PFO Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, April 30th, 2025 (meeting recording link)

Thank yous & year in review (start time: 0m0s - 8m40s) 

Voting on PFO Slate (8m40s - 21m39s)

• Every caregiver at Newfield is a member of the PFO

• Voting slate for executive board is open until 9pm on Monday, May 5th 

• Open positions - Treasurer + committee roles, including…

  • Literary committee

    • Book Fair

    • Author visit

    • Help Mrs. Donch in Media Center

    • Literacy Night

  • Yearbook committee

  • Fundraising committee

    • Spirit wear

    • Fun Run

    • Carnation sale

    • Art fundraiser

    • Plant sale

    • Turkey Bingo

    • Pie Night

    • Winter Wonderland

  • Social & services committee

    • Kindergarten playdate & orientation

    • Welcome back picnic

    • Halloween Bash

    • Earth Day

    • Teacher Appreciation Week

    • Service opportunities

  • 5th grade committee

    • Moving up ceremony

    • Dance

    • Ice cream social

    • Picnic

• 2025/2026 board takes effect on July 1st 

• Email newfieldelementarypfo@gmail.com if interested in joining the board

 

Administrative Update with Mrs. Longo & Mr. Bilik (21m39s - 27m08s)

• Testing - 

  • 5th grade finished Science (NGSS test)

  • 3rd & 4th grade began testing the week of April 28th

• Attendance - Currently at 15% chronically absent (5% pre-covid, 20-25% post covid). Goal - closer to 10%. 

• Field Day

  • Tuesday, May 27               Kindergarten             10:00-11:30 AM                   

  • Wednesday, May 28          Grade 1                     9:00-11:00 AM                     

  • Wednesday, May 28          Grade 2                     12:15-2:15 PM                     

  • Thursday, May 29              Grade 3                      9:00-11:00 AM                     

  • Thursday, May 29              Grade 4                     12:15-2:15 PM                      

  • Friday, May 30                   Grade 5                      12:00-2:00 PM   

• Moving up ceremony - Wednesday, June 11th at 9:30am 

• Congrats to Mrs. Leahe for being the Stamford Public Education Foundation winner 

 

Administrative Update with Mrs. Reynolds & Mrs. Chambers (27m08s - 32m50s)

• Kindergarten - Started learning about how to take care of the Earth from CKLA unit, Critter Caravan visit, Math - place value & relating to value of US coins, learning stations, Stamford Museum trip, Kindergarten show on May 23rd

• 1st Grade - Recycling project museum on Earth Day, Fairy Tale unit in CKLA, CT Science Museum visiting, light & sound studies in Science, moving into plants & animals, Math - fractions

• 2nd Grade - Different cycle in nature, Math - 2D & 3D shapes, multiplication facts, April poetry month, Bartlett Arboretum visit in May, look out for permission slips in homework folders

• 3rd Grade - ESPA testing, Dibels testing

• 4th Grade - mythology in house workshop

• 5th Grade - End of year activities

 

Teacher Appreciation Week Update with Julia Belmonte (32m50s - 35m58s)

• Monday - Newfield Tote Bag, raffle - 2 $10 Starbucks cards

• Tuesday - Melt Mobile for Lunch for staff, raffle - 5 $20 gift cards to Trader Joes

• Wednesday - Snack cart in afternoon, raffle - 4 $25 gift cards to Target

• Thursday - Baked goods in staff room, raffle - 2 $50 Amazon gift cards

• Friday - Bagels & coffee, raffle - 1 $100 Amazon gift card

• To contribute, email newfieldelementarypfo@gmail.com

• Suggestion - Make card for teacher, advise students to be extra well behaved

 

5th Grade End of Year Events Update with Jennifer O’Neill (35m58s - 39m42s)

• Dance, Moving Up Ceremony, Picnic, Ice Cream Social

• Dance - 

  • Friday, June 6th. 6-7:30pm. Will have sign-up genius for those interested in volunteering

  • Parents can donate snacks

  • Register student & option to order pizza. Free admission

  • DJ, Photographer

• Ice cream social - June 6th during school hours

• Picnic - Subs from Shoprite. Scheduled Monday, June 9th 

• Moving up ceremony - Wednesday, June 11th 

• Each 5th grader to receive 1 free Newfield shirt & yearbook

• Current 3rd grade parents - Would love to have you work on the planning for next year & join the 5th grade committee

 

Additional items (39m42s - 47m09s)

• Plant sale May 8th & 9th. Volunteer link for sign-up genius. 

• BOGO Book Sale May 27th - 30th. Volunteer link for sign-up genius. 

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Thursday, March 27, 2025

Presentation from Principal Colmenares (start time: 1m07s - 42m43s) Presentation

 

Open PFO Positions (43m40 - 51m43s) 

• Activity looking for a Treasurer

• If interested, send email to newfieldelementarypfo@gmail.com

• For parents of soon-to-be 5th graders, join 5th grade planning committee

 

Read-a-Thon & 5th Grade Events (51m43s - 57m47s)

• Update: $5,000 Read-a-Thon goal reached! 

• Save the date: 5th grade dance (updated date - Friday, June 6th)

  • DJ, Photographer

  • Not a drop-off event, 5th graders only

  • If interested in helping out, please reach out to newfieldelementarypfo@gmail.com

• Art project as gift from the 5th grade “A gift from the graduating class of 2025." Email PFO if you have ideas or if you're interested in participating

 

Administrative Update with Mrs. Reynolds (57m47s - 1hr01m41s)

• Kindergarten - Beginning CKLA unit on colonial times, wrapped unit on weather, practicing CBC words with fluency. Critter Caravan coming in April. May - going to the Stamford Museum. Kindergarten Show - May 23rd at 1:30pm

• 1st grade - Math: Fact families, time to the hour, small group reading lessons, CKLA - history of the earth and moving onto animal habitats. Science - light & sound. Met with Stamford Historic Society. 

• 2nd grade - Morals and lessons from Greek myths unit in CKLA. Math - strategies with multi digit #s. Writing opinions & linking to CKLA unit. 

• 3rd - Finished unit on folktales, working on informational unit next. Writing - began narrative unit. Math - fractions. Science - finishing motion and design, moving to weather. Working on a unit on Cameroon and working with students from the Stamford Steps unit. 

• 4th - Science - Changing earth unit. Reading - starting mythology unit. 

• 5th grade - Math - Fractions, decimals, line plots & measurements, Science - interconnectedness of ecosystems. Reading - mesoamerican ancient cultures & writing paragraphs to reflect work

• 3/4/5 - Getting ready for ESPA testing. 

 

Administrative Update with Mrs. Longo (1hr01m56s - 1hr09m39s)

• Climate survey - out of 88 staff members, 82 have completed. Of 281 students, all 281 students have completed. 

• 568 families at Newfield, 325 completed the survey (57%)

• Over 90% of families attended conferences

• iReady - median percent of growth in Math - 65% / in Reading - 82%

• Play & Learn for incoming kindergarteners - Wednesday, April 23rd at 5:30pm

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Thursday, January 16, 2025 (meeting recording link)

Administration Updates with Mrs. Longo, Mr. Bilik (0m0s - 15m11s)

• Student council: Coin collection raised ~$1500 for Stamford Humane Society; charitable organization decided by the students

• Soup-erbowl of Kindness taking place now for food bank. Bring in your soup cans!

• School is now recycling, will take money earned from recycling bottles & cans to a current cause such as California Wildfires 

• Lockdown Drill in December. Can learn more of the procedure in the Family Guide. 

  • Proposed future PFO meeting topic - Safety discussion

• Assessment window is open - iReady in reading & math; K-3: Dibels. January 3rd community letter - In the upcoming weeks, our teachers will be administering mid-year assessments which may include Dibels, iReady and the DESSA.  As you know by now, literacy, math and social emotional skills are measured throughout the year. The information we gather continues to help us identify areas of growth and instructional focus.

• Global connections & discussion with 3rd graders in Cameroon 

• Literacy Night - January 30th at 5:30pm

 

Teacher Liaison Updates with Mrs. Chambers (15m46s - 25m10s) 

• Kindergarten - uFli phonics, blending sounds, partner reading. CKLA - focusing on farms. Math - different combinations to make numbers, different addition sentences for the same sum

• First grade - Dibels reading assessments, magic E & syllable types, small group reading, Math - greater than/less than, equal sign, place value, Science - air & weather unit, experiments. CKLA - ancient civilizations, starting early american civilizations, learning about MLK. On the 100th day, will do t-shirt project. Model for classmates on 100th day of school

• 2nd grade - Finishing ancient asian civilizations unit, lunar new year, ancient greek civilizations and greek mythology. Math - telling/showing/writing time to the nearest 5 mins, measurements. Writing - detail to writing, using senses & strategies to grab attention with entertaining beginning. Started Dibels testing & learning about MLK

• 3rd grade - MClass, iReady math & reading. Literacy - unit on folktales and identifying character traits/proving points with evidence. Empowering writers - end of informational writing unit. Math - wrapping geometry, next unit - fractions. Science - motion & design unit. Social studies - Cameroon, multi-unit Stamford Steps program, non-profit called African Sky. Goal - each group to learn about others’ cultural and educational experiences. 

• 4th grade - Science unit on animal & plant structures (dissection), Math - fractions. Studying US regions in social studies & reading. Writing constructive response by identifying the givens, must dos and variables in Empowering Writers

• 5th grade - CKLA unit on Mesoamerica & iReady

 

Project Lead the Way with Mrs. Donch (29m02s -51m25s)

• Can learn more at the Project Lead the Way website - https://www.pltw.org/

• Available for 4-5th graders this year. Provides STEM education programs from K-12. Learning through exploration & discovery; hands-on, real world activities 

• 4th grade - computer input/output systems; computer scientist & learning about computing systems. Will create a digital game

• 5th grade - infectious diseases; infection, modeling & simulation. Create simulation to determine how quickly an infection spreads

 

Fundraising Update with Courtney Copper (51m37s -59m31s)

• Art Fundraiser; will receive form with QR code to scan & purchase in the next few weeks with child’s art on it

• Read-a-thon - new event

  • To help plan, contact: newfieldelementarypfo@gmail.com 

• Carnation sale - order carnations here . Delivery date: February 13th. Presales close on February 7th.

• Pi(e) Night - Thursday, March 13th 

• SPS Day at Yankee Stadium - Here's the link to purchase tickets

• Email newfieldelementarypfo@gmail.com if you can help out in the Media Center. Especially need 3rd grade volunteers from 1-1:20pm. 

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