LYNNFIELD — The Summer Street School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) stepped up its efforts to raise $30,000 this year with school-wide involvement Wednesday in a “race for education.”
Students bundled up, grabbed pom-poms and circled the school several times while parents and teachers cheered them on. A smiling Dr. Karen Dwyer, who came from the Acton-Boxborough schools this year to become Summer Street’s new principal, said Wednesday’s school-wide event typifies the PTO’s dedication and enthusiasm for the school.
“The community is so invested in the children. They are over the top,” Dwyer said.
PTO Co-President Kathryn Price said the PTO will meet its fundraising goal through donations solicited online and through the mail with student letters. She credited the greater Lynnfield community including local businesses with supporting the school and helping the PTO meet previous year fundraising goals.
“Race for education,” with strong participation from teachers and parents, is the PTO’s biggest annual fundraising event.
“We have a ton of support. There are lots of parents who volunteer,” Price said.
Some of the $36,000 raised by the PTO last year helped buy 30 Chromebooks and iPads for use in class learning activities.
This year’s fundraising goals include installing a six-seat swing set in the play area on the school grounds. PTO-solicited donations will pay for the $11,000 swing set with Everett Bank paying for a seat on the swing set equipped with a child restraint.
Dwyer and Price credited parent Ed Champy with doing the landscaping required to prepare for the set’s installation.
“Ed Champy is a champ,” said Dwyer.
A $3,000 donation will go, Price said, to the Summer Street School’s social/emotional learning committee to pay for an educator to come to the school and work with teachers on dealing with stress.
Price, who is the parent of a Summer Street first and fourth grader, said social/emotional learning partly focuses on how to teach students enduring stress to concentrate on the task at hand and “stay in the moment.”
The PTO also plans to donate $1,000 to pay instructor Christine Gehret to talk to teach “mindful movement,” a self control and focus exercise, every other week to Summer Street kindergarten students.
Dwyer said mindfulness and social emotional wellbeing work with teachers and students is important because it focuses “on the whole child” and enhances learning.
PTO Co-President Pamela MacDonald, mother of a Summer Street third grader, said the school’s teachers discuss and present to the PTO ideas for sharpening teaching skills.
“Their ideas are innovative and the PTO through the years has been a real support for the teachers,” she said.
Money donated to date this year to the PTO paid for a “newcomer potluck,” a “pastapalooza” event and money is set aside for an end-of-the-year picnic.
