ONGOING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Check out the Edgewood Volunteer Report for the current opportunities for cleared & uncleared volunteers. Remember, you can volunteer for one activity before needing clearances approved! Please let us know if you are interested in being cleared to volunteer this year or next year.  What will be your first;  Library Help? Classroom Parent?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The PTO is in search of parents or guardians of 6-8 graders to work with the teachers to help organize some events. Please email edgewoodmagnetpto@gmail.com if you are interested. 

PTO 2023-2024 

CAFE EDGEWOOD

Ongoing

Every other Friday morning from 8:20-8:50AM, students are given the opportunity to share their talents by performing in the main hallway during arrival. Family members are invited to gather, have some coffee and baked goods while watching some of the students perform.  A great way to see the school, reconnect with Edgewood friends, and meet new ones!  Thank you to Stephanie Berner for heading concessions for parents, and for Ms. Natter for setting up the line up of performers for the morning.  We appreciate what you do every other week to make the short part of our Fridays a great one.

See upcoming Café Edgewood dates on our calendar.

If you would like to sign up to volunteer or donate supplies for future dates, see our Sign Up Genius.

ELECTION DAY (Primary) BAKE SALE

April 2, 2024

The PTO's focus for this bake sale was to raise funds for our 8th grade graduating class.  We want to wish them well by supporting their end of year celebrations and activities.  Many thanks to our bakers and volunteers for our bake sale:  Carrie Smith, Dan McGurk, Sara Kuebbing,  Nicholas Perrone, Stephanie Berner, and Christine Dela Cueva.  It was a much smaller bake sale in comparison to our November one, but we appreciate those who stopped by and supported our cause!

EDGEWOOD KARAOKE NIGHT

March 15, 2024

A night of singing where families gathered in support of the Edgewood Band and Choir in their goal of going platinum at the Fantastic Festivals Music Competition.  Students and some families came as performers or as the audience.  There were light snacks available, as well as PTO sponsored surprise raffle prizes! 

STUDENT SENATE VALENTINE'S DAY DANCE

February 15, 2024

Edgewood families danced the night away during the Valentine's Day Family Celebration Dance organized by the Edgewood School Student Senate.  There was also raffle prizes and face painting! All proceeds for the dance will help fund Edgewood Senate and the community organization of their choice.  The Edgewood PTO was able to provide pizza for this family event.

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY/LITERACY NIGHT

February 7, 2024

Mr. Poczciwinski planned all day event surrounding literacy! There were over 100 students, families, and staff  in attendance for Literacy Night and Edgewood was able to reach the 100,000 page goal in time for the celebration.  Edgewood PTO was able to provide pizza and New Haven Reads visited us again and provided our families with tote bags full of books! Several rooms had various activities such as making a time capsule or games facilitated by parents and teachers.  There was also story telling in the library as well as the very popular station: face painting by some of our middle school students.  "This event was able to inspire students and adults to read within our community through setting goals, providing books, and creating a culture of reading!" - Mr. P

DOUBLE GOOD POPCORN FUNDRAISER 

January 29 - February 2, 2024

The January DoubleGood Popcorn fundraiser 25 families took the lead and sold $8,353 worth of popcorn to 158 supporters, bringing HALF of that to Edgewood. That's over $4,100 to support our school's needs!  This will help PTO fund school events, field trips, programming, and much more!   

STAFF APPRECIATION BREAKFAST

December 22, 2023

The staff appreciation breakfast organized by Averi Pakulis and Melissa Gutridge was a great way to thank Edgewood School Staff for all that they do for our students!  We appreciate those who contributed to this special end of year celebration: Heather DeDominicis, Sara Kuebbing, Stephanie Perniciaro, Rebecca Borne, Ellen Doon, Stephanie Berner, Natasha Freismuth, Katie Murphy, and Margaret Conable.  

8th GRADE FIELD TRIP TO THE METROPOLITAN ART MUSEUM (NYC)

December 12, 2023

Ms. Tapia brought her 8th grade students to the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City on December 12th.  Students along with teachers, admin, and parent chaperones took the train to the Big City to the museum.  PTO was able to sponsor the transportation/train fee.

ELECTION DAY BAKED GOODS & SOUP SALE

November 7, 2023

The baked goods and soup sale returned this year!  There have been inquiries when we were going to bring back the soup sale, and after much deliberation, we finally decided this year was going to be the year.  Huge appreciation goes to Stephanie Berner for organizing and all of the families (school and community) who contributed to our sale: baking yummy sweets and pastries, cooking up delicious soups, as well as our volunteers during the day - we could not have done this event without you!  Many thanks to those who stopped by our table during the day to check out our baked good/soup sale.  Our total for the Election Day Sale was $1100!  All proceeds will go toward PTO funding of: grade level field trips, school programming, supplies, emergency funding, and much more!  

LAKE WINTERGREEN EDGEWOOD FAMILY MEET UP

November 4, 2023

Edgewood families attended the Lake Wintergreen Family Meet Up in Hamden for a nice walk around Lake Wintergreen.  It was a chance for students and their families to get together outside on a nice, crisp day to enjoy nature.  They enjoyed exploring a nice spot in the New Haven area.  The loop around Lake Wintergreen was approximately 1.5 miles and was fairly a flat and easy walk, with a small scramble up a rock area.  We hope to have more meet up events in the next few months!  Thanks to Averi Pakulis, Melissa Gutridge, and Dan McGurk for organizing the event for our school community!

8th GRADE TRIP TO CT MUSEUM OF HISTORY

November 2023

Edgewood School's 8th grade class participated in a field trip to Hartford, CT. Students engaged in a scavenger hunt at the CT Museum of History, and guided tours of the CT Supreme Court and CT Legislative Building. All in all, the field trip was a success and students were attentive and asking numerous questions to both tour guides on both tours. Additionally, students working in student-choice cooperative learning groups in the museum on their own to complete their assignment of the day. Much thanks to Ms. Farrell, Ms. Robinson and Ms. Tawanna in helping to assist chaperoning 38 students who attended this trip. Additionally, thank you to the PTO for helping to fund the transportation part of the trip to ensure equitable participation of all students. Attached to this email are images from the field trip that took place on October 31, 2023. I hope this was a memorable learning experience for all and I hope to make this field trip a yearly event for our middle school students. By: Mr. Sanders 

LITERARY COSTUME BALL

October 26, 2023

The Literary Costume Ball 2023 was a huge success again this year.  Our event committee consisted of Jane Rivers, Ana Henriques, Stephanie Perniciaro , Genesis Pina, Andrew Swartzell, and Christine Dela Cueva who all planned for the theme of the year “Reading is a Passport to Countless Adventures”.  

Upon entering the gym, specially designed posters that interpreted our theme were hung on the gymnasium doors thanks to Andrew Swartzell.  Inside, the gym was transformed to several different immersive worlds such as Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Library, Hansel and Gretel Forest, and Wonderland!  Each section had its own activity for the students, as well as other reading themed activities on some tables: Bear and Chicken chicken craft, Wakanda bracelet making, book mark designing, mini book writing and illustrating.  The “Where’s Waldo Scavenger Hunt” that Jessica Smolinski put together was a big hit with the children where they enjoyed searching for Waldo for a prize! 

Our community visitors from New Haven Reads were on site and gave away tote bags, books, and information about tutoring services available throughout New Haven.  New Haven Public Library/Mitchell Branch also came where the librarian was able to give out NHFPL information as well as process library cards for our students and their families. We hope to continue our partnership and have them again for future events.

All attendees were able to have a light dinner of pizza, sponsored by the PTO as well as other dinner foods from Havens Harvest.  There were also parent donated snacks and treats! Juice and water were also provided by PTO.  Wizards broom, witches hat cookies, and Hilda’s favorite cucumber sandwiches were some of the book themed treats that the children enjoyed.

It was a busy and eventful night filled with excitement.  Students enjoyed their time with families and friends along with lots of activities, games, and dancing!  There was also a costume closet with donated costumes and accessories for anyone who wanted to add to their attire.  The raffle prizes were an exciting end to our event with lots of donated raffle items such as: several book nooks (with pillows and book light), Pokemon crochet kit, Super Mario theme basket, Atticus gift card, Starbucks gift card, and much more!

Many thanks to those who took the time to help us during this special event.  Patrick Rivers provided his DJ skills playing some spooky tunes to popular songs, as well as being emcee for the night.  Chiké Ijeh of Chiké Photography was also there who volunteered his time to take photos for the night.  Special thanks to Mr. Poczciwinski with assistance in set up, raffle table, and announcements; TJ Westerberg for set up/event volunteer; Dan McGurk for break down, and Kevin Godburn and Jessica Smolinski for costume donations. We appreciate all to those who assisted us with this event in any capacity.   It was truly a success and we look forward to continuing this annual event next year!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR

October 16-20, 2023

The Scholastic Book Fair has come to a close!  Thank you to our Book Fair Chair Dan McGurk as well as our volunteers : Melissa Gutridge, Stephanie Berner, Kate MIller, Averi Pakulis, Susan Gately, DaMara Altman-Weaver, Kevin Godburn, Matt Gutridge, Allison Ponce, Jess Holahan, and Paul Kidwell!   Thank you to our donors, especially those that donated on the last day to help  get our goal of helping kids that wanted books, but did not have the funds.  We raised over $1200 for the School-Wide e-wallet and another $400 for specific classrooms.  $1200 alone came in on the last day of the sale and really pushed us over the edge.  Some folks will want to know, we earned $1700 in profits for Edgewood and $200 in Scholastic Dollars that can be used in the Spring.   Excitingly we did this without selling a single poster, bookmark, pen or eraser.   Bookmarks were FREE thanks to an ongoing project with Ms. Platt!  But here's our real impact!!! We had an extremely equitable book fair for the kids in attendance. Every student in attendance, from Kindergarten through 4th grade was able to shop for a book, including 95 books purchased for 55 kids who needed assistance. From 5th through 8th grade, we don't see the students as often in the fair, but we still managed to get most of the 5th & 6th graders in to shop including 41 books for 29 kids. Finally from 7th & 8th grade  we purchased 16 books for an additional 8 eager kids. To identify who needed books, we worked diligently and discreetly with the teachers to make sure we didn't miss anyone where possible.  That's 152 self-selected books purchased for 92  students that needed financial assistance.   We also were able to buy classroom books for the 4 teachers that had wish-lists.  And we added more books for our reading coach Mr. P and selected some books as rewards for Dr. Perrone to use.  For any questions about Scholastic and somewhat unsuccessful efforts with book bans Dan will have a full report on the PTO meeting in November.

MOVIES IN THE PARK

October 13, 2023

Thank you to those who made this a successful event! New Haven Parks & Recreation provided a great set-up for the outdoor movie right on the Edgewood School blacktop.  Families enjoyed the movie "The Mitchells vs. The Machines" under the stars  with some blankets and lawn chairs.  We appreciate those who donated to our PTO concession stand.  Thank you to Stephanie Berner who collected and ran concessions during the movie.  It was an enjoyable evening shared with the whole community. 

ECHO CLASS BY MS. PLATT

September 2023

During the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year, PTO helped Ms. Platt's ECHO Programming: Vegetarian Cooking Class.  Students had the opportunity to learn about cooking with Ms. Platt.  Some of the delicious foods that they made were cinnamon rolls and marinara sauce! Delish!

PRIMARY BAKE SALE

September 12, 2023

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PTO EXECUTIVE BOARD 

The PTO is pleased to announce that the officers for the 2023-2024 school year will be:

• Stephanie Berner, Board Member

• Christine Dela Cueva, Board Member

• Ana Henriques, Board Member

• Yari Ijeh, Board Member 

• Dan McGurk, Board Member 

• Stephanie Perniciaro, Treasurer

• Jane Rivers, Board Member

Contact us anytime at edgewoodmagnetpto@gmail.com

About Us

We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the education of children at Edgewood Creative Thinking Through STEAM Magnet School by fostering relationships among the school, parents, and teachers. Any parent, guardian, or other adult standing in loco parentis for a student at the school may be a member and shall have voting rights. Any school employee may be a member and have voting rights. Our focus is raising and distributing funds throughout the school community.  

Edgewood Creative Thinking Through STEAM Magnet School is a New Haven Public School, serving 450 students in grades  K-8. For more information about the school, visit http://edgewoodschoolnhps.weebly.com/.