Presidents’ Forum wants share the great things happening in our school PTOs. Find out what our PTO parents are doing to help kids, connect parents, and support our school community.
April 2012
Jen Thomas, Crestview Middle
The school PTO created a fully stocked food and clothing pantry for the Got Your Backpack program predominately through students' giving efforts.
Ellen Luft and Carla Valenti, Fairway Elementary
The school PTO started a gift-giving program through the donation of gift cards from our parents. The teacher will call a family in need to determine how the school community can help. The supplies are purchased with the donated gift cards and the teacher makes the delivery to the family.
February 2012
Anna Speaker, Ballwin Elementary
At Christmas we did an Adopt-a-Family/Giving Tree program helping roughly 15 families. Our upcoming cookie dough sale is no longer needed for our budget, so funds earned will go to RTI (reading intervention), as well as to help needful families.
Paula Shirley and Jennifer Remspecher, Blevins Elementary
Food drive for Circle of Concern (food group education connection)
Pennies for Patients (coming this month)
Jump Rope for Heart
Fifth-grade Pink Out Day for Susan G. Komen
Hat Day for Friends of Kids with Cancer
Staff does jeans day every other week for Relay for Life
Third-grade Garage Sale (econ unit – money donated to Relay)
Staff adopted two families at Christmas
Green For Greenery (Joplin Tree Fundraiser)
Jim Hannon, Bowles Elementary
We’re doing Operation PEACE (people, environment, animals concern everyone). Under this umbrella, students have led service learning projects. The ones currently running are a canned food drive and the Gateway 180 Homeless Shelter drive. These were developed by our students.
1) Girl Scouts Service Learning Project: Our troop is collecting money in each classroom in order to help the Gateway 180 Homeless Shelter provide healthy snacks for their children after school. The ladies in the troop made signs, developed a Powerpoint (which is running in the cafeteria), created an announcement, and provided each classroom with a collection jar. This project will be running through the end of February.
2) Bowles Canned Food Drive: Each grade will collect for a month, with our first graders collecting food during the month of February. Our totals for the month of January are as follows: Kindergarten: 120 lbs (96 meals this helps to provide to area’s families in need) and 3rd grade: 144 lbs (115 meals this helps to provide to area’s families in need).
Shannon Willhite, Chesterfield Elementary
Holiday Gift Giving Programs support CES families in need with holiday gifts. Leftover money will be used to provide food for families who are homeless.
Zachlyn Farwig, REACH - Rockwood Early Childhood
We collect items throughout the year for the Rockwood Early Childhood Pantry to provide food, clothing, diapers and more to our early childhood families. A Shop for the Cure was held to raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life Rockwood TEAM.
Lisa Hartzhorn, Ellisville Elementary
Dad’s of Ellisville had a pancake breakfast for the school community in December. The Dads’ collected toys for the Toys for Tots program at this breakfast. A huge load was collected.
Carla Valenti and Ellen Luft, Fairway Elementary
Collected over 1,700 food items for the backpack program. Launched a new gift giving program in December; to date, we’ve helped provide clothing, food, cleaning supplies and toiletries for four families.
Nancee Beattie, Green Pines Elementary
We had a “mitten tree” and adopted several Green Pines families in need to make sure there was plenty under their Christmas trees. First grade sells popcorn to raise money for the Humane Society. Third grade holds a “garage sale” to raise money for a local women’s shelter. All grade levels do a community service project – the two listed are examples.
We collected more than 70 coats for Warner’s Winter Warm-Up. We are holding a Red Cross Blood Drive this Saturday.
Zachlyn Farwig, Kellison Elementary
We collected items for a care package for military troops overseas. A collection was held for Circle of Concern – our local food pantry. Families were adopted for the holidays; Kellison students could choose an ornament from a tree to provide a gift for a member of the family. Valentine Grams have been on sale to raise funds for Relay for Life.
Kary Bachert and Angie Santoni, Pond Elementary
Our school supports Baskets of Hope. The baskets are delivered to children who are going through cancer treatments in hospitals. Our school collected over 650 toy items and $460 in quarters to support this organization. Recently Josh Brown, Rams kicker, visited our school to celebrate and encourage our students’ success.
Jaime Bayes and Loralee Mondl, Uthoff Valley
Sock Hop – 180 people = TONS of socks for UV Helping Hands
Staff involvement now – bringing in food
Line item/fund in our budget for UV Helping Hands allows us to accept cash/check donations via PTO and purchase gift cards
January 2012
Melanie Stout, LaSalle Springs Middle
We received a grant to build an amphitheater behind our new pavilion, which will be under construction soon.
Zachlyn Farwig, Early Childhood Education
A group of our therapists were awarded a Rockwood Schools Foundation grant to promote students composing and performing music.
Carla Valenti and Ellen Luft, Fairway Elementary
We reached our goal for our Eagle Club, the school's straight donation program. We've negotiated and signed a contract for shade for our playgrounds. We established a new gift-giving program. With this program, we identify a family in need each month and then provide needed items, such as clothes, cleaning supplies, food, etc. We gave $200 worth of items in December, and have funds for another family in January.
Lindy Schroeder, Kehrs Mill Elementary
When the kindergarten wing was added to Kehrs Mill, we lost our swings to make room for the building addition. Our PTO saved money for new swings and took advantage of the district's fund-matching program, which more than matched our PTO savings. The kids are super happy!
Zaclyn Farwig and Gina Jensen, Kellison Elementary
Our Kids Night Out fundraiser was a wonderful success thanks to the work of our Physical Education Team. Our music teacher was awarded a matching grant from the Rockwood Schools Foundation titled "Rock Stars" for materials for music composition and for guitar playing. Our fifth-grade students had a great DARE celebration in December.
Loralee Mondl and Jaime Bayes, Uthoff Valley Elementary
Uthoff Valley Helping Hands is a team formed to help those in need within the community. This team provides food, shoes, socks, hygiene products and school snacks.
Mary Roberds, Eureka High School
Deb Asher, EHS Principal, and the PTO hosted a meeting that included all principals and PTO Presidents from the Eureka feeder schools. In December, topics included class rank, standards-based grading and intervention strategies. Meetings are being planned for the third and fourth quarters of this school year.
November 2011
Mary Roberds, Eureka High School
EHS and EHS PTO hosted its annual Veteran's Day Luncheon on 11/9/11 with guest speaker, John Arata, and music by the choir and symphonic band.
Sarah Dieter, Lafayette High School
There's a lot of school spirit happening at LHS, especially in the athletic realm: World Series MVP and hometown hero David Freese is a Lafayette grad and has been tweeting the students. Lafayette had 5 teams go to state this fall. Field Hockey and Volleyball both won the state championships! Girls tennis came in 3rd, Cross Country was the 4th team to make it to state and boys swimming will compete for the title this weekend (11/12 & 13/11).
Zachlyn Farwig, Early Childhood Education
We are in the process of awarding staff grants to improve the program. Our PBS/Character Education program is being promoted at home by asking parents to award "stars" to their children when their behavior follows the superstar code.
Jim Hannon, Bowles Elementary
Bowles is being honored at the Board of Education next Thursday! Last year, Bowles was the recipient of a Promising Practice Award by Character Education Partnership. We were recognized for our MAP Assemblies that take place during our MAP testing period. The assemblies do more than just energize our 3rd-5th grade testers, they help to unite our school community and emphasize “showing what our students know” on the state-wide assessment. This is truly a great tribute to the hard work and dedication of our Character Education Committee and the success of all our students.
Shannon Willhite, Chesterfield Elementary
We have had a great transition into the school year with a new principal, administrative intern and office staff. We were the first elementary school to print and distribute our Buzz Book - quite an accomplishment with all new office staff.
Ellen Luft and Carla Valenti, Fairway Elementary
We are having our first Grandparent's Day to get grandparents or other loved ones involved in our school. Our staright donation program has met our goal of $12,000.00 with company matches.
Nancee Beattie, Green Pines Elementary
We are collecting items and assembling care packages for U.S. Armed servicemen. We are collecting coats for Warner's Winter Warm-Up. In addition, we are also excited about David Freese, a Green Pines Alum.
Zachlyn Farwig, Kellison Elementary
We celebrated Red Ribbon Week with spirit days encouraging healthy choices. Our first Team Rally celebrated achievements for first quarter. Our Trivia night was both fun and successful and P/T conferences were well-attended. Our Book Fair was also successful.
Angie Santoni and Kary Bachert, Pond Elementary
Last Friday (11/4/11), Pond held a dedication to celebrate meeting AYP on the MAP tests (only 1 of 4 Rockwood schools), the completion of the new construction at our building and dedication of the tile mosaic Panther created by our students last spring. We were honored to hear stories from former Pond Principal Claire Maguire, as MC of the event.
October 2011
Carla Valenti and Ellen Luft, Fairway Elementary
We received an $8,000 grant from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) for shade on our playground. We are securing bids now and Rockwood Facilities has agreed to do the labor for installation. With this grant and our Trivia Night, we have over $15,000 for this shade project.
Anna Speaker, Ballwin Elementary
For a school service project, buddy classes got together and assembled 100 Hero Packs for Mission Continues, an organization that serves the children of military personnel stationed overseas. Our students put together bags with notebooks, pencils, markers, and a letter to its recipient. For community building, we hosted a Fall Family Fun Night with movies and popcorn, dancing and a cake walk. We had a great family turnout!
Jaime Bayes and Loralee Mondl, Uthoff Valley Elementary
Our principal is accepting our National School of Character Award at the NSOC Conference. We are excited to share this celebration with our Grand Person's on Oct. 27th at Grand Person's Day.
Lisa Hartshorn, Ellisville Elementary
Ellisville raised $22,000 this year with our first annual direct donation campaign - 104 percent and counting!
Zachlyn Farwig, Kellison Elementary
We had a successful walk to school event, a first stripes shirt day, a great PE Family Fun Night. In addition, our school is getting the National School of Character Award.
Paula Shirley, Blevins Elementary
Our BNO (Blevins Night Out) at Culver's was a huge hit with our entire school community. We had the restaurant and drive-through packed from 4-8 p.m. with students' families, and teacher/staff families. It was a fun community night.
Sarah Harris, Woerther Elementary
With the collaboration of parents, staff, and administration, we are starting a Rockwood Parent Advisory Council (RockwoodPAC) for families with special educational and 504 needs. RockwoodPAC will work in tandem with Rockwood and Special School District teachers, administrators and counselors, to ensure every child has the opportunity for an equal and appropriate education. RockwoodPAC will meet on a quarterly basis.
Zachlyn Farwig, Early Childhood Center
We had great sales at our book fair and a successful trivia night for early childhood.
Rhonda Costa, Selvidge Middle
We collected stuffed animals, new and gently used, and donated them to a Joplin charity. Last week, we sold pink suckers and all proceeds were donated to breast cancer awareness.
Mary Roberds, Eureka High
Our senior celebration fundraiser, the Taste of the Town, is sold out!
Sarah Dieter, Lafayette High
Homecoming week turned out to be a wonderful demonstration of school and community spirit here at Lafayette. Shark week was the theme. It started on Sunday, Sept. 25th, with a Fun Walk at the school with a couple of hundred participants. Throughout the week, students participated in silly games that pitted grades against each other in fun. Monday, the grade levels competed in hallway decorating contests. Wednesday night, more than 200 senior girls and 100 junior girls played in the powderpuff games in front of a packed stadium. Over 100 senior boys provided the halftime entertainment as the "Escadudes." It was quite a show. Approximately $8,000 raised in entry frees was donated to the Water for Panama and Habitat for Humanity charities. Friday brought more beautiful weather for the parade, which had more than 50 floats in it, many from the community. Plus the streets were lined with families joining in the fun. The parade led to tailgating before the big homecoming game. The week ended with an almost record-breaking attendance at the Homecoming Dance with 1,500 students. It was a great week to be a part of the Lafayette community!
Rhonda Costa, Marquette High
We just finished the "Taste of Marquette" and it was a great community fundraiser.
It helped raise money for the Senior Farewell for both the junior and senior classes.