Valley Forge Middle School PTO

Parent-Teacher Organization for VFMS

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Meeting began at 12:00 PM

In attendance were:

  • Un Kyong Ho
  • Matt Gibson
  • Tereza Keohane
  • Tracy Millman
  • Judy Reiter
  • Versha Shah
  • Heather McConnell
  • Chrystele Baden Desouza
  • Amy Terlecki
  • Danyll Lockett
  • Jackie Tomaszewski
  • Kusuma Muglurmath
  • Bernie Logan
  • Amanda Ivory
  • Megan Edwards

 Update from The Children’s Dental Clinic – Dr. Bernie Logan

  • Looking for a volunteer to take over Bernie’s representative position to be the eyes and ears for the middle school
  • Help arrange transportation by volunteers if parents/guardians don’t have means to get children to appointments.
  • This is offered to students in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program in T/E and Great Valley, on Thursdays in the Gateway Shopping Center, check up and some orthodontics
  • Meetings are once a month, 1 hour duration
  • Website with info: www.kidsdentalclinic.org
  • Annual letter writing campaign, Dental Health Month

Update from T&ECare – Bernie Logan & Amanda Ivory

  • T&E Care provides short term bill pay, essential repairs, college counseling services, and additional services to families in need.
  • Although the spring clothing drive was cancelled, it was run on a smaller scale in June which helped many families.  
  • There are volunteers representing each TE building. There is also a need for more volunteers. For more information, visit tecare.org.
  • Working on holiday needs for Kids.
  • Planning for the clothing drive of gently used clothes and shoes. Raffle information coming out.
  • Working on the Fall Fest on October 23rd, their big annual gala, designing it as a virtual event. Make sure to send info via Blast
  • They offer a school supply drive over the summer (backpack and supplies) – this year they opted for gift cards
  • These funds are used to pay for summer camps, college counseling, senior laptops, short-term bill paying (bridge the gap), help find jobs, car repairs, groceries, utilities
  • Holiday drive: VFMS usually collects blankets, socks, gloves, and hats
    • Sandi Gorman will let us know what is needed

Kusuma- our new Secretary – Welcome!

  • She has been the Diversity Cmte Chair and Directory Cmte Co-chair at Hillside and has run Spanish Club in the past at VFES

Update from Fundraising – Heather McConnell & Versha Shah

  • Working to make Amazon Smile set up for VFMS PTO. (already setup – just need to remind parents in communications to use the smile link http://smile.amazon.com/ch/23-2936863 )
    • Danyll mentioned this in the fundraising letter 
  • Spirit wear this year will be comfort wear. Through Tuttle Marketing. We pay her directly and it ships directly; we don’t have to be involved; set up within 2 days
  • Scrips Gift Cards: can choose from a variety of vendors including Target, West Elm, etc and we get a percentage of sales; thinking this will be a good option for holidays
    • Michelle used Scrips as a fundraiser and thinks its a great program; people can purchase from their phones at the store; money goes directly into an account and you can get the cash back whenever you’d like; you can also purchase physical cards of your choosing 
  • Working on creating pennants with VFMS logo on them.
  • Planning for a virtual half marathon fundraiser. Fly, Eagles, Tri. Students and families can sign up and compete.
  • Teacher Gifts – December/Holiday
  • Birthday Fundraiser idea – from Schoology; how to monetize this? Any ideas?
  • Working to make available masks with VFMS logo. Checking youth and adult sizes fit. Tom Graham is the same vendor who made masks for teacher appreciation for VFMS and masks at TEMS 
    • Michelle felt that the quality of the masks were good but fit wasn’t great for smaller kids; Could he add adjustable earlobe feature?
  • Jacqui Rothera has a PDF of logo
    • There is a different logo for PTO and the middle school
  • Discussed Golden Apple Grant and its use. Is it appropriate to use these funds to provide teachers with essential resources? What is the point and function of these grants? Speak with Gibson about whether there is a spare iPad available at the MS for the teacher who requested funding.

 Update from Principal Gibson 

  • Teachers are adapting to the change created by virtual school.
  • They are collaborating and learning from each other’s experiences.
  • It is a challenge to estimate how much time is required for a given task as it varies student to student.
  • Nevertheless, teachers are working to make the best of their periods for the students.
  • During the advisory period, once the students are done with their work, they are no longer required to be in front of the computer.
  • Support from families have been tremendous and more appreciated than parents realize among the teachers
  • The times they are required to stay are when they have an appointment set up one on one, or counselor meetings, lunch meetings, general information sessions and the like.
  • Currently talking with counselors to help students make appropriate use of their break time.
  • Advisory block: soon, teachers will start to pull kids out for music, gifted programming, counselor meetings
  • Teachers are encouraging students to reach out for help with homework and use advisory time effectively.
  • We greatly appreciate the positive messages and community support that have come in for staff, which have been relayed.
  • We are also working to respond to parent concerns about the new way of school.
  • There will be a call for families for an information pick up for the week of Sept 13th.
  • Curriculum night will be posted on Sept 10th and will be virtual this year, it is going to be up for 3 days for families to view.
  • Info about next packet pick-up for parents/kids

Update from Treasury – Danyll Lockett

A special board meeting is coming up to discuss the budget. They will go through the budget line by line and address any questions that pertain to each committee; prepare for sending out Direct Donations letter to parents 

Update from Communications – Tracy Millman & Judy Reiter

  • Working on a membership toolkit – our portal that helps parents signup and pay securely for many activities that PTO runs.
  • Working on details on how the membership toolkit can connect to the PTO website.
  • The board discussed to better the flow of the communications website.
  • Revamp of website to make it more user-friendly, a digital commons for our community in this virtual world; we will vote on this next mtg.

 Update from Socials and Volunteers – Chrystele Baden Desouza

  • Would like to build a system to help new families connect with the VFMS community similar to what exists at Conestoga. 
  • Exploring organizing zoom social per grade level.
    • How best to organize? Suggestions to split up by Blue/Gold Team, then according to team of teachers (Homeroom)
      • Would need to ask admin for list of how kids are grouped 
  • The board voted yes – in favor of creating a welcome committee.
  • Questions: Do we have a calendar of events for the past years? Tereza advises that social reach out to Dr. Rothera about calendar/past calendars as well as student lists to determine how to break up kids by class
  • Parent committee volunteers – delegate 2 volunteers to work with families
  • Reach out to school about new families; do we include new families form on the main VFMS website, not just PTO site?
  • Chrystele will work on forms and will share; she will work with Megan in the MS to figure out how to do this, as well as reach out to Dr. Rothera.

Update from Cultural Arts – Amy Terlecki

  • Working to incorporate social events virtually.
  • Fall assembly is whole school – broken down into 5th and 6th, 7th and 8th
  • Planning school wide/grade wide assemblies.
  • Working for virtual author visits for February. Need to find a new author who will offer a virtual program; each grade has 1 assembly. What would a grade level assembly look like? 
  • Between now and Oct, reaching out to different grade level teacher teams to plan assemblies.

Updates from E-blasts – Jackie Tomaszewski

  • They go out every Sunday
  • If you need anything sent out in the blast, send to Jackie
  • Submission form is on the site
  • Sent out via Membership Toolkit
  • If there is a super important message, it can be sent as an extra e-blast

Update from President –  Un Kyong Ho

  • Aim to launch VFMS Salon Series to address allyship, students with special needs, healthy relations, inclusion, BLM, anti-racism, and support LGBT community. 
  • This effort also aims to address struggles of our community in current times and beyond.
  • Will create Google Doc to serve as brain dump to generate ideas for this series 

Meeting ended at 2:30 PM

Next meeting scheduled for September 16, 2020 at 11:00 AM