Wellington PTO News and Announcements

Opening Remarks

Welcome back to school, Wellington! We hope everyone enjoyed their summer. The PTO has been busy preparing for a full year of exciting community and fundraising events for our students. We look forward to reconnecting with our families and volunteers for another great school year. Meet the PTO and Wellington community at our PTO Welcome Tables at 8:35am on both Thursday, Sept 7 and Friday, Sept 8 on the blue playground. And join us on Thursday Sept 14th at our Back to School Fall Picnic at 5:00pm (see details below).

Reminder: the first day of school dismissal is 11:40am - no lunch is served.

 

Notable Mentions

• A Note about PTO Communication Channels:
  • Whaley Weeklys (the PTO newsletter you are currently reading!) will be emailed to you every Wednesday with updates on events, volunteer opportunities, school happenings and more! 
  • Communications Folders - Be on the lookout for a blue folder coming home with your student(s). They will include some pertinent information from the PTO, particularly our community and fundraising events. Your child’s folder comes home everyday as a way to get their school work and Wellington happenings into your hands! 
  • Room Parents - each classroom will have PTO volunteer Room Parents who act as liaisons between the classroom teacher and class parents/guardians.   If you are interested in being a Room Parent, please complete our Volunteer Interest Form 
  • Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wellingtonpto 

• Thursday, September 14 from 5pm-7pm, join us on the Wellington Field (the grass next to the blue playground) for our Fall Back to School Picnic! Pack a picnic or order from the Food Trucks; Trolley Dogs and Chubby Chickpea will be there! 

• Say Cheese! Picture Day and NEW Sibling Picture Day:
  • Picture Day is Friday, September 22 for K-4 students. Look for order forms in the communication folders, and remember all pre-orders help support the PTO! Online orders are preferred and strongly recommended. Click the link www.haywardphotography.com then the blue “Prepay for Photo Day” button. Enter your school code to place your preorder: WELF23
  • We are piloting a new offering - Sibling Picture Day on Saturday September 23rd from 11am-1pm at Wellington. A Sign-up Genius link will be included in next week’s Whaley Weekly to reserve your time to photograph your Wellington student(s) and their sibling(s). These are a separate offering from the in-school picture day; siblings who are not Wellington students are welcome! 
  • For both picture days, in the case of inclement weather, the events will be rescheduled for a date TBD

• Library Volunteers - Sign-up links coming in next week’s Whaley Weekly!
  • The Wellington library relies on volunteers to help out throughout the year. If you are interested in volunteering for your child's library time, be on the lookout for the sign-up in next week's Whaley Weekly on September 13th.
  • As a Primary Volunteer you will help in the Wellington Library for approximately 30 minutes per month assisting your child’s class with checking in/out books, shelving returned titles and printing reports. Because this is a trained position, we ask for a year-long commitment helping with your child’s class every 4-5 weeks.
  • Alternatively, anyone can join the Support Volunteer list. These volunteers will have the opportunity to sign up as their schedule allows. Tasks may include organizing shelves, pulling books for displays, cutting bookmarks and/or helping with other library needs.
  • If you have questions or want more information, please reach out to our PTO Library Volunteer Coordinators: Erin Jones, Amy Heuer and Lara Lind (wellingtonlibraryvolunteer@gmail.com).

 

Important Dates

BPS School Calendar 2023-24

September:

Sept 7-8:    PTO Welcome for Parents/Guardians 8:35am outside blue playground
Sept 9:       Kindergarten Play Date on blue playground. 10am-12pm
Sept 11:     After School Extracurricular (ASE) Sneak Peek - fall classes.
Sept 14:     Fall Welcome Back to School Picnic 5-7 pm. Wellington Field 
Sept 18:     ASE Registration begins at 7 am
Sept 18:     PTO General Meeting open to all Wellington community 7pm virtual - https://meet.google.com/gkb-jzgv-cfb
Sept 22:     School Picture Day (K-4) *if there is inclement weather, we will reschedule
Sept 23:     NEW! Sibling Picture Day - Saturday from 11am-1pm at Wellington
Sept 26:     Last day to register for fall ASE

October:

Oct 2:        ASE fall classes begin
Oct 4:        International Walk, Bike, Roll to School Day
Oct 13:      Fun Run - our biggest fundraiser of the year! - during school hours

 

DEI Corner

Are you interested in bringing more awareness about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Belmont community? If so, sign up to get involved with the District-wide DEI initiative as a Wellington representative. Check the box for ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Liaison(s)’ in our Volunteer Interest Form.

 

Thank You To...

• Thank you to our Kindergarten Play Date coordinator Amy Heuer for organizing two K play dates: one last week on August 31st and one this upcoming Saturday, September 9th from 10am-12pm.

• Thanks to Leigh Kenny for bundling our Wellington Elementary t-shirts for all of our in-coming preschoolers and kindergarteners. 
• Thank you to Gina Donaldson’s daughters who helped to assemble our blue Communications folders! We will have them ready for distribution the first week of school. Thanks Gina & Family!
• Thanks to our very own Matt Brown! Matt is our PTO Tech board member, our publisher of the Whaley Weekly, Facebook and Website postings. Thanks in advance to Matt for helping us stay informed throughout the school year!  (Publisher's Note: I do not write the Whaley Weekly. It's a pleasure to help.)

 

Open Positions

The PTO runs on our volunteer engine and we have many opportunities throughout the year for families and guardians to participate and support our students. The best place to start is by completing our PTO Volunteer Interest form - here. 

We will also post open positions and volunteer opportunities here in our Whaley Weekly, starting with:

• Calling all 3rd Grade Families /Guardians: 
  • The Wellington PTO is seeking two 3rd Grade In-School Enrichment Coordinators to book and organize ~2 field trips and 2 in-school enrichment programs, with support from the Enrichment VPs and teacher liaison. This is a great volunteer opportunity to make some special memories with your kiddos.
  • Overall, this volunteer commitment involves approximately 5 hours of planning and email communication, with an additional 1-2 hours split between both coordinators on the day-of two in-school events and attending two field trips as a chaperone.
  • If you are interested in being a 3rd grade enrichment coordinator, please contact wellingtonenrichment@gmail.com.

• Our ASE (After School Extracurricular) team is looking for a LEGO club teacher. We provide you with lesson plans and Duplos. Have a skill set or class idea you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you! ase.wellington@gmail.com

Important note to all volunteers: Everyone will receive a CORI form (one per household - feel free to make a copy) in your Communications Folder. If you can support the PTO and would like to volunteer, CORI forms are required for every parent volunteer. You must bring the completed form and a form of ID to the Wellington office to complete the process. CORIs are valid for three years! We highly recommend you get these completed early in the school year.

 

Reminders

• PTO Annual Appeal - learn more about how you can support the efforts of the PTO to fund programs that benefit our students and teachers throughout the year. Read more about upcoming programming and how you can get involved in this letter coming home in your student’s Communication Folder.
• Traffic Safety - Please remember to be considerate when parking around Wellington and do not block the crosswalks or the driveways of our neighbors. There is no active pick up. Please do not pull into the parking lot or driveway at dismissal to retrieve your child.

 

Lindsay Kalmakis & Aisha Foxx Telfort
Wellington PTO Co-Presidents
wellingtonptopresidents@belmontschools.net