On the Agenda: Next Year's Parent Council Board

Next year's Parent Council Board will be assembled during the May 11th meeting at 8:45 am. Please contact Sue Borden or any Parent Council officer for further information and consider nominating yourself for one of the board positions.  Decisions about the following year's activities and budget will be made during the June 2nd meeting.  

This year many of Parent Council's veteran parent volunteers are "graduating" to the Middle School.  If we want to continue to support our teachers and sustain the events and programs we have provided in the past, we need new blood!

There will be many openings on the Parent Council Board for the coming year.  Please let us know if you are interested.  Better yet, grab a friend and volunteer together!  Parent Council is a great way to meet other parents, get to know teachers and staff and see what's going on in your child's school life. Every parent/guardian at Fort River is a member of Parent Council.  Board members steer the direction of the various projects.


Thanks for getting involved !

Sue Borden
Parent Council President


Here's a contact list of the current board officer. Please feel free to contact any of us with questions!

President: Sue Borden (FRPC.sborden@gmail.com)

Vice Presidents:

Fundraising: Libby Stanforth (bstanforth@comcast.net)

Teacher outreach: Suzanne Schilling (patsueschilling@comcast.net)

Room parents: Navneet Marwaha (marwaha.navneet@gmail.org)

Website: Ann McLaughlin (damclaughlin@comcast.net)

Secretary: Jenn Green (peachy-green@comcast.net)

Treasurer: Lynn Hayes (hay3bay@comcast.net)

Fort River Parent Council Officers 2008-2009

President: Sue Borden (FRPC.sborden@gmail.com) Vice President for Teacher Outreach: Eileen Marasco (e.marasco@comcast.net) VP for Gradewide Events & Room Parents: Navneet Marwaha (marwaha.navneet@gmail.com) VP Fundraising: Libby Stanforth (bstanforth@comcast.net) VP for Family Events: Liza Cunningham (liza@cognomen.biz) Secretary: Ann McLaughlin (damclaughlin@comcast.net)

Treasurer: Lynn Hayes (hay2bay@comcast.net)

Planning for 2008-2009

As the school year draws to a close, we are starting to make plans for next year, and the continued success of Parent Council – and we need some help! Thanks to those who have already stepped up to help with an event, including Ann Becker (Fall Festival), Jan Kelly (6th Grade Graduation), Cathy Cullen (6th grade representative), Gloria McCann (5th grade representative), Catalina Arrubla (4th grade representative), Diane Caraker (3rd grade representative), Morgan Lord (2nd grade representative), and Amy Rose (1st grade representative). We also welcome Navneet Marwaha as a Vice President. And it’s not too late for YOU to volunteer - we still need parents to coordinate the Family Fair (September event), Holiday Gift Wrap Sales (fall event), Election Day Bake Sale (November event), the Beach Party (winter event), and Celebrate With a Book (year round). We also are looking for co-chairs for Savings Makes Sense (year-round) and the Book Fair (timing to be determined!). Please contact Catherine Sanderson (casanderson@amherst.edu, 256-4977) if you have any questions about what a particular position involves. Chairing an event is not as much work as you might believe (truly!) and is a lot of fun (really!). We could also use room parents (although we can’t assign room parents to classes until the fall when classes are set, it is VERY helpful to have a list of willing parents so that these matches can be made quickly in August).

Welcome to the New Parent Council Officers

Elections were held at the last Parent Council meeting, and we are delighted to announce the new Executive Board: Sue Borden (president), Eileen Marasco and Libby Stanforth (Vice Presidents), Ann McLaughlin (secretary), and Lynn Hayes (treasurer)! Thanks, Sue (for moving up to President), Ann and Lynn (for continuing on), and Eileen and Libby (for joining the team).

Parent Council Elections at the Next Meeting (April 30)

Our next Parent Council Meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 30th, at 8:30am in cafeteria. We will be holding elections for next year's Executive Board. We are currently working out a re-organization of the President's and Vice-President's roles so that could have possibly 5 VPs next year (each with a different job). In this way we hope to distribute the workload among more people and make all positions seem more appealing. If you would like to help out next year, please contact any of the current board members as soon as possible and/or come to the next Parent Council meeting. We also need to replace ALL grade representatives. Grade representatives have three responsibilities: finding a room parent for each of the teachers in your grade, contacting new families and welcoming them to the school, and working with the room parents (and other parents) to organize one grade-wide event (an event that brings together all kids in a given grade, across classrooms, during an out-of-school time). Once again, please contact any board member if you are interested.

Parent Council Executive Board 2007-2008

PARENT COUNCIL EXECUTIVE BOARD 2007-2008 President: Catherine Sanderson (256-4977; casanderson@amherst.edu) Vice Presidents: Sue Borden (szborden@yahoo.com) Elly Hosea (259-1334; elly_hosea@yahoo.com) Secretary: Ann McLaughlin (256-3768; damclaughlin@comcast.net) Treasurer: Lynn Hayes (253-7207; hay3bay@comcast.net)