The Penn Manor School District contains many moving parts that work in unison with the goal of providing children with the best educational experience possible. Administrators, school staff members and nonprofit organizations such as the Penn Manor Education Foundation all play a role in their shared mission to offer new opportunities to local students. However, they aren't the only ones; almost every school has its own parent-teacher organization (PTO) that is hard at work behind the scenes.

Like many other PTOs, Letort Elementary School's PTO operates fundraisers throughout the year for a variety of projects. If the school needs a copier or other piece of equipment replaced, but it doesn't have the necessary resources available, the PTO will step in to acquire the new machine. In addition to covering the cost of replacing defective equipment, the Letort PTO raises money for field trips and school assemblies. "We want people to understand that we're not just a bunch of moms and dads that meet once a month to talk about school," said Melissa Hochreiter, president of the Letort PTO. "We raise money to improve our kids' educational experience." At the end of the school year, the Letort PTO also provides scholarships to graduating high school seniors who are Letort alumni and have excelled in academics or positively impacted the community.

Although fundraising is a large part of a PTO's purpose, many groups also seek to strengthen relationships among members of the community. Before Lauren Weaver was invited to join Hambright Elementary School's PTO in 2020, she didn't know very many of her neighbors. Weaver is from Spring Grove and her husband is from Maryland, but after a few years of working with other members of the Hambright PTO, Weaver says she feels like she grew up in Penn Manor. As a part of the group, she made connections with other parents, teachers and building aides, and she was able to stop by her daughter's kindergarten class every Friday. "If there's an accident, or if a kid is having a tough day, it's nice to have the phone numbers of an extra set of people in the building who can help," Weaver said.

Recently, many PTOs have been working to reconnect with the community after the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, both Letort and Hambright's PTOs moved their fundraisers and meetings to a virtual platform, but they have slowly revived events such as family nights and ice cream socials over the last two years. "We would be so excited just to get to know more people and see new faces," Weaver said. "If you decide to help down the line, that's great, but our goal is to grow our connection with families."

For more information on PTOs in Penn Manor School District, visit the corresponding school's page at http://www.pennmanor.net/schools.