Tuesday, January 25, 2022
7 PM Via Zoom
WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS
Abby Lewis, PTO President
BROWN SCHOOL UPDATE
Principal Sean Satterfield
- Principal Update:
- Thanks to the PTO for the Holiday Shops.
- Review of budget priorities
- Assistant Principal to travel between Glover and Brown requested jointly by Glover and Brown principals.
- Currently, 5 different specialists are on staff at Brown. Currently they have PE twice a week, but next year the hope is that a STEAM teacher will be added (to replace a PE teachers, one of which is interested in filling that role)
- Finishing work continues: pavers to cover gravel will work well as coming garden beds at lower school.
Teacher Update
Aimee Sheppard, Teacher Representative
- Held whole school PBIS and children watched Frosty from their classrooms
- Attendance is increasing again – positive sign
- Most students will receive feedback on a reading assessment conducted in January, as well as Math via iReady
- Enrichment funded by PTO occurring this week – Grade 2 Fire & Ice and Grade 3 Marvels of Motion.
HOLIDAY SHOP RECAP
Star Connor, Event Co-Chair
- Very successful event given larger scale
- Identified opportunities to streamline areas (e.g., gift labels, preschool-only shopping time, scheduling).
- Next year will increase pet and dad gift options
- Fun for 3rd grade teachers who may have been at Village and hadn’t participated before
- Sarah Reed and Star Connor plan to run this event again next year
HOLIDAY GIVING TREE RECAP
Abby Lewis, PTO President
- Charitable effort in collaboration with the guidance counselors to identify and fill the needs and wants of 34 children in need.
- This was organized by Jess Chamberlain on behalf of the PTO
TREASURER UPDATE
Molly Teets, PTO Co-Treasurer
- We continue to be in a strong position financially thanks to the people who have donated to us.
- Some of the major spending categories since the last meeting have been; enrichment, garden, harvest of the month.
- $7,000 on enrichment year to date
- $1,600 earned (without intention as it’s aimed at a break even event) from the Holiday Shops
- Teacher reimbursement requests
- Teachers Pay Teachers allotment update/ specialists – $160 used out the $500 thus far
- We added a category for NEW teacher reimbursements as they have unique needs – $670 total.
- $700 on storage space, which had not anticipated originally, until we can secure a space in the new building
- Tax filing extension granted by the state given complexities involved with merging PTOs, name changes, etc.
MAGIC HAT UPDATE
Kate Whorf, Magic Hat Representative
- Update on what Magic Hat is – volunteer run thrift shops that has raised $1.36M raised to date for MPS, which gets allocated to the PTOs/PCOs
- $15,000 was allocated to the Brown PTO October and we expect another allocation in the spring
- Donations accepted on Thurs, Fri and Sat
- Volunteer opportunities
- Feb 9-12 is our next volunteer week, then Mar 23-26 followed by May 11-14
- You can pop in and ask if they have any laundry needing to be washing and we earn an hour of volunteer credit for your children’s school
- Small furniture – for every $10 they price it at, you get an hour of volunteer credit
TEACHER APPRECIATION COMMITTEE UPDATE
Madey Poss, PTO Co-Secretary
- Overview of committee function – putting a smile on teachers faces
- Dec 9 we provided lunch salads from Shubies which teachers appreciated
- Next week, we will organize a coffee pop up
- Feb will be a Valentine’s Day token of appreciation
- March (30th TBC) lunch during teacher professional development day
ENRICHMENT COMMITTEE UPDATE
Bit Coppola, Enrichment Co-Chair
- Since November, we organized Atlantic White Shark to come in and organized a professionally led Talk on Kindness
- Tomorrow will be science enrichment for 2nd and 3rd grades
- We have a volunteer working on preschool enrichment of their own (they often join the Kindergarten sessions)
- Brazilian Dancers and Tanglewood Marionettes are hopefully going to get scheduled in the outside space in the Spring.
- Joppa Flats from Mass Audubon Society to be held in the STEAM classroom in second half of this year also
- Per Sean, the best way for us to gather feedback is via a Google Form right after the enrichment session that he can send to the teachers
GARDEN COMMITTEE UPDATE
Kristen Pratt, PTO Co-Secretary
- Harvest of the month in January was Apples – served whole fruit to be more Covid friendly
- Ongoing Mindfulness Sessions with Students
- 3 sessions per class per year during second half of this school year
- Garden beds are expected in the next month or two and we can’t wait to start planting
- Small wares are being funded by The Building Committee reserves and we are purchasing those now.
- Garden Shed Vote
- Abby made a motion to approve the purchase of a garden shed to be located on the upper hard scape of the Brown School. The primary purpose of the shed will be to house garden tools and equipment that are used to support the PTO funded organic Garden program. We are currently working on sourcing the shed from a local vendor and anticipate the cost to be between $5,0000 and $6,000 installed.
- Kristen seconded.
- Motion passed with 14 in favor : 5 abstained
SPIRIT WEAR SALES UPDATE
Karla Strobel, PTO Vice President
- We sold almost all the sourced inventory (170 of 200 items).
- Moving forward we are moving to an online store in partnership with Marblehead Sports Shop, which will also allow personalization
- We will add more adult size items.
- Molly made a motion to purchase a new Brown School spirit wear to both spread school spirit and gift to teachers and staff this first year in the new school. Cost estimated at $5,500 and would come out of our one time school enhancement budget. Abby seconded.
- Motion passed 16 in favor : 1 against : 2 abstained
MID-YEAR SUPPLY REPLENISHMENT
Kate Schmeckpeper & Danielle Bulger
- This is something that PTO has done for quite a while.
- Last week staff received the order form in their mailbox. They can select from frequently requested items or fill in with other items in need.
- All should be sourced and delivered to classrooms in the coming weeks
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Abby Lewis, PTO Co-President
- Yearbook for Students and Teachers – look for someone to lead this initiative and help organize how the yearbook is designed, photos placed, etc.
- Harvest of the Month (February 16th- Squash) Contact: Barbara Burke
- Squash bread will be prepared by the food service staff and volunteers will portion and deliver to classrooms
- Organic Garden Committee (Spring in outdoor classroom)
- Teacher Appreciation Committee (ongoing)
- Fun Run – Spring 2022