Kewl ideas. I just became co-president. We are going to have a PTO website that is linked from the schools website. I'm in charge of the website. Anyone that is willing to send their site to me, so that I may get some ideas I would appreciate it. I also liked the newsletter idea. Our school puts out a weekly newsletter, I think I'll suggest monthly put a section..called..A NOTE FROM THE PTO. Something like that...PLEASE SEND IDEAS TO>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. :eek:
Yes, DCD we are not allowed to publish a website thru the onlineschool. Everything must be done through school employees. I didn't want to continue to ruffle any more feather than I already have on this issue. I have decided to drop it. It's sad that they don't want to see what parents want or maybe they see and continue to avoid the issue. I wanted to branch out and have our own but that is not the case. This is where does school seperate from PTO? This is a vital tool and is being so underestimated.
We have found a great solution to the issues of school paper and who should be using the copy machine...We have a parent that writes a monthly newsletter for our PTO she uses a newspaper template that is found on Microsoft Works. She also volunteered to do a school newspaper on the other side of our PTO News. The PTO and the office have to have all of our article ideas/info in by a certain date and she puts it all together for us. The issues with paper have worked out so simple, last year the PTO purchased all the paper we would need for the year in the beginning and it was used solely for the newspaper. This past year we used the school paper to run everything off. So in essence we switch off each year on the cost of the paper, and save trees by not having two seperate papers going out!!
We also have a cable school district channel that we can have PTO events added to, we just inform the secretary of our event and she calls the board office to have it added. [img]smile.gif[/img]
to: 2boysMom - I was concerned when I read your note about "only school administrators are allowed to publish on any website for the school"
Does this mean ANY website. In other words is there some contract between the school and the PTO that specifies that the PTO will not put a website up on their own, which would be totally separate from the school district and the school server site? I know many PTAs and PTOs have a site extended from the school site, but yet others create their own PTO or PTA site, that has nothing to do with the limitations that the school district imposes on the website.
I hope this is not the case, and that you can put up your own website, thus allowing communication within your school community of families to be extended in many more ways that the future technology is only taking baby steps, but moving quickly. Parents are wanting to get on email lists, and be notified at the office and or home email of things happening at school, messages from the school prinicipal, and PTA/PTO president, as well as needs of the teachers, etc. Good luck!
Thumbs up for creativity - I recall when one of our schools did the nesletter, they would but in brief blub buried in the middle or near the end of the newsletter says "Clip this article and send it with your child to collect their FREE snow cone courtesy of the PTA on Friday. " Since the PTA always had a table set up on Friday to sell snow cones for a quater anyway, this Thank You note simply went hand in hand with the PTA after school program for kids. Parents read the newsletter and kids redeem the rewards - in turn parents were more informed and all benefited.
I'm looking at starting a newsletter this year and these have all been great ideas. Our past board already has implemented using email as a form of correspondence, sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. Our school has a great website, check it out at CIPLC.net , and I may see if we can put blurbs on it too.
