October 27th, 2022

Welcome & Introductions                                           Amy McHugh
Introducing Ashley DePalma as our Co-President. Ashley will be confirming interest and communicating with committee chairs for the second half of the school year.
Principal Update Ms. Hager

• Thank you for the waffles and dinner for curriculum night
• Staffing Update: Ms. Harris took another position but we have two new counselors who will be with us the rest of the school year
• New Dean from another CMS school - Angel Flemming - Ms. Fleming has 19 years experience as an educator in the district. She will begin full time next week. We are looking forward to her talents coming to join our family.
• Heads up: we are halfway through the first quarter. The Quarter ends Oct 28th. 
• PT conferences are coming up. 
• Progress reports have also been sent out
• Stay connected through Parents Square and Class Dojo
• Principal chat Oct 27, in person from 8am - 8:30. The spotlight is on school our school psychologist and counselors
• Other big goal is around literacy: “goals and guardrails” is a concept that our staff is familiar with
• Two big buckets this year are literacy and social-emotional. We have many other buckets, but these two are our focus
• Guidance coming soon for eating lunch in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is significantly smaller so there will need to be parameters and guidelines around this. That will be shared with you shortly.
• Parent/Student Handbook for this year has been very helpful. This is not specific to Lansdowne, and a lot of this is district policy The handbook is a great resource for parents
• Friday: the dedication ceremony. We are limited to 100 people, so we will look forward to the PTO Board and the School Improvement team attending. Teachers and staff will be watching through TV, and it will be recorded and distributed.The East Meck Drumline will be there and 3rd graders are going to be singing. We are sad that everyone will not be able to attend, but there is limited seating, and we will be posting it on the school website as well.

Committee & Event Updates
Room Parents Amy McHugh (for Faith Atwood)

• Classes A Edwards and C Edwards both still need a room parent. All room parents and teachers have been collected and letters have been sent out to collect info from Room parents.
• Lead room parent is going to get access to parent square to send out communication via Parent Square and email

Fall Festival Christopher Brown

• Christopher Brown: Fall Festival Chair: The theme of this event is affordability, we went out for some sponsorships.
• There will be games and inflatables, but the main focus is inclusion. There will be free and ticketed events. $12 if you pay ahead and $15 the day of.
• If you know of any child that is financially challenged then let us know so they can be included
• If you know of anyone who would like to be included the day of, or wants to donate things like drinks or chips, that would be great.
• Since its been several years since we have had one of these, we want to make it memorable
• Again, most important right now are day-of volunteers, as well as chips and drink donations
• Email Lansdowne PTO gmail if you would like to donate
• We might add a section to the volunteer sign-up so people can sign up to donate
• The QR code for the wristband went out through parents square and in folders

Copy Crew Amy McHugh (for Alicia Lightfoot)

• Could use another person or two for this
• We have people working Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday right now as well as an on-call back up person, but we would love to have another one or two parents.
• Email PTO Gmail if you’re interested

Restaurant Spirit Nights Amy McHugh (for Lauren Ely)

• Hungry Howie this Thursday from 4 - 9
• Last time was at Yafo - don't have a total but a check is in the mail, but in the past it has been quite successful
• Lauren is working on the next one for nov 17th as soon as we know we will communicate that to everyone

Snack the Staff                     Cassidy Estes-Rogers

• Cassidy - helping with snack the staff
• The event was wonderful. It was very easy and the staff really seemed to love it.
• We will be doing this again on the 26th which is an early release day.

Spirit Wear/School Store Lauren Buras/Jennifer Needham

• Spirit wear will be available at the fall festival
• Going back with the Cotton Gin
• Also planning to open up an online store for the fall
• We have the store open in second Q for the kids on Fridays and we will share more information about that in the future.

Beautification Day 11/5 9-11AM Carrie Gelinas

• The next meeting will be the 5th of November from 9 - 11 - we have been asked to repaint the numbers in the bus lot as well some activities for recess on the blacktop - we are waiting on some stencils to come in to complete this.

Grade Level Get Togethers Amy McHugh

• We still need someone for 3rd grade and 5th grade, so if you’re so inclined
• We will push some info out about that through FB and PS

Mother Son Event 11/19 Siri Nutting

• Bolero in Matthews -  2 hours of bowling with shoe rental. Everyone who attends will get a gift card to the arcade and lunch will be provided for everyone . We have a private room and it will be very nice.
• Waiting until after fall fest to promote it
• Everyone is welcome, it’s not just mother-son

Book Fair 12/1-12/9 (updated dates)

• Dec 1 - Dec 9 - there will be a couple extra days on the front end this time.
• Next PTO meeting November 29th and we will have updates on that then.

Questions/Discussion All
Q: Incoming new staff: do we have gifts for them?
A: Ms. Hager: Staff does one internally with a school shirt, but we would welcome anything from the PTO as well.

• Girls on the Run - We wanted to do this for fall but missed the mark, so now we need a coach for spring. We have to have the coaches lined up to be able to do it, as they have the whole process lined up. Some staff members have said they might be interested in getting the team started as well. Coaches have to go through a training program and the time commitment after that is an hour one time per week. You can choose to do it in the morning or after school.
• Let me Run - (For the boys) We pushed out a sign up but need to get that back up and running.

Q: Book Fair - is there an evening when the parents will come in and what is the date?
A: Will be Thursday the 8th from 5 - 7 and then a musical performance after that.

• Request to move that to a different night because of Chorus rehearsals.
• Huge turn out for volunteers and reading buddies and math. Some other things on the list would be copy crew, and supporting events we have throughout the year. 
• Bus Updates: it was a great day! Finished the buses by 4:35 - on PS there is a link that we can update that includes a list of the buses with issues or if they are late. The Transportation Update link is always the same and will be continually updated. We got some new bus drivers, and are expecting some relief. Other than that, things are going well and we are headed in the right direction.

Upcoming Dates:
10/5 Teacher Workday - No School
10/6 Hungry Howie’s Spirit Night
10/11 Fall Picture Retakes
10/15 Fall Festival 4-7 PM
10/24 SIT Meeting (virtual) 6-7 PM
10/26 Early Release Day 1:15 PM
Snack the Staff
10/27 Principal’s Chat 8:00-8:40 AM
10/28 End of 1st Quarter
10/31 Teacher Workday - No School

11/3 Hungry Howie’s Spirit Night
11/5 Beautification Day 9-11 AM
11/8 Teacher Workday - No School
11/7-11 School Psychologist Week
11/11 Veterans Day Holiday - No School
11/17 Restaurant Spirit Night
11/19 Mother/Son Event
11/21 SIT Meeting (in person) 8-9 AM
11/23-25 Thanksgiving Break - No School
11/29 PTO Meeting 6 PM