Vinal School PTO Meeting Minutes

November 6th, 2024

  • Welcome from Susan Davis (President) 

  • Tom Hickey from South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School

    • Norwell has been part of the SS Voc program since inception in 1960 

    • Trying to get a new school since 2015 - school opened since 1962

    • Waiting list for students, highest enrollment

    • Voters in 9 towns get to decide whether to build the new school 

    • Norwell kids apply to go to school - we have 26 students from Norwell out of 625 kids total

    • Over 40% if applicants are currently turned away due to lack of space - not from Norwell as we currently don’t fill our allotted roles. Increase space from 680 to 900 students if school approved.

    • 12 vocational majors - will add 2 if the new school is approved. plumbing and Vet Science program 

    • Current school on Webster street  - larger school built where the baseball fields are 

    • Current 5th grade kids would be the first enrolled at new school.

    • Special election - polling place in every town. In person or absentee ballot. This is not a debt exclusion or an override. This operates in its own pathway. 

    • $165 million - Norwell’s share is about 3.5%

    • By the end of the month there will be tax impact assessment. Estimated at $75-$90 per average assessed house in Norwell. 

  • Community Events:

    • Trunk or Treat: Great event, great participation. We had about 20 or so cars. Turnout was great - especially for a fist event. Social event. 

    • We’re looking for a Parents Night out at Ryans in Jan. 

  • Communications:

    • Directory will be sent home soon. 

  • In School Enrichment:

    • Snack Sistahs continue to filli the cart. 

    • The soup night was amazing and had great feedback from the teachers. We had over 18 crockpots of soup brought in. 

    • Mini grant season ended. We approved 42 of them. We went slightly over budget - but happily so based on the asks of the teachers. Up to $300 for each student to supplement their classroom. 

    • We have Author visit Lisl on Friday before thanksgiving. Books are selling. She has cranberry farmers in her family - Time for Cranberries is her first book and the one she will focus on for the Vinal community. 

    • Book Bee is coming back for the 5th grade. PTO will likely support to fund purchases of new books - multiple copies etc. List of books kids are invited to read. Ms. Howard will select questions and the students have the opportunity in their classroom to answer. 

  • Treasurer

    • $34k in student dues - high participation! 

    • Purchase of recess equipment for Mr Leonard 

    • Kickball was almost $2k ($1k per school) 

  • Fundraising

    • Fun Run is tomorrow!!! We are already at $22k this am! Thank you to all that helped promote and donate. 

      • A couple more volunteers needed for tomorrow 

      • Any class that hits their goal gets their class incentives! - more than 50% of classes have hit. 

      • Pajama day on 11/22  since more than 50% of students are registered . 

    • Toybox fundraiser on Nov 17th . 

    • 21st of Nov Tinkerson Vinal / Cole Dad band night 

    • Dad’s Hockey event - Sat Jan 4th. Lovell arena. We are hoping to have Mr. T play! This is an amazing example of a group of parents that came together to create an amazing event. 

    • Bookfair was an amazing success! All of the books should be delivered this week - we had a couple delayed titles. Quality of books was amazing. A few more easy read selections would be great. Netted almost $2k - potentially tied to book bee. 

    • Norwell holiday ornament kits will be available for sales on the website. 

    • Norwell gear available on the website!

Other:

    • Placemat design - students are working on this this week in Art. We will laminate and distribute to the local nursing homes for Thanksgiving. 

    • Decemnber 14th: Gift of Giving event: donated items from the community. Set up in the cafeteria. Kids will be able to shop for free. If you have items to donate, drop off at one of the drop off locations. Please RSVP to get tickets for your kids so we can assess if we have enough items. Drop offs due by Dec 6th. Donate wrapping paper too. 

Mr. T’s Update:

  • Soup was delish - thanks for all that supported 

  • Broke apart the community meetings. It helps the younger kids learn the expectations 

  • Fire prevention week 

  • ELA diagnostics done - email sent to families. Screening for the risk of dyslexia. 

  • Picture retake day: we may do one more since some families hadn’t gotten their pictures yet. 

  • Congress of councils: school improvement. Monthly meeting with school, community and parent reps. Uncertainty of budget what do we need to maintain? These are our values: Maintain small class sizes with great teachers. 

  • Grade 2: Bulb planting 

  • Conferences (with the soup!): busy but went well 

  • New tables in the Cafeteria. 

  • Student government elections tomorrow! 

  • Bleachers: new coming 15-18th of this month. Mon they are removing, they will be installed shortly after. 

  • Vote on MBTA housing. Meeting Dec 12th at the Library. This impacts our grant funding - please educate yourself and show up to vote.