Welcome from the PTO President

Aug 22, 2026

Dear Hoover Families,

Hope everyone had an amazing Summer and I am sure we are all looking forward to the start of a New School Year.
It is with mixed emotions that I am writing to provide you with an update on the Hoover PTO along with a kind request for additional volunteers to join us.

TLDR: We are looking for 4 volunteers to take the following positions:

• 2 VP to split Robin’s key responsibilities and on board now
• 1 VP communications to on board now
• 1 VP finance to on-board ASAP

Vice-president: I am sure you saw in Mitzi’s email, sent over the weekend, that Robin Macneil will start a new position as Hoover’s Administration Assistant. We are so pleased for Robin, and Hoover will benefit enormously from her amazing organizational and communication skills. This does mean that Robin will have to vacate her official position as VP on the PTO with immediate effect. Someone once told me that no-one is irreplaceable, but Robin comes pretty close! She has been a real driving force behind the PTO and does so much for the school. On a personnel level she has been a joy to work with over the past 2 years. As a sign of all she does we are proposing to try and recruit 2 people for the role of Vice-President to more evenly split the required work. Some of these key tasks are detailed below:
Co-ordinating the re-stock of the teacher’s break-out room with the room parents
Leading the book-fair organization (Mid-November)
Chairing the Teachers Appreciate week committee (May 2027)
Standing in for the President when he/she is unavailable

The rest of the committee has also served our 2-year terms and it’s time to think about handing the reins over to a fresh bunch of faces:

VP Communications: This is a role we split between Lisa and Susanne. Both have done an incredible job ensuring everyone in our community is kept informed and updated. It is time for Lisa to take a well-deserved break, but in typical selfless style she has agreed to stay on for a few months to on board someone new. Lisa handles most of the external communications, prepares the weekly newsletter and maintains the website. The incoming person starts with an amazing template and toolset all due to all Lisa’s amazing foundational work. We are also lucky that Susanne will stay on the Ex Com for the remainder of the school year so you will not be alone!

VP Finance: Michelle and Perry jointly split this role over the past 2 years. They have done an amazing job getting all our accounts in order and making all our figures visible to the Hoover community. With 3 kids now at Hoover and a busy new professional role, Michelle stepped away from the committee over the Summer. A huge thank you to Michelle, not only for the financial support, but for also being such an active Ex Com member. For the time being Perry has kindly agreed to take the reins solo, but we will be looking for someone to shadow him ASAP, with a view to taking the position out right at a mutually convenient time.

President: It has been such an honor and privilege to serve in this role for the past 2 years, but it is also time for me to hang up my hat. I am so excited to tell you that Emilie Loud has ‘volunteered’ to take over this position. I could not think of anyone better to step up for this, and I am excited to see where she takes the committee. As with the positions above, there is a lot to learn and balancing this with work and home is challenging. To help in the transition I will stay on as President until the Winter break with Emilie serving in one of the 2 VP roles before she starts 2027 officially as President. After this time, if one of the VP roles remains vacant, I will serve the rest of the school year out in that VP position.

Please consider this very gentle plea to join the PTO – we have found having 2 people per role has really helped the balance the workload and provides cover when life gets demanding. Please stop me or any of the past/current PTO members for more details, we are always happy to chat. I can honestly say, being part of this team has been incredibly rewarding and genuinely fun. I think we leave the PTO on a solid financial footing with a great list of calendar events/fund raisers, which gives the new committee members a good template to work with.

Just to re-cap we are looking for 4 volunteers to take the following positions:

• 2 VP to split Robin’s key responsibilities and on board now
• 1 VP communications to on board now
• 1 VP finance to on-board ASAP

Please consider joining and being an integral part of Hoover PTO’s next journey.
Very best
Mark

Mark Dowling
PTO president