Spring 2010 PTO Meeting

We had a fantastic meeting Tuesday night -- thank you to everyone who attended!

Here's a recap:

Autonomous schools: CSR has been accepted by the District to be one of 4 pilot autonomous schools. Jay Piper told us he is working to get some direction from downtown as to what that really means. There are four basic areas in which autonomous schools are supposed to have more flexibility: curriculum, scheduling, budgeting, and staffing. Several parents had ideas about programs and directions for CSR, and Jay took it all down for consideration.

Food service: We would like to schedule a meeting to follow-up our Fall PTO meeting with Food Service Director Leslie Fowler. We need input from parents. What do you think of your child's school meals? The issue of offering rice at CSR is still outstanding, although Felix Jacobs said that the necessary equipment has been purchased and needs to be installed over the summer. Question for parents: would you prefer to meet with Ms. Fowler at her office during business hours (preferably at the end of the day) or at CSR for an evening meeting in late May or early June? One advantage of meeting her at her office is that there may be an opportunity to taste test some of the foods our kids are offered.

End of the year Family Picnic: This is scheduled for June 11th. We need volunteers for set-up and clean-up duties. Please let me or Betsy know if you can help. This year we are considering asking for people to return a form indicating whether or not they are planning on attending, since last year we had so much extra food. Planning for this event is difficult, and having more people involved would really help.

Staff Appreciation Day: We need volunteers to help set up, either at the end of the day on Thursday May 27 or first thing in the morning on Friday May 28. This is a lunch that we provide to the staff as a gesture of appreciation for all that they do for our children all year long. Please bring in a dish or other food item that we can offer our awesome CSR staff. More details will be forthcoming soon.

Bus Driver Appreciation: We are thinking about perhaps an end-of-the-day ceremony, but Jay will solicit some feedback from staff, since dismissal time is sometimes hectic. Do you have any ideas about how we can show our appreciation to our bus drivers? Please let us know.

Next Year's PTO: Jay is thinking of ways to involve more ESL parents, and I would love to have a bilingual parent as chair or co-chair next year. Fund-raising is a problem, and at the rate that things are going, the PTO will not be able to provide additional funds to classrooms and specials the way we have in the past. If you have ideas about how to raise funds from parents in these challenging economic times, please let us know!

Thanks again to everyone who attended. Your support means the world to us!