New Franklin has a reputation. It’s true! Our PTO is known throughout the city as a fantastic, supportive, involved group. We take pride in our school, our teachers, our staff, our principal, our parents, our volunteers and mostly, our children.

We are so lucky that New Franklin is an EASY place to get involved. You don’t need to live at the school. The door is open and all are ready to accept any bit of time, expertise, help, or materials that you can give. Sign up to head a major fundraiser or show up one morning to help collate papers. Come to every PTO meeting or go on one field trip. Read to a class every week or help with some typing or photocopying once a month. Bake some cookies. Run one game at the lawn fete.

This is just one way we as parents can take ownership in our children’s education. Get involved in their school. Statistics prove time and time again that children with involved parents get better grades. Our children are happier when we share their school experience!

The PTO meetings consist of parents, our principal, and a teacher representative that meet the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm in the school library. A variety of topics are discussed each month, such as upcoming events, classroom news or parent concerns, and fund raising.

Board members – president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and volunteer coordinator - are elected into office in the spring for the following fall. Feel free to contact your board members at any time.

Watch your child’s backpack for meeting reminders. Come to one meeting, or every one. Bring a friend or meet new ones there. All are welcome.

Sign up on the attached Volunteer Form if you’d like to help out with some of the MANY other activities that the PTO engages in and supports throughout the year. Yes, we do have bake sales. And there are many times when an extra pair of hands or a smiling face can make school activities go smoothly: Picture Day, health and dental screenings, book sales, kindergarten orientation. The PTO Committees (see below) need bodies to help out on the day of their events: scooping ice cream at the ice cream social, helping children with Community Service Day, boxing up the wrapping paper orders, selling pies at the Arts & Crafts Fair.

If you aren’t sure what you can do, sign up for our NEW Volunteer Email List. We’ll send an email whenever someone is in need, and you can simply reply or delete.

These committees are designed to keep our monthly meetings more efficient (short!). Committee members meet at another time that’s convenient for them, collect information, make necessary plans and present their work to the regular PTO meeting.

You do not need to attend monthly PTO meetings to be on a committee. You can do this by contacting the volunteer coordinator, any PTO member, your classroom teacher, or the principal, or returning your Volunteer Form (attached). A few examples of New Franklin School committees are:

You may of course sign up for helping out on the day or night of these events without being on the committee.

There are several ways to support your child’s classroom teacher. A classroom representative (formerly known as Room Mother!) can be the spokesperson/contact for the classroom. This person can help find volunteers for various class-specific activities throughout the year. Each class needs parents to organize and implement holiday parties. This can be one person or several, or a different group for each holiday. Teachers may need chaperones for field trips. Teachers may request assistance with projects such as bulletin boards or preparing materials for class projects. Some parents work directly with students on their reading, math, science and social studies.

If you would like to assist your child’s teacher, please contact the teacher directly and let them know. Write a note and send it to school, call the school (436-0910) and leave a message, or send an email (Email addresses are available at the school’s web site: www.cityofportsmouth.com/school/newfrank/staff).

And Staff: A few of the support staff, the art teacher and the school nurse, have requested parent support. Please see the Volunteer Form for additional information.

Volunteering is such a great opportunity to get to know your child’s teacher and friends. It will give you a better understanding about the goings-on at school. I strongly urge you to volunteer at least once, any way that you are able. You won’t regret it.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the Volunteer Form. We look forward to working with you. Please return this form to school with your child. Feel free to call or email with any questions you have about volunteering at NFS.