Get Involved

Coming together from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, our skilled team of professionals is the backbone of the Brooks Elementary School PTO. Their ideas help shape the direction and mission of our organization as it continues to develop. Here you can learn more about some of our incredible team members. Our Executive Committee (ExComm) typically meets one week before each PTO meeting. 

• • Co-Chairs: Shannon Demos (Principal), Whitney Dodds (Parent), Mitzi Galante (Assistant Principal), Johanna Lynch (Parent)

  • Secretary:  Karen Poggi

  • Treasurer: position available

  • Monitor: position available

CONTACT: excomm@brooksptomedford.org

The fiscal year is July 1 to June 30, inclusive. At the first meeting of the year, a tentative budget for the year will be proposed and approved. The budget will be reviewed and amended throughout the year as needed. 

The Treasurer will document all policies and procedures regarding finances. There shall be at least 2 signers on the checking account, the treasurer and one chairperson. Authorized signers on the checking account are not allowed to reimburse themselves for expenses but must get another signer to write and sign the check.

The Executive Committee as a whole has the authority to approve a non-budgeted item under $250. Any non-budgeted request for funding over $250 must be proposed at a general meeting and voted on for approval. Two authorized signatures shall be required on each check over the amount of $250.

Please use this form to request reimbursement for pre-approved personal expenditures for the PTO. 

5th Grade

Comprised of fundraisers to pay for our yearbook and our Moving On Ceremony. Our Moving On ceremony is held on a Thursday night close to last day of school (date varies due to snow days). Other activities include movie nights, 5th grade vs. teachers basketball game, and spring car wash.

The Communications Committee is dedicated to ensuring that you have access to the latest news, events, and opportunities offered through our PTO. We manage:

• Membership Toolkit (website + app): Our online directory is a tool to connect students, family, teachers, administration, and local Brooks-Family owned resources. Sign up to ensure you receive the Brooks Blue, email notifications from our school and PTO committees, as well as emails about volunteer opportunities and classroom activities. Your child's Classroom Coordinator will use this tool to keep you posted about in-class activities.

• Brooks Blue: The Brooks Blue is a weekly notice of events and community building opportunities. To publish items in the next edition of the Brooks Blue, please email items by Tuesday evening to our editor.

• Website: This website provides access to our PTO by-laws, meeting agendas and minutes, PTO calendar, event information, and advice on how to get involved. Explore the site and let us know if there is anything you would like us to add. 

CONTACT: communications@brooksptomedford.org

The Diversity Committee seeks to support a welcoming culture that nurtures curiosity and models respect for all life experiences. We work to amplify the voices of our diverse Brooks school families to create spaces for community-building and action towards a more diverse, racially equitable, accessible, and inclusive Brooks Elementary School. 

Works with the teachers to identify In-School programs that will get kids excited about learning and exploring new things. This includes hands-on STEM workshops, musical and cultural performances, author visits, and more. 

CONTACT: enrichment@brooksptomedford.org

Our Field Day Committee consists of parent volunteers, our Principal, and our PE teacher. This dynamic team plans, organizes, and hosts a Field Day for our entire school each Spring. Our Field Day Committee reviews the past year's activities, plans new games when necessary, organizes and distributes Field Day t-shirts, orders equipment, prints out activity descriptions and field maps, contracts vendors, and manages Field Day.

The fundraising committee handles all fundraising for the PTO general fund.  The general fund provides the resources for all PTO activity except the grade-specific 4th and 5th grade committees. The fundraising team has a big responsibility and it takes a whole village to meet our goals.  

We run annual events such as Fall Fest, Trivia Night, back-to-school socials, the annual pledge drive, Thanksgiving pies, professional day fun activities, electronics recycling, the read-a-thon, the Election Day bake sale, Viva Variety, and Open Mic Nights. Often we work with other committees and/or teachers to make these events successful!  

The time commitment for this committee is very flexible to fit just about any schedule.  The committee meets formally 2-4 times a year during the evening (usually early in the year and then as we get ready to close out the year). Our committee works to run nearly all the fundraising events during the year and we are always looking for people to take on an event or two. In particular if you’ve ever been to an event you loved, consider helping out with the organizing. 

The Fall Festival is becoming our marquee event as a committee and serves as both a great community day and a significant source of income for our PTO. If you are interested in helping organize it please reach out!

Amazon Smile - select Brooks School PTO to direct proceeds from your purchase to our school.

Co-chairs: Ari Kassirer, Lisa Romano

Fall Fest Chair: Marina Gonzalez-Ang

CONTACT: fundraising@brooksptomedford.org

Establishes a process for reviewing proposals relative to spending surplus PTO funds. Sets uniform criteria for acceptable proposals. Reviews and qualifies all submissions that meet criteria. At a General PTO meeting, presents a summary of all proposals received. Makes recommendations to the PTO regarding the proposals received for spending package(s)

Chairs: Becky Materazzo

CONTACT: grants@brooksptomedford.org

This committee creates and maintains gardens throughout the school grounds, annual clean-up days, and beautification. 

Chair: Matt Drapeau

CONTACT: garden@brookspto.org 

The Helping Hands Committee serves as the umbrella for the Brooks School’s community service initiatives.

The primary activity of the Helping Hands Committee is coordination of the First Friday Food Drive. On the first Friday of each month, students in every grade compete to see who can donate the most non-perishable food and personal care items to two local food pantries. The overall winning class gets to keep the “Can Man” in their room all month and honorable mentions from each grade level are also recognized by the principal and receive a certificate they can hang on their door.

Parent volunteers collect the donations from each classroom, then sort and pack the items, which are delivered to to St. Vincent de Paul/St. Raphael’s Parish and the Community Cupboard Pantry at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Each month, the Brooks community fills an average of 45 bags of groceries to help support hungry Medford families. The committee is always looking for additional volunteers who are available on Friday mornings to help collect, sort and pack donated food. This is an easy, low commitment way to get involved with your child’s school. We meet after drop-off in the Parent Room. The time involvement is typically less than two hours per month.

A special 100th Day Food Drive also takes place each year on the 100th day of school (usually early February), where each classroom is challenged to collect 100 items of non-perishable food and personal care items. Students and local elected officials generally help out at this milestone event, but we also rely on parent volunteers to help make it a success. Even if you are unable to commit to volunteering on a regular basis, please consider helping out on the day of the 100th Day Drive.

Organizing and maintaining the Lost & Found and collecting and submitting Box Tops for Education also fall within the purview of the Helping Hands Committee.

If you have additional ideas for community service projects that you would like to be involved with, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Help us teach our children how to be generous and active members in their community!

CONTACT: helpinghands@brooksptomedford.org

The Inclusion Committee coordinates activities and projects that foster a sense of belonging for all Brooks students with diverse learning, physical, social, and emotional needs. 

Each year the Library Committee organizes library volunteers (and trains volunteers) so that our students have additional assistance during their library time.

This Committee runs the annual Read-a-Thon, collaborates with the fundraising team to raise money, and works with the other three elementary schools to honor our readers city wide with a ceremony at city hall. This Committee also runs the Annual Book Fair, the only source of new books and materials for the library.

Library and Book Fair Volunteers participate during the school day and interact directly with our students, faculty and teachers.

CONTACT: library@brooksptomedford.org

This committee manages annual election planning, communications, and voting. 

Our primary purpose is welcoming incoming Kindergarten families to the Brooks School. We begin by helping the Principal organize the Kindergarten Open House in May.

We then help Kindergarten students get used to their new school by hosting summer play dates, writing out welcome cards, and hosting a potluck dinner just before the beginning of school.

We believe it is as important to welcome parents and guardians to our community as it is the children so we participate in the school tour at the Open House, the parent information session at the Kindergarten Orientation, and provide breakfast & care packages for the parents/guardians on the first day of Kindergarten.  

We also host the Ice Cream Social, a school-wide event that allows families to get together and enjoy a yummy treat. The ice cream social occurs on a Friday night during the first month of school. 

The duties of this committee are very flexible and don’t call for members to be present for all of the activities. 

We formally meet once or twice a year but most of our communication and planning is done via email.

Contact Katie Rooney katie3rooney@gmail.com for more information. 

The Brooks PTO Extracurricular Program or PEP organizes extracurricular enrichment classes in art, drama, music, robotics, science, etc that are open to all Brooks students.  PEP is organized entirely by the Brooks PTO and cannot happen without the full support of all Brooks School parents. Please consider how you can help contribute to sustaining valuable and vital resource. 

CONTACT:  PEP@brooksptomedford.org

This committee is responsible for the Teacher Appreciation Week events each year which occur in May. The committee works to purchase small thank you gifts for our staff, and organizes a Breakfast and Luncheon.  We work to coordinate volunteers for each event to bake/buy/bring food items, set-up and clean-up, serve, and cover recess.  

The time commitment for this committee is small but high impact among our teachers who report that these are their favorite days of the year.  Most of the planning occurs at times that work for the committee members and is very flexible. The two days in May (usually in the same week) where breakfast and lunch are held do require some time during the school day.