The potential redrawing of Hoover school attendance zones for the 2016-17 school year (which was delayed a year) caused some shakeups in some Hoover parent organizations, but leaders of the groups say they are looking forward to the new year.
Here are the presidents of the parent organizations at each school and what they had to say about their goals for this year:
Bluff Park Elementary PTO — Courtney Bentley Cunningham
bluffparkpto@gmail.com
“Bluff Park Elementary School PTO is excited about the 2016-2017 academic year! We plan to support the mission and vision of our school by implementing community-centered fundraising events, collaborating with our teachers, administrators, and school personnel, and identifying new opportunities for volunteering. We also plan to increase opportunities for all families to stay connected by launching our new BPES PTO website. This website will provide families with up-to-date information about PTO events and a comprehensive listing of ways to get involved.”
Deer Valley Elementary PTO — Ashley Sutterlin
573-864-6230; sutterlin4@gmail.com
“Our goals for the upcoming school year would be to continue to raise funds to meet the needs of our school and to support our faculty and staff in making Deer Valley be the best it can be.”
Green Valley Elementary PTO — Myra Beckman and Becky Kenney (co-presidents)
ptogves@gmail.com
“As a PTO, we are excited about the opportunity to start on a track update in the near future. We are also excited to work with our teachers on Green Valley’s New Gator Creator space. This is a new area at GVES that four teachers are working to start, thanks to funds received by the Hoover City School Foundation grant this spring.”
Greystone Elementary PTA — Jodi McNulty
306-1575; jodimcnulty@aol.com
“We’re getting a new principal this year, so we want to welcome the new principal in and have as few bumps in the road as possible. We want to have successful fundraising again with parents and a lot of parental involvement and keep the flow that Dr. (Kathy) Wheaton has established these past three years she has been here. We’ve had a great run with her. … It will be great to have a new principal. Our goal as a PTA is to make that transition for students and parents and teachers as smooth as possible. When you have change, a lot of times people panic. If we can alleviate that as a PTA board, that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Gwin Elementary PTO — Casey Hughes
999-4073; caseyh15@gmail.com
“We really want to get more involvement from our parents in the coming year and let our kids have the best year they possibly can at Gwin. We always have our annual Eagle Scream Fun Run as our main fundraiser. That will be our main event this year as well. We always make a ton of money for the school on that one fundraiser.”
Riverchase Elementary PTO — Heather Kinney
heather2000@bellsouth.net
“I am very excited about being the PTO president for this upcoming school year. Riverchase is such a great school community. We have already been busy this summer supporting projects for this upcoming school year. We have purchased four pallets of sod for the playground and are working to have part of the building repainted. My goal this year is to continue the strong PTO relationship with Dr. (Alice) Turney and the staff. They are a group of wonderful educators who care for our children, and we want to provide them the monetary means and volunteer hours to provide and exceed the curriculum for our children. … Our theme for this year is based on Star Wars. We have lots of exciting activities planned! It is going to be another fabulous year where the community and school work together to support our children.”
Rocky Ridge Elementary PTO — Jessica Hentges
989-941-5695; jmsilhavy@gmail.com
“We’re looking forward to another great year and getting parents involved and having new activities and events going on throughout the year to get even more parent involvement. We really want to connect the parents with the community and the community with the parents so everyone is working together to make this a great school year for the kids. We are working on building up a new outdoor classroom with particular sections for each of the grade levels to work on so they can learn about plant life … and be responsible for taking care of something outside of themselves.”
Shades Mountain Elementary PTO — Paige Hofer
410-8551; Paige.hofer@gmail.com
“We have one big fundraiser, our fun run, and we sell the coupon books. Our big focus has been with using those funds to help revamp our science lab in creating a MakerSpace in the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) lab for our children. Our science lab has been utilized for several years, but with the money we have been able to raise, our teachers have a renewed excitement and focus with the tools they have been given … Most of our budget goes to help run the school (toner, copier supplies and startup money for teachers). The bulk of it is not really exciting stuff, but last year we were able to give about $10,000 to the STEAM lab and MakerSpace.”
South Shades Crest Elementary PTO — Katie Holland
937-7137; Katiehollandpto@gmail.com
“This year our goal at SSC is to expand our Tinker Lab and MakerSpace while creating a new puppet and readers theater.”
Trace Crossings Elementary PTO — Katie Owen
907-8756; knsowen@gmail.com
“I am looking forward to working with our new principal for the 2016-17 school year. The mission of the PTO board is to touch and enrich the lives of each student in our building. I feel very fortunate to serve alongside an administration and school system that values the parent/teacher relationship.”
Brock’s Gap Intermediate PTO — Dawn Blake
bgispto@gmail.com
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to lead our PTO. We are looking forward to our opportunities to assist our school with various fundraising and volunteer events. “
Berry Middle PTO— Ruth Cole
249-4074; ruth.cole@me.com
“As a part of the Berry Middle School PTO, I’m looking forward to supporting the school as they educate our students through new and innovative strategies. I anticipate another great year of connecting our school, parents, and the community to ensure continued excellence.”
Bumpus Middle PTO — Lori Heglas
682-7910; heglas@bellsouth.net
“We want to increase school spirit and celebrate the students’ achievements. … We installed water bottle fillers last year, and that went over good with the kids. We want to install more of those. We also want to see what we can do to develop outdoor classroom space so the kids can get outside those four walls. We started last year with expanded celebrations for A and A-B students and getting our cheerleaders to cheer at more than just football and basketball games, celebrating the kids as a whole (volleyball, bowling, math and bridge building competitions). We are really trying to focus on student achievement and their successes.”
Simmons Middle PTO — Sabrina Stephens
305-1646; sabrinas4bama@att.net
“Our goal is always to do whatever it takes to help our students succeed, and the PTO hopes to accomplish that by supporting the faculty and staff at Simmons. We support them with fundraisers and volunteering, and we do teacher luncheons, and we like to provide grants to teachers for things they need in the classroom. This year, we want even more parental involvement. It’s just a great way for them to know what’s going on in the school.”
Hoover High PTSO — Kristi Phillips
HooverPTSO@gmail.com
“I believe schools are most successful when parents, teachers and students work together. Hoover High School has a tradition of cooperation and collaboration between parents and teachers that benefits our students and supports them as they achieve academic, artistic, social and athletic success. I am looking forward to being a part of that effort as PTSO President.”
Spain Park High PTSO — Sharon Baroody
492-9621; sharonbaroody@bellsouth.net
“Our PTSO goals for this year are to increase membership, partner more with the community and continue to provide support to the dedicated faculty, staff and students at Spain Park. We have three sons that have graduated and our last son will be a junior. My husband and I consider ourselves blessed to be part of such a vibrant and passionate community. I’m looking forward to working with other parents that love Spain Park as much as we do! Go Jags!”
