Our monthly meetings are currently held virtually.
What should I expect from a PFO meeting?
Check out recent meeting notes to find out!
2024-2025
August - August 19th, 2024
PFO Recent Activity
- Board met, created a budget for the school year
- Kindergarten Orientation
- School needs volunteers to watch kids in the gym
- PFO has secured 2 volunteers
- Kindergarten team would like pizza provided for families by the PFO
- PFO has an order for 25 pizzas as well as drinks
- School needs volunteers to watch kids in the gym
- Staff Appreciation
- Welcome Back
- Monday August 26th
- PFO will provide breakfast for faculty
- Monday August 26th
- Welcome Back
- Restaurant Night
- Qdoba - September 17
- School Greenyard
- Rooted starting 9/15
- Create program for the school year to tend garden and create content for classrooms
- Garden needs cleaning up
- Rooted starting 9/15
September - September 16th, 2024
PFO Recent Activity
- Kindergarten Orientation
- Went well, decided needed more volunteers to help in gym next year
- Pizza and drinks were just enough (27 pizzas)
- Staff Appreciation breakfast
- Faculty enjoyed the event, considered a good mix of food
- Community Resource Appreciation week
- Appreciation items/decorations were given to the community resource coordinators
- Meet And Greet
- September 24th
- PFO will have a table with information, and will also hand out take home STEM kits to families
- September 24th
- STEM Night
- Date set for January 21st!
- Bulletin Boards @ Leopold
- A bulletin board by the office will be designated for the PFO to use for 'marketing, announcements, etc.'
- National Custodian Day
- October 2nd
- PFO will provide appreciation items to the 4 custodial staff
- October 2nd
- Hispanic/Latinx Community Event
- PFO will host a station to promote PFO and do DIY pinatas for families
October - october 21, 2024
PFO Recent Activity
- Staff Appreciation
- Custodian Appreciation
- Delivered a basket to the school
- Classroom supply initiative
- Faculty lounge supply closet was organized by PFO, and organizational supplies purchased and utilized
- Needed supplies documented
- Survey sent to staff to see what supplies are needed most
- Supply Drive incoming
- Needed supplies documented
- Faculty lounge supply closet was organized by PFO, and organizational supplies purchased and utilized
- Custodian Appreciation
- Community Events
- Meet and Greet
- STEM handouts were popular
- Latinx/Hispanic Heritage festival
- Piñatas were popular with families, will use again in the future
- Meet and Greet
- Staff Appreciation
- Faculty Lounge Updates
- PFO was awarded a $750 grant to update the staff lounge at Leopold
- Survey to go out to faculty to see how they'd like to have funds utilized
- PFO will purchase top-rated results
- PFO was awarded a $750 grant to update the staff lounge at Leopold
- Parent Teacher Conferences
- Lunch to be provided by the PFO
- Sign-up genius to go out to school to help out
- Lunch to be provided by the PFO
- Bake Sale
- Election Day @ Leopold
- Baked Good donations and volunteers needed
- Election Day @ Leopold
- Faculty Lounge Updates
- STEM Night
- Wonders of Physics will be coming to Leopold same week as STEM Night
- DOR Adopt a School Partner to join with PFO to create "STEM Week"
- Bulletin boards to have STEM posters
- Library to showcase STEM books
- Handouts for classrooms
- Looking for other ideas/help to make the week a success
- DOR Adopt a School Partner to join with PFO to create "STEM Week"
- Wonders of Physics will be coming to Leopold same week as STEM Night
- PFO Meetings
- Quarterly Gathering?
- Looking to see if there is a desire for casual in-person quarterly meetings on top of the monthly Zoom meetings
- Quarterly Gathering?
- Winter Gear Drive
- Winter clothes needed to hand out to families who are in need
- Ideally collected by Parent/Teacher conferences
- Winter clothes needed to hand out to families who are in need
- Replacement clothes
- Clothes, especially pants, in size 4t-7 are needed by Nurse Caitlin for when students need a change of clothes
November - November 18th, 2024
Activities Since Last Meeting
We are looking for more active members for PFO, so if you know any other parents that would be a good fit please talk to them about potentially joining - the more members we can get, the more we can accomplish as a group!
- Staff Appreciation
- Parent Teacher Conferences Meal
- Julia and Katie W made an amazing spread for faculty during Parent/Teacher conferences - they served lunch and left plenty of food for staff to have dinner as well! The Church, an Adopt a School Partner, brought lots of desserts to help round out the meal. Faculty appreciated it greatly!
- Classroom supply initiative
- The classroom supply drive is still ongoing! Tell your friends! People wanting to donate to the cause can go through the Facebook fundraiser page, or order directly through our Amazon Wishlist.
- Parent Teacher Conferences Meal
- Fundraising
- Bake Sale
- Ari led the PFO efforts in hosting a bake sale on Election Day. $1294 was raised for the Leopold CAN fund! There was a great turnout from the community for providing baked goods, volunteering, and of course donating money! Ari did an amazing job pulling this all together!
- Bake Sale
- PFO Bulletin Board
- The PFO has a bulletin board right by the office! Take a look next time you're in school - if you have suggestions about what should go on the board, send them to [email protected]
- Weeks of STEM
- STEM Night
- The Sign up Genius has been created for STEM Night volunteers. STEM Night is January 21st from 6:30-8:00. Please consider volunteering if you are able! Any questions can be sent my way.
- We are also looking for Sponsors for STEM Night - if you know of a company that would be a good fit, please let me know - Julia, who is managing the sponsors, has a list of companies we have already asked to make sure we don't "double ask" anyone.
- Weeks of STEM
- Around STEM Night and the Wonders of Physics presentation at school the PFO will be working with the Adopt a School Partner Department of Revenue to have "Weeks of STEM" at Leopold. Part of this will include having in-class STEM activities, as well as books/STEM stations in the library. If you have any ideas/items that you'd like to donate to this cause let me know!
- STEM Night
- Faculty Lounge Grant
- We received feedback on a survey that was sent out to faculty about how best to utilize a small grant the PFO received for updating the faculty lounge. Now it's on to curating a list from the results and start purchasing items - stay tuned next month for (hopefully) an update!
We are looking for more active members for PFO, so if you know any other parents that would be a good fit please talk to them about potentially joining - the more members we can get, the more we can accomplish as a group!
December - December 16, 2024
Activities Since Last Meeting
There will be no PFO Meeting in January. Thanks everyone and enjoy your break!
- Staff Appreciation
- Emily W. put together a mailbox treat for faculty including a nice pen and fun card to help brighten their day.
- Katie W. purchased classroom supplies and is in the processing of re-stocking the newly re-organized supply cupboards in the staff lounge to round out the classroom supply drive.
- Fundraisers
- We are hosting a fundraiser with Dave and Busters through the end of January.
- Patricia secured Target gift cards for families who needed an extra boost for the holidays, working with the community resource and social worker team to get it in the hands of the families who could use them the most.
- Community Events
- Weeks of STEM
- PFO will be hosting Weeks of STEM @ Leopold. This will run from Jan13 -24 and will include STEM Night on Jan 21st, Wonders of Physics on Jan 23rd during the school day, a STEM bin in the library and activities for the classrooms. Adopt a School Partner Department of Revenue is helping with this initiative.
- Weeks of STEM
- Staff Appreciation
- Faculty Lounge
- PFO had a small grant for faculty lounge updates. There was a survey out to faculty about what they’d like to use those funds on; during February a purchase list will be created and implemented.
- Faculty Lounge
- Fundraisers
- January 16th we will have a restaurant night at Portillo's.
- Restaurant Nights and Tito Fest are currently the PFO’s main source of fundraising outside of being awarded a grant (which is intermittent at best). Currently our fundraising efforts are insufficient to meet next year’s projected budget, so we are looking for ways to bring more donations into the PFO. If you have any ideas, please reach out!
- Be on the lookout for upcoming volunteer opportunities for Black History Month and Read Your Heart in February!
There will be no PFO Meeting in January. Thanks everyone and enjoy your break!
February - Feburary 17th, 2025
School Needs
Activities Since Last Meeting
Fundraisers
Upcoming PFO Items/Needs
Community Events
Other Items
- School could use some more markers, both dry-erase and washable
- Amazon Wishlist exists year-round for families looking to help support Leopold with supplies
- Snacks are low school-wide and could use replenishing
- There's a wish list for that too!
- Julia is going to purchase bulk snacks from a BlackHawk donation
- Looking for community connections to help supply snacks to the school, so if anyone knows of someone/place that would be a good fit, send them my way!
- You can also direct them to our website, which has information and a printable flyer to put up in a workspace, etc.
Activities Since Last Meeting
Fundraisers
- Nearly $400 was raised from the Dave and Busters fundraiser that ran December and January, so we'll look for more of these styles of fundraisers in the future to mix in with restaurant nights.
- Ari has gone above and beyond again for the Leopold CAN fund and has secured donations to enable the PFO to create an endowment fund. This will allow the fund to be able to help families in need in perpetuity. We are looking at where best to house the endowment fund, so more info on that in the upcoming months. There will also be a fundraising effort next fall in an attempt to match some of these generous donations - if you would like to help with this cause, please reach out as we could really use a dedicated resource to plan the fundraiser.
- The PFO applied for the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative grant - this year our proposal revolved around attempting to reduce truancy at school, and community building. The recipients of the grant will be announced in April, so fingers crossed!
- Leopold was awarded the Leap for Learning donation from the Green Bay Packers and US Cellular, with a $20,000 donation to be put towards technology improvements at Leopold. The PFO will work with various faculty on how best to implement the donation. There will be a pep rally Wednesday, so be prepared for some excited kids after school tomorrow!
- Katie R set up Leopold for plant donations to help out with the various rain gardens, etc. around the school. The request is then filled by donations from the community - Leopold's has already been filled and is good to go!
- We are looking for feedback for Weeks of STEM/STEM Night for next year's implementation. If anyone has ideas/thoughts/etc. you can send them my way or fill out the survey here.
Upcoming PFO Items/Needs
Community Events
- It's time to start talking about Tito Fest again! This year it will be Saturday, May 31st. As usual we will need committee members to help plan this event as there are many parts that go into making it a successful endeavor. Please consider being part of the committee if you are able - reach out to Katie W. ([email protected]) or myself.
- Updates to the Staff Lounge are finishing phase 1, which is finding the items to purchase. The plan is to now purchase those items and put them up in time to kick off Staff Appreciation Week in May. We are also looking into other decorations around the school/potentially a "staff appreciation arts and crafts afternoon/night" where families can come make things for Leopold faculty.
- Julia R is putting together a dinner for faculty for Parent/Teacher Conferences on April 10th. Julia and Katie W. are also starting to work on Staff Appreciation Week in terms of food, etc. If you can help with making/prepping/donating/serving for either of these events, please reach out! ([email protected]).
- Our Next Restaurant Night is on February 27th at Noodles and Company
Other Items
- The idea of classroom parents was brought up as something to look into, where each class would have a parent or two that could be a point of contact for other parents, help organize class events, etc. We are going to look into seeing how best to go about implementing something like this, whether in the immediate future or starting next school year.
March - March 17, 2025
- Green Schoolyard
- We are actively trying to recruit people to this committee. We have only one parent whose child attends the school at present. Please email [email protected] if interested!
- Planning out work for the garden for the spring/summer
- Love Sunday is May 18th and is put on by Blackhawk Fitchburg - there will be volunteers from that program getting the garden cleaned up/prepared on that day.
- Fundraising
- Our restaurant night @ Noodles and Company was a big success as it brought in over $400, so thanks to everyone who participated in that!
- Leap for Learning Grant was approved by the Board of Education during their meeting on 3/17, so the $20K donation will move forward and a plan on how to best implement that funding will be kicking off in April
- Jersey Mike's will be our next Restaurant Night in April. They will have coupons like last year where it will be $2 subs, and the $2 goes to Leopold.
- Other potential fundraisers have been brought up, such as Forward Madison having opportunities for school fundraisers at their games. We could really benefit from someone being dedicated to finding and implementing fundraisers, so if this is something that you or someone you know could help out with please email [email protected] if interested.
- Our restaurant night @ Noodles and Company was a big success as it brought in over $400, so thanks to everyone who participated in that!
- Staff Appreciation
- There is lots coming up for this category in the coming months!
- Parent Teacher Conferences will have a dinner provided to staff April 10th - Sign-up Genius here of items we could use help on, so please consider helping out if you can!
- Staff Appreciation Week is May 5 - 9th.
- There will be a staff appreciation arts and crafts station in conjunction with Literacy Night on April 29th where families can make crafts/cards/help with decorating banners for staff. Details still to come but we could use a few volunteers to help families - if you are interested please reply to this email.
- The first round of the Staff Lounge updates (artwork as well as some kitchen supplies), as well as general decorating the halls of Leopold for Staff Appreciation will take place on May 2nd when students are not at school to get everything ready for Staff Appreciation Week.
- This year is no different than prior years and our Staff Appreciation committee of Julia and Katie W are going all out again to provide an amazing week for Leopold staff. There is a Sign-Up genius of items the PFO could use help with - please consider grabbing some of the items in the list if you are able to do so!
- Community Events
- Tito Fest planning time is here! We could really use some help with planning for Tito Fest, so if you or someone you know can help with the planning please email [email protected] if interested and we'll add you to the committee/work on assigning you some tasks that work for you! Tito Fest will be May 31st this year.
April - April 21st, 2025
Activities Since Last Meeting
- Green Schoolyard
- Fundraising
- Jersey Mike’s was another successful fundraiser, bringing in $350. This will most likely be the last restaurant night of the year.
- Jersey Mike’s was another successful fundraiser, bringing in $350. This will most likely be the last restaurant night of the year.
- Staff Appreciation
- Huge shout out to Julia and Katie W. for putting on another amazing dinner for Leopold Staff during Parent Teacher conferences! Staff were very appreciative of having a meal prepared for them during those long days. This is an area where we have a need to fill next year, so if anyone is interested in taking on this endeavor going forward please let me know!
- Huge shout out to Julia and Katie W. for putting on another amazing dinner for Leopold Staff during Parent Teacher conferences! Staff were very appreciative of having a meal prepared for them during those long days. This is an area where we have a need to fill next year, so if anyone is interested in taking on this endeavor going forward please let me know!
- Community Events/Volunteering
- PFO provided volunteers for Science behind Tu Agua on April 12th. It was a very informative session and the kids got to see cool examples of our ecosystem in action. There is another event in May which may also need volunteers so stay tuned if you want to help out in round 2!
- PFO provided volunteers for Science behind Tu Agua on April 12th. It was a very informative session and the kids got to see cool examples of our ecosystem in action. There is another event in May which may also need volunteers so stay tuned if you want to help out in round 2!
- Green Schoolyard
- Love Madison is Sunday is May 18th. The focus this year will be the garden, and the PFO is looking for volunteers to help with this effort. Please reach out to [email protected] if interested in helping out.
- Love Madison is Sunday is May 18th. The focus this year will be the garden, and the PFO is looking for volunteers to help with this effort. Please reach out to [email protected] if interested in helping out.
- Fundraising
- Still crossing our fingers on the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative grant! Hopefully find out in the next day or two.
- Our big fundraising effort right now is sponsors for Tito Fest! If you know of a family or business who would like to be a sponsor let us know (sponsor forms attached)! Please inquire internally first if you know of a good fit as we keep a master list of sponsors and can let you know if we've reached out to that business already.
- Still crossing our fingers on the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative grant! Hopefully find out in the next day or two.
- Staff Appreciation
- Literacy Night is April 29th from 5:30 - 7 and the PFO will be hosting an Arts and Crafts station for families to create ways to show their appreciation to teachers and staff for Staff Appreciation week. If you'd like to help families make some simple arts and crafts on this night please let me know.
- May 2nd is an in-service day so the PFO is going to use the open halls to decorate for Staff Appreciation Week!
- There are 2 parts to this effort:
- Decorate the hallways with banners/artwork created during Literacy Night
- "Beautify" the Staff Lounge by cleaning up the cupboards and stocking the kitchenette, adding artwork, etc.
- Please let me know if you'd like to help with this effort - we will plan on starting @ 9 a.m.
- There are 2 parts to this effort:
- Staff Appreciation Week is May 5 - 9th and there are a whole slew of activities lined up thanks to the amazing efforts of Julia and Katie W. There are still open items that we are looking to have donated so if you'd like to help out and haven't signed up yet there's still time! Please email L[email protected] for any necessary logistics.
- Community Events
- Tito Fest planning is fully underway! Stay tuned for volunteer sign-ups, raffle donation sign-ups, etc. If you are wanting to help with Tito Fest reach out to L[email protected], there is always room for more planners with something as large as Tito Fest!
- Tito Fest planning is fully underway! Stay tuned for volunteer sign-ups, raffle donation sign-ups, etc. If you are wanting to help with Tito Fest reach out to L[email protected], there is always room for more planners with something as large as Tito Fest!
May - May 19th
School Needs
- Classrooms still need snacks to round out the year, so please consider sending some snacks with your kids to get them through to summer.
- The Kindergarten Picnic is coming up on the morning of June 5th. They are looking for helpers to prepare/serve food for the event (10:30 - 11:30), so if you are able to help with this, please reach out to [email protected].
- There will be an end of year staff meeting for Leopold staff with refreshments, flowers, parting gifts. If you are interested in helping provide any materials for this event please reach out to [email protected].
- Green Schoolyard
- Love Sunday was last weekend and it was a great turnout! The gardens at Leopold were cleaned up and are ready for a great planting season. The school is looking for ways to get classrooms and teachers more involved in the school gardens, so if you have thoughts or ideas on good ways to go about doing this or want to be more involved in the garden in general let us know!
- Fundraising
- The PFO was awarded Fitchburg's Healthy Neighborhood Initiative and was given the full $10,000 we requested! Here is a breakdown of how we plan to spend the money from now until January 2026
- If you have thoughts or ideas for any of these sections feel free to reach out! Most if not all of the grant will be utilized next school year so the summer is the best time to build out our plan!
- Staff Appreciation
- Katie W and Julia implemented an amazing Staff Appreciation Week full of food and fun times. There were items throughout the week for faculty to let them know how much we appreciate them! There was a lot of time and effort put into making this such a special week, and we greatly appreciate all the help from our Leopold families and our Adopt a School partners in making the week a success! These types of events are at risk of disappearing going forward if we don't have parents stepping in to fill these roles, so if you or someone you know are willing to help out with Staff Appreciation events going forward please reach out to [email protected].
- Community Events/Volunteering
- Green Schoolyard
- There is plenty to do the rest of this school year and all of summer for the Leopold gardens. Please reach out to [email protected] if you can help out in this endeavor and keep our school green!
- Fundraising
- The PFO is hoping to run a large fundraising event for our CAN fund next fall. We are looking for someone who can potentially take the lead in planning a fundraiser over the summer so we can hit the ground running this fall.
- Community Events
- Starting next year we are hoping to kickstart classroom parents in some capacity and will be working with school leadership on how best to go about doing so. If you would like to be involved in helping make this happen please reach out.
- We are also looking at ways of getting families feeling more connected to the school and in general more involved in school events, etc. This will go hand in hand with classroom parents - once again if you have ideas/want to help with this let reach out - thanks to Elise for getting these initiatives off the ground!
- Tito Fest is less than 2 weeks away! Spread the word to anyone who may not be in the know and extend an invitation to this amazing event! We are still in need of volunteers, sign up or send others here!
That does it for the final PFO meeting of the 2024-2025 school year. Thank you to everyone who helped in any and all capacity this year with events at Leopold, whether through the PFO, through a classroom directly, or more indirectly through snack\supply donations, etc. - it truly is appreciated. We will miss any of you with students moving on to their next school and adventures - feel free to come back for events next year (whether participating or volunteering - we'll never say no to alumni coming back to lend a hand!).
2023 Meeting Notes & Recordings / Notas y grabaciones de la reunión de 2023
September - English Notes & Recording
July / julio - Notes (English)
May / mai - Notes (English)
April / abril - Notes (English)
March / marzo - Notes (English) & Recording (English)
February / febrero - Notes (English) & Recording (English y grabacion en español)
January / enero - Notes (English) & Recording (English y grabacion en español)
2022 Meeting Notes & Recordings / Notas y grabaciones de la reunión de 2022
December - Notes & Recording / Diciembre - grabacion en español
November - Notes & Recording
October - Notes & Recording
September - English Notes & Recording
August - English Notes
2021 Meeting Notes
March - English
Marzo - Español
February - English
Febrero - Español
January - English
Enero - Español
September - English Notes & Recording
July / julio - Notes (English)
May / mai - Notes (English)
April / abril - Notes (English)
March / marzo - Notes (English) & Recording (English)
February / febrero - Notes (English) & Recording (English y grabacion en español)
January / enero - Notes (English) & Recording (English y grabacion en español)
2022 Meeting Notes & Recordings / Notas y grabaciones de la reunión de 2022
December - Notes & Recording / Diciembre - grabacion en español
November - Notes & Recording
October - Notes & Recording
September - English Notes & Recording
August - English Notes
2021 Meeting Notes
March - English
Marzo - Español
February - English
Febrero - Español
January - English
Enero - Español
2020 Meeting Notes
July - English
Julio - Español
June - English
Junio - Español
May - English
Mayo - Español
April - English
Abril - Español
March - English
Marzo - Español
February - English
Febrero - Español
December/January - English
Diciembre/Enero - Español
July - English
Julio - Español
June - English
Junio - Español
May - English
Mayo - Español
April - English
Abril - Español
March - English
Marzo - Español
February - English
Febrero - Español
December/January - English
Diciembre/Enero - Español