Staff Appreciation Chair’s Report
Hurlbutt PTO 2009-2010
What is a PTO Staff Appreciation Chairs:
The Chairpersons shall be responsible for all staff appreciation events, whether
monthly or annually.
Staff Appreciation’s Role:
Currently, the Hurlbutt PTO only organizes a one-day event, Staff Appreciation
Day, which is held annually during the first or second week of May (need to
coordinate with WIS; cannot be on same day). Nationally, this week is
recognized as Staff Appreciation Week. Next year’s date is coordinated in early
June with both the Main Office staff & the WIS’ Staff Appreciation Chair(s), so
as not to conflict with each other. If you do it the same day, then you will have a
harder time getting volunteers, as a lot of parents have kids in both Hurlbutt &
WIS. As well, Peter’s Market volunteers platters of sandwiches for each school,
so it’s easier for them to separate the events.
Once the date has been selected, reserve the South House Cafeteria & the Faculty
Lounge for the AFTERNOON BEFORE and the DAY OF by completing a
Building Usage Form. This form also indicates time, date, and type of set up
required. It is necessary for the set up to occur the afternoon BEFORE the day,
since the flower and food activity begins so early in the morning.
In June the Staff Appreciation Day vases (& all table cloths) are given to the
newly elected Staff Appreciation Chair(s). There are about 100 vases that are
stored in the faculty lounge, until Staff Appreciation Day. If you find that all the
vases haven’t been returned, email the staff requesting them to be returned to the
Faculty Lounge. (FYI--In April, if you find that you still need extras, there are
vases in the basement of the Board of Education building.) We found more than
enough in the staff lounge. Count them, if you need more ask parents to volunteer
to bring them in by putting a notice in the Blast newsletter.
You will also need to retrieve the cloth table cloths for the round tables and the
vinyl table cloths for the food tables from the previous Chair(s). Lauren
Rosenberg has them.
In August, prior to the Room Parent Orientation, provide the Grade Coordinator
Chair with a sign up sheet for the “Back to School Nights” to be circulated in the
classrooms for volunteers.
After the last “Back to School Night,” collect the completed forms. These will
either be provided to you in your folder or from the Grade Coordinator Chair. If
there are any classes missing, follow up with the Room Parents. Collect a form
from each class, regardless of whether or not it has been completed. Obtain this
email distribution list from the Grade Coordinator Chair.
In March, email the Room Parents who still have open volunteer slots on their
completed sign up sheets. Have them solicit volunteers from their classrooms for
the remaining open volunteer slots. The 2 required Lunch/Recess Volunteers
are the most important ones to get filled. Someone needs to be appointed to
monitor the switching of classes between the playground and cafeteria.
With the completed forms, create a volunteer spreadsheet to track the volunteers
from each class; sorting by job or by food they are brining. This was helpful
because you can see where your needs are and where you can place people who
volunteer at the last minute. It also helped if people canceled or needed to change
what they were bringing. Getting these sheets filled in for each class requires
some organization on your part-divide the list by grade and follow up with room
parents to get every slot completed if possible.
Also, in March, an updated Staff Appreciation Chair’s Report is given to the
current PTO President, via email, to pass to the new, elected Staff Appreciation
Chair(s).
April is a very busy planning month for Staff Appreciation Day. Contact Jim
Magee at Peter’s Market to see if he will donate food. In the past it has been 4
Six-Foot subs (two American, one Italian, and one Veggie sub) or 150 Wraps,
which were cut into 1/3. Have the food delivered by 10:30 am, if possible or pick
it up. (He is extremely accommodating!!) You also get food donations from HES
parents.
In addition, inform Jim of the date, so he can stock a sufficient amount and a wide
variety of flowers. Many parents purchase their flowers at his market.
Begin placing Staff Appreciation Day articles in the weekly blast and the monthly
Scoop. Remind parents about the upcoming Staff Appreciation Day and describe
the tradition of sending children to school with the flowers for the Staff (4-5
flowers per student). Make sure to send reminders 1 week before, as well as the
day before.
You need to purchase paper goods or get them donated: 200 large plates, 200
small plates, 300 cups, and 400 napkins. If you need to replenish the utensils,
then purchase a box each of forks, knives, and spoons (500 of each) from Costco
or BJ’s.
Decide on table arrangement pieces for each of the 4 round tables. It can be as
simple as balloons or plants/flowers in pleasingly designed flower pots. We made
extra vases with flowers and used these as centerpieces.
You will need to obtain the following staff lists: 1) Hurlbutt Staff List from the
Main Office, 2) List of all Bus Drivers & other staff from the Bus Garage, and 3)
Staff List from the Board of Education. Check to see if there are any staff out on
leave for any reason & who the replacement is. Be sure to include the cafeteria
staff.
You will use these lists to determine how many vases, rolls of cellophane, and
ribbon you will need. The Board of Education and each staff member at Hurlbutt
will receive their flowers in vases. Each member of the Bus Garage staff will
receive their flowers in cellophane.
FYI--Hurlbutt split the responsibility of providing flowers for the bus garage and
the Board of Education with WIS. For distance reasons, Hurlbutt did the flowers
for the Bus Garage and WIS did the flowers for the Board of Education.
Staff Invites: Previously this was done with paper invitations, this year we used
Evite and it worked great. We would recommend Evite going forward. Laurie
Eagle can send the Evite to the staff. The invitations should be distributed two
weeks before the Staff Appreciation Day. If you are going to use paper
invitations, give the invitations to the Main Office and they will distribute them
via the teacher’s mailboxes.
One week prior to the event, place reminder flyers to purchase flowers for Staff
Appreciation Day on the front doors to the school (with front office permission),
as well as Peter’s Market (with Jim Magee’s permission). Tie ribbons around the
vases and label them for distribution. You can use bamboo skewers inside the
vases or tie tags around the vases, which included the staff name & location to
make delivery easier, once the vases are filled with flowers.
Contact the PTO Hospitality Chair about using the PTO Coffee maker for the
Staff Appreciation Day. Coffee is appreciated/expected by the staff. We also
brought another coffee urn to have enough coffee. If you need an extra urn, ask
Hillary Koyner. Also, make sure whoever volunteers to bring coffee brings it the
day before –it takes a while to make coffee.
Send out email reminders to those who have volunteered. Remind arrangers to
bring in scissors or plant clippers to clip the stems. Ask the front office to place
brooms in each of the flower arranging stations.
Choose friends to help you in the flower arranging stations. There were 3 stations
set up inside the South House Cafeteria (South House, East House, and North
House) for the flower arrangements. If needed, flowers can be moved from one
station to another. Have the greeters arrive at 8:20 am. Also, if you have a wagon
to bring the flowers to the bus depot that helps. Everyone who volunteers to help
arrange flowers should bring scissors as well.
Place newspaper under the vases. Bring the vases to the arranging stations and
fill them with water. For filling the vases, an assembly line process was used. A
few people unwrapped and clipped the ends of the flowers, placing them on the
table. Others would walk down the table and collect an entire bouquet in their
hands to place them in a vase. Before any vases were delivered, they were
checked to make sure they were all even and look great. (approx. 24 stems per
vase) All the extra flowers were brought to the South House Cafeteria. We put
stickers for each teacher on the vases, if you prefer you can put a notecard but we
found the stickers easier to work with and they looked really nice.
Volunteers need to cut the cellophane for the bouquets. Pre-cut the ribbons for
these bouquets and staple the name tags to each. These bouquets are loaded into 1
or 2 cars and driven down to the bus garage.
Choose someone to be in the Faculty Lounge at the beginning, to collect and setup the food as it comes in. Discuss food drop off procedures with the volunteer in
the Faculty Lounge (i.e. placement of food, putting as much as possible in the
refrigerators, as possible). Label the food tables with the type of item (i.e. salads,
veggie platter, fruit platter, beverages, desserts) in order to simplify the food drop
off for the volunteers. Also, clear out as much room in the fridge as possible.
Give this person a walkie-talkie.
Post the volunteer spreadsheets in the front office on a poster board to help people
know where they are to go.
Once the flowers are collected, assembled, and distributed (and cleaned up!!),
assist those in the Faculty Lounge. Set up the Faculty Lounge with the table
cloths, the centerpieces, and the paper goods. We set the faculty lounge as
follows: one table, to the left of the entrance, for all beverages-soda, water, coffee,
seltzer. Along the side row we set up the salad bar and prepared salads. The back
tables were for sandwiches and one table was for dessert.
Make sure the food and drinks are replenished and look appetizing. Make sure
the round tables are clean and ready for new arrivals to sit down and enjoy their
lunch.
Use saran wrap to wrap up the leftovers for people to take home. Label with a
sign that says, “Please Take.” The teachers really appreciate this.
After the Staff Appreciation Day event, write Thank You notes to Peter’s Market
and one that thanks everyone, which is to be published in the Scoop and in the
Weston Forum. Write notes to “our” extra volunteers & purchase small gifts for:
the custodians, Laurie Eagle, and Mary Lou Dunn, who are very helpful!
Send an email reminder to the teachers to return their vases when they have
finished enjoying their flowers.
Submit expenses to the Treasurer.
OPTIONAL: Create a “You’ve Got Mail” board, which incorporated photos of
each staff member and e-mails sent from students and their families. This is hung
outside the Faculty Lounge and EVERYONE loves it. It is a lot of work, but well
worth it, if you have the time.
In May/June, you train the new, elected Staff Appreciation Chair(s).
Suggestions:
None to report.
TIMELINE
June
 Transition with previous PTO Staff Appreciation Chair(s)
 Work with the Main Office staff & the WIS’s Staff Appreciation Chair(s) to
determine next year’s date
 Reserve the South House Cafeteria & the Faculty Lounge for the AFTERNOON
BEFORE and the DAY OF by completing a Building Usage Form
 Attend new board General meeting
August
 Provide the Grade Coordinator Chair with a sign up sheet for the “Back to School
Nights”
September
 Collect sign up sheets from each classroom (whether it is blank or filled out)
March
 Email the Room Parents who turned in incomplete sheets and have them solicit
volunteers from their classrooms for the remaining open volunteer slots
 With the completed forms, create a volunteer spreadsheet to track the volunteers
from each class; sorting by job or by food they are brining
 The 2 required Lunch/Recess Volunteers are the most important ones to get
filled. Someone needs to be appointed to monitor the switching of classes
between the playground and cafeteria
 Update Staff Appreciation Chair’s Report and submit to current PTO President
April
 Contact Jim Magee at Peter’s Market to see if he will donate food. In the past it
has been 4 Six-Foot subs (two American, one Italian, and one Veggie sub) or 150
Wraps, which were cut into 1/3. Have the food delivered by 10:30 am, if possible
or pick up.
 We collected gift cards from Stop and Shop, Caraluzzi’s and Costco-this allowed
us to purchase materials in advance and extra of things (ie. Serving pieces)
 Inform Jim Magee of the date
 Purchase paper goods: 200 large plates, 200 small plates, 300 cups, and 400
napkins. If you need to replenish the utensils, then purchase a box each of forks,
knives, and spoons (500 of each) from Costco or BJ’s
 Obtain the following staff lists: 1) Hurlbutt Staff List from the Main Office, 2)
List of all Bus Drivers & other staff from the Bus Garage, and 3) Staff List from
the Board of Education
 Prepare and send Staff Invites (again, we used Evite or you can use paper
invitations)
 Begin placing Staff Appreciation Day articles in the weekly blast and the monthly
Scoop (make sure to send reminders 1 week before, as well as the day before)
 Place flower reminder flyer at Market, 1 week prior, as well as the school front
doors
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May
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Contact the PTO Hospitality Chair about using the PTO Coffee maker for the
Staff Appreciation Day
Tie ribbons around the vases and label them for distribution
Send out email reminders to those who have volunteered. Reminding arrangers to
bring in scissors or plant clippers to clip the stems
Ask the front office to place brooms in each of the flower arranging stations
Staff the flower stations and the Faculty Lounge
Bring the flowers to the arranging stations and fill the vases with water
Collect, assemble & distribute the flowers
Clean up the flower arranging stations
Set-up the Faculty Lounge
Get the ice for the beverages
Wrap up the leftovers for people to take home and label with a sign that says,
“Please Take”
Purchase small gifts for custodians, Laurie Eagle & Mary Lou Dunn; write thank
you note to Scoop; and write note to Weston Forum (don’t forget to include Jim
Magee)
Send an email reminder to the teachers to return their vases when they have
finished enjoying their flowers
Submit expenses to the Treasurer
OPTIONAL: Create a “You’ve Got Mail” board
Transition with the newly elected PTO Staff Appreciation Chair(s)
Turn over the 80 vases that are stored at your house, until Staff Appreciation Day