We are just going into our 3rd year as a PTO. School doesn't start until Tuesday, but we had a very successful school informational, meet the teacher meeting.
We made school supply packs & sold out. People were very upset w/ us for not having enough. It was only our second year and we have learned a lot - like we are going to do pre-orders next year. And I figured even if we had enough packs - someone would have still been mad about something.
We have already sold almost half of our spirit shirts! We raised the price - no one even balked! Oh - just realized we are giving our teachers t-shirts & once we do that, we will have more than half gone! WOW! We had so many people say they would buy later that they didn't bring a check book or enough money.
And we already have over 25 volunteer sign ups for various events! Our treasurer had this great idea. Since we are year round we have trimesters. We offered sign ups for only this semester. Even with teacher appreciation chair we have them only working on this trimester. If they want to continue on the next trimester they can, otherwise we can find a new chair for next semester. I think it will work great & won't overwhelm people.
We told people help where you can when you can, if all you can do is 30 minutes at Harvest Fest then that is all you can do. I had one parent say she can not help at the school due to family stuff, but she would lots of stuff from her home, baking, phone calls anything!
AND we have been wanting to start after school enrichment program. We felt if we could start w/ 1 and by the end of the year have 3-5 clubs that would be success. We have someone who wants to facilitate a Chess Club (The one everyone wanted the most)! YEAH!
Sorry to go on & on. Starting a PTO as many of you know is a lot of work! We are a charter school & many of our kids from come all over the city and even from another city. Getting parent involvement has been a struggle - but I think we are finally going to see some fruit from our hard work the past 2 years & I am VERY excited - can you tell?
