carnival this year, but it was very draining to the few people on the committee. We have already decided that we will not have another one unless a FULL committee is on board in the fall. We have a fall catalog fundraiser, and the carnival is to raise money for some extra things - not something we need to have. The past couple of years have been challenging, but this year we got back on track, and my focus next year is to increase parent involvement.

Maria

BTW, Maria P., you seem to have an incredible support at your school, judging by the newsletters, the donations for carnival and the goings-on there, I want to be at your school!

I have to say how nice it is to read other school newsletters online. That is something our principal wants to incorporate next year. I get SO many ideas for our newsletter, especially regarding information we should be getting out to our parents. Thanks to all of you for sharing.

Way up there from me... Very nice sites
Nice to see some Cali people on the boards.

[ 06-06-2005, 02:12 AM: Message edited by: Shawn ]