hardy pto agenda minuteS
Hardy PTO Meeting Agenda
March 21, 2024
TEACHER REPRESENTATIVE REPORT (Susie Smith):
- Kindergarten: Learning about trees and how different animals rely on different types of trees. Went outside on the playground to investigate the trees found there.
- First grade: Two classes went to the police station, two classes will go soon.
- Second grade: Just got mealworms and are talking about the life cycle
- Third grade: Field trip to the Concord Museum, which connected nicely to the curriculum
- Fourth grade: Historical book clubs. Kids read 3-4 books on one historical time period and compare them.
- Fifth grade: Making posters for Skate Night and posting them around the school.
- Art: Getting ready for the upcoming art show. Some kids making stop motion videos.
- PE: Focusing on fitness and introducing pull-ups, getting kids to walk/run/jog, pickleball, badminton, volleyball.
THANK YOUS:
- Grade 2 & 3 Pedestrian Training - Ashley/Marloes
- Treat Train - Patsy, Alham, Katrina
- Book Fair - Katrina, volunteers
- Literacy Night - Katrina, Nurse Sarah, Dr. Connolly, Kate, APD, AFD, volunteers, Ron, Artie
- Crossing Guard Appreciation - Ashley
- PTO Closet clean-out - Patsy, Annie, Katrina
- Auction - Patsy, Annie, Becky and all who donated time and items
FINANCES / BUDGET:
Treasurer Report -
- Request from 1st grade (Ms. Gogos) for budget for a chicken hatching unit $700 (2 incubators, tubs to keep chicks in, pine shavings, food, etc.). Voted on and approved at the meeting.
- Teachers have concerns beyond their votes about things that seem like items the district could provide. Could we make a list? (e.g., bulletin boards, paper roll holders, blinds, school sign, etc). Should we bring this up with the next principal?
- Noting that paper ran out more than once and happens annually.
- Arlington Ed Fund Grant: Spring Deadline April 15. Planning spring grant for Parkour Unit for PE. Reminder to nominate teachers for AEF stars. SLC is also planning to apply for a music related grant.
- Katrina is meeting with the SLC teachers to make sure our events are inclusive and to help write the music related grant.
- Auction/Parents Night Out - $9k earned, teachers are finalizing wishes, Kindergarten basket had the highest bid for grade levels 🙂. Discussion around printers and color ink. Many grades asked for printers, but this doesn’t solve the root of the problem of ink running out frequently. If the PTO buys printers for teachers, they won’t be covered by the district if anything goes wrong or they need servicing. How can we try to navigate this?
- Fundraising- Do we want to have any other days? Thrive Day - Becky talked to the owner and we can do it in the spring and they will donate $50 GC to 5th grade skate night. Other options are 99s Restaurant, Quebrada, Abbotts. Maybe we do one with Maxima in late April for Mother’s Day, end of year gifts, etc. Mary-Beth will email Maxima about this.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
- Communications - Ashlin
- Safe Routes to School - one more walk in the spring, will need to synch with Gretchen
- Enrichment - Julia
- Arlington Education Foundation will be sponsoring another performance at the high school for K-3 (similar to Strega Nona last year) - free field trip. PTO does not need to organize this, it will be organized by the teachers.
- Kindergarten will have a visit from the Stone Zoo upcoming, date to be determined- end of April
- March 27 there will be an enrichment assembly featuring Irish and Scottish music, one K-2 Assembly, one 3-5
- Volunteer Engagement - Julia/Anthony - does anyone have time to do PTO play dates and/or caregiver coffee events? Post on facebook an invitation for someone to organically do that? Rachel can do caregiver coffees after drop off when the weather gets warmer.
- Classroom Coordinator - Kate Allen - teacher appreciation week, end of year gifts
- Spirit Wear - Ashley (Julia) - Need to do a google poll to see if we should do another spirit wear order
- SEPAC - Allison Babeau
- Garden - Alham - no updates
- Buddy Program - Megan - gave info to school Admin
- DIG - Michi - need a new chair for 24/25 school year (Katrina is potentially interested in this for next year)
- Question: In light of an increase in hate speech universally (the-artist-formally-known-as-Twitter, FBI statistics around increase in hate crimes, etc.) can we work on a Caregiver Coffee with someone from the Town DEI Office and/or the Arlington Human Rights Commission about how best to talk to kids about prejudice (how to spot it / how to call it out) and give them (and us!) tools to talk about these big topics in an age appropriate way? -Katrina can reach out to the Thompson PTO, who does some work around this.
- Griffin Jones, parent of Hardy students and co-chair of Arlington Human Rights Commission (AHRC), joined the meeting. He said that AHRC could help Hardy with ideas on addressing the immediate harm caused if hate speech is used and provide resources to help parents discuss this with their children. AHRC would be willing to co-sponsor workshops financially. Surveillance of trends is one of the points of AHRC and many schools are seeing an uptick in hate speech. AHRC has noted a systemic issue with how hate speech in schools is reported, and wants to work with school administration to ensure that any future incidents are reported through the established process. Griffin can bring some resources to a caregiver coffee, which we would aim to have in late April. Would we also want to invite someone from the town DEI office to attend? Thinking ahead- Could we do an enrichment activity on this topic next year? Could we provide training for teachers with an AEF grant? First, we need to find out what the current training is for educators.
- Question: In light of an increase in hate speech universally (the-artist-formally-known-as-Twitter, FBI statistics around increase in hate crimes, etc.) can we work on a Caregiver Coffee with someone from the Town DEI Office and/or the Arlington Human Rights Commission about how best to talk to kids about prejudice (how to spot it / how to call it out) and give them (and us!) tools to talk about these big topics in an age appropriate way? -Katrina can reach out to the Thompson PTO, who does some work around this.
- Green Team - Emily - anti-idling campaign (Becky to give items to Emily)
- Teacher Appreciation / Treat Train - Patsy (Julia)
- Week of May 6th - Patsy is willing to do teacher appreciation week - ice cream buffet scooped by 5th graders, catered lunch with extra time, raffle items, small treats (pens, sticky notes, etc), coffee truck. Principal usually does one day and PTO does 4 other day.
UPCOMING EVENTS/PLANNING:
- Next few PTO meetings, tentative dates
- April 25
- May 16
- June 6 - This will double as the election for next year’ s board positions
- School Council - Coordinate with Principal Saunders re: meeting times, composition
- Apr 7: Skate Night- Doris
- April 8-12: Hour of Code - Matt
- Apr 26: Movie night??
- April 28: Trash-Pick-A-Thon - Annlie Clarke-Lauer
- May 2: Hardy Arts Night - tentative date May 2. Deb Fleming has asked for help setting up/cleaning up and advertising. Once the SignUp Genius is complete, Becky will forward it to Carolyn Rabito so that it can be included in emails out to families about the event.
- June 6th: Field Day - Lisa Cleary - need to confirm rain date (Mon or Wed the next week)
- June 7th: End-of-Year Picnic - Julia/Athony
- TBC - STEAM Fest - Alham - Early/mid May could work - May 11th - pared down from last year
- TBC - Hardy PTO Playdates - Amalia/Volunteer Engagement?
Please find archived minutes here:
PTO Agenda Minutes 2023-2024 School Year
Archived PTO Agenda Minutes 2022-2023 School Year
Archived PTO Agenda Minutes 2021-2022 School Year
Archived PTO Agenda Minutes 2020-2021 School Year
