PTA Committees

2023-2024 Committees

Contact PTA at Coryelementarypta@yahoo.com with any questions.

Below is a list of the PTA’s committees and their volunteer responsibilities. For information on any of these committees or if you have PTA-related questions, please email us. Volunteers are always needed and appreciated.

Band Liaison

• Liaison between PTA Board and Band Leader
• Budget – Work with Band Leader to estimate Band expenses and instrument rental income – share the budget with PTA Treasurer 
• Communication for Band performance to PTA Secretary for marketing to Cory
• Route checks, invoices for repairs and scholarship needs to PTA Treasurer
• Update budget accordingly throughout the year
• Offer assistance to Band Leader with planning for concerts. 
• SUG for post-concert treats/snacks 

Cory Gear

• Plan and coordinate time period for families to purchase various gear and apparel with Cory logo to show off our school spirit. 
• Coordinate with apparel vendor (Artist Proof currently) with website platform to purchase gear. 
• Promote Gear Drive across school and through families with the help of the PTA Secretary by way of Friday Folders, Parent Posts, and Social Media
• Retrieve apparel from vendor and sort and deliver purchased gear to students and families.  
• Facilitate vendor percentage donation back to PTA after Gear Drive is completed. 

Dine Outs

• Regular nights throughout the year, hosted by local eateries who give back a % of their night’s revenue to the PTA in the form of a fundraiser giving home cooks a night off!
• Network and reach out to local eateries to inquire about fundraising support
• Coordinate details of Dine Out with restaurants
• Market upcoming Dine Outs with Cory families
• Collect fundraising checks from restaurant to pass on to Treasurer

Educational School Events – Art Night, Literacy Night & STEAM Night 

• Work with the Art Teacher to support plans for the creative evening
• Create SUG for volunteer support night of event
• Work with Librarian for STEAM night to support plans

Friends of Cory Annual Giving Campaign 

• Friends of Cory (FOC) is an annual, direct giving campaign typically held for 4 weeks in the Fall with a goal of raising $XX,XXX.  It is the 2^nd largest fundraiser of the year.
• Set the timeframe & duration of the FOC campaign
• Develop communications and promotional creative for FOC campaign
• Plan and execute weekly outreach efforts to maximize individual donations (e-appeals, parent post blurb, donation flyers); coordinate with PTA secretary to push out FOC messaging via email and parent posts
• Manage the FOC Gmail account and Fundrazr website
• Employer matching gifts: promote awareness, help donors with submissions as needed, acknowledge receipt of any gifts from an employer back to original donor
• Oversee general stewardship and acknowledgments to donors
• Determine if the FOC Committee would like to do a grade-to-grade competition or other “tracking” to promote participation
• Coordinate manual receipts for campaign if needed (Fundrazr has an easy way to do this)
• Order and set up banners/yard signs, etc…

Fine Arts Committee

• As an extension of the classroom – Plan assemblies and field trips that incorporate music, movement, and visual arts benefitting all grades.  
• Work with Art, Music, Principal and other teachers on ideas for experiences that support student’s areas of learning.
• Help coordinate and communicate with principal, secretary, teacher liaison and teachers regarding bus scheduling, payment, chaperones, details of trip, etc.
• Be present during start of assemblies to get performers dialed in, introduced, set-up and AV stuff working with staff point person.

Garden / Chicken Coop / Farmers Market / CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture)

• Chickens often attract students that are otherwise not interested in gardening and generate excitement among the entire school community. Additionally, chickens provide students with an opportunity to better understand how to properly care for and establish a positive relationship with animals.
• An extension of the classroom, hands-on work in an urban garden can be children’s first introduction of how to plant and grow your own food.  Students learn how to grow fresh fruits and vegetables while teachers provide information about healthy eating.  Students may grow to have a better relationship with food thanks to the increase in fruit and vegetable consumption.  

Garden

• Start up Garden in Spring, clean out winter debris
• ensure irrigation system is working
• Buy seeds, start seedlings, buy plants
• Work with teachers to get classes signed up to plant, weed, work in garden
• pest control
• create harvesting schedule
• create sign – up for Summer care
• Put the garden to bed and winterize in late Fall
• Track expenses for reimbursement for PTA Treasurer

Farmers Markets

• Prepare for 6 weekly Farmer’s Markets the first 6 Fridays of school
• Set up tent, wood crates, signage before school dismissal
• Harvest produce from garden for sale
• Work with local CSA for extra produce to sell and trade
• Coordinate budget and monetary exchange with PTA Treasurer
• Host a Pumpkin Patch and carmel apple sale at the Annual Cory Fall Festival
• Help promote Farmers Markets with PTA Secretary
• Coordinate with 5th Grade Teachers in the afternoon to have recurring volunteers to help run the Market.  They must be excused from school a bit early

CSA

• Gather baskets for each of the CSA basket winners from the auction
• Fill baskets with produce to be picked up each Friday at Farmers Markets
• Work with local CSA for extra produce to trade in concert with Farmer’s Market

Chicken Coop

• Care for the chickens!
• Order supplies – food, seed, straw
• Maintain coop structure, cleanliness, straw
• Collect eggs and coordinate
• Work with teachers to get students to rotate through coop and care
• Create a sign-up for Summer care
• Ensure health of chickens
• Track expenses for reimbursement for PTA Treasurer

Fall Clean up 

• A fun family event where kids can get busy raking up all those leaves!  Our families help ready the campus for winter.
• Select a date based on when most of the leaves have fallen
• Schedule with Joan and Patricia Montoya (Onsite DPS Facilities staff member)

Fall Festival Carnival 

• Annual school-wide family event with Carnival activities & foods celebrating Fall.
• Select date around Broncos schedule
• Secure Fun Services, Food trucks, Face painters, Balloon Guy, Chuck the DJ
• Set up Sign Up Genius for needs (water, coolers, ice)
• Stations for Hair dye, Cake Walk, etc.
• Coordinate with FOC for table marketing
• Working with Treasurer on budget and how much to ask in ticket pricing
• Selling tickets or wrist bands in advance of Carnival
• Getting student volunteers for games from Merrill or South
• Set up and take down day of Carnival

Fifth Grade Continuation

• An afternoon event celebrating the graduation of 5^th graders moving on to 6^th Grade!  5^th Grade teachers take the lead and volunteers work with them to enhance the plans.
• 3-4 parent volunteers of 5^th Grade students
• Takes place at Merrill 
• There is a small budget for this
• Buy balloons for the stage – graduation year
• Purchase celebratory favor for each graduate
• Work with 5th grade teachers & Music teacher on the program

Fun Run

• An event born out of COVID where we had to stay miles away from each other outside, but still wanted to connect and move with family!  A family fun run around the boundaries of the Cory-Merrill campus.  
• Reserve DJ for the event, make sure they start at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the event to not run into issues that we had at the FUN RUN. Make sure they have a table for set-up.
• Work with Mr. Conklin on a date because he sets up the course and gives us access to Cory for power for DJ.
• Work with vendors to buy a t-shirt, hat or some kind of FREE Cory giveaway at the event. We ordered about 75% of the total student number, probably could be even a little less. Work with Debbie to get student count by grade to figure out sizing for order. These are only for CORY students, not siblings. 
• Purchase bottle waters for the event and maybe a snack. 
• Work with the sponsorship chair to see if any sponsors want to have a table and giveaway.
• Total event time is about 2 hours with set-up taking about 1 hour.
• Should have pre-printed Start and Finish signs for the event and possibly even a little flag or something to indicate the start line.
• Reserve an ice cream truck that is reliable to come during the event, paid for by families not PTA.
• Event is a free event (other than ice cream).
• Market family event to community with DOJO, Text, Friday Folder, PTA Emails. 
• Purchase prizes for the Run. Mr. Conklin will hand out the prizes. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, best sport, etc. The run was done twice, 2 start times as some families came later. So at least 10 prizes. Purchased unisex fun toys from Target. 
• Event can be a Saturday or Sunday and should be from about 10 am to Noon…9 am could still be too chilly in the fall and September is ideal because weather shouldn’t be an issue.

Hospitality / Stock the Lounge / Teacher Appreciation

• Collect and organize monthly snacks for Cory staff
• Plan and execute activities during teacher appreciation week, coordinate with parents and Cory secretary
• Provide dinner/lunch during teacher parents conferences

Merrill Middle School Liaison

• Coordination of the Merrill administration to come to a PTA meeting before the School Choice process happens for Q&A for incoming 6th graders.
• A connection and communication line with the Merrill PTSA to see what news we can include in our weekly Cory newsletter.  (An example would be if Merrill is putting on a school play or musical that the Cory community can come and support.  Another example might be if they are hosting an open house for 6th grade incoming families.)
• Any pertinent information that Merrill would like to share with the community is expressed to the Liaison.
• Average work is 10-15 minutes a week and would include emailing the Merrill front office and or PTSA President. 

National Walk/Bike to School Day

• A National event promoting and creating awareness for walkable communities.  Encourages safe and active travel.  Typically celebrated the 1^st Wednesday in October.
• Coordinate with school Principal & Secretary any plans or events
• Communicate to PTA Secretary date and time of event for email blasts to community
• Contact District 3 police to request additional patrol during morning of event
• Coordinate DJ Chuck to be on the black top playing music as kids arrive
  • Ensure he has a table, power cord, etc.
• Coordinate any “special guests” to be present the morning of the event
  • Denver South High drumline and cheerleaders are great
  • Mayor Michael Hancock has been invited and attended in the past
  • Celebrity crossing guard
• Coordinate Joan Wieser to say a few words after kids have arrived
• Decide whether to offer any treats (waters, granola bars, etc.) to kids arriving at school
• Anything else to make it a fun morning for the kids!  Contests, drawings, etc!

One Campus Celebration

• This is an opportunity for Cory, Merrill, and C3 to come together and celebrate the unique 3-school campus we have together.  It is a casual, after-school event. 
• Reach out to 3 Principals and PTA Presidents from C3, Cory & Merrill to select a date that works for all 3 campuses – typically a Friday after school at the end of April – creating a Doodle scheduler helps for this.
• There is a small budget for this and each campus divides the expenses equally – Each PTA brings about 100.00 to the event
• Divide the duties:
  • Schedule DJ
  • Order Popcorn machines from Butler Rents – popcorn is handed out free
  • Schedule Kona Ice – offered free to Administration/Teachers, students pay for individual servings.
  • Help publicize with PTA Secretary

Promote Grocery Cards/Amazon Smile/Box Tops 

• King Soopers, Safeway and Amazon both give a % of spent money back to schools whose families link their reward cards or accounts to John Cory PTA.  Amazon.com and Smile.Amazon.com are the same site – the latter is the one linked to charity giving.
• Create ½ sheets of paper for King Soopers Cards and Amazon Smile to go out in Friday folders twice each year with instructions for families of how to connect their King Soopers grocery rewards card or Amazon account with John Cory PTA in order to get % allocated to our school.

Scholastic Book Fair

• An on-site book fair put on by Scholastic Books where money spent is converted to Scholastic Dollars to be used by the Librarian and teachers to purchase books and other school supplies for their classrooms in a Scholastic store.
• Schedule dates of Book Fair and book delivery with Scholastic representative.
• Share dates with school leaders
• Be present during book delivery to organize
• Create Sign Up for volunteers for kids to preview as well as daily shifts
• Order daily backfill of popular items
• Daily reconciliation of register revenue
• Work with Treasurer daily on earnings
• Work with Librarian on Scholastic dollars

School Supplies

• Coordinate the end-of-school-year opportunity for parents to order supply kits in advance of Fall without having to purchase individual supplies off of lists.
• Take inventory of classroom supplies alongside teachers
• Work with individual teachers and the office staff to create class lists
• Select online supplier (Edu-Kit, 1stDay School Supplies, etc.)
• Provide lists to online supplier
• Market details of online ordering to Cory families

School Tours 

• Provide school tours to parents interested in learning more about Cory Elementary for their younger, incoming children or transfer students.  Tours run periodically with coordination of school Principal, but are widely offered in advance of and during DPS School Choice time frame.
• Notes on all the pertinent details of the school will be provided, along with training and shadowing. 
• As a parent-led tour guide, you are not expected to know all the answers and can refer questions to the office.
• Tours are held 1-3 times per week (more frequently close to DPS school choice deadlines) at 8:30 am or 2:30 pm and take about an hour.
• Tour guides can sign up for as many tours as fits their schedule.
• This is a fun way to get to know Cory better and see all the learning and fun in action!

Spring Auction

• Largest annual fundraiser of the year for parents.  A spirited, themed evening party incorporating a silent auction, live auction, paddle raise, games, food and cheer.  There are typically 1-2 Chairs and a large Committee with multiple sub-committees defined below.
• Operations Chair and Co-Chair- Oversee the entire planning process. Work with all vendors on timelines for the event. Work with auction team volunteers ensuring everyone is meeting deadlines.
• Theme and Event Logistics Lead- Plan and create the overall theme and night of the event. Theme logos, color palette, décor, games, menu, etc. 
• Marketing Lead– Website creation and maintenance (must have some HTML/technical knowledge). Create email communication timeline and actual emails to the community about the event. Social media posts. Night of event PowerPoint, video and auctioneer script.
• Procurement lead and team for silent and live auction- Work with local businesses to secure donations and create packages. Multiple people help in securing donations. We are looking for the team along with one point person to organize and delegate the process. *3-4 people. 
• Auction Item storage and organization- Enter donation items into the system. Store physical items. Aid in creating auction packages.
• Buy-a-Shares- Organize Buy-a-Share events timeline. Work with our community to create new events, parties, and find hosts to be included into silent auction.
• Teacher Treasures– Work with teachers to plan teacher hosted events that are included into the silent auction.
• Classroom projects- Organize specific class/grade projects for silent auction.
• Stock the Cellar- Collect and store physical wine. Organize Stock the Cellar party. Use monetary wine donations to purchase additional wine and alcohol to create silent and live item packages. 

Spring Dance

• A casual, themed, after school dance for the kids and their parents with a DJ and some food trucks.  Typically, the 1^st Friday in May.
• Schedule with Front Office
• There is a small budget to work with 
• Select a theme for a bit of decorations
• Schedule Food Trucks (2 Savory – 1 for kids, 1 for adults and 1 Dessert)
• Schedule Chuck the DJ
• Help promote through PTA Secretary via E-Blasts

Spooky Story Night 

• With an emphasis on Literacy, Halloween-themed / spooky books are read to children in a variety of classrooms with age-appropriate stories.  Other activities can be planned like a Halloween craft, bookmark or something creative!
• Coordinate and purchase or donation of supplies for spooky crafts and/or games (bat bookmarks, write your own spooky story or poem).  Be creative, new ideas within budget are welcome!  
• Work with the Librarian and see if he might have any we could use the night of the event and request parent lend books that might be great options.
• Make and post flyers advertising event
• Determine whether to offer snacks/water/juice/pizza?  
• Coordinate volunteers to read spooky stories/man craft and game tables/rooms (we had a few rooms with readers all going at once for books with varying levels of “spooky”)
• Be a “go to” for night of the event for volunteers

Yearbook

• Does this need an explanation!?  Everyone loves their memories and poring through the pictures in their old school yearbooks!
• This role is a year-long commitment. Ideally, someone begins right at or after fall pictures are taken (September) and distribution is late May. 
• Connect with picture vendor (currently Bloom Pictures) to make a decision on yearbook size, order quantity, etc. and get contract signed.
• Collect pictures from teachers, students and Cory community for yearbook 
• Work within software platform provided by vendor (pixami) to create layouts for the yearbook – design background is helpful! 
• Marketing – create order form for purchasing yearbooks and manage reminders for ordering
• Coordinate with Treasurer on payment management
• Distribution – coordinate with homeroom teachers to get paid orders out to students