Welcome From Britt
Welcome, Updates, Minutes, & Important Information/Dates
Welcome
Greetings from the PTOCC Board! We hope that everyone is having a relaxing, restorative summer. Despite the fact that we still have quite a bit of summer ahead of us, I wanted to take a moment to welcome new and returning members to PTOCC and the beginning of the 2026-27 PTO cycle. This email contains pertinent updates and provides important information and key dates to help our members begin to plan for the coming months. We also want to share our orientation date/time and check everyone’s availability to participate in that late August Orientation. Before I launch in, I want to thank you all for choosing to participate in your PTOs and PTOCC. We recognize the time commitment and dedication that goes into being a PTO leader. Our PTOCC Board will do our best to make this year a positive, collaborative, and meaningful experience for all.
Updates
Here are some things that are happening. Click on each item for more information.
1. Updating resources and documents …
The PTOCC Board is busy updating resources and documents in our share drive, including our Financial Guidelines for PTOs, Fundraising How-to’s, Grant Application How-to’s, and Clubs and Afterschool Activities Guidelines and Resources. By the end of August we will have these posted in the group Share drive. We will also review these documents/resources at the August PTO Orientation (see below for dates/details).
2. Website updates
Jennifer is working on revamping our PTOs website to make it user-friendly. She will send out emails detailing that process to keep us all updated. Thank you Jennifer for tackling this important project!
3. Liability Insurance
Historically, each PTO carries its own liability insurance. Recently we’ve seen some insurance policies lapse. We are now considering expanding the PTOCC policy to include all the PTOs to simplify coverage across the schools and also keep the policy payments centralized so that there are no lapses in coverage. Please take a moment to check your PTOs current liability insurance policy status. If you are interested in having your schools’ liability coverage managed and maintained by PTOCC, use the link below to record your schools policy information (insurer, policy effective dates, expiration dates, annual premium amount) so that we explore that option with you: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UDWWVIiO2sv95umhA9SkavM-OfSl5LM7vOCXCebSRvA/edit?usp=sharing
4. Spirit Wear
We are going to partner with Community Sports (a local BI Business with print on demand capabilities) to produce and ship school spirit wear in the fall (buyers can also pick up in Winslow if they prefer). PTOs could set pricing to allow for a profit on each item purchased, if desired. Partnering with community sports does away with the need for PTOs to produce and track spirit wear inventory. If any of our PTOs want to participate in this endeavor, please fill out this spreadsheet with your information. We can provide the information directly to Community Sports so they can mock-up some products for your review. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12bWrq7MUVYj5OijnHHERoB1M6jdRy9JJ_YdM0rYG9I0/edit?usp=sharing
5. Rotary Grant Opens mid-September
BSF and PTOCC have been in discussion about the upcoming Rotary grant cycle. The upcoming grant application cycle will run from Mid Sept-Mid October, which means that we should all be thinking now about what our schools might need that could be funded by a Rotary Grant. Starting to think about this now will give us time to coordinate and maximize the potential benefit to our K-12 schools. As a reminder, Rotary will not support grant requests for consumables, like school supplies, so be thinking about more durable things like sports equipment (volleyball nets, mats, scoreboards, emergency supplies, for example). If our PTOs compile a list of items across the K-12 buildings and categorize them into groups (e.g. k-12 Sports Equipment, k-12 AV systems, School Reader Boards, etc), we can apply as one large group and maximize our opportunity to receive grant funding. Please use this link to record information about any items your PTO would like to request Rotary grant funding for so that PTOCC can help coordinate this effort: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eN2H2D8P0FxsHA5yNM8bKbTup5ASnNRu4QeYfbIi4QU/edit?usp=sharing
6. Canva Subscription
At the request of several of our PTOs, PTOCC is working to set up a free Canva subscription for our administrative use. Per BISD tech rules, students CAN NOT use Canva, but PTO leaders can use it to craft PTO-related material. Sorry, this is tough for the PTSO at BHS, but we will need to adhere to the district tech standards.
June Minutes (and Minutes in general)
Thank you to everyone for the dialogue around June minutes. The PTOCC June meeting is typically a basic procedural meeting (electing new officers so that new signers can be added to the PTO bank accounts during the June/July officer transition). This year, in addition to the usual procedural votes the School Board was present in order to gather feedback and perspective from our PTOs related to the new board policy. That portion of the meeting placed PTOCC members in a participatory role. BISD and PTOCC are awaiting information regarding the outcome of that session. As soon as I have more information I will share it with you. We can always add an addendum to our June minutes linking to that information. Regarding BISD review of draft minutes, it is standard procedure for draft minutes to be reviewed by the PTOCC Board and the superintendent to confirm accuracy of information. Because PTOCC’s principal role is to pass accurate information from BISD to the PTOs and Parent Body, we ask the district to confirm the accuracy of our minutes so we are sharing information that is correct and clear. The district does not micromanage our minutes or make other “edits.” To my knowledge, BISD has not asked that any correction or modification be made to draft minutes in the past year.
Regarding amendments to minutes, PTOCC members are welcome to suggest amendments or additions to minutes, even those that are already approved by vote. If anyone would like to add specific content to the June minutes, please email us with suggestions and we can collaborate and include those suggestions for review in our September Agenda before we proceed to voting for amendment to the June minutes.
Regarding minutes in general, each PTOCC Secretary has a different way of summarizing and sharing content from meetings, but all minutes must satisfy the legal requirements of the organization. The current PTOCC Board is open to suggestions and feedback regarding past minutes and their content, what elements could be optimized, and we will do our best to make future minutes useful for our members.
2026-2027 PTOCC Meeting Dates
We will change our meeting structure and time/location this year to accommodate differences in volunteer availability across our PTOs. We will move some of our meetings to evenings (quarterly). We have partnered with Helpline House to give our members an opportunity to experience the many vibrant spaces within our school buildings. This is the current host those evening meetings in their new community space. We will also continue to rotate our morning meetings and schedule as of now (subject to change, official invites to be sent in late August):
Sept 10th, 9am- Board Room
Oct 1st, 6PM evening meeting at Helpline House
Nov 5th, 9am EHHS
Dec 3rd, 9am Ordway
Jan 7th, 6PM evening meeting at Helpline House
Feb 4th, 9am- xalilc
March 4th, 9am OPEN, TBD
April 1st, 6 PM evening meeting at Helpline House
May 6th, 9am BHS
June 3rd, 9am OPEN, TBD
Orientation
We know summer is busy, but for those who are around on 8/25 at 6-8pm, PTOCC will be giving an orientation for all our PTOs able to attend (location TBD, but hopefully somewhere fun!). Because our first group meeting of the year in September will be jam-packed with agenda items related to fundraising, treasurer support, grant opportunities, and break out groups to identify areas of collaboration, an orientation in late August provides useful background information, tips, and resources to prepare us for the first meeting of the year. Plus, an orientation is a great opportunity for us to mingle and make connections before the school year starts! We’d love to see at least one co-president and (ideally) PTO treasurers from each school at the August orientation. All PTO officers are welcome. Again, we know it’s a busy time of year so just let us know if you are unable to attend and we’ll troubleshoot and find a time to meet.
RSVP here for the August orientation:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d3MLXm8Hhme-GxjCR0mLlsXQxxUIJYVxYtQSry4oMT8/edit?usp=sharing
Clearly, this email is packed with information so consider pinning it or saving it for future reference. And please remember
to:
1. Update us on your PTOs Liability Insurance coverage status (link above)
2. Let us know if you want to participate in Spirit Wear drop shipping with Community sports (link above)
3. Update us on items your school might seek Rotary grant funding for (link above)
4. RSVP to our End-of-Summer Orientation (link above)
Again, thank you all for reading this long email! And welcome to the 2026-27 PTO Cycle. I look forward to working with each of you. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Regards,
Britt Gonsoulin
PTOCC President FY2026
Note: This was originally sent via email on July 30, 2026