Vinal School PTO Meeting Minutes

October 16th, 2024

  • Welcome from Susan Davis (President) 

  • Introductions

  • Community Events:

    • Stay and Play - huge success - lots of families, lots of Pizza! Great weather. Great kick-off to the school year.

    • Sat Oct 26th: Vinal fam trunk or treat - need more cars to support! Please sign up today! Cafeteria games and DJ after the trunk or treat. No high school volunteers due to homecoming, so all the volunteer support offered the better!

  • Communications:

    • Updates on PTO events and ongoings can be found via our updates in: Email, Website, Vinal Voice, Fliers in the backpacks, Facebook site - If anyone feels that they aren’t getting the updates they need on the ongoings, please reach

    • Printed Student Directorys going home in backpacks soon!

  • In School Enrichment:

    • Teacher mini-grants: Committed about $6k worth of grants to 25 teachers and special education specialists

      • Reading resources

      • Creating comfortable learning experiences (bean bags, chair alternatives)

    • Staff Appreciation soup night: During parent teacher conferences

    • Author Lisl Detlefsen will be visiting in November

  • Treasurer

    • Financials: 
- We seek to be transparent on our funds

    • Student dues total almost $30k!

    • Kickball event will be ~2k to split between the 2 schools

    • World Cup Concessions: $324

    • Directory Advertisements: $1800

    • Stay and play only cost $15 after the money made on Pizza and Concessions

    • First Field Trip for 5th grade: Cost of about $3k

    • Mini grants paid out $4k of the $6k committed so far (Last year we spent around $10k on this)

    • Snack cart for teachers: $200 monthly

  • Fundraising

    • Book Fair: Buttonwood books! This will be during conferences Tues/Wed/ Thurs - looking for set up mon, break down fri and volunteers to help run the cash registers / help kids shop during the event. Bookmark going home in backpack this week

    • Annual Dues: Able to provide at least one field trip per class. There’s still time t pay and we hope to support more than

    • Monthly fundraisers at restaurants: Euromart will be next Thursday! Just mention final - available 11-8. November we will do Papa Ginos

    • Fun Run: Mr Leonard is taking charge! Thanks to Mr T for his support making the schedule. Theme is teamwork.

    • Band Night November 21

    • Jan 4th: Cole vs Vinal Hockey game.

Other:

    • Gift Giving Event: Donate new or like new items - Sat the 14th allow the students to come and shop (it’s free!) to participate in gift giving.

    • We will have a meeting to host an event for parents of new IEP students 



    • - Additional votes in May that will impact our schools

    • Questions from Audience: 

Volunteering - we need CORIs. Is it true you can find out if it’s active on Aspen or do you need to call? Answer from Mr T: Mr T can see in Aspen. Go to Family tab - see contacts and you can see your CORI. CORI to volunteer in building at all. If you’re going to chaperone a field trip you need the next layer - the fingerprints which are good forever

    • Questions from Audience: Fundraising - annual dues. Matching donations - have others been able to take advantage? Answer from Susan: There hasn’t been a consorted effort to get these funds. When you pay, you can indicate if your employer does matching gifts. Bc we are a nonprofit, we an accept. We are now nearing the end of the dues campaign. We will soon follow up with those folks that said their employer matches. 

For the new shopping event - will we have a time period for quiet shopping? Susan: Yes, we will provide time for students to ensure that we’re providing a good experience for all our students

Mr. T’s Update:

  • Fun Run: Teachers helped with Laps and class prizes. All Teachers establishing routines and expectations.

  • Bus meetings: all bus drivers and all students on each bus. Talk about our cares / values so they know the expectations. We’re on same page with bus drivers. We see improvements - we’re establishing seating charts on one bus - parents will be getting notified

  • MCATS - last year was year 3 in a row where we in a growth percentile. We got a “School of recognition”. Great recognition of the ids and teachers.

  • Open House: Good feedback on the event.

  • Norwell Cares: Juniors came and worked in the classroom. Tenth graders cleaned up story walk. Seniors worked with the Seniors in the commimity

  • Screening and Diagnostics have been completed. Teachers will have already communicated to students where there are concerns. Letters go home telling you how to find in Aspen next week

  • Little Red Wagon Award: recognize staff for going above and beyond. A coffee mug with gift certificates that the PTO donates

  • If he’s able, Mr T will join the Dads hockey team

  • Picture day: Interstate got a lot of good feedback! Individual pictures should go home soon - class pictures did go home!

  • Special Town Meeting: vote in December. MBTA zones for affordable housing. If the town votes to approve it, we will be in compliance - the place they could buy is where the Big Y is. If we approve, we will not lose grant money. It is highly unlikely that if we approve the MBTA Act that they would be able to put it in the current spot that it is zoned, however we will be in compliance. Do your research. Get out and vote however you see fit. Be on the lookout for more information coming from the town. You NEED TO ATTEND to have a vote and be there for entirety for your vote to count.