The BVNW Parent Teacher Organization started off the school year with their kick-off meeting on August 29 with the PTO President, Kelly Bhagat, and Vice President, Katie Scheibel, as well as updates from Principal Leah Vomhoff and other members of the PTO.
Previously known as the Parent Booster Club, the PTO changed its name and abilities, supporting events and extracurricular activities in addition to sports, according to Bhagat.
“Our mission is to foster a strong sense of community, support student spirit and achievement, and strengthen the partnership between parents, teachers and administration,” Bhagat said.
According to Bakalar, high schoolers have different learning needs than elementary schoolers or even middle schoolers. These differing needs call for more unique opportunities, often requiring extra funding.
One of ways PTO supports teachers is allowing them to plan a diverse curriculum with fun activities without having to pay for extra resources. They do this by allotting funds from their grant program towards teachers who want to do activities outside of their typical curriculum. Assistant Principal Kelsey Bakalar said that teachers in high school often pay for fun classroom experiences with their own money.
AP Psychology teacher Heidi Gipple conducts an “AP Psych Olympics” in her classroom, where she has requested the PTO to pay for treats/prizes for the games.
“That way, they’re not paying for it out of pocket,” said Bakalar.
The Parent Booster Club previously gave a majority of their funds to athletics; however, now they have expanded to support all clubs, academics, activities, and most importantly, students and staff in order to be more inclusive, according to Bhagat, therefore representing and providing for more groups at BVNW. Community events and fundraisers, such as the Homecoming tailgate or helping out clubs’ funding, are also part of what the PTO does.
Bhagat hopes to keep the Husky community informed, involved, and engaged by providing funds for athletics, events, and clubs.
“All students have an opportunity to have a full high school experience,” Bhagat said.
Many of the clubs, such as robotics club and rocket club, at Northwest are funded through working concessions during sporting events in addition to yard sign sales. Bhagat said that anyone can apply for a grant.
This year, they now run a spirit wear store, bringing an additional income from a percentage of those sales to provide grants.
Additionally, the PTO will be able to have more events this year as they gained a new vice-president of fundraising, said Bhagat.
Another job the PTO has is to show gratitude from the parents to the teachers, administrators, and counselors. According to Scheibel, they can fulfill requests such as snack bars or providing treats within days of a request.
“I feel like we’re a yes organization where it’s always a yes day. We always (have) the teachers come to us. We are always giving them …what they need,” Scheibel said.
From celebrating teacher birthdays to aiding teachers going through a hard time, Scheibel said the PTO does various events to support the BVNW staff. According to Scheibel, teachers love these events.
This year, two men are on the PTO board, including John Johnson as Vice President of Concessions and Scott Easterhaus as Treasurer.
“(This is the) first time I’ve ever been on a PTO board in elementary school, middle school and high school, that we’ve had men on the board,” Scheibel said.
Bakalar said how she is so thankful for PTO members representing parents who do not have time to participate in the PTO.
The PTO has many components and roles that go into all of this planning.
“They have to monitor their finances, they have to communicate with all of the parents, plus with the school, it’s a big responsibility. It’s 100% like a company,” Bakalar said.
Bakalar said that it is unlikely anyone but students with parents on the PTO could realize the amount of time that the parents put into the organization.
“Not everybody has the ability to be generous with time and finances, and what a gift to have so many people that … can (be generous) here,” Bakalar said.
If a parent wants to join PTO, they can either join through Parent Vue, though it takes two months for the PTO board to get notified of these applications. According to the BVNW PTO website, the organization prefers that parents join through their membership toolkit website.
