PTO Council Communications
Email from PTO Council
PTO Council newsletter: sent about once a month, mainly information about the PTO Council itself (such as meeting notes/minutes) or information that's otherwise relevant to PTO presidents.
Information that we are asked to pass on to PTO presidents: we'll forward these requests to the relevant PTO presidents, one topic per email, as we receive them. Gatekeeping is minimal; we err on the side of sending rather than not.
Information for newsletters: we'll send these items to the newsletter editors, and not to co-presidents, unless it is for something whose timing and topic makes us think that some PTOs might want to send it to parents by email soon, in which case we'll send it to both newsletter editors and PTO co-presidents. If you are a co-president but you want to receive anything that gets sent to all the newsletters, let us know and we'll add you to that list.
Information exchange between Council members: The Council has created a number of group email addresses to make it easier for members to ask questions, share answers and exchange other useful information. Please remember that they forward to a large number of people, and try to keep messages relevant to PTO matters. And of course, like all emails, remember that it's usually wise to hit "send" only if you'd be comfortable seeing what you've written on the front page of a newspaper!
“School Notes” email list
The PTO Council publishes an email newsletter called "School Notes from the PTO Council." It contains a brief summary of information and events related to schools & parents, such as the agenda and/or brief summary of school committee meetings; requests for parent feedback (e.g. notifying parents of a survey from such as last year's about the elementary progress reports); and notices of events such as talks or presentations by a particular PTO or other organization that may be of broad interest (e.g. the various talks last year sponsored by Project INTERFACE on topics such as bullying, internet safety, and anxiety in children.) Other content, such as questions and answers from the superintendent or other administrators, may also appear, but there will be no commercial information of any kind - no youth sports info, no classifieds, no vacation camp: only information from school-related organizations.
Obviously PTOs already distribute some of this information, but differences in deadlines and schedules, as well as different school cultures, mean that parents across the city may or may not receive any particular piece of information. Therefore, while some content may overlap on occasion, we believe that it offers a valuable service to interested parents. In addition, we hope in the long run that it may relieve PTOs of the burden of managing all of the external information they are currently asked to distribute, and allow them to focus more specifically on their own school's news and information, knowing that parents have another source for citywide information.
If you'd like to learn more, links to last year's newsletters, as well as a more detailed "FAQ," are available from our website's home page.
Website
The PTO Council maintains a website at www.newtonptocouncil.org that serves two purposes. First, it is meant to be a useful resource specifically for our members - that is, the leaders of Newton PTOs. Second, it is meant to be a resource to parents and other interested citizens citywide.
As a member of the PTO Council, you are automatically a "member" of the website and can log in with your email address and a standard password (you will be emailed specific information when you become a member). Currently, the only privilege that membership brings is the ability to see the contact information for all the other members of PTO Council on the website -- but the fact that we can restrict information to members only gives us the opportunity to post information we might otherwise be reluctant to publish to the whole world. Let us know if you have any ideas! (Favorite spring fair games? Fundraising tips? Top secret PTO hang-outs?)
Our general resources include a calendar & notices for upcoming events. Both are designed to list anything of general interest to parents. In addition, however, we would like to make the calendar a resource for PTOs when they are scheduling events, so that a PTO can check the calendar to be sure there isn't already an event that might create a conflict for many families (e.g. something at a feeder school above or below your school.) For this to work, however, we need get the dates of events onto the calendar. So, please submit your calendar (or at least the dates that you think might be relevant) to: calendar@newtonptocouncil.org!
The notices section is simply a central collection of flyers and announcements that stands on its own, or where a newsletter etc. can direct people for further information. For example, if you don't have room for all the details about an event, you could say "see the notices section at www.newtonptocouncil.org for more details." Once again, obviously, this only works if we have the notices to post, so if your PTO is hosting something of broad interest, please send it along to notices@newtonptocouncil.org.
The library is what you'd expect - documents that are useful for reference. It is divided into sections by topic, such as "PTO Administration & Compliance," "School System Budget," and "Special Education." It is by no means comprehensive, but it's a start. We welcome any suggestions for additional documents and will be working on improving the library's organization.