NPE PTO General Assembly Meeting, 9/14

Tomorrow night at 7 pm in the NPE library, we will be holding our first PTO General Assembly Meeting of 2022-2023! I’m excited to hear how the first week of school went from Mr. Heinle and the guest teacher speaker, Mrs. Benamy, who is NPE’s new art teacher.

Here’s the agenda:

• Welcome/intros (Everyone introduce themselves and share kids and grades)

• Principal report (Mr. Heinle)

• Teacher report (Mrs. Benamy)

• Budget presentation and vote

• Committee reports

• New business

• Announcements

• Adjourn

I’d like to make my case for going to PTO meetings. For years, the only thing I did at NPE was to show up to meetings. We had little ones at home, and I knew basically no one in town. I wasn’t working then, we couldn’t afford a lot of extras like dance and soccer and whatnot, and going to PTO meetings was my only way of getting to know people in Wallingford.

Eventually things got easier, and I was able to take on a more active role in PTO as the kids got bigger. But those years of just showing up to hear what Mr. Heinle and the PTO reps had to say were invaluable. I began to feel a part of this place, and when we had bumps along the way, I’d already developed these relationships to help cope.

I want to stress that PTO is here to build community. In order to give our kids an environment where they thrive, we need to thrive. We need to have a strong connection with our children’s world, and PTO provides that bridge.

Show up, or Zoom in. It will matter.

-Jes Stillman Lloyd, PTO Secretary