Who are we?

The Waterville Elementary PTA serves both the GJMS and ASHS

Fundraising Report:

This year, we were able to raise just over $16,000 at $16,122.60! One of our best fundraising years ever. With that money we were able to fund several Student Enrichment and Teacher/Staff Appreciation initiatives.

Student Enrichment Initiatives, by Grade-level: Every year, we reach out to every grade level to encourage them to make requests to the PTA. We ensure them that we are here to support student enrichment initiatives that include: Field Trips, Assemblies, and Class Projects/Supplies.  This year, we funded the following:

• Kindergarten 100 Day Celebration: $230
• First Grade
  • 2 LC Bates Assemblies: $245.20
  • Field Trip T-Shirts: $742.00
• Second Grade
  • LC Bates Assembly: $420
  • Mr. Drew Assembly: $500
• Third Grade
  • Fort Kent Field Trip—Cancelled
• Fourth Grade
  • LC Bates Field Trip: $309
• Fifth Grade:  No Requests

Student Enrichment Initiatives, School-Wide: We also reach out to administrators, specials teachers, and others to encourage them to make requests student enrichment opportunities that also include: Resources, Clubs, Assemblies, etc.  Here’s what we funded this year:

• Johnny’s Seed Pumpkin Patch: Both Schools, pumpkins for classrooms: Free
• Read Across America: $600
  • Decorations for both school
  • Helped purchase books, every student received a book
• Civil Rights Clubs at Both Schools: $500
• ASHS Robotics Kits for Computer Lab: $500
• GJMS Eclipse Glasses for every student: $500
• ASHS Writer’s Day-$1,000
• $50.00 Fall Teacher Grants, for every classroom teacher at both schools: $2,700
• $50.00 Spring Teacher Grants, for every classroom teacher at both schools: $2,700

This was a little over $11,000 in student enrichment funding provided by the Waterville Elementary PTA!

Teacher/Staff Appreciation Initiatives: In addition to funding student enrichment, we also want to ensure that we showing our ongoing admiration and appreciation for our teachers, administrators, support staff, and bus drivers. To do this, we have several initiatives we fund throughout the year. This year we funded:

• Weekly $5.00 Gift Card Teacher Drawings, at both schools: $900
• Holiday Gift—each day for one week a new gift at both schools: $850
• Teacher Appreciation Week: $2,429.70
  • Custom Coffee Mugs for every teacher, support staff, administrator, and bus driver

In total, we spent just around $4,000 in teacher appreciation.

Community Building: In addition, to funding student enrichment and teacher/staff appreciation, we also have a goal to build community where the school is at the center. We want to bring together students, teachers, their families, friends and other community members from all walks of life so that we can have that sense of connection, shared identity linked to place, and draw lines of connection across lines of difference something that is so critical at this time when we as a nation can feel so divided. To that end, the PTA hosted multiple community events this year, including:

·       2 BINGO Nights

·       Our first ever Family Trivia Night, hosted by our very own Quiz Master and Superintendent Peter Hallen (it was amazing and I hope you all can join us next year)

·       Family Skate Night at Sunbeam Roller Rink (our most successful ever; we ran out of skates)

·       And our second annual Community Carnival, which brought together community partners including: Waterville Fire, Police, Library, Delta Ambulance, Waterville Creates, Colby Art Museum, Children’s Discovery Museum, Educare Parent Ambassadors, Lisa Covey Book Donor, Rita’s Catering Food Truck, and Waterville’s Mayor Mike Morris. Hundreds of children and their families played games, met the community members who help make our city great, and got to see their friends and teachers outside of the classroom.  It is an awesome event and I’m so excited that we were able to pull it off for a second time!

New to the PTA this Year: in addition to Family Trivia Night, we had three new members who took on creating Yearbooks! So, for the first time ever, there are yearbooks for both the GJMS and ASHS. The price was kept extremely low at a little over $15.00 for GJMS and under $15.00 for ASHS. This was not a fundraiser and was meant to be accessible.  Also, one of our new members, David Motel, rebuilt our website. So, if you have not visited it, you should. It’s amazing! 

So, we’re very excited about what we were able to accomplish this year. We love to dream big and shoot for the stars and we hope that you will continue to dream big with us. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer any and all.