Photos courtesy of the PTO presidents
Here are presidents of the parent organizations in each Hoover public school and what they said about their goals and plans for the 2023-24 school year:
BLUFF PARK ELEMENTARY
PTA President: Fran Morris
Fran Morris
Contact: bluffparkpta@gmail.com
Goals: Bluff Park Elementary is off to a strong start this school year. We kicked off the year with our annual "yearlong sponsorship" fundraiser. It was a huge success, with over 50 local businesses and families supporting our school. One of our favorite school traditions is our outdoor social in October. This is always a favorite fall event at our school and in our community. This year we combined this event with a silent auction for our fall fundraiser. We had great response throughout our community and with Bluff Park families. We look forward to sharing our success with this fundraiser. We had a fun Class List Day, outdoor classroom cleanup and Walk to School Day as well this fall. We are looking forward to a great December. The PTA helps decorate the school to look festive, and Santa comes to visit with all the students. We are already working on our spring events, including our beloved Panther Prowl/Color Run. This is another big school event held each spring that brings our students and our community together. Our PTA mission is to support BPES through school-wide initiatives, classroom projects, events and more. Through these efforts, we provide support to our teachers, students and staff, as well as fund enhancements to our school. It is our privilege to serve BPES as parents through PTA!
DEER VALLEY ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Janelle Hutto
Janelle Hutto, Deer Valley Elementary PTO President
Contact: Janelle.hutto@gmail.com
Goals: Deer Valley is off to a strong start this school year! We were all so excited to welcome a Pre-K class this year. Through the generosity of our DVES families, we were able to purchase a Lü Interactive Playground that all kids are able to use in P.E. Our annual coin drive, Change for Cheetahs, was held Oct. 16-20. With the money raised this year, we will complete other school wish list items and continue to support our amazing teachers, staff and administration. We are looking forward to an amazing year and are so thankful for the support of our community!
GREEN VALLEY ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Ashley Boyle
Ashley Boyle
Contact: ptogves@gmail.com
Goals: Green Valley has had a wonderful start to our school year! In August, we hosted a schoolwide 60th birthday party for GVES. We invited the community and previous staff to join us in celebrating. In September, we had a very successful coin drive fundraiser and color fun run. We will use the money raised to support our hard-working teachers, staff and students at Green Valley. This month we reached a huge multi-year goal of raising money for our outdoor classroom. We look forward to breaking ground on this project in the coming months. We are working to increase parent involvement at GV through PTO newsletters, monthly parent volunteer days and a bigger presence on social media. We will be talking with teachers and administration to decide what our next GVES PTO project will be. We appreciate our parents, sponsors and community for supporting us! It’s great to be a Green Valley Gator!
GREYSTONE ELEMENTARY
PTA President: Susan Hays
Susan Hays
Contact: greystonepta@gmail.com
Goals: In August, we had our Back to School Bingo night to kick off the school year. It is a fun-filled night with food trucks, a DJ and lots of bingo. We had our annual fundraiser, Leave a Legacy, in October. We have monthly luncheons planned for our faculty and staff. In the spring, we have Young Authors and Enrichment week. We are so thankful for the support of parents and for our wonderful faculty and staff. We are looking forward to a wonderful year!
GWIN ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Katie Kingery
Katie Kingery
Contact: katiefkingery@gmail.com
Goals: Gwin has such wonderful support from our families and community. We are so grateful for our volunteers who help us make things happen. From our fall fun run to our spring carnival, we love seeing families come out to support our students, teachers and school. This year, one of our fundraising initiatives is to create a sensory path in the school. We are excited to make this happen! Our Beautification Committee has worked hard to enhance the appearance of our school grounds and has several additional projects planned throughout the year. The PTO funds a teacher grant program, where we award money directly to the applicants for classroom and curriculum needs. We also love showing our teachers, staff and administrators how much they mean to us through our teacher appreciation events. Being part of the Gwin family has truly been a blessing, and I am honored to serve on the PTO board.
RIVERCHASE ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Courtney Carlisle
Courtney Carlisle
Contact: courtcarlisle3@gmail.com
Goals: The RES PTO kicked off the school year with Boosterthon and hosted a Dance Fit fundraiser. Through the generous support of RES families, friends and our amazing community, we were able to raise enough funds to meet our goal. The much-anticipated movie night on Oct. 20 ws another major fundraiser that supports the various needs of our school. Monthly spirit nights, a Holiday Shop and an online auction are all planned for the year.
ROCKY RIDGE ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Betty Jaskolka
Contact: rrespto@gmail.com
Goals: We started off the school year with a bang! We had a Serve Day right before school began. So many people from the community graciously came together to clean up and upgrade our outdoor courtyard. This was a much-needed component to promote outdoor learning in a clean, inviting environment. We plan to give our fall and spring fundraisers a boost with a lot of energy, to raise enough money to provide a big shade structure on our gray Rocket Top area and a stage/theater in the courtyard area. Both will enhance our accredited STEAM program as well as allow students to boost their overall happiness, reduce stress and express creativity in an outdoor learning space. We are so thankful for the support of our amazing teachers and staff and our giving community!
SHADES MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Jeanell Irish
Jeanell Irish
Contact: smes.pto.president@gmail.com
Goals: Shades Mountain Elementary School is a small but mighty school. We see that every year with our annual Fun Run fundraiser. One of our big goals for this year is to host more fundraisers. SMES is slated to receive a brand new playground in 2024, and the PTO would love to be able to contribute a super-fun piece of playground equipment to that build. One thing that has become a tradition for us is to provide each child in the school with $10 to use for the December book fair. We are very pleased to be able to financially provide each child with that again. We are also going to focus more on our teachers this year and make sure they are getting the love and appreciation they deserve with special treats each month. These treats can range from stocking their teachers’ lounge with snacks and goodies to offering them a duty-free lunch. We also plan to spoil them rotten again during Teacher Appreciation Week in May!
SOUTH SHADES CREST ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Holly Turner
Holly Turner
Contact: sscpto@gmail.com
Goals: This year we are continuing to encourage parent and community involvement while growing and building onto projects and ideas from last year. To start the year off, we finished our lobby refresh and have created a more welcoming and visually attractive space. PTO has also helped to fund an updated lounge for our instructional support staff, with new seating, appliances and personal spaces for all. This project brought tears to many, and now we are working to do the same for our deserving custodians. We have had a great start to our fundraising and hospitality events this year, raising almost half of what we have budgeted for the entire year, as well as treating all of our staff to multiple events beginning with a welcome back rainbow snack room, bathroom restock, catered popcorn bar, duty-free and catered lunch and more. We attribute all these wonderful things to increased support from our families, staff and community. We have and will continue to strive to bring everyone closer and a part of this incredible elementary school experience. Possibilities are endless when we work together.
TRACE CROSSINGS ELEMENTARY
PTO President: Ashley Waid
Ashley Waid
Contact: ashleygwaid@gmail.com
Goals: The TCES PTO’s focus is fostering strong connections between families and the school by promoting community engagement and fun-filled activities. We recently completed the school’s most successful Boosterthon event, raising essential funds for various school needs, including the enhancement of the school courtyard. The board is excited to help organize the “Masked Singer” contest to celebrate surpassing the fundraising goal, showing our commitment to creating an exciting and vibrant school environment. We believe in the power of bringing families and the community together. As part of Trace Crossings Elementary, the PTO board encourages everyone to explore the school’s calendar of events, which is brimming with opportunities for families and the community to connect. Whether it’s Family Bingo Night, the Glow Dance, Breakfast with Santa or the Small/Tall Ball, you’re invited to join us and discover why TCES is indeed “the Place” for enriching experiences and strong community bonds.
BROCK’S GAP INTERMEDIATE
PTO President: Ashley Bryson
Ashley Bryson
Contact: bgipto@gmail.com
Goals: Brock’s Gap PTO wants to continue to support our amazing faculty, staff and administration throughout the year. One of our main projects this fall is upgrading our audio/visual system in the cafeteria, which is used for school-wide events and meetings. In addition, we will use funds raised this year to refresh our school lobby to provide a warm and welcoming environment for our students and families. We are also continuing our grant program, which allows teachers to purchase materials that can be used to enhance their instruction. Our team will treat our faculty and staff to lunches and snacks during the year to show how much they are appreciated. We are so thankful for the wonderful support from our BGIS families and community and are looking forward to another great year!
BERRY MIDDLE
PTO President: Misty Phillips
Photo courtesy of Misty Phillips
Misty Phillips
Contact: mistybluephillips@icloud.com
Goals: We had a new fundraiser this year, called The Berry Strong Fundraiser, that began the first of October. We have quite the wish list we’re trying to accomplish this year! We hope to transform an outdoor courtyard to create a functional outdoor classroom, provide several teachers grants and love on all Berry staff with delicious meals and treats. Our biggest goal this year is to assist with a new sound system for our practice gym, which hosts all indoor sporting events, theater productions, choral and band performances, assemblies, award ceremonies and the list goes on. Our main objective this year is to leave Berry better than we found it. Our board is committed to raising record funds to help make Berry Middle School a roaring success!
BUMPUS MIDDLE
PTO President: Katie Friedman
Katie Friedman
Contact: bumpuspto@hcs-students.net
Goals: We just recently completed our largest fundraiser of the year, the Color Run, which we use every year to fully fund our budget. I’m so grateful for our amazing PTO board members and parents and for the full support of the administration and staff, which all came together to make this huge event wildly successful! Thank you all, so much! Additionally, we will continue to sell spirit wear, partner with local businesses to host spirit nights and accept donations throughout the school year. We will also work with administration to use excess funds raised to address other needs in our school.
SIMMONS MIDDLE
PTO President: Mara Read
Mara Read
Contact: mara.pto.simmons@gmail.com
Goals: The 2023-24 school year at Simmons has gotten off to such a great start, beginning with our Back to School Bash for middle school families during registration week and our "welcome back" breakfast for teachers, not to mention teacher lounge refreshes throughout the building. We've had a record sponsorship contribution (we love our community sponsors!), and our BUCK$ for Simmons fundraiser is expected to exceed the prior few years. The PTO is super-excited to already have awarded many teacher grants for classroom improvements (telescope, novels, sensory items, education magazine subscriptions, color printers and so much more!), contributed to new equipment for our school musical, donated to our choir department and provided funds for new hurdles for the track team and volleyball sets/footballs for the P.E. department. We have plans for teacher luncheons every month and several celebrations for the students. It's going to be a great school year!
HOOVER HIGH
PTSO President: Erika Monson
Erika Monson
Contact: ptsohooverhs@gmail.com
Goals: Over the summer, our PTSO volunteers assisted school counselors with registration and freshmen parent question-and-answer sessions. My hope is our Hoover High PTSO will continue to be a resource to parents and students as they navigate all Hoover High has to offer. I am pleased to report our membership drive has been successful to date, and we are in a position to fund teacher grants, host hospitality events and support the Gene Godwin Scholarship. We are very excited Jennifer Hogan has returned to Hoover High School and is now our school principal. We hope to partner with Principal Hogan and our community to update our teacher break rooms and provide a relaxing space for our teachers to recharge. If you would like to be a community partner or part of our Hoover High School PTSO volunteers, please contact us!
SPAIN PARK HIGH
PTSO President: Christen Causey
Photo courtesy of Christen Cause
Christen Causey
Contact: spainparkptso@gmail.com
Goals: Spain Park is unique in that we do not have any school fundraisers. We raise all of our money through dues and donations given by our parents and faculty members. My goals include making sure the faculty members and staff feel supported and valued during the year through our quarterly teacher appreciation events and a luncheon at the end of each semester, and also to fund as many grants as possible. Last year we gave out $6,000 in grants, and this year we increased our grant budget to $6,700. The teachers at Spain Park have great and innovative ideas, and we want to help them pursue their goals. I also hope to build a sense of community between the faculty and staff, students and parents throughout this school year.
