Chestnutwold Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
General Meeting Agenda: May 3rd, 2023
May ChCK Trait- Respect
“Life is Karma, and the best Karma is to be respectful of the Earth, ocean, wildlife, and the human race.” Javier V. Sanchez
Welcome to Dan Horan, Haverford Middle School Principal
Mr. Horan’s Remarks - Thank you for your time. Here to give an overview of the kids transition from 5th to 6th grades. They start planning for the transition in Dec. First they meet with curriculum and instructional departments (LA & Math) district wide, school by school, and they start quantitative data collection. They start creating schedules based on the kids that are coming in. In March/April they transition to qualitative (individual) data collection. By May, they move to a per kid level, and they meet with each Principal for guidance. Schedules are sent home by the end of July. They should be seen as recommendations and there are opportunities to talk about changes from there. Every Quarter they review levels and “who can come up; “ no one moves down a level. Unity Day - all 5th graders come to middle school and meet w/team , take tours of the school, and sit down with a panel of student reps (representing each elementary school) for an open Q & A, which the kids love.. There are 8 days for orientation over the summer and you can pick the best time for your schedule. It will be a presentation, a tour of the bldg, and you can come as many times as you wish. In addition, they want to remain as accessible as possible and encourage people to stop in if they see cars parked by the flagpole. It is a large school, with a small town mindset. They know what it takes to be successful; they outperformed themselves in the last year and they are still asking how they can build on this. How does SEL curriculum play out in Middle School? They have a counseling suite in which there are 4 counselors, 1 social worker, 1 therapeutic counselor, and a secretary who is also trained in emotional support. They offer developmental guidance once a week and similar academic programming as the elem programs. There’s also Health class also has SEL built in 4 days a week, and during advisory time, 2 of those days are dedicated to SEL lessons. They actually have more counseling support than elem. School. What kind of after school activities are offered? The PIAA allows no sports options for 6th grade, but the website has a listing of the over 50 clubs that are available at the middle school. The kids are well informed of the options and are regularly notified on what is happening per week. How many kids per homeroom? 22 average, but they vary in academic classes. On the higher end of levels, classes are bigger at 25- 26 per class. If they need more help, classes are more 20-22; and specialized learning is more 10-12 per class. They love that they have tons of flexibility because of their set up of teams, teachers, buildings.
Recording Secretary Remarks
Proposal for last month's minutes to be passed, as they have been posted and no one has come forward with corrections. - Minutes Pass!
Principal Remarks - Ms. Hockfield It’s a busy couple of weeks coming up. PSSA’s are almost finished; math and science are left. The kids have done great, but everyone is ready to get back - one kid said to her “my brain hurts.” K, 1st and 2nd were great; they were so quiet during a busy time. The Arts Festival is ™ night. The volunteers are blowing her away with how much help they are providing the school. The kids are excited. Then everything happens in the next few weeks of school: picnics, field trips, special lunches, and school meetings….the rest of the year will be fast paced and there’s lots of fun things happening. The kids are all excited about their field trips: 5th grade going to Philadelphia, 4th grade to iFly, 3rd & 2nd to Elmwood Zoo. Thank you also for celebrating Ms. Moss for administrative assistants day - she felt the love!
President Update
Vote on New Board Members - Proposing - President- Suruchi Keenheel, Vice President of After School Activities- Angela Herman, Co- Treasurer- Cathy Goilghtly, Co- Treasurer- Cathy Goilghtly. - 15 people in crowd vote YES and new Board is approved!
Vote on Big Gift- Last year we did the swings for the kids and this year we thought about a gift that would be for a different area of the school community. (*Some 4th grade students have submitted a petition for a Gaga pit but we have decided to look into this further next year; with a possible student fundraising element.) We asked the teachers for ideas and they came up with a list that we felt good fulfilling almost in full. The biggest gift would be a new kiln for the art room! There is one line item we decided against though, and that was the printer request, as we felt that this kind of purchase would warrant further expenditures that we weren’t ready to deal with long term. The total cost for all the items would be around $8200.
Questions from the crowd - Do we know any feedback about the other Gaga pits in the district? Actually Ms. Hockfield checked out the newly installed Lynnewood Gaga pit and the reviews are mixed. It isn’t being used as much as they thought it would be, and it creates a pretty rough situation. Do the teachers still get end of the year gifts from the PTO? Yes, not as part of the budget, rather as a parent run committee effort in which money was raised and is handed out as gift cards during the winter holidays and will be again at the end of the school year. They equal around $15-20 per gift card. (*PTO removed this as a budget item because we thought it was a little ethically shakey to give teachers cash like gifts so directly.)
A vote is proposed to spend the money on this set of gifts to the school. 15 people in the crowd vote YES to this budget vote and the spending is approved!
Taddeo’s Plant Sale- May 5-7- flier in the Blast
Bake Sale/ Clothing Drive- May 16th - look for a signup genius for volunteers and donations.
Water Ice Treat for kids on Friday, need volunteers for afternoon to help serve - Shhh! It’s a secret.
Treasurers’ Report
PTO Treasurer Report - April 2023
Bank balance on 4/30/2023 ended at $24,366.61 down from March’s ending balance of $24,409.52
Deposits totaled $3,192.06. This was mostly due to:
$1,600 Chase Donations
$1,250 Quizzo
Expenditures totaled $3,234.97. This was mostly due to:
$2,100 Field Trips
$297 Classroom Enhancements
$318.75 March Madness Winners
$345.81 Chestnutwold Chatter
Chairmen Announcements
VP of After School Activities -
Thank you for the Quizzo volunteers - it was a fun night!
Chestnutwold Chase 5k and 1 mile Fun Run - Sunday May 21st - last big event of the school year! Registration is still open; just the t-shirt deadline has passed.
VP of In School Activities -
Art show 5/4 - the school is in the midst of an amazing transformation. Come to the Art Show Thursday!
Field Day 5/18 - volunteers/donations needed - sign up genius coming in Blast.
THANK YOU to long time super star volunteers Lalasa Mohr and Rebecca Phelan! We will miss you as you move along to the middle school. Thank you for all your volunteering after all the years.
IDC Update - This month they met about behavior consequences. They were joined by Dr. Whitehead and the guidance counselor joined from Chatham Park Elem. Overall there is no district wide disciplinary action plan; it varies by school. They primarily teach by modeling expectations. There is no pointing out the good & bad behavior per student. The only program is the built-in responsive classroom system. This makes sure consequences vary by age & student. Some schools use incident reports at lunch. This seems to make sense because most incidents can be handled on the spot this way. Specific Questions were emailed that they thought the new principal would find useful; mostly regarding providing grade specific guidelines that could be referred to by all parties in a case of a behavior incident. They group found that this was the missing factor in the district ‘s behavior response.
Ms. Hockfield added - there have been no real updates to the new principal search. They have narrowed things down to 3 candidates - 2 internal, 1 external. Also, YouTube has been removed from district elementary laptops - to the general approval of all in the crowd!
Upcoming Dates/Events
Now through 5/9: Spirit Wear Sale
5/4: Evening of the Arts
5/5-5/7: Taddeo’s Plant Sale
5/12, 5/13: Fifth Grade Play- Willy Wonka!
5/16: Bake sale/Clothing drive
5/18: Field Day
5/21: Chestnutwold Chase
Questions and Comments:
5th grade appreciating the positive options and flexibility their group is being given lately - its a real vibe boost to have the lunch seating situation made more flexible.
Thanks for the PTO supporting the recent pet supply drive on their social media. It made a big difference in their drive and the kids were thrilled. THANKS PTO!