September Newsletter

Dear Meadows Families,

Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year! My name is Nancy Bong, and this is my second year as President of the Meadows Parent Teacher Organization. I have two children attending Meadows - Isaac in 5th grade and Nathan in 3rd grade.

I'd like to tell you a little bit about the PTO here at Meadows. We are a volunteer group of parents who want to make the school the best place where our children can learn. The PTO's main goal is to support the school, the principal, the staff, the teachers, all our students and all our families.

We do that in two main ways. First by organizing, planning, and funding school and community events in order to build a sense of community. The second means of supporting the school is by fundraising. The PTO provides specific programs for Meadows that the district is unable to provide, or that our teachers are requesting to help with education that our students are receiving.

Some of the things the PTO brings to the community are our Crab Feed, Welcome Events, all Field Trips, food related events such as Taco Tuesdays or What's For Dinner Wednesdays, our Fall Carnival, Movie Nights, our International Potluck, School Dances, and the Scholastic Book Fair. All of these things are made possible by our wonderful volunteers.

Last year, the PTO raised $66,136. The main sources were from our Fall Membership Drive, Corporate matching, and General Fundraising. Last year's numbers are unusual as we weren't able to hold our annual Crab Feed, which is the biggest fundraiser the PTO has each year. Shelter-in-place occured a week before the Crab Feed was scheduled and we had to cancel it.

This coming school year, the PTO Executive Committee has discussed where our funds will come from. The Board recognizes that this may be a very difficult time for some families and they may not be able to give. Because there are items that the PTO will still be paying for, we are still having our annual membership drive. However, our goal of $20,000 is about half of what we raised last year. We really appreciate any donations that families are able to contribute, but we also recognize that some families may not be able to due to personal hardships.

This year will also look different in terms of where the PTO will spend our funding. This is changing day by day based on school needs and also what the district has been able to provide. However, we anticipate a large portion of our budget to be towards Technology, Student Enrichment, Classroom/Staff Supplies, and Community/School Events. If there are ways that we can help our teachers teach our students virtually more effectively, the PTO would love to fund those.

It's hard to know what needs to be funded versus what can be run by volunteers. It doesn't mean we shouldn't have these, but we will be thinking of how we can fundraise, socialize, and build community in different ways.

I'd like to close with a call for support. If you are able to support the PTO financially, that is wonderful and we appreciate that immensely. We also need parent volunteers to help organize virtual events, or provide technology support. All of these are means to bring our Meadows community together.

Things will look different, but I have hope that we'll still be able to support our school, support our community, and have a great year!

Sincerely,

Nancy Bong