About the PTO

The mission of the PTO is to support the students and staff through various activities and venues
in the hope of providing the best educational environment and opportunity for all of our children.

With this in mind, our communication vehicles are designed to promote/support our mission, as well as the activities of the PTO. If you have a non-PTO activity, special event, or item of interest that falls within our mission, we can help you spread the word and/or get volunteers.

Examples of what we will help promote:

• A PTO-sponsored event/activity
• PTO Committee news
• An all-inclusive student event (i.e. the additional DC trip), limiting to one post at kick-off and one post close to event date.
• A scout troop registration (one per year, per troop) (On our WJHS Parents Facebook page only)
• A pre-approved student night at an approved business. (Must offer discount to students. Limit one event per school year.) (On our WJHS Parents Facebook page only)

Examples of what we will not help promote:

• A non-pre-approved business event/promotion
• A business that is charging in full for an event
• Third party fundraisers
• Private enterprises and organizations
• Personal fundraisers

Please read the requirements of the various WJHS PTO communication avenues use the communications request form for all submissions. Please feel free to contact us at: communications@wjhspto.com for help getting started.

Weekly Highlights Newsletter

The Weekly Highlights newsletter is emailed to parents every Friday from WJHS Principal, Kate Dominque. The Highlights is divided into three sections:

• WJHS News from Kate Dominique
  • Information on the week ahead at WJHS
  • WJHS meetings, news and upcoming events and activities
  • Classroom activities
• PTO News from PTO President
  • PTO sponsored activities, meetings, events, announcements
  • PTO promoted activities*
  • District-wide PTO announcements
• Community News from D39
  • D39 meetings, events, announcements and activities
  • D39 Foundation news, events, activities
  • D39 supported activities (must be non-profit)
  • Must be submitted to D39, not to PTO
  • Wilmette Public Library and Park District announcements that relate to education

Deadline: Wednesday at noon for that Friday’s Highlights

Requirements: You must write your own blurb and submit it using the Communications Request form. Limit all submissions ot 75 words or less. If you need more or want to include an image, please include an attachment.

If you have questions regarding your submission, please email: highlights@wjhspto.com. 

PTO Website

The WJHS PTO website includes: 

• Pertinent information on the activities of the PTO
• Back-to-School Checklist
• Contact information
• PTO documents; meetings and meeting notes
• Volunteer opportunities
• After School Club information
• Graduation activities
• Weekly Highlights

To submit information to the PTO website, complete the form (linked above). While we will acknowledge and confirm your request as soon as possible, it can take up to 10 days for the website to be updated. Please take that into consideration when planning your communication request.

For further information, please email communications@wjhspto.com.

WJHS Parents Page on Facebook

The WJHS Parents Page is a private Facebook group, open to current parents of WJHS students only. The PTO monitors and does the vetting to make sure the members are current parents (or are in between an outgoing and incoming student) and that the posts are appropriate and follow the guidelines. Our posting rules are listed on the site. The goal is to keep this page as a timely, useful, and relevant resource for parents, and not to be used to promote 3rd party fundraisers or private businesses. If you are not sure if your post fits within our communications guidelines above, please email communications@wjhspto.com to discuss before posting. We may make an exception if your non-profit directly benefits WJHS students.

We welcome all parents to join this group:

Here is a link to our WJHS Parents Facebook page.

(Be sure to answer the required questions, so we can approve you.)

Publicity

Efforts are made to publicize the activities of the WJHS and the WJHS PTO through local media outlets. We are particularly interested in post-event publicity that helps raise awareness in the community of the efforts of the PTO. Please send us any information items, stories, ideas, photos or other media that may be used to highlight the great things happening at WJHS.

Submissions, questions and requests should be sent to highlights@wjhspto.com.

Yearbook

The yearbook is always interested in photos and information from WJHS activities and events that show student life. If you have photos for consideration, please contact our Yearbook Coordinator at yearbook@wjhspto.com.