PTO Meeting Minutes

hardy pto agenda minuteS

November 19, 2025

For Your InformatioN

Open PTO Positions & Committee Leads

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DIG) - need another committee chair
Safe Routes to School - need another committee chair

November is Native American Heritage Month
Thursday, November 20, 2025 is Transgender Day of Resilience & Remembrance (Arlington Rainbow Commission Event)
If you would like to be part of DIG this year, please reach out to Abi at DIG@hardypto.com
Multicultural Fest planning - scheduled for Saturday, February 7, 2026 from 11am - 2pm. A survey requesting participation will be shared by Principal Saunders via email.
Arlington Public Schools (APS) Office of Excellence, Access and Opportunity is planning a Winter Multicultural panel and a Spring Multicultural Festival with the goal of engaging students and local community

Hardy Rainbow Alliance Food Drive

Donate non-perishable food items and grocery bags with handles through November 25th right inside the Hardy front entrance

Free winter coats, boots, sweaters, toiletries, and essentials for families in need

Tuesday, November 25th from 1-6pm at the APS Welcome and Resource Center located at 14 Mill Brook Drive, 2nd Floor

Thank You to conference night donors and volunteers and 4th grade treat train donors and volunteers!
Caregiver Coffee will pause for the December and January due to the holidays
Upcoming events

3rd Grade Treat Train or Buffet - Friday, December 5, 2025
Crafternoon - Sunday November 23rd from 3-5pm.
Maxima Shopping Day - Wednesday, December 10th. Be sure to mention the Hardy PTO at checkout!
Hardy’s Passport to the World (Multicultural Fest) - Saturday, February 7th. Need more planners to join and will need volunteers and caregiver participation

The Arlington Education Foundation (AEF) is launching its holiday STARs fundraising campaign. In November, donate to AEF and nominate your favorite APS teacher or staff member for an AEF STAR. Learn more at AEFMA.org/stars

MEETING MINUTES

Positions
- Ashley Kresl is new co-president
- Alham Sadaat was selected for an interim position on the School Committee
Hardy Helpers
- Looking for ideas for how to assist Hardy as caregivers and volunteers
- School grounds improvement is one of the focus areas that we need Hardy Helpers assistance with
Principal’s Report - Gretchen Saunders

- School Quality Plan
  - First school council meeting of the year
  - Elementary school principals collaborated to have same goals and action steps across APS
  - Strategic Academic Goal #1 - Math
    - Giving math more attention than past few years
    - Working on collecting unit assessment data; data will inform ways to support students on MCAS
  - Strategic Academic Goal #2 - ELA
    - Learning targets are being met, so we are focusing in academic discourse and allowing students to work with their peers to build on ideas
    - Theory of action is: If student voice is increased, so will student belonging
  - Strategic Academic Goal #3 - School Climate and Family Engagement
    - Creating a more welcoming environment for new families
Teacher Representative Reports - Emily Vecchione & Laura Ribiero
- Kindergarten
  - New module on EL on weather; students are conducting experiments on moisture and wind
  - Introducing lowercase letters
  - Will be connecting with a meteorologist to come visit as students work on their weather module
- 1st Grade
  - Learning about leadership; finishing unit by learning about different characters that run for president
  - Students will then choose one of the characters that they learned about and will conduct voting
- 2nd Grade
  - Learning about Mary Anning and retelling her life’s work using beginning, middle, and end form; also learning about fossils
  - Maps in social studies
  - Learning fractions in math
- 3rd Grade
  - Began second module on frogs; students are utilizing pourquoi tales to understand why and how frogs live
  - Social studies unit on how the environment of MA shaped the way indigenous lived in MA
- 4th Grade
  - Students completed their poetry module and had a poetry celebration where parents & caregivers were able to visit the classroom and read students’ poems
  - In science, students had a visit from Madagascar hissing cockroaches as part of they unit on studying environments
- 5th Grade
  - Alewife visit
  - Boda Borg visit on December 16th
  - EL - wiring literary essay; will start writing monologues and will eventually perform them
  - Science - starting the unit of living systems
  - Social studies - American revolutions
- PE
  - November was basketball month
  - Students worked on dribbling, passing, and shooting skills
  - Looking forward to participating in more cooperative games throughout the year
- Music
  - All classes learning about different musicians of the month
  - K - 2nd are grade working on learning to tune;
  - 3rd grade is learning to play recorders
  - 4 & 5th grade - begun the ukulele unit; all students will have access to Quaver which is an online learning enrichment resource
- Art
  - Art Show is scheduled for Thursday April 16th
  - Students are starting on drawing skills and building on previous skills
  - Will focus on observational drawing for each grade later in the year

Committee Updates
- Treasurer - Brian
- Fundraising - Lisa
  - Goldfish Swim School is booked for January 24, 2026
  - Another potential shopping day with Yes Plastic Free
  - PTO will work to come up with an email list for donors that would like to receive the newsletter to stay abreast of events & assist with getting word out to community
  - Gearing up for spring plans including the auction, Thrive Day, etc.
- Enrichment
  - Booked Chris Poulos for spring assembly focusing on social/emotional learning
  - Need teachers to reach out to schedule workshops and/or field trips
  - Request came from kindergarten teachers for meteorologist to complement unit they’re learning
  - Raul the Third - working on a joint initiative with other schools; might apply for an AEF grant for assistance
- Events to Plan
  - Hour of Code - need to figure out MCAS schedule, but we already have volunteers
  - Literacy Night - date TBD
  - Book Fair set for 16-20 March; need volunteers throughout the day to put help kids put together wishlist
  - Auction - tentatively set for Saturday, February 28th; don’t want to clash with other events
    - Working to collaborate with Donut Villa and considering having a theme
    - Need to contact businesses to solicit donations ASAP
  - Spring Spirit Wear shop - looking for feedback and when is a good time to have another opportunity to open the shop
  - Teacher Appreciation Week - May 2026
  - 5th Grade Skate Night - date TBD, but considering March 2026
  - Multicultural Fest - will work to send out a Google form for participants