WILLIAMS SCHOOL PTO

Thanks to all of the families who participated in the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign at Williams. You can give to this UNICEF campaign year-round through the Coinstar machine located at the Star Market.
Shelah Feiss, Cindy Duffy, Robyn Phillips, Social Action Committee

School Council Election – Need Nominations
If you are interested in school policy or budgets, you might enjoy serving on the Williams School Council. It is a great way to get to know the inter-workings of the school as well as have an impact planning.
Each public school in Massachusetts has a school council. The councils were created by the Education Reform Act of 1993 to provide an opportunity for parents, teachers, and community partners to share ideas and influence decisions that shape and strengthen teaching and learning in their local schools.

The law outlines four major areas of responsibility for councils. School councils are to assist principals in:

• Adopting educational goals for the school that are consistent with local educational policies and statewide student performance standards
• Identifying the educational needs of students attending the school
• Reviewing the annual school building budget
• Formulating a school improvement plan

The term for this committee is three years and the committee meets monthly during the academic school year. If you interested in nominating yourself, or someone else, please email presidents@williamspto.org or call the school’s office at 617-559-6499. Please send nominations in by Friday, November 2nd. Elections will start electronically on Saturday, November 3rd. Paper copies of ballots will also be available at the School’s Office.

Traffic Issues on Hancock Street – We Need Your Help!

Those of you who travel Hancock Street, Woodland Road and Grove Street during drop-off or pick-up times know that the traffic backups on these streets make them unsafe for children and families trying to cross. There were many recommendations from last year’s traffic study that have yet to be implemented. One recommendation, as Debbie DeBotton pointed out in her recent letter to the Tab, was to make Hancock Road a one-way street, or a one-way only during drop-off and pick-up times. This suggestion has met with resistance.

Recently, as a result of the tragic death of a Lasell student, funds have been allocated to study Woodland Road near Lasell, but not problem areas near Williams. Our Aldermen need to know that this issue is an important to our community and that we think at least that portion of Woodland Road to at least Hancock Street, should also be studied. The PTO executive committee feels it is critical to form a group of Williams parents committed to working with the city about traffic safety issues. If you are interested in working on these initiatives, please contact president@williamspto.org.

Concrete Parking Blocks Removed by Parks and Rec
Over the past year or two the concrete parking blocks that were in the teacher parking lot had been moved by snow removal trucks around the parking lot and two of them were in the playground. Parks and Rec was notified and removed them immediately. If you see other dangers around the school, please contact the PTO Presidents and Dr. Moynihan so the appropriate city departments can be notified.

Email Blasts This Week
We apologize for the extra email messages that went out this week. We were experiencing some problems with our email listserv and some messages did not go out correctly and needed to be resent, while others went out at times when they were not supposed to. Unfortunately technology does not always work the way you want it to work. We are also developing a policy on the use of the Williams email list and will publish it when it is available. Thanks for your understanding!

Appreciative Teachers
There are many thank you notes and letters from teachers and staff hanging on the bulleting board above the PTO table thanking the PTO for the recent appreciation luncheon and their annual stipend. If you get a chance, take a look at the notes, the teachers are very eloquent in their appreciation.

Deborah Gelch & Nicole Malec Kenyon
Williams PTO Co-Presidents, Email: president@williamspto.org