Friday May 18th is the date for our Ice Cream Social/Frog Jump/Art Show, and that date is quickly approaching.  We thank those of you who have already signed up to volunteer.  We’re hoping that even more of you feel the same way about this event that we do, and that you’ll volunteer just a little bit of your time to help out with one of these fantastic events. Our time slots are only 1/2 – 1 hour each !

Check out the signup sheet below, and leave a comment for us if you’re available to help out.  This is our biggest and last volunteering request of the year…we know it’s a tall order to fill, and we thank you for considering the donation of your time.

Mrs. Herklots works so very hard all year to put this show together for us, let’s give her the support she needs!

To sign up, please check the signup sheet below, and either leave a comment on this post, or e-mail Mrs. Herklots directly at herklotsl@woodstockschools.net

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to Woodstock Elementary School! Begining Friday May 18th, the day of our Art Show & Ice Cream Social – Friday may 25th. Scholastic makes book selling very VERY easy. Their cash register machine works all of the magic, all you have to do is scan books in…please consider helping us out with this event. The kids absolutely LOVE our book fairs!!!

We are in need of the following volunteers to help us sell books at the WES book fair.

If you are available to help sell books during these times, please leave a comment, or e-mail our Book Fair Chairperson michellemarmstrong@yahoo.com Thank you once again for your support!!

So far we have the following dishes donated:

We still  need the following food items donated Friday, March 23rd:

If you can donate a dish this Friday, please leave a comment below with what you will be bringing, and which school it will be going to.

Dishes for the Middle School
Dishes should be dropped off at WMS by 11:30 on Friday. Please drop your dish off in the music room.

Dishes for the Elementary School
Dishes should be dropped off at WES by 1:30, in Mrs. Gresh’s room, #15,  on Friday.

A complete audio recording can be found here: http://youtu.be/R4f52nmoKH4  and the powerpoint presentation and other materials from the meeting can be found here: http://www.woodstockschools.net/minutes/2-18-2012%20Supporting%20Documents.pdf 

Some highlights of the presentation include:

• The Board of Education is working to present a “zero” increase budget to the Board of Finance because the Board of Finance requested them to do so. 

• The numbers:
• Woodstock recieved $315,160 from the Education Jobs Fund last year for salaries, that we will not receive this year (the program is over).
• The Governor’s Budget (not yet approved) includes an additional $63,633 in Education Cost Share (ECS) funding for Woodstock. 
• The teachers agreed to a hard freeze of their salaries for this year which is a tremendous savings to the town.
• A summary of the projected increases and decreases in overhead (cost of fuel and electricity increasing, cost of special ed transportation and tuition outside of the district decreasing, etc.) shows an overall increase in the budget of $15,269
• The cost of tuition at the Academy is increasing by 1.95%, which represents an increase in tuition vs. what was projected using last year’s tuition for next year’s Woodstock students of $87,511

• The Administration’s Request
• The total budget requested by Dr. Baran was $16,074,128 representing an increase of $67,332 (.42%) over last year’s total budget.  However, the $315,160 from the Education Jobs Fund was not included as part of the regular operating budget last year, making this a $382,492 (2.44%) increase over last year’s budget.
• The Administration’s request included the addition of a Computer Technician for $53,864 to deal with the ongoing upkeep and maintanence of the system’s technology. 

• Elements of the Board’s Revised Plan
• • Class sizes at the elementary school will be reduced in the third and fourth grades (presently 4 teachers per grade with 25 – 28 children/ class, scheduled to become 5 teachers per grade with 19 – 21 students)
  • Class sizes at the middle school will increase in fifth and sixth grades (presently 5 teachers per grade with 19 – 22 students / class, scheduled to become 4 teachers per grade with 24 – 26 students / class)
  • The Gifted and Talented Program (enrichment) at the elementary school will be restructured. – Mr. Walker said that the exact details for this were not available and would be discussed at the Board of Education meeting on Thursday.   
  • The Board of Finance will be asked to remove the cost of two new buses ($56,929) and the cost of the higher Academy tuition ($87,511) from the Board of Education’s PK – 8 budget and count those a separate line items to be covered by the town. 
  • The Board also provided a list of 54 possible cuts to the administration’s budget (see the materials from the meeting) totaling $384,473 to be used if further reduction is needed.  These ranged from cuts in the laminating budget ($500) and foregoing a fire-proof safe($2500) to cutting professional development funds by $10,000 to eliminating staff including nurse clerk, media clerk, superintendent office staff, and all 9 town funded teacher assistants.  Mr. Walker emphasized that these are all just possible cuts and that none of these were definite.
• General themes of comments from the audience:
• Class size is a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed throughout the system including the 5th and 6th grades.
• The Board should present a budget to the Board of Finance that represents all of the fundamental needs, not try to come in at a zero increase as requested.
• The cost of SRBI, currently being implemented by classroom teachers should be calculated and removed from the budget as a separate line item because it is a mandatory expense.
• The computer tech requested by Dr. Baran should be included in the category of fundamental given that technology is increasingly important and standardized testing will eventually have to be completed on computers. 

The purpose of this event is purely social; we hope our Woodstock citizens and our elected board and commission members and other officials will better get to know each other as individuals, away from the constructs of official roles and responsibilities.  Trustees of the Woodstock Academy are invited, as is our Superintendent, Dr. Francis Baran, and the Headmaster of Woodstock Academy, Mr. Kim Caron.  A cash bar will be available, along with light snacks.  The Woodstock Middle School Jazz Band will be featured with a performance around 7:30 p.m.

Please note that this is a social event and not a “Public Meeting”.  In order to comply with requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, elected officials may not discuss town or board-related business.

Mr. Richard Naumann of the Inn at Woodstock Hill is generously making available this lovely venue and is donating the light refreshments in order to make this event possible.

To help us better plan, we ask that you R.S.V.P. to let us know if you will attend.  Please respond by Wednesday, February 15th to the Superintendent’s office at 928-7453 ext 321 or milanesek@woodstockschools.net.

We look forward to seeing you on February 22nd.

Representatives from the Woodstock Board of Education, the Woodstock Board of Selectmen, the Woodstock Board of Finance, and Woodstock Academy have been invited.

Childcare will be available.  If utilizing the childcare option, please have your child bring their favorite book to be read during the forum.  We look forward to seeing you on Saturday for an open dialogue.

This Chairperson’s sole responsibility is to keep the PTO informed of decisions being made in the following areas:

Board of Finance
Board of Education
Woodstock School District

The Community Liaison holds the very important role of making sure that at least one PTO member attends each public meeting that the BOF and BOE holds.  Notes should be taken, and a summary of the meeting minutes should be posted on the Woodstock PTO website from each meeting attended.  The chairperson does not need to attend every meeting him or herself, but rather, can delegate and organize a signup sheet of attendance to other PTO members.