Benton Community 50th Anniversary T-Shirts

Elementary Families & Teachers at Benton Community Schools,

The purpose of this letter is to communicate changes which are being made as the district moves ahead with elementary restructuring for the 2015-2016 school year.  We currently have three parent/teacher organizations at Benton Community: Atkins PTA, Keystone/Van Horne PTO, and Norway PTO.

This spring, the three organizations got together and brainstormed positives and challenges of joining together into one organization.  The overwhelming benefit of joining together is that together, we are stronger.  Together, we can do great things for our students.  Our initial meeting was spent weighing out our options. From there, the representatives were able to take information back to the separate PTO/PTA meetings to update and seek feedback from the rest of the members.  Discussions were had on the availability of funds to put into a new account, making sure there was still enough in each PTO/PTA account to carry out commitments we have already made to students in the separate buildings. Our second meeting was spent planning how to move forward with fundraising, committees, creating checklists of steps to close out current PTOs/PTA, and the election of new officers.  

The following offices were established -
President - Megan Oldenburger Vice President - Becky Norton 
Treasurer - Courtney Kerkman 
Secretary - Andrea Townsley 
Committee Chair - Anna Upah 
Committee Chair - Angie Von Ahsen

Meeting times were also established for future BCPTO meetings.  Each month, meetings will rotate between Atkins, Keystone, and Norway Elementary Centers.  These meetings will be on the first Monday of each month starting at 6:30 PM.  The next few months’ dates are as follows:

Monday, June 1 - Atkins Elementary; Monday, July 6 - Norway Elementary; Monday, August 3 - Keystone Elementary

All teachers and parents are invited to the meetings of the BCPTO.  Together, we will continue to provide opportunities for students at Benton Community which will be second to none!  We look forward to support and collaboration from parents and teachers all across the district.  Please contact one of the officers listed above with questions.  We look forward to working as a team and seeing what we can accomplish for students at Benton Community Elementary Centers...TOGETHER!