St. Jerome School
PTO Meeting Minutes and News
February 2008
Principal’s Report: Ms. Kathleen Shea:
Ms. Shea was unable to attend our February meeting because she was ill.
Fortunately, Father Bob, Ms. Kreckie, Mrs. Puleo and Mrs. Madden were there
and able to fill the group in on the following:
School Accreditation: Father Bob and Mrs. Puleo explained the process of
becoming re-accredited. They discussed how the process has changed to
include stricter guidelines and how that only reinforces how proud we should be
that we passed. They also informed the group about some action items that
they are working on as a recommendation from the accreditation board. Even
though we were re-accredited, we need to complete these items as soon as
possible.
SJS PTO Website: The school website is running smoothly and is updated
monthly. Check it out for letters from the teachers, pictures of the children,
forms and various activities taking place. Please take advantage of this terrific
wealth of information.
Special Thanks: The spaghetti dinner held earlier this month was a huge
success. The parishioners as well as school families had a terrific time.
Congratulations to the social committee for all their hard work!
Upcoming Events/News:
March:
The SJS Social Committee will be hosting a St. Patrick’s Day Party on Saturday,
March 15. It will be a fabulous night of fun, food and festivities. Join us from 6
to 11 p.m. at Saint Paula's Hall. Some of the fun includes: Corned beef and
cabbage dinner with drink and dessert, DJ, Irish step dancers, and raffles. This
is a 21 and over event as we will be serving beer and wine. Tickets are $12 per
person and the ticket forms will be distributed within the coming week.
The Social Committee is looking for donations of baked goods for that
evening. Please drop them off Saturday, March 15 at St. Paula's Hall between
the hours of 9 and 1, or contact Eileen Lynch at 781-925-5958.
We are also looking for raffle items. If you have anything we could use or a lead
for us, please contact Brenda O'Connor at brenda.oconnor2@verizon.net or 781337-6949.
If anyone would like to help out with this event, please contact the Social
Committee chairpersons:
Michele Gallagher- edmichele1@verizon.net /781-335-3417
or
Brenda O'Connor- brenda.oconnor2@verizon.net / 781-337-6949
Thanks and hope to see you there!
April:
The Beach Party will be held on Friday, April 4 from 7-9 pm in St. Paula’s Hall.
The $1,000 Club that had dissolved at the end of December has been born again
and will now be know as the Fortune $500. It will hopefully get up and running
in April, and will run for 12 months through next March. Tickets are $50. The
monthly prizes are: 1st prize $500, 2nd prize $250, and 3rd prize $50. Sue
McDonough, and Amy Meschino are the chairpersons, but they are looking for
two more volunteers to help them run it. Anyone who is interested may contact
the school office. Your participation would be greatly appreciated!
Additional Discussion Items:
Orientation Program:
The issue was raised that we could use a formal orientation program for new
families entering the school. It was determined that a lot of information is
overlooked when new families arrive. This would be beneficial for all new
families, especially those in K1 and K2. A survey will be sent home to aid in this
effort. We will be asking for your feedback on this topic so that we can build and
execute a successful orientation program. Please take a few moments to fill this
out for us. We really appreciate your assistance with this.
PTO Meeting Attendance:
We need to increase our attendance at the PTO meetings. There are over 100
families in the school, yet each meeting is sparsely attended. The same 12-15
parents show up for each meeting. Please make every effort to attend these
informative and engaging meetings.
Recess:
Parents are looking for alternatives to the “indoor recess” on rainy days. After
days of rain with the inability to go outside for recess, energy levels of the
students rise. Discussions took place to determine how this time could be better
served. The teachers will discuss it to see if they can come up will alternatives
to allow the children to “burn off energy” on rainy days.
Family Mass Volunteers:
The parish is looking for help in picking up and preparing the coffee and donuts
for the 10 a.m. Mass on Sunday. Several families have been doing it faithfully
every month for a couple of years, and we’re looking for new families to take
over. Please contact Mrs. Madden in the school office if you’d like to volunteer
for one week each month.
Upcoming PTO Meeting Schedule:
All meetings will be held from 7 – 8 p.m. in the School Gym. Agendas will be
distributed prior to each meeting.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
PTO Ideas?
PTO Suggestions: Please email any PTO suggestions to Rose Sheehan, PTO
President at rrsheehan@partners.org. We really do want your suggestions and
ideas to make the SJS PTO a more effective group.