Ashland K-12 PTO

PTO Job Descriptions

Read below to view the details of each PTO position. 

President

Oversees/directs all PTO activities; accountability for all areas of operation. This includes:

• Set yearly organizational mission
• Set monthly Board Meeting agenda; lead meeting
• Lead discussions and subsequent voting on fundraisers and events for the year
• Ascertain that planning for upcoming events or fundraisers is going smoothly
• Review flyers for appropriateness and timeliness, make sure all outside communication has been prepared and delivered, and signage is completed
• Review monthly P&L’s
• Review membership reports and lead relative discussions
• Review school enrichment activity
• Review monthly minutes
• Prepare “Letters from the President” to report news to membership and community
• Prepare various notices and correspondence to be sent to membership body
• Direct webmaster for inclusion or removal of information on PTO website
• Liaison with Superintendent of Schools and School Committee
• Lead/assign special projects. Troubleshoot and resolve issues.
• Public presence for PTO; deliver short presentations at functions, open houses, or town/School Committee meetings.  Voice of the PTO for newspaper reporters.

Overview

The President oversees and directs all members of the Board, and all PTO missions and activities. The President leads discussions surrounding all PTO business, from setting the tone of the PTO mission and goals for the year, to recapping results of events and fundraisers and deciding if we will hold them the following year. The President sets the monthly meeting agenda and leads the meeting. The role is primarily that of a leader, motivator and organizer; most decisions are made by a majority vote of the Board members. The President is also the face of the PTO in public domains, and will usually be required to make a short presentation at certain functions. The role requires frequent access to email, and availability by phone, as well as the ability to see the big picture and how each decision will impact the organization as a whole.

Treasurer

Responsible for all financial aspects of Ashland K-12 PTO.

• Pay all bills and issue all checks for reimbursement.
• Make all bank deposits.
• Reconcile monthly bank statements.
• Maintain general ledger for all accounting transactions.
• Provide financial reports for monthly meetings.
• Prepare yearly budget with input from board members.
• Prepare all required tax forms (Forms 990, PC and Annual Report) or seek out professional assistance as necessary to complete them.
• Prepare 1099’s each year or seek out professional assistance as necessary to complete them.
• Handle Paypal account transfers to bank account.
• Ensure all procedures necessary to maintain non-profit and tax-exempt status are followed.
• Act as a resource to the board and membership regarding any financial issues of the corporation.

Secretary

• Updates for School District Calendar
• Reserve School Buildings & Grounds
• Update Yahoo! Group Notices/Info
• Attend and Record Minutes of Board Meeting
• Maintain/Send PTO Board Correspondence
• Storage of Minutes/Correspondence
• Update PTO Contact List
• C.O.R.I. Form Annual Reminder

Updates for School District Calendar

Ashland School Website/Info: During the summer contact the Secretary to the Superintendent, Karen Southland, for any school calendar needs (ksouthland@ashland.k12.ma.us). She will need to be informed of any PTO events (monthly meetings and events) to be added to the district calendar.

PTO Website: Inform PTO Webmaster of meetings and events to add to the PTO calendar on the website.

Reserve School Buildings and Grounds

Kevin Johnson is responsible for School Buildings and Grounds in the school district. He can provide guidance on janitors and size capacities for rooms. He should be contacted when reserving any rooms for PTO related meetings. He is easiest to reach very early in the morning. His email is kjohnson@ashland.k12.ma.us. His phone number is 508-881-0170.

Update Yahoo! Group Notices/Info

The Ashland K-12 PTO Yahoo! group is at the following web link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AshlandK-12PTO

• Correspondence using this group is maintained at “Messages” section. Messages can be sent from this section, but it is easier to simply include the direct e-mail (AshlandK-12PTO@yahoogroups.com) in the “TO” section of a note in any e-mail server.
• Files are maintained in folders at “Files” section (Flyers, Newsletters, Meeting Minutes).
• Links can be added/updated at the “Links” section.
• Members are monitored by the Membership Chair/s.
• Moderators for the group are designated to the President, Secretary, and Membership Chair, that have additional access/ability at the group.

Attend and Record Minutes of Board Meetings

Secretary is responsible for attending monthly and ad-hoc board meetings, and recording the minutes. A notice of the preliminary agenda is sent via e-mail prior to the monthly meeting using the Yahoo group e-mail address (AshlandK-12PTO@yahoogroups.com). A notice of the minutes posted to the Yahoo group is sent via e-mail as well. The final minutes are also sent to the School Administrators.

Maintain/Send PTO Board Correspondence

Maintenance: Any correspondence of significance received or sent from the President (awards, certificates, letters/notes, etc.) is maintained by the Secretary with the information for that calendar year.

Notes/Letters: Any notes sent on the behalf of the entire PTO are drafted and sent by the Secretary. The printing of note cards are arranged by the Operations Chair. Reimbursement for postage is directed to the Treasurer. Typically at year end, notes of thanks are sent to any school related personnel/individuals that assisted us during the year (ex. Superintendent’s Secretary, Builidings & Grounds, School Committee Chair, School Principals, etc.).

Storage of Minutes/Correspondence

Storage of prior PTO minutes is maintained in the Storage Room #23 (also known as the copy room) at the Administrative Offices at 87 West Union Street. A key to the room must first be attained at the office. Information currently stored:

• PTO Minutes
• PTO Library Initiative Information

Update PTO Contact List

Maintain and update the PTO Contact list of people with current and prior information. This is used as a resource for present and future volunteers.

C.O.R.I. (Criminal Offense Record Information) Annual Reminder

Secretary annually reminds the board and volunteers at the start of the school year, to fill-out and submit C.O.R.I. forms to the school administration. It is required by state law - Chapter 385 of the Acts of 2002 amended M.G.L. c. 6 by adding §172H which mandates that all volunteer organizations that primarily provide activities or programs to children eighteen (18) years of age or less, and which accepts volunteers, are required to conduct CORI checks of its volunteers. The law requires that the CORI check be conducted prior to accepting any person as a volunteer. Forms are filled out and submitted each year and maintained by the Ashland School Administration.

Enrichment Director

• Bring programs into the schools
• Liaison between School Administration and PTO
• Collaborate with Treasurer to review budgetary guidelines
• Provide master calendar of events for website inclusion

Director(s) and School Coordinators

The role of Enrichment Chair is to oversee the process of bringing programming into the schools through the enrichment coordinators, to enhance the curriculum and/or provide cultural insight. The responsibilities includes, but are not limited to, being a liaison between the enrichment coordinators, the school administration and the PTO Board, attending bi-monthly meetings of the West Suburban Creative Arts Council to seek out new presenters and network regarding presenters, and holding meetings as necessary with the enrichment coordinators to provide information, insight and direction with programming for the schools. In addition, the Enrichment Chair must make sure the PTO budgetary guidelines are met, and provide master calendar information for the website. The Enrichment Director may also work with the Board to seek out programming for community events or special programming for the schools. Attend monthly PTO meetings and provide updates and information.

Coordinators

The role of enrichment coordinator is to bring programming into the schools to enhance the curriculum and/or provide cultural insight. The responsibilities would include, but are not limited to, meeting with the school principal to get input on class curriculum and types of programming they would like brought in, speaking or meeting with the enrichment chair to get ideas on programs to recommend, contacting the performers or their agents to gather information on fees, length of performance, and acceptable size of audience, negotiating fees, and booking dates. As the performance date gets close, check with the school to make sure that they know what the performer(s) need, such as extension cords, microphones, etc. On the day of the event, be there to greet the performer(s), bring their payment, sit back and enjoy the show!

Membership Director

• Create/Distribute Membership Brochure
• Collect Membership Forms
• Edit Database/Send Yahoo Group Invites
• Volunteer Review for Events
• Submit Payments
• Attend Open Houses
• Check PTO Post Office Box
• Attend Monthly Board Meetings

Create Membership Brochure

Create a tri-fold membership brochure during the summer and have it printed at Freedom Digital Printing during the last few weeks of the summer. Typically the membership brochure includes a list of current PTO Board members with contact information, instructions on how to join the Yahoo Group, information on funds raised by the PTO in the previous year and how the funds were utilized, membership information required as well as a list of volunteer opportunities for members to check off. In the 2006 school year a total of 2600 brochures were printed. If the brochures are being sent home via backpack, confirm with each school’s VP’s for numbers that the brochures should be bundled in to make distribution easier.

Distribute Brochure

Distribute the membership brochure during the first few weeks of school. Methods used to distribute the brochure have included sending it home in backpacks, mailing it, sending it home in folders containing other PTO information that were distributed at the Open Houses at each school. Mailing the brochures requires getting mailing labels from Dr. Hoffman’s admin addressed to the parents of each student, using envelopes preprinted with our non-profit mailing permit number and taking the completed envelopes to the main post office in Framingham. Mailing and sending home in the backpacks seem to yield similar results, but mailing adds cost and effort. Membership may want to experiment with sending the brochures out in the 2nd or 3rd week of school rather than the first week, to avoid having the brochures get mislaid in the piles of forms that come home from school during the first week.

Collect Membership Forms

Once the brochures are distributed, the membership chairperson needs to routinely collect the submitted forms from all the schools as well as the PO Box in the Ashland Post Office.

Edit Database/Send Yahoo! Group Invites

Enter all the membership details into a database and send out Yahoo Group invitations to everyone. The Yahoo Group invitation will automatically be sent to any existing Yahoo Group members.

Volunteer Review for Events

Send lists of potential volunteers to the coordinators for each event, giving highest priority to the events occurring near the beginning of the school year.

Submit Payments

Submit all payments received to the Treasurer.

Attend Open Houses

Attend all the schools' Open Houses. Get a cash box from the treasurer prior to the Open House.

Check PTO Post Office Box

Occasionally check the PTO PO Box for any additional membership forms that might trickle in throughout the year.

Attend Board Meetings

Attend monthly PTO Board meetings.

Program Operations Director

• Researching and proposing new fundraising ideas to the Board
• Spearhead planning and promotion of upcoming K-12 events and fundraisers
• Lead Program Chairs in planning school based events and fundraisers
• Ensure that all programs (school and K-12 based) are planned appropriately, are well timed, have sufficient volunteers assistance and resources available, and are promoted properly
• Ensure that Program Chairs disseminate and collect necessary information/orders at schools
• Update Board on status of all events and fundraisers, and income generation
• Analysis of success/failure of programs

Director(s)

This position is the director of all programs/events run by the PTO. Fundraising programs and events are the lifeline of the PTO. Without these programs, the PTO would not exist! This role is a Board level position, responsible for finding and proposing new ideas to the Board, and directing/overseeing the Chairs for each school and each program. This position will lead all program chairs in planning school events and fundraisers, and is responsible for making sure each program runs smoothly. Liaison and report into Board regarding updates and success or failures of programs.

Chairs

The program chair positions at the school level are newly created positions, and are meant to bring significant resources to this role. These roles are school based and have been created as liaison roles to the VP of Program Operations. Each Program Chair will be responsible for overseeing the fundraising programs at their school. This will entail making sure that flyers are distributed, collection of orders/ticket sales, working with the Principal of the school to find methods to “spread the word”/kick off programs, recruitment within the schools/classrooms for volunteers to assist with each program, liaison with the VP of Program Operations, the PTO Board and the school Principal to brainstorm and provide new and unique fundraising ideas specific to that school.

Public Relations / Communications Director 

• Coordinate printing for PTO events and fundraisers; may include creation of content of flyer or advertisement if requested by activity chair(s). Coordinate approvals of all publicity material including backpack flyers with necessary school and town administration.
• Coordinate and/or arrange for advertisements and publicity to community for events through local newspapers (Metro West Daily News, the Ashland Tab and the Globe West Weekly, and as warranted the Globe Calendar), cable channels or school email distribution.
• Send announcements and advertisements to the Ashland Cable Station.
  
• Management of the sandwich boards on an as needed basis, which includes requesting approval from the Town Clerk’s office, designing the artwork, and getting it printed and secured on the boards. This is a Board-level position, and requires attendance at the monthly Board meetings.

Printing

We do the bulk of our printing with Freedom Digital printing in Framingham. Our primary contact is Jim Giamarinaro, but others are very helpful as well. They bill directly to our P.O. box on a monthly basis. Fundraising flyers should be cleared through the Superintendent’s Office. In the beginning of the year go through the vps to determine how many flyers their school will need and how they should be batched for easiest distribution. Keep this information handy as you will refer to it often. When printing is received it should go to the Vice Presidents for distribution to the schools unless other arrangements are made.

As for who designs the flyers, it can all be done by Operations, all done by the Events and Fundraising folks or a combination of both. If designed outside of Operations it should go through Operations for just a second set of eyes to look it over.

Media

Over the summer establish which reporters will be covering Ashland. This is generally the same for the Tab and MetroWest Daily News. Start with Teresa Edo (tedo@cnc.com). She is pretty good about checking the school district calendar, but all releases can be sent to her and requests for photographers as well. We also generally send announcements of our activities to the cable station for them to post. They can be reached at www.wacatv.com. As warranted we send things to the Globe West Weekly. There is also the Globe calendar – www.boston.com/globe/calendar.

Ashland Directions

Determine with the Board how you want to use this vehicle for publicizing PTO events. Do you just want to place ads, full or partial-page newsletters, etc. The contact is Joan Roshier at 508-881-4197. Call her over the summer to determine rates, deadlines and drop off points as these have changed over time. This is a monthly publication from September (copy due in August) through June (copy due in May).

Sandwich Board

This can be handled several ways. We can try to find someone who will manage the board for the year…the artwork, put it up, and take it down. Each time the sandwich board is used we need to get an ok from the Town Clerk’s office. We need to make the request in writing each time. This is an as needed task.

Designing Flyers

This has been handled several ways over time. In some instances the entity running a program (events, fundraising, etc.) does their own flyers and runs them through Public Relations. It then needs to be determined who will handle the printing. In other instances, the entity sponsoring the program gives Public Relations the information and Public Relations creates the flyer and than runs it through the program chair.

Vice President - High School

Job Description coming soon.

Vice President - Middle School

• Help Organize/Attend welcome back teacher/personnel luncheon
• Act as liaison between the teachers, administration and parents and the K-12 PTO board
• Act as facilitator for 3-way communications
• Attend Middle School Open House
• Help run the MS Site Council elections
• Liaison to principal (Kevin Carney)
• Pick up mail
• Drop off flyers for event and fundraising coordinators
• Set up and attend period (at least bi-monthly) meetings with the MS principal
• Attend monthly PTO meetings
• Support/Attend MS enrichment programs when needed
• Support/Coordinate fundraising activities with school-based fundraising chair and the PTO Board
• Coordinate/Support Middle School Social program
• School-based Newsletter

School Newsletter (Previously handled by Public Relations/Operations)

The standardized nature of school newsletters is fairly new. The ideal process would be VPs writing/editing and then sending it to Operations for a double-check. This is a monthly task the timing of which is up to the principals or newsletter coordinators.

Vice President - Mindess School

• Act as liaison between Mindess administration and staff and K-12 PTO board
• Organize teacher luncheon first day of school
• Attend Open House
• Attend monthly PTO meetings
• Help run elections for school Site Council
• Pick up and deliver flyers to the school
• Contribute to school newsletter

School Newsletter (Previously handled by Public Relations/Operations)

The standardized nature of school newsletters is fairly new. The ideal process would be VPs writing/editing and then sending it to Operations for a double-check. This is a monthly task the timing of which is up to the principals or newsletter coordinators.

Vice President - Warren School

• Organize teacher luncheon on the first day of school
• Organize the homeroom parent program
• Organize the homeroom parent breakfast
• Act as liason between the teachers and administration and the K-12 PTO board (i.e., teacher requests)
• Attend Warren School Open House
• Attend monthly PTO meetings
• Help run the Site Council elections
• Change the sign board outside the Warren School
• Update the PTO bulletin board in the Warren School lobby
• School Newsletter

School Newsletter (Previously handled by Public Relations/Operations)

The standardized nature of school newsletters is fairly new. The ideal process would be VPs writing/editing and then sending it to Operations for a double-check. This is a monthly task the timing of which is up to the principals or newsletter coordinators.

Warren Sign Board (Previously handled by Public Relations/Operations)

This is changed as needed. There is one set of keys. There is a box of letters and punctuation and a smaller box with numbers. There are also two poles that hold the glass up while the message is being changed. This can be done by one person but is easier with two.

Vice President - Pittaway School

• Welcome back teacher/personnel luncheon – headcount and assist Warren VP’s.
• Bus monitors – Recruit parents for mid-day shift. Must be CORI-checked.
• Bulletin board – Update prior to first day of school. Suggestions: membership, wish list, gift wrap/fall fund raiser info.
• Collect Homeroom parents / coordinate breakfast – collect names and invite to Pittaway meeting with Bev Kirton.
• Open House tables / site council ballots.
• Attending meetings
• Liaison to principal
• Pick up mail
• Drop off flyers for event coordinators
• School Newsletter

School Newsletter (Previously handled by Public Relations/Operations)

The standardized nature of school newsletters is fairly new. The ideal process would be VPs writing/editing and then sending it to Operations for a double-check. This is a monthly task the timing of which is up to the principals or newsletter coordinators.