Northwestern Middle School PTO

Welcome to Northwestern PTO!  The PTO is a volunteer led organization formed to support the needs of Northwestern Middle School. It is our goal to improve education for all students by helping to provide programs, opportunities, and support to enrich the experiences of our students, faculty, and our parents during their time at Northwestern Middle School.  Here are some ways we accomplish this goal:

NMS PTO relies primarily on membership purchases from families to fund the budget for the year. The budget is proposed based upon the needs of the school. Items making up larger portions of the budget include –

• Student Enrichment – This includes financial support of field trips and external speakers/presentations brought into the school, as well as lunchtime tutoring for students most in need of assistance.
• Mini-grants/Teacher Wish List – Teachers do not receive all of the materials they need from Fulton County. When needs arise, PTO looks into funding them to ensure that teachers are not utilizing their own personal funds, or simply going without items which would further enhance the quality of their teaching. These can be small items like school supplies, or larger ones like tables/chairs, supplemental teaching materials, and technology.   
• Facility/Campus Enhancement – Fulton County does not provide support for taking care of items such as landscaping, outdoor benches, and picnic tables.
• Faculty/Staff Appreciation – Our teachers are working harder than ever, and believe it or not, providing them with a treat once a month goes a long way towards making them feel supported.
• Grade level dances – These build a sense of community for our children.
• RRRoar/PBIS program – This program is based on positive behavior reinforcement. Students can earn RRRoar tickets for exhibiting good behavior throughout the year and use the tickets at celebrations throughout the school year.

What is a PTO membership? What do I get for joining PTO? Why is it needed?

• Your PTO membership allows for you to vote on various items throughout the year. At the beginning of each school year, the PTO executive board proposes a budget. The PTO general membership votes to approve this budget. Similar votes are held at each meeting to approve minutes from the prior month’s meetings. At the end of each school year, the PTO executive board will propose officers for the following school year; the PTO general membership votes to approve the officers.
• Through the purchase of your PTO membership, you are providing financial support to the PTO budget.

• PTO membership can be purchased on-line at our website. Two years ago, we moved away from accepting cash/check payments. This decision was made primarily because we are volunteer organization, and it is simply much easier to eliminate paper payments. The online system means that we do not have to take time to collect cash/checks, prepare deposits, and take those deposits to the bank. It also means that we do not have to worry about misplacing any cash or check; it is simply much, much easier to have electronic payments.
• The website that we use, Membership Toolkit, requires parents to set up a log-in and password in order to complete the registration. We use parent emails to send volunteer opportunities, and other occasional communications. We understand that not all parents are interested in receiving these emails. If you let us know, we can “opt-out” your e-mail address from communications.