What Does the PTSA Do?

From field trips and college scholarships to kindergarten after-school programs, from funding classroom activities to providing scholarships to serving as liaisons between parents and school administrators, the PTSA works in myriad ways throughout our school district.  These activities are only possible with the help of the $20 membership fee, donations, and thousands of hours of volunteer efforts.

Spending Our Funds

o       Membership Drive: Each Fall we conduct our membership drive.  Not only is this critical for our fundraising, but it’s is the annual kick off of parent support each year.

o       Calendar: The PTSA calendar is given to each family that joins the PTSA each fall.

o       Wrapping Paper:  A fall event, this generates $11,000 each year for our activities.

o       Book Fairs: We run three book fairs each year.  These events get books into children’s’ hands and raise over $12,000 yearly for PTSA activities.

New Books in the fall at Hillside

Used Books in the spring at Hillside

New Books in the spring at the MS/HS.

o       Logowear: We sell a variety of items with Hastings and Hillside logos to raise funds.

o       Special Events:  This year we hosted the Harlem Wizards and hosted our first Popcorn and Puppets Festival

If you have a fundraising idea and time to work on it, please let us know. 

Passing It Out

o       Teacher Grants: We award a total of $10,000 in grants during the year to teachers in all three schools for hands-on projects that enrich the curriculum.

o       Cultural Arts: The PTSA works with school administrators to plan and fund special arts events at each school. The PTSA provides $9,000 annually towards this program.

o       Nature Guides: Parent volunteers take small groups of children from

o       RSVP:  Every Wednesday, the PTSA holds the “Senior Sewing” program at Hillside.  Here, senior citizens do a sewing project with a different class each week.

o       College Scholarships:  Four $1,000 scholarships are given out to graduating seniors each year.

o       Activity Scholarships: More than $6,000 in scholarship money is provided annually to help fund field trips for children who cannot afford them.

o       Newsletter:  Twice a year, the PTSA produces a newsletter which is mailed to all school families twice a year.

o       Hospitality:  The PTSA supplies the food and drinks that are enjoyed at most school functions.

o       Celebrations:  Money is provided for the annual teacher luncheon at each school and for the various “moving up” or graduation-related events in fourth, eighth and twelfth grades. With the Hastings Youth Council we underwrite the cost of the prom bus.

Other Key Activities

o       Kindergarten After-School Programs: The PTSA runs an enrichment program from 2 to 3 p.m. each day for kindergarten students.

o       School Budget:  We run a “get-out-the-vote” campaign every spring to ensure a large turnout for the school budget and school board votes.

o       Parent-School Communication:  The PTSA acts as a conduit of information to and from the school administration through a network of VP’s and grade-level liaisons at each school.   Liaison Meetings at each school are held about every six weeks.  These meetings provide a chance for all parents to meet with the school principal and talk about issues in the school.  The school VP’s plan the meeting agenda’s with the Principal mostly based on topics submitted by parents.  Parents who cannot attend can still raise issues and ask questions by calling their grade liaison, who will raise the issue for them.  PTSA co-presidents meet regularly with Dr. Russell to discuss issues that need to be addressed at that level.

o       School Committee Appointments:  The PTSA recommends parents to serve on various district and hiring committees.  Committees such as the Building Leadership Teams (BLT) in each school and the district Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Committee (CIAC) have direct input into the academic life of our students.o      

o     Speakers:  Each year the PTSA sponsors speakers to present evening workshops on topics of interest to the parent community. 

o       Pizza Fridays:  Just started last year, students at Hillside School have the option of ordering pizza for lunch on certain Fridays throughout the school year.