Watertown-Mayer Elementary School PTO Who we are & what we do...

Mission The Watertown-Mayer Parent Teacher Organization (WMPTO) strives to extend students’ learning through enriched educational experiences, offering opportunities for community and parental involvement and acting as a forum for families to stay connected to our school.

Who are we? Our organization is a 501c3 not for profit agency. We are a group of parent volunteers, teachers and other school staff who meet once per month. We have an agenda each month and the secretary takes minutes. Our guiding “rules” are our bylaws. The agenda, minutes and bylaws can be found on the school website under organizations. This area is a work in progress and will be updated in the coming months.

PTO Board President: Katy Jo Danielson Vice President: Kellie Nightingale Secretary: Jessica McGowan Treasurer: Nikki Hunkins Public Relations: Stephanie Bowar ***subject to approval vote at end of meeting***

How to be in the know... PTO Bulletin Board in the the hallway by the cafeteria Facebook: Watertown-Mayer Elementary School PTO Website: www.mn.k12.mn.us, under organizations School email newsletter Flyers sent home with students Email: PTO@wm.k12.mn.us

What do we do? School Supply Kits DQ Art Nights Book Fair Papa Murphy Pizza Sales Conference Meals Yearbook Sales Cash 4 Trash Holiday Luncheon Family Movie Night Strides for Students Teacher Appreciation Week

School Supply Kits Sales are in May and June for the next school year. The kits include all the required items as listed on the school supply list sent home in July. The PTO makes approximately $5 per box. We have a PTO representative who is in charge of working with the company to set everything up including flyers, school lists, online ordering, etc. Once the school supply kits arrive in Mid August, PTO members sort the supplies by teacher and help distribute to the classrooms. **Katy Jo Danielson

DQ Art Nights The Dairy Queen in Delano works with the school to get dates during the school year for each classroom. The classroom teacher has the kids create some sort of an art project for display at DQ on their classroom day. The PTO organizes volunteers to pick up artwork from the Elementary School, display it on the walls at DQ, and take down the artwork the next day and return it to the school. This is all done through sign-up genius and emails. The PTO receives a percentage of sales from each art night. **Katy Jo Danielson

Book Fair The PTO sets up Scholastic book fairs on conference nights in both the Fall and Spring. There are books and other items available for purchase each night as well as online ordering. The PTO utilizes volunteers to help setup, check out customers and take down the fair. The PTO gives each teacher a dollar amount to spend at the fair. We also ask teachers for wish lists so that parents can purchase books for their child’s classroom. The money we make through the book fair is in Scholastic dollars. Half of the profits go to the library to purchase books and the other half can be used by the PTO to purchase items for the school. *Kellie Nightingale & Nikki Hunkins

Papa Murphy Pizza Sales To make conference night meal prep easy we send out order forms for parents to order a meal deal from Papa Murphy’s. Families get to pick from 3 different pizzas, a side and a pop for $20. Families can also purchase a coupon for the same meal deal to use at the Waconia or Spring Park locations at a future time. Pick up is easy right in the lobby the night of your conference. The PTO puts together the flyer, collects the money, makes the orders and passes out the pizzas to families. *Jessica McGowan & Nikki Hunkins

Conference Meals/Holiday Luncheon To show our teachers appreciation for working a 12 hour day as well as at the holidays, we provide them dinner on all conference nights. We have done soups and salads, taco bar, hot sandwiches, desserts, drinks and more. PTO provides everything for these meals. We ask parents to sign up via sign-up genius for main dish, side dish, dessert, drinks, utensils, plates, cups, etc. The teachers LOVE these nights. **Tammy Bullock

Yearbook The PTO takes care of collecting money for the yearbook orders and final payment to lifetouch, our yearbook company. We have a few volunteers and staff that take pictures and one coordinator puts together the final product. This is a great representation of the highlights from WMES for the year. *Shannon Wetterlund

Cash 4 Trash Ways to donate to the PTO through things you are already doing. Box tops - Clipped and scanning receipts through the app. Coke rewards - Bottle tops and codes on containers are collected Loaves for learning - bread shaped bar codes off bread from Country Hearth & Village Hearth products are collected and submitted Amazon Smile - you can chose WMPTO as a recipient of a percentage of your amazon purchases. *Nikki Hunkins

Family Movie Night Bring the family as well as blankets and chairs to enjoy a movie in the school gymnasium. This is a family event, parental supervision is required. The PTO provides concessions including snacks, popcorn and juice boxes for purchase. We are lucky enough to get to work with the student council for this event. They run the concession stand and help with setup and clean up. We do use a few parent volunteers to help with a variety of things. *Katy Jo Danielson

Strides for Students Our one and only fundraiser for the year. This event requires a lot of manpower. This event starts with students getting pledges for walking in the event. For each $20 raised there are different prizes, opportunities, etc. There is an all school assembly before the event where the top fundraisers are recognized. T-shirts are also available for purchase Day of the event: There is the walk that starts at the school, goes into downtown on the luce line and back to school. There are other day of events including bounce houses, face painting, crazy hair, tattoos, a food truck, the Watertown Fire Department has a fire truck there and a Carver County Sheriff is there too.

Strides for Students (2) The big fundraiser day of is our silent auction. Items include one of a kind experiences with teachers (tea parties, flower picking, pool parties, minute to win it parties, fairy garden making and more!), American Girl dolls, Royals Gear and so much more. The PTO needs help on committees for this event. Committees include: Silent Auction, Publicity, Food, Volunteers, Day of Activities, T-shirts & School/Home communication. *Nikki Hunkins & Kellie Nightingale

Teacher Appreciation Week Teacher appreciation week is in May. Every day we celebrate our teachers in a different way. One day is always a breakfast. This has been done for years and the teachers enjoy this very much! We have also done a trail mix bar, popsicles, desserts, little trinkets and more. We also have raffle drawings throughout the week for teachers too. This week is a fun way for us to honor our teachers and all they do. *Tammy Bullock & Katy Jo Danielson

Where does the money go? Now that you have seen the different things we do including fundraisers, where does the money go? I love to read month - The PTO funds this event for the school ~$2000.00 Supplementing field trips for all grades ~$7200.00 Teacher Books - ~$500.00 Grants to teachers - ~$8200.00 Scholastic Dollars to the school library for books ~$1500.00 Teacher Appreciation - ~$250.00 ~$18,000 back to the school from the PTO

What can you do? Look at the different events that we do. Is there one that interests you? IF so please email PTO@wm.k12.mn.us or contact the starred people for that event to see how you can help! We can’t wait to see what 2019-2020 brings for the WMES PTO! Thanks for joining us!