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A Little About Our School First…
Northern Hills Elementary is located in Edmond, Oklahoma; a small community just north of Oklahoma City. Edmond is well-known in the OKC metro area as having one of the finest school districts in the state. Northern Hills has also established itself as one of the top elementary schools in our district. Some of our school’s awards include being the 1995 Redbook Magazine’s Best of State, as well as, being the first elementary in the Edmond Public School District to receive the National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award in 2000-2001. We are proud of our school and its long tradition of providing its students an excellent education.
Now, About Our PTO…
The Northern Hills Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) was established to have just one focus… to support our students, teachers, and staff in such a way as to enable each student’s learning, enrichment, and enjoyment of their years at Northern Hills to be the very best it can be! As parents, we are committed to that endeavor and believe that we have a positive impact in all of these areas.
Northern Hills is an excellent example of the success that can be achieved when dedicated educators and devoted parents combine their efforts to create a truly exceptional school.
Priority Number One…
The first and most important area our PTO strives to assist our students with is learning. While the majority of our student’s education is certainly in our teacher’s very capable hands… our parents love to support this area through our PALS program (Parents Assisting Learning). We have volunteers that make a direct impact in our student’s learning through our Meet the Masters and Pup Pal Readers programs. Meet the Masters volunteers facilitate art appreciation by teaching our children about the master artists of the world and then assisting them in creating their own work of art in that particular artist’s style. Our Pup Pal Reader volunteers read for 30 minutes with those students who would benefit from just having that extra bit of encouragement with their reading skills. Our students and teachers also receive assistance through our volunteers in the Media Center; Cut, Color, & Copy Workroom; and Welcome Desk. These volunteers provide the wonderful gift of a friendly face or a helpful hand with a project, which we believe makes a significant impact in both our student’s and teacher’s day.
Another great way to support our student’s success in the classroom is by encouraging and helping our teachers themselves. Two of our committees are specifically focused on doing just that! Our Homeroom Parents are there to assist teachers in any way they may need including coordinating parties and recruiting parent volunteers for classroom activities and special events. Our Hospitality committee is focused on making sure our teachers know how much they are valued and appreciated! They provide luncheons and special encouragements for our teachers throughout the year. We have also found ways, through our fundraising, to support our teachers directly in the classroom. Each year our PTO provides classroom money to every teacher at our school. These funds allow our teachers to purchase any items that they would like to have specifically for their own class. Also, in 2005, our PTO provided funds to redecorate our teacher’s lounge. We wanted to provide a place where our dedicated educators could go to relax and refresh themselves. We were delighted to find out that they have enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed doing it for them.
Let’s Mix In The Fun...
As parents, there is nothing more rewarding than having our students get a wonderful and challenging education… but we also realize that a big part of a child’s elementary school years is about having a LOT of fun!! After all, they’ll never have these kind of years again – the ones filled with pure enjoyment and innocence. Well, at Northern Hills, our parents have dedicated themselves to making sure our students have some FABULOUS times to remember from their years here. They’re our favorite annual school events that have become quite a tradition with our little Husky Pups… Fall Fun Fest, Holiday Store, and Field Day. Now, when we say traditions – we really mean it … ALL of these events have been happening annually at our school for over 20 years!!
One of the best ways to start off a school year is with a ton of fun – and our Fall Fun Fest certainly delivers!!! This is our annual fall carnival held in late September. This event initially started out as a smaller, indoor event in our cafeteria… but within a few short years, the carnival had to be transitioned to the outdoors to accommodate the growing crowds of students and parents. For years now, our average attendance at this event has been 95% of our families. Speaking of families, one of the best parts of a great school tradition is seeing it become a family tradition. You’ll find more than a few parents who have walked through those carnival booths with older siblings ‘longer than they can remember’. In fact, the child they used to push around this carnival in a stroller is now the Husky Pup chasing down their sibling across the school yard with a confetti egg in their hand. Like we said, lots of fun for the whole family… We also LOVE the fact that many of our Husky Pup alums come back even after they grow up to be a Husky (our high school mascot). Every year, these wonderful high school students volunteer their time and energy to help us put on this amazing event! Now, that is a great tradition!!
Another sentimental favorite at our school is our annual Holiday Store. This store is a ‘step back in time’ to when children came to shop with just a few dollars in their pockets and a ton of excitement over finding that perfect Christmas present. This event is about hand-made presents or special treasures that were put together with a lot of love!! Siblings who have received holiday store presents for years (from their big brother or sister) are so excited when they get to be the one going to the Holiday Store and picking out that perfect present to give! It is no wonder that this event is one of our student’s favorites and our parent’s treasured delight.
Now when springtime rolls around – our students are ready for another great outdoor event… so that’s the perfect time for our annual Field Day! In early May our parents turn our back playground into a virtual mini-Olympics stadium. Every sport known to mankind, plus a few new ones known to very few, come alive during this all day event! While the kids always have a great time… many of our parents have even more fun directing all the hilarity that is bound to come from just letting loose and having a blast with our great kids!
The Gift That Keeps on Giving…
As with most Parent-Teacher groups, our organization started off as a PTA.. However, in 1980 we converted to a PTO in order to focus more of our fundraising efforts directly towards supporting our school and our community. We have had a strong and active parent group since our inception… and certainly one way to demonstrate our parent’s commitment and dedication to our school is to list some of the major features and benefits our PTO has been able to provide our school over the years…
As we’ve mentioned, supporting the education of our students is one of the highest priorities for our PTO. We believe we can do that best by letting our teachers and administrators tell us what equipment and education materials they need the most. Needless to say, early on, computers were high on their list of critical items. Therefore, in 1995 our PTO was able to establish one of the first Apple labs in Edmond. That following year, we also made the decision to spend nearly $50,000 to purchase license and usage rights for an amazing computer program by the name of Success Maker (CCC). This is a specialized program that most districts (including ours) usually only provide to its IEP (Individual Education Plan) students due to the expenses associated with it. However, after listening to our teachers, our PTO came to understand the tremendous advantage this software could provide to ALL of our students. As a result of that vision, our students have had the tremendous benefit of this amazing program for over a decade now. Our school currently has over 25 access and usage rights to the program, which enables us to have an entire class on the program all at the same time! In 1997, thanks to a bond vote from our school’s patrons, our school was able to establish our second computer lab… our Windows lab. In 1999, our PTO created a Technology committee and within a few years, we were able to meet our goal of having at least one computer in each classroom. And finally, in 2004 we were able to purchase Smart Boards for our computer labs. The Smart Board is a large screen on the wall that can display the teacher’s computer screen and give that teacher the option to instruct her students with the touch of a hand versus having to verbally explain the instructions. Since then, we have continued to provide our teachers with many of the latest CD/ROM programs and equipment that can be utilized in both our classroom and computer lab settings.
In addition to focusing on technology, our PTO is also committed to providing our teachers with many of the new and innovative books, learning tools, and teaching materials as they become available. We also provide many of the types of equipment our teachers may request such as incubators, maps & globes, PE equipment, musical instruments, storage equipment, etc. We believe that providing our teachers with the latest equipment and materials is one of the best ways we can assist in the process of providing an excellent education for our students.
Another wonderful aspect to our school is our extensive campus and playground area. We are very proud of the fact that our PTO has been able to partner with our school and develop an almost “park-like” setting on our back playground… filled with large shade trees, playground equipment, baseball fields, a cement walking trail, wooded Nature trail, and Wetlands area. It is truly inspiring to us as parents that our students have the benefit of having their very own Wetlands area to explore and learn in. We were able to develop the Wetlands when our school received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department to establish this area, and with the help of county agencies; this area was completed in the fall of 1999. Our PTO has taken on the responsibility of providing the ongoing maintenance and care for not only our Wetlands and Nature Trail areas, but our entire back playground facilities as well. These services are provided by our Campus Improvements and Landscape/Wetlands committees. In 2005, we continued to expand our outdoor learning facilities with the addition of a new Outdoor Classroom & Pavilion. This structure will provide our students with a wonderful location to have their outdoor activities; including their Wetlands and Nature Trail classes, Meet the Masters art sessions, special reward parties, or just a place to go when it seems too nice to be inside all day.
Service With a Great Attitude…
While our parents recognize the benefits of raising funds for our school… our PTO is also focused on serving both our students and our parents in a number of areas. Another goal of our PTO is to support our community by providing our families some wonderful opportunities to contribute to local service agencies and philanthropies.
One of the first services our PTO provides to our school patrons is through our Service Projects committees. These include our T-shirts, Directories, and Yearbook sales. While most schools look to these items as being fundraising opportunities, our school has chosen to sell these items for no profit or “at cost”. We simply do this as a service to our families. Our philosophy is that it is more important to keep these items as affordable as possible so that all or most of our families can participate and have these wonderful and, sometimes sentimental, items. This policy has been a long standing one with our PTO, and one that our Board remains committed to continuing.
Another service that our PTO provides for our parents is keeping them informed about all the activities and volunteer opportunities we offer at our school.
We do so through the tireless work of our Communication committees. The main form of communication we use at Northern Hills is our Paw Prints newsletter. Our Newsletter committee creates and distributes this document to our entire student population every month during the school year. In addition to our newsletter, we also took on the task of creating our own PTO Website in 2006. Over the past few years, we have come to understand that many of our parents had become accustomed to getting their information through the internet. Therefore, we knew that it was time to create an interactive communication tool that would be a wonderful supplement to our newsletter. Our goal was to provide timely and regular updates, volunteer schedules, and data access points that our parents could see and use throughout the year, even during the summer months.
Another committee that is dedicated to keeping our parents informed is School Communications. This committee provides information to our parents through two venues. They are responsible for posting the most current school events on our marquee and also for sending important group-based information to our parents through the use of email. And finally, we have a Publicity committee who has the task of notifying our community through local newspapers about any of the events happening at our school. This committee has certainly been helpful in letting Edmond know about upcoming events such as golf tournaments and our recent campaign to sell engraved bricks for our Outdoor Classroom & Pavilion. We believe that with this multi-tasked approach, our PTO provides our parents and our community with a number of wonderful options to be informed and knowledgeable about all the activities that are going on at Northern Hills.
As we mentioned earlier, another goal for our PTO is to support our community by offering our patrons the opportunity to donate to local philanthropies. One way we do so is through the efforts of our Special Projects committee. Every year, they sponsor a toy drive in November and a food drive in February for a local agency in Edmond, the Hope Center. In 2006, they were also in charge of a food and water drive for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Our PTO strives to supports our community by being a long-time donor to a local, non-profit entity, the Edmond Public School Foundation. This organization provides project and training grants for all the schools in our district. We have become dedicated to supporting this wonderful organization and its commitment to further the education of all children in the Edmond Public School District.
Our students are also given opportunities to develop and encourage their civic responsibilities. Our 5th graders serve on our school’s Safety Patrol. The Safety Patrol assists our teachers and staff with cross-walk duties and traffic direction; as well as, assisting all of our students in getting to their correct transportation areas both before and after school. Our 4th graders serve as our school ambassadors by providing tours to any designated guests at our facilities. These 4th graders are also involved in a Litter campaign at our school by working with our Landscape/Wetlands committee to keep our campus litter free.
In Conclusion…
The Northern Hills PTO is delighted to be a contributing and involved entity at our school. If you would like to contact us and ask further questions, please go to the Home Page and click on the Contact Us-Information button. We would be delighted to answer your questions or provide you with any information you may need.
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