PTO Update
The PTO met on November 20th to continue to set goals for the school year. The members decided to focus on three important areas: PTO Organization, Communication, and Parent Engagement.
PTO Organization – meetings
To better foster parent participation in future PTO meetings, the group decided on a regular time and day for PTO meetings throughout the school year. Going forward, the PTO meetings will be held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 6:00PM – 7:00PM. We hope that you can plan ahead and join us for future meetings!
PTO Organization – forming a PTA
A PTA is a type of parent teacher organization that is part of a national and state organization of support. One important aspect of being a PTA is that it will help empower us to raise funds to help support the school. The group decided to pursue the formation of a formal PTA. This process will take a few months as we work with the Washington PTA representatives. We’ll need participation from parents like you to make this happen. Stay tuned for future meeting info!
Communication – website
The group decided to work on projects to create important opportunities for communication with parents and the community about our great school. The first project being tackled is to set up a school/PTO website where parents can see upcoming school events, learn about what their scholars are learning at the school, school resources, etc.
We have a group already established to deal with the technical and design details, but we could use help on content development and more ideas about what parents need to know. If you are interested in being part of the communications team, please contact Jason at [email protected].
We plan to have the initial website up and running by January and can build on it from there.
Parent Engagement
The third area that the PTO has decided to focus on for this year is parent engagement. MLK has nearly 300 scholars that attend the school, each with parents and caregivers that help them succeed. The PTO is interested in working to support this group of dedicated people and build an even stronger MLK community. At the next MLK PTO meeting we will be devoting time to discuss ways to support these parents and caregivers. Please attend and help us develop ideas!
Upcoming events
- PTO December meeting (Tuesday, December 10, 6:00PM, MLK Elementary Volunteer Room) Come discuss ways to build a stronger parent/caregiver community at MLK!
- Community Circle Training(Thursday, December 12, 4:00PM, South Shore PK-8, 4800 S Henderson St) This is a larger community event provided by the Center for Ethical Leadership focused on building stronger connections, strengthening relationships, building trust, and providing healing. Please feel free to contact Alice Fong [email protected] or Jakub Harmany [email protected] .
HUGE THANKS to the PTO members who have attended any of our meetings, we slowly but surely headed in a productive environment. Please feel free to reply all with any questions or concerns. I returned from Africa late Sunday night, so I’m doing my best to catch up, thank Jason (Secretary) for keeping great track of our meetings.