What is the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)?
The Flatirons PTO is dedicated to supporting our school community and the education of our students in a number of ways. While a key role of the PTO is to raise funds to support this effort, there are many opportunities for parents to be involved, besides the fundraising effort itself.
Much of our fundraising effort is sent directly to the classroom and for school-day extracurricular activities: for example, we fund teacher classroom support, exciting and inspiring school assemblies, and field trips as well as support other requests made by the staff to help them provide an ultimate learning experience for our children.
In addition we coordinate many volunteer activities and events, provide a forum for communication between parents and staff, and serve as a parent-based liaison between our school and the District.
The Flatirons PTO meets monthly during the school year to review events and activities, make budget decisions and share in the success of our fabulous elementary school.
Meeting Schedule
PTO usually meets on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. in the library. Childcare is provided and food is served (both for the parents and the children). Both of these are free of charge.
Our meetings are open to all parents of the school for one, a few or all of our meetings. In addition to our parents, our meetings are also attended by many staff members and our principal, Scott Boesel.
We think that you will find the meetings to be informative, fun, and a good way to find out how you might like to support our Flatirons community.
A Special welcome to Kindergartens parents and those new to our school--Many of you think that PTO is already established and not something you can contribute to. In fact, you are our future….the earlier you get involved the earlier you can help shape your children’s education and your community at our wonderful school…please come and get involved!
How can you get involved?
There are countless ways to be involved with PTO. We have many volunteer options open for the next year, and unfilled positions on committees. We welcome you to come to our next meeting, browse our volunteer page or contact one of the people below.
PTO Members and Officers, FY08/09
All Flatirons parents and staff are automatically members of PTO. However, as we are a registered non-profit, interested Flatirons parents are elected as officers every year, usually at the final PTO meeting of each school year.
The PTO Officers for FY08/09 School Year are as follows. Please contact any one of them for any further questions you may have or to register your interest to be involved.
Other Committees, FY08/09
Budget
Documents prepared by PTO Treasurer
Our Fundraising Philosophy: The Flatirons Challenge
The Flatirons Challenge is the name for our school’s unique fundraising effort. Unlike many schools or non-profit organizations, where you are asked to sell popcorn or wrapping paper to raise funds, we raise most of our funds through a single direct request to our parents. In the month of October of each year, we ask all of our parents to make a contribution to our school. For those families for whom a financial contribution is not appropriate, we ask that they make a contribution through non-monetary efforts, e.g. volunteering in the classroom. Often families will make both types of contributions. Most importantly, we strive for 100% participation in some form from all of our families. By raising our funds in this fashion, our parents have more time to focus efforts on educational activities.
See the Flatirons Challenge page.
How Do We Use the Money?
The money raised by the PTO supports many and varied activities at the school, including:
- Instructional Support (providing additional educators in our classrooms),
- Curriculum Enrichment, including Monthly Assemblies with visiting speakers and performers,
- Before and After School Programs, such as Chess Club and Running Club,
- Anti-Bullying, Conflict Resolution, and Child Assault Prevention Programs,
- Field Trips,
- Outdoor Classroom,
- Supplemental Classroom Materials,
- Technology
- Community Building Activities, including
- School Picnics
- Ice Skating Party
- Astronomy Night
- Staff Support, including staff appreciation week, retirement gifts, etc.,
- Classroom Parties, and
- Scholarships.
A graphical representation of how the PTO budget is distributed appears on the Flatirons Challenge page.