COMMITTEES   |   COMMITTEE  REFERENCES  |   COMMUNICATION REQUEST FORM

Co-President - 2 year commitment  (2-3 people)

• Runs PTO Board meetings up to 8 per year and recruits for Board positions

• Organizes the agenda for Board meetings and manages the PTO activity calendar

• Serves as the primary contact to the principal and holds regular check in meetings

• Attends and represents Clarke at PTO Presidents’ Council (PPC) meetings, typically the first Wednesday morning of each month

• Oversees all committees and collects and updates contact information for all committee and Board members

• Reviews the PTO budget with Board members for approval and retains all official records of the PTO.

• Provides weekly updates to the Communication team to share with community

• Serves as ex-officio member of other committees

Time Commitment 6-12 hours per week

Treasurer – 2 year commitment

 The responsibilities of the Treasurer include:

• Depositing money

• Paying the expenses of the Student Government Association 

• Reconciling bank statements

• Maintains separate accounts for larger money deposits (i.e., 8th grade fundraising, ski trip)

• Providing the end of the year financial records to the accountant for tax filing

Records are kept on QuickBooks, and some collections are made via PayPal, Lumipay, or Venmo, so knowledge of this software is helpful although not necessary.  QuickBooks and PayPal are very easy to use.  

Time Commitment 2-6 hours per week

Secretary

• Attends all PTO meetings and takes minutes

• Makes minutes available to Board for approval at next meeting 

• Writes thank you notes as needed

• Keeps copies of all meeting minutes and thank you notes 

Time Commitment 1 hour per week

VP Community

Work with the chairs of METCO, the Welcome Picnic and the Green Team, etc.   Check in with these volunteers to make sure they have resources they need to run their events in a timely manner.  

Time Commitment:  6-8 hours/yr

VP Communications (2 people)

• Manage communications for the PTO including

• Send weekly newsletter via MTK to PTO families and faculty 

• Receive, assess, compile, format, and publish posts that keep the Clarke community up-to-date about matters of interest to our families. 

• This work can be done from home or office. Familiarity with easy e-newsletter formatting, editing skills, and strong attention to detail are great prerequisite skills

• Agree to only use parent email and contact information made accessible to this role for the purposes of PTO communications.

• Help create the communication strategy and content for Clarke PTO activities including: Clarke Fundraising Events, Spirit Wear Sales, Book Sale, and other major activities or events.

• Take pictures (or designate photographers) at PTO events to be used on the website and/or in the PTO newsletter. Work with the school if photos of students are taken to ensure that permissions are allowed.

• Inform the PTO board of the communications guidelines and calendar at the beginning of each year. 

• Attend PTO meetings and provide updates on communication efforts.

Time Commitment: 1-2 hours per week

Webmaster

• Maintain clarkepto.org

• Manage the website hosting contract.

• Post volunteer opportunities and maintain the event calendar, updating as necessary throughout the year.

• Content needs approval from and will be provided by VP Communications or PTO President.

Time Commitment: 1 hour per week

VP Fundraising

Works with the chairs of any Fundraising Drives, Membership, Book Fair, Spirit Wear, CNO, Trivia Night, any retail/restaurant fundraising ‘days’.  Responsibilities include regular communication with committee chairs, ensuring that information and documents are passed from outgoing to incoming chairs, and regular attendance at PTO meetings.

• Clarke Night Out (1 Co-chair and 6 to 8 volunteers) - not every year

Clarke Night Out is the major fundraiser and social event, usually every other year (last March 2020), bringing parents and staff together for a fun evening.  The CNO Co-Chairs and their team set the date, choose the venue and theme, organize the silent auction, sell tickets, and run the evening.

• Spirit Wear (1 Volunteers)

In the fall, the Spirit Wear volunteers offer the Clarke community a chance to purchase Spirit Wear items. The volunteers are responsible for coordinating which items will be offered through the supplier (currently Tricon Sports), updating the order form and providing it to the Clarke secretaries for distribution to all staff and students, advertising Spirit Wear via online announcements, collating and placing orders with the supplier, and organizing orders upon delivery.

• Book Fair Co-Chair Duties:

• Set-up a date for the Book Fair in the Spring for the following year. Coordinate the date with the PTA, Clarke principal and Book Fair Vendor.

• Advertise and Market the Book Fair to the Clarke Community before the Fair begins.

• Coordinate volunteers to work as cashiers during the week of the Book Fair.

• Co-Chairs will act as “supervisors” during the week of the Fair.

• Wilson Farm Shopping Day

Confirm Clarke’s shopping day with Wilson’s farm, submit information to Weekly Announcement Coordinator, and advertise the event.

Socials and Dances (1 coordinator for each grade: 6th, 7th and 8th)

You will find this one of the easiest volunteer positions available and you’ll enjoy the opportunity to meet some of your child’s friends and teachers!  Coordinator communicates dates/times of socials for the weekly newsletter and solicits volunteers from each grade. Purchases all supplies for socials in advance and maintains inventory. 

Time Commitment: 

6th grade coordinator:  socials are 2:40-4:15pm in the cafeteria in the fall.

7th grade coordinator:  socials are 6:00-7:30pm in the gym in the fall and 6th/7th grade combined in the gym from 6-8pm in the spring.

8th grade coordinator:  socials are combined with 7th grade from 6-7:30 in the fall and for 8th grade only from 6:30-8:30pm in the spring.  

VP Membership/Directory – 2 year commitment

• Manages Membership Tool Kit (MTK) online Directory, which is user friendly and easy to manage.

• At the start of the school year, works with feeder elementary schools and LHS to initialize data in the system. 

• Promotes PTO membership and encourages parents to confirm data. 

• Creates content and facilitates the printing of hard copies of the Clarke PTO Directory. 

• Manages the PTO online store with new product creation and sales reports. 

Time Commitment 2-4 hours per week in fall. Less busy in spring.

8th Grade Activities (5-8 parents volunteers) 

• Work with Clarke assistant principals to plan moving on ceremony and activities for 8th graders.

• Help to run the fund raising event for 8th graders in the fall

VP Team Breakfasts 

Facilitate communication between members of the executive board and team breakfast parent volunteers, coordinate team breakfast volunteers for each team, organize one meeting or share information in September for all team breakfast volunteers (grades 6-8) to go over responsibilities, touch base with team breakfast volunteers regarding the teacher appreciation breakfasts, and be available to help with any miscellaneous questions.

Time Commitment: 4 hours in September and occasional emails to team parents.

Speaker Forums (1-3 volunteers)

Brainstorm, select, organize, and host 5-6 parent education opportunities over the course of the year. LHS PTO has an active Speaker Forum team that would work with you to coordinate and plan events. Past years' speaker forums have featured a combination of LPS speakers, outside speakers, and film screenings.

Time Commitment: flexible. Most work besides attending the (mostly evening) forums can be done from home on your own schedule

Picture Day (1 volunteer) 

Assist on picture day and create a signup genius to help recruit and organize parent volunteers for that day.  

Time Commitment: 3-4 hours

Staff Appreciation Food Team (3-6 volunteers)

Organizes a luncheon for all staff three times a year, Sept, January, and June, on the last day of school as a way to give back and say thank you to our Clarke Teachers and Staff. Additionally, the team members coordinate Staff Appreciation events during Teacher Appreciation week (the first week of May) which may involve an additional potluck. Coordinators request parents to donate items and to volunteer to help with setup and clean up, and invite teachers and staff to the event. You need to be present when parents drop off food and throughout the event. Coordinate a staff breakfast before the first day of school. Lastly, coordinate coffee and snack donations during parent teacher conferences.

Time Commitment:  2-3 hours per volunteer, per event, volunteers can select events in which to lead/participate

Hospitality - Staff Appreciation Gifts

Coordinate gift cards and thank you cards for custodian and staff in December and at the end of school.

Time Commitment: 1 hour

METCO (1 volunteers)

Serve on the METCO committee to explore how the PTO can better integrate our Boston-based students and families within our Clarke community. As many of you likely recall, the elementary schools have the Family Friends program which essentially ends when students leave their respective elementary schools. The PTO is hoping to develop a corollary to that program at the middle school level with input from parent representatives from both Lexington-based and Boston-based families.  

Time Commitment:  3-4 meetings at mutually agreeable times 

Or 

Coordinate and help plan one or two social activities between Lexington and Boston students and families with direction from Clarke and METCO guidance counselors.   

Time Commitment:  6 hours in mostly in Feb/March

Welcome Back to School Picnic (2 volunteers)

Coordinate and recruit volunteers using signup genius, post to HS volunteers, contact food trucks (optional), reach out to Mo’s Ice Cream, and send out an MTK for pizza orders, create scavenger hunt and purchase small prizes. Send picnic announcement flyer to the VP Communications and school secretary to include in weekly announcements. Contact the following organizations (LEF, CAAL, IAL, etc.) to coordinate attendance.  

Time Commitment: 2 hours per volunteer in September/ early October

Green Team Lead

• Coordinate with Clarke faculty sponsor of Sustainable Clarke/Green Team student club for all events below

• Coordinate parent volunteers for lunchtime composting, make/maintain schedule

• Coordinate parent volunteers for Walk and Roll/Safe Routes to School events

New to Lexington Families Information Night (1-2 volunteers)

The Principal will host an information session for new to Lexington families for 30-60 minutes before Back to School Night in September/October. Help organize lemonade and cookies for new families, set up a few tables and contact the following organizations (LEF, CAAL, IAL, etc.) to attend. Recruit a handful of veteran parents for a “Pro Tip” Panel.

Time Commitment: 2-3 hours in October