President’s Notes, Sept. 2022
PTO Coffee Chat
On Tuesday morning, at our first-ever “Coffee Chat” event, Lintott Elementary Principal Brenda Pohlman and Lintott Dean of Students Meria Wilson joined us at Olympic Library to casually chat about all the transitions this year at Lintott.
Mrs. Pohlman, now Principal, was previously the Assistant Principal at Lintott and stepped into the lead position at Lintott after the departure of our beloved Mr. Hunt at the end of last school year. She detailed some of her background — growing up here locally and her opportunity to come “home” to Chehalis School District as the primary-level assistant principal in 2016 — and share how excited she is for the year ahead.
She also told us about how, when the district began their search for a new assistant principal, the hiring committee was underwhelmed by the pool of candidates. In fact, according to Principal Pohlman, the district put out a search twice over the summer looking for qualified candidates — to no avail.
Mrs. Wilson, now Dean of Students, was previously a kindergarten teacher at Lintott. An Adna High School graduate, she has spent her career with the Chehalis School District thus far. She told our group about how she had intended to pursue her principal certification at some point, so when the opportunity presented itself after the underwhelming search, Mrs. Wilson stepped up to the plate and threw her hat in the ring.
Mrs. Wilson will formally begin her next level of education this year and study concurrently while serving as the Dean of Students to obtain her principal certification and, eventually, seek to upgrade her title to Assistant Principal Wilson.
We had several parent questions. One parent asked if educators in our district were certified in any “Stop the Bleed” training for emergency events. This parent is also a trainer for this program and offered training options to our district for our educators. You can learn more about “Stop the Bleed” here. >> https://www.stopthebleed.org/
We also allowed parents to take a look through one of our recently-stocked “comfort packs” that contain emergency supplies for our students should they ever be contained to a classroom for a prolonged period of time due to an emergency or other issue.
Our group also had a discussion about WATCH DOGS and what types of background checks and trainings were included with the program orientation. All WATCH DOGS are background-checked and processed just like our other in-school volunteers.
Additional topics that have been suggested for “Coffee Chat” events (topics and guests): History of charitable giving in Chehalis School District (highly-recommended by school board and district staff for our group), Orin Smith principals, our School Security Director, support and resources for parents of IEP / 504 plan students. Please reach out to us with other ideas.
“Coffee Chat” events are held at Olympic Library at 9am on the same Tuesdays as our regularly scheduled PTO general membership meetings. View that calendar for the full school year at ChehalisPTO.org.
PTO General Membership Meeting
We had a great first meeting of the year! We had a good group turnout-wise, got everything done that was required by our agenda, and we had everyone out of the meeting in an hour. We had several new faces, too! Some who have been heavily-involved with other PTO / PTA groups around the region in the past. We’re excited for their collective experience, all the new energy at last night’s meeting, and the teamwork that is already developing!
Here are the meeting highlights:
New non-profit status is complete and active
We have a bank account and a digital financial handler
New website is active, accepting membership funds, and emails our members
PTO storage room has been organized
Discussion of WATCH DOGS returning, merchandise fundraising, events
Five of six committee chairs were elected (formal announcement to come)
Additionally:
APPROVED: Reimbursements, organizational insurance
TABLED: Ratification of Standing Rules & Bylaws, setting fundraising goal(s) for year
For more details about what was discussed, please review our meeting agenda at ChehalisPTO.org on the “Meetings & Events” page.
2022-2023
CURRENT FUNDS (before expenses for this year): $13,900
RAISED SO FAR: $165 (orientation events, etc.)
2021-2022
RAISED LAST YEAR: $40,000
DISTRIBUTED LAST YEAR: $88,000
Next meeting is October 4 at 6:30pm at Olympic Library.
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