PTA Helping Wellington to Achieve Good Things

Carbon School District Press Release

The PTA at every school has an important mission: to aid the school in providing students a quality education. This year at Wellington, the school’s organization has been doing some special things right from the get go.

“We have had some very good PTAs in the past,” said Wellington Elementary Principal Stacy Basinger. “This year’s group is no different, and they have brought a new spark to our school. One common challenge our PTAs have faced in the past is having parent participation. This year’s group is focusing on recruiting others, and they truly want to involve as many parents as possible to provide successful opportunities and activities for our students.”

One of the things that the school and the PTA are trying to do together is to build family rapport.

“For instance, in November, we had a movie night in the gym. People bring their chairs and blankets and watch a movie,” she said. “It’s free for the families, and we have concessions where the PTA sells popcorn, candy and drinks. It’s not meant to be a huge money maker, but it offers a fun activity for families to be together.” The PTA is excited to host another movie night activity on Jan. 25.

The PTA sponsored a chocolate bar fundraiser before Christmas break that was wildly successful, bringing nearly $8,000 to the school. In an effort to motivate, a challenge was issued. As various amounts of boxes were sold, the students were able to vote which teachers would complete a variety of silly tasks. For example, being attacked with silly string, being taped to the wall, taking a pie to the face, etc. The ultimate challenge was to sell all the boxes of chocolate, which would result in the student body voting for the color Mrs. Basinger would have to dye her hair for a month.

“I couldn’t believe we sold out,” exclaimed Basinger with her brightly colored pink hair.

Though the silly teacher challenges brought laughter and fun to the student body, the true joy comes from the use of the money raised. The goal was to raise funds that could be directly used in supporting student learning and school needs. The PTA’s first commitment with the earnings was purchasing a Chromebook cart and enough Chromebooks to create a class set for the second grade to share.

In February, the PTA is hosting a reading bingo night. “The event is for families to play bingo together, but after various rounds they are going to learn about reading, how to help students with reading and other snippets of information that will help everyone,” Basinger stated. “There will be a lot of prizes, and of course the prizes will be books, or things related to reading, because that is what we are concentrating on.”

She said the PTA is also trying to pull together a spring carnival and other activities as well. “These kinds of activities are things we would like to do at the school level, but the time just isn’t there to do that,” explained Basinger. “Our PTA truly wants to be a part of our school success and that is exciting.”