Whiting Lane PTO 

Meeting Agenda 

March 12, 2026

Welcome!

Meeting Minutes Vote- Ellen Piccolo- Secretary

Principals Update: Kelly Sousa Purcell 

Open Discussion Topics: 

Treasurer: Peter Jorgensen

Fundraising: Julia Toof

Food Pantry: KJ Hill

Room Parent Coordinator & Volunteer Coordinator: Alana Curren 

Since our February meeting, my efforts have largely centered on continuing the Whiting Lane lunch composting and recycling initiative and coordinating with all room parents to ensure the March communications were distributed to families.  I am now operating as the substitute Puglielli room parent as my assigned person has become unresponsive.

Throughout the month, I shared updates highlighting several upcoming events and opportunities, including Conference Week and the teacher snack sign-ups, Karate Club, 5th Grade Movie Night, Rock & Run, the monthly food pantry fundraisers, Wolf Pack tickets, Running Club, and details about our upcoming PTO meeting.

I also developed and sent Kelly a teacher survey to gather input for Rock & Run planning, and executed several schoolwide communications related to Movie Night, Read Across America activities, Conference Week reminders, compost scheduling, Karate Club, and other PTO updates.

Outreach: Rusty McMillan

• Konstella Multi-Language Support, Android App (see below)

PTC/BOE Representative: Shayna Quinn

• 2026-2027 Budget

• Website: https://www.whps.org/boe/budget-information

• Community Conversations to be held 3/16, 3/18, 3/23

ELC Representatives: Devin Shea

5th Grade Coordinator: Taylor Hooper

Co-Presidents: Erika Tapper & Gretchen Taubl

• Thank you Kelly Sousa Purcell for the presentation!

• Para Appreciation- Planning on water/ dirty soda bar for paras for the day. Working with Devin to accommodate all WL & ELC paras.

• Bylaws Revision Committee- Questions & feedback welcome

Up for a vote:

Upcoming Important Dates:

• Thursday March 19- WL Night at Ichiro 

• Wednesday April 1st- Para Appreciation Day

• April 6-10- Teacher Appreciation Week

Next Meeting: 

April 9, 2026 @ 6:30pm

Konstella information:

Dear Parent Leaders,

A quick update—and a big thank you. Many of these improvements were driven directly by feedback from our community. Your suggestions help us make Konstella better for everyone.

Here are some of the highlights we’ve recently released:

Reactions on Messages & Feed Posts
You can now react to posts and chat messages with emoji reactions. Just tap or hover to choose a reaction, and tap again to remove it. Reactions update instantly so you can see what your community is responding to in real time.

Multi-Language Support on Mobile Apps
Our mobile apps now support multiple languages and automatically adapt to your device’s language settings—translating the entire app, including school posts and user-generated content.

Supported languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese.

The updated Android app is available now on the Play Store. The iPhone app (requires iOS 18) will be available on the App Store later this week.

Android Catch-Up
Android development has caught up with iPhone! Recent additions include donations, calendar sync, event creation, announcements, and signups.

Accessibility Improvements
We’ve added several accessibility upgrades (WCAG 2.1 AA), including improved keyboard navigation, clearer focus indicators, and better screen reader support.

Other notable improvements include:

• Jump directly to where you last left off in chats
• Swipe through chat photos in a full-screen viewer with pinch-to-zoom support (iOS & Android)
• Assign leaders to casual and private groups (web)
• Significant performance improvements for super users in 1000+ groups
• Copy buttons for private activity and donation URLs
• Sign-up confirmation emails with improved add to calendar links (web & email)
• Private messages on the website now ordered by last update