Serving Students to Serve the School

In February, the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) sold pizza during both the High School and the Middle School lunch periods on Thursdays for $1.50 a slice.

PTO is a team of dedicated volunteers who work together to help the kids, teachers, and community in Fair Grove. Their primary goals are to provide fun family events and activities for students and teachers, and to help with fundraising efforts to provide gifts to the school each year. PTO functions with lots of volunteer help along with staff, student, and parent participation.

The PTO was selling pizza as a fundraiser; all the proceeds went back to the school. The fundraiser was also something fun that the kids looked forward to. The PTO shared that in the past they have had a great response and kids have reached out to ask if they were going to do it again.

A few different things went into being able to sell pizza at school. Kristy Kotschedoff, the PTO Secretary, shared, “We wanted to try to get the Middle and High School more involved in fundraisers this year. Someone then came up with the pizza day idea, so we presented it to Mr. Green. You can thank him for being on board and giving it the green light. After that, we just had to coordinate with the place providing the pizzas and our volunteers to make it happen.”

Originally, the idea was to sell popcorn in the Middle School, but other options were presented. When they approached Marc Green, the middle school principal, he strongly endorsed the ideas of Chick-fil-a day and Pizza by the Slice day. He said he had been wanting to offer that to his students ever since he became principal and asked if the PTO wanted to spearhead it, offering for them to keep the profits. He even closed down the snack shack for the PTO. After the first few events with the Middle School as a test run, the PTO expanded to include the upperclassmen.

In the past, they have always tried to do a Daddy/Daughter Dance, a Son +1 event, a Carnival, and a holiday shop each year. They also sell some apparel and sell candy grams in the elementary building for certain holidays. The PTO also started a pumpkin decorating contest a couple of years ago and they have a hygiene drive.

In the future, they plan to continue providing fun fundraising events for the community and giving back to the school so that the teachers and the students enjoy and learn from their time here. The PTO’s next big event is the Carnival, and it is scheduled for April 29th. All are welcome to attend.

During the school year, they meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 6:30 pm typically in the Elementary Library. During the summer they will typically come together based on when the majority of officers can meet.

For more information on the PTO, what they do, and how to get involved, visit https://fgepto.edublogs.org/.