Ben Franklin’s Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) is an integral part of Ben Franklin Academy. Since it began serving BFA, the PTO has raised funds to provide all sorts of items needed by the school, including playground equipment, library books, a climbing wall, an outdoor classroom, and the MakerSpace as well as tools and resources needed by the teachers, staff and administration.
The objectives of the PTO are to serve as a volunteer resource for the school, build strong school spirit, provide our school with great social events and seek resources (materials, funds, and services) that help foster our school community.
BFA participates in a variety of programs that have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars crucial to the growth and support of programs that enrich the lives of students and parents alike.
To get an overall idea of the various fundraising efforts at BFA, please view our summary of our PTO Fundraising Programs.
We are planning some fun events and fundraisers to benefit our school and bring together the entire BFA Community.
For the 2023-2024 school year, these events include:
Ben Franklin’s birthday celebration
Ben’s Brigade
Elementary holiday parties (Halloween, Winter holiday, and Valentine’s)
Field day
Franklin Fest
Fundraiser Events (BENefit Bash, Fun Run, direct giving campaign/online auction)
The PTO consists of a board of seven voting officers as well as approximately thirty named committee managers and chairs. However, to successfully run all our programs, we cannot do it without your help. We welcome your input, time, and/or talents to help make Ben Franklin Academy incredible and the best place for our children to grow and learn. We are still looking to fill few more roles for next year, see the PTO Elections page for details.
Ben’s Brigade is a PTO group available to any father (or male figure) of a BFA student. This service and networking group provides Dads a place to get to know each other and unique opportunities for ways to give back to the school and volunteer. Ben’s Brigade handles work projects around the school, provides volunteers for school functions and hosts a number of events throughout the year such as a Dad’s Night Out Bowling Event and a Dads & Kids Firehouse Tour.
Ben’s Brigade Mission Statement: “It is the mission of Ben’s Brigade to be Extraordinary Men committed to the growth, development, success and safety of Ben Franklin Academy’s students, families and staff members. Our supportive and collaborative engagement with before, during and after school activities contributes to a strong school family of continuous relationships and lasting community connections.”
We are thrilled to report that, as a community, we earned $60,300 through the online auction and fundraiser! That’s right, $60,300 that will be poured directly back into BFA! Thank you to all of the families that participated and helped us surpass our goal!
Special thanks to the PTO members, volunteers and staff that helped us reach our goal, especially:
Amanda Trenck, Denise Batista, Erin Crowe, Janelle Nichols, Alissa Motazedi, Shauna Kramer,Nicole Withee, Briauna Smythe, Ewelina Charznowski, Colleen Crawley, Jacqui Condon, Alan Emmanuel, Carrie Keen, Michelle Bynum and Jennifer Jones.
Ben Franklin Academy 2021 Dance Fit
The PTO would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the BFA staff, families, and community members who supported the 2021 DanceFit fundraiser. All of your efforts paid off, as we reached our goal!
Thanks to your generous donations, the PTO raised a net profit of $46,754! From the money raised, approximately $10,500 was given back to classroom and specials teachers to enhance their classroom materials or curriculum. The remainder of the proceeds will go toward STEAM enhancements and PTO programs.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the DanceFit fundraiser. We had 74% of our students registered, and 59% of our students were pledged, with pledges coming from 48 states and 6 countries! That’s amazing–we truly appreciate your generosity!
The offices of Vice President, Secretary, and Social Coordinator are up for election by the school community. These positions are voting members of the PTO Executive Board and serve two-year terms. Two individuals may choose to serve as Co-Executive Officers for any position except President or Treasurer.
The Vice President assists the President and the PTO Board in the administration of all BFA PTO duties. In the absence, resignation or inability of the President to serve, the Vice President will have the power to perform the duties of the President. The Vice President is responsible for designing and implementing the PTO’s volunteer appreciation program. The Vice President is the point person for implementation of the BFA directory.
The Secretary keeps records and minutes of all meetings. The Secretary maintains files of all minutes, agendas and voting records. The Secretary is also responsible for the maintenance of the vote list. The Secretary will make the minutes and vote list available to be published on the BFA web page within seven (7) days of the meeting. The Secretary will take attendance at all meetings, as well as maintain a current list of contact information for Executive Officers and Committee Chairs of the BFA PTO. The Secretary is responsible for ensuring that the Communication and Conflict Resolution Policy and Conflict of Interest Policy are completed by all Executive Officers and Chairs of the BFA PTO. The Secretary manages the election process each year and ensures that any background checks are completed, if needed.
The Social Coordinator oversees and manages the Social Events of the PTO including: Harvest Festival, Ben Franklin’s Birthday, Sweetheart Ball, Spring Social and Field Day. The Social Coordinator is responsible for working closely with all parties involved in the event, including the event manager. They also schedule dates, in collaboration with the PTO Board, for all PTO Social Events prior to the school year.
Committee Chair Positions up for Election
Committee Chairs are one-year positions elected by the school community but are non-voting members of the Board. Two individuals may choose to serve as Committee Co-Chairs for any position.
Recognizes staff birthdays throughout the year. Can be done mostly from home. Averages 1-1/2 hours per month.
Addresses and distributes birthday cards to all the faculty and staff at BFA. Puts together around 90 cards and brings them to the front office to be distributed in the appropriate boxes on a monthly basis. Responsibilities include: contacting the front office to get a list of birthdays; purchasing, addressing and distributing birthday cards; purchasing gift cards to include in each card; bringing the cards in on a monthly basis to school to be distributed.
Organizes monthly restaurant spirit nights. Works with President and Marketing Committee Manager to promote spirit nights through newsletter, flyers and signage, and social media. Can be done ahead of time and mostly from home.
Organizes fundraising opportunities at local restaurants, ensuring that we get the best percentage possible. Tracks past restaurant nights to determine which are the most successful. Helps ensure restaurants send proceeds, as promised. Organizes the events in a timely manner and communicates them to the Officers, social media and marketing volunteers.
Plans and organizes annual teacher and staff appreciation week celebration. Along with Baking Committee Chair, coordinates staff meals for back to school night and parent-teacher conferences. Averages 2 hours per month. August, October, February, and May are higher but still under 10 hours.
Recognizes school staff/teachers throughout the year by organizing events as well as Staff Appreciation Week (as determined) and Teacher Appreciation Week (as determined). Chair will coordinate meals/baking items with the Baking Committee. Works closely with room parents to organize Staff and Teacher Appreciation recognition to ensure effective communication to families as well as gift collections and distributions.
Responsible for running used uniform sales and managing used uniform inventory. Reports uniform consignment sales and transactions along with PTO profit and seller profit amounts. Works closely with PTO Treasurer. Averages 20 hours per sale (2 times per year).
Organizes two or more used uniform sales throughout the year. Updates all forms and fliers; ensures the sales are well communicated and marketed and that the appropriate documents are posted online. Also, ensures that accurate records of transactions are sent to the PTO Treasurer in a timely manner for processing. Receives and tracks all uniforms to be sold with the appropriate paperwork. Maintains inventory and/or donates/returns items not sold, per the customer’s request.
Develops and organizes annual PTO virtues awareness program. Averages 2 hours per month.
Provides monthly bookmark/poster entries for distribution into Thursday folders. Selects an elementary and middle school winner and then provides the printer with the winning entries. Picks up, sorts, and drops off bookmarks to school for Thursday folder distribution.
Works with BFA Yearbook Advisor, school photographer, and BFA yearbook staff. Assists with order tracking and acts as liaison between school photographer and BFA community.
Organizes and promotes yearbook sales and parent volunteers and acts as a liaison between yearbook advisor and the school community. This chair requires continual communication with and support for the yearbook advisor, yearbook company, the parent community, BFA staff, parent volunteers, and the PTO. This position is responsible for meeting with staff upon the advisor’s request to help with creation of theme, design and and other yearbook elements. In addition, this position is responsible for organizing individual, class, and sports pictures and acts as a liaison between parent community and school photographer. This position works and communicates directly with the school photographer, as well as BFA staff to ensure portrait dates are set, performed to certain standards, and that deadlines are met. This position steps in to help photograph school events when necessary. In addition, this position helps manage orders and distribute books upon arrival.
Committee Manager Positions Up for Appointment
Each Committee Manager is a one-year position. Interested parties must submit a bio, which will be used for appointment by the current PTO Executive Officers.
Manages list of Baking Committee volunteers and communicates asks/needs, by email and social media, of Baking Committee. Can be done mostly from home. Averages 3 hours per month.
Determines which Ben Franklin Academy parents wish to volunteer for the Baking Committee and maintains current communication lists (Gmail, Signup Genius). Handles requests for school-wide food/beverage support from PTO Officers and Ben Franklin Academy personnel and communicates these volunteer opportunities to interested parents in a timely manner. Handles requests for individual family hardship meals from the PTO President and communicates these volunteer opportunities to the Baking Committee. Ensures all requests are adequately covered and communicates to the Officers if there is an issue.
Oversees Ben’s Brigade volunteer group. Evening and weekend hours. Averages 4 hours per month.
Ben’s Brigade is a parent group within the PTO focused on gathering the skills, talents and professions from the BFA Community to help with various maintenance and or/other projects for the school. The Manager schedules, organizes, and promotes events for the Committee and is the point of contact for Ben’s Brigade. Any questions or suggestions about the committee will be directed to the Manager. The Manager will be responsible for reporting the progress of the Committee and its intended work dates to the PTO. The Manager is required to attend monthly PTO meetings.
Manages PTO’s online store at MySchoolBucks and Manages PTO website. Set up Raise Right, new products as needed, and enables/disables items at appropriate times. Provides reports to event chairs, PTO Treasurer, and others, as needed. Work mostly done from home. Averages 5 hours per month.
Manages the BFA online store run by the PTO. Works with various other PTO Coordinators and Chairs to provide customized reporting and data downloads from the store database. Manager should have familiarity with web site technologies and be comfortable with downloading data and importing it in various forms (Access, Excel, etc.). Acts as the top-level troubleshooting and contact with Volusion support for issues and problems encountered in the store. Helps other PTO Coordinators and Chairs with training on various aspects of the online store. Builds products in the store and/or assists with creation of new products. Updates Access reporting system as necessary. Assists with store related requests and services as necessary. Posts documents to the PTO website as needed.
Organizes and executes the PTO’s Fall social event. Responsible for planning, recruiting volunteers, and set up and tear down of event. Works closely with Social Coordinator. Seasonal position. Averages 30 hours per month July-September only.
Oversees the planning and execution of the annual BFA Franklin Fest, usually held in late September. Works closely with the PTO Social Coordinator, as well as requesting assistance from other PTO Chairs and Coordinators to arrange the details of the event.
Assists the Fundraising Coordinator with all things Fundraising.
The Fundraising Assistant will be the right hand (wo)man to the Fundraising Coordinator. They will support the Fundraising Coordinator and other PTO members with thing such as Spirit Wear, Spirit Rock, Spirit Nights, Sponsorship, Raise Right, the online auction, annual fundraiser and more.
(1) Prepares, prints, and distributes PTO flyers and sandwich board signs. Graphic design or flyer making experience helpful. (2) Compiles and submits PTO’s weekly articles for the Principal’s Thursday newsletter. Creative writing and/or Microsoft Word experience helpful. (3) Picks up flyers and print shop [Tuesday] and distributes into teacher mailboxes [Wednesday AM].
THIS POSITION CAN BE DONE BY ONE PERSON OR SPLIT INTO THREE ROLES. Work is mostly done from home. In total, averages 5 hours per month except 15 hours per month in August and September and 30 hours in October.
Works closely with the President. Promotes upcoming PTO events and programs. This chair needs to be in contact with various Committee Chairs and Coordinators of the PTO to provide updates for the parent community regarding events and programs. Responsibilities include designing and printing flyers for events; sorting and distributing flyers into teacher in-boxes by Wednesday noon; and placing event flyers in the locked glass display near office. This individual also creates event posters to be placed on the carpool sandwich boards and emails the middle school vice principal, the PTO Web Page Committee Manager and the Social Media Committee Manager the event flyer PDFs for that weeks’ events. In addition, this individual compiles and submits the PTO articles for the Principal’s weekly newsletter.
Runs Raise Right gifting program in December and April/May. Works closely with Online Store Committee Manager and President. Spreadsheet experience is critical. Can be done from home. Seasonal position. Averages 30 hours per Raise Right program (Nov/Dec and Apr/May).
Works with the PTO Board to set schedules for each Raise Right event. Works with the Marketing Committee Manager to create media for each Raise Right event. Compiles data on staff totals and communicates those totals to the staff and then orders staff gift cards. Prepares cards and gift cards and manages distribution to staff.
Manages scheduling and payment of PTO’s spirit rock. Can be done mostly from home. Averages 1-1/2 hours per month.
Monitors and maintains the SignUpGenius for the Spirit Rock. Ensures payments are made in a timely manner by sending payment reminders, when necessary. Acts as the contact person for any information needed about the rock. Paints the rock with BFA stencil when rock is unrented for more than 3 rental days in a row.
Manages sale and inventory of PTO’s spirit wear. Coordinates in-person sales 2-3 times per school year and online sales 2 times per year. Inventory can be stored in PTO shed but it’s helpful if you can store at your own house. Works closely with President, PTO Treasurer, and Online Store Committee Manager. Averages 5 hours per month. 10 hours in August and October (back to school and parent-teacher conferences).
Updates the MySchoolBucks website with product information. Checks email for order emails and customer inquiries. Fills and delivers orders. Processes exchanges. Runs monthly reports from the store website to ensure that all orders placed have been filled. Manages inventory for existing and new spirit wear items, which includes ordering new items or restocking existing items with local and online vendors. Forwards vendor invoices with proper forms to PTO Treasurer for payment. Sells spirit wear merchandise at school events (Registration, Back to School Night). Ensures that spirit wear to be worn at school conforms to BFA Board of Directors Uniform Policy.
Executes PTO’s sponsorship programs. Creates sponsorship package offerings and sells to potential sponsors throughout BFA and the local community. Seasonal position. Most work happens in the early Fall.
Works with Fundraising Coordinator to create sponsorship package offerings. Contacts prior sponsors and solicits new sponsors to determine current interest. Acts as the contact for all secured sponsors, including collecting checks and logos from them. Displays signage during pre-set time frames, coordinates additional social media recognition, and displays logos in school lobby per sponsorship package commitments.
Organizes and executes the PTO’s Spring social event. Responsible for planning, recruiting volunteers, and set up and tear down of event. Works closely with Social Coordinator. Great position to co-chair. Seasonal position. Averages 30 hours in the month of the event.
Oversees the planning and execution of the annual BFA Spring Social (formerly called the Mother/Son Event), usually held in April. Works closely with the PTO Social Coordinator, as well as requesting assistance from other PTO Chairs and Coordinators to arrange the details of the event.
Organizes and executes the PTO’s Winter (dance) social event. Responsible for planning, recruiting volunteers, and set up and tear down of event. Works closely with Social Coordinator. Great position to co-chair. Seasonal position. Averages 30 hours in the month of the event.
Oversees the planning and execution of the annual BFA Sweetheart Ball (formerly called the Father/Daughter Dance), usually held in February. Works closely with the PTO Social Coordinator, as well as requesting assistance from other PTO Chairs and Coordinators to arrange the details of the event.
The Trunk-or-Treat Committee Manager oversees the planning and execution of the annual BFA Trunk-or-Treat, held in October. Duties include getting treat donations, recruiting volunteers, organizing treats, and running the event day of. Works closely with the PTO Room Parent Coordinator. Requires about 15-20 hours all completed by the end of October.
Serves as point of contact for families new to BFA. Plans Fall new family social and two Moms Night Out events during the school year. Averages 1 hour per month. August, November, and February higher but still under 5 hours per month.
Promotes upcoming PTO events and programs. This chair needs to be in contact with various Committee Chairs and Coordinators of the PTO to provide updates for the parent community regarding events and programs. Responsibilities include emailing new families as they join BFA; coordinating new family events/forums; coordinating Mom’s Night Out Events and attending new family events.
Meetings
PTO meetings are held on the second Wednesdays of each month. Our next PTO meeting is January 15, Wednesday from 6 – 8 pm at Sanders science lab in Ben Franklin Academy.
Attendance at meetings counts toward volunteer hours. Parents and Teachers are welcome to attend! All open comments must be submitted to the PTO Secretary prior to the meeting.
