What We Do
Our Mission
To enhance the education of every student at the PS 111 Adolph S. Ochs elementary school, upgrade the school environment for the benefit of our students, support and strengthen the PS 111 community, and improve communication and build trust between the school administration and our community.
Our plans for the 2024–25 school year are among the largest in our history. Thank you to our volunteers & donors for supporting our work!
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Library Renovation 📚
After a ten-year absence, our school's library has been recommissioned!
As of late March 2025, the first phase of the library has been successfully completed, and the PS 111 Library is being actively utilized by our classes!
What was done?
- All freestanding shelving replaced
- New tables brought in
- Columns painted school-color yellow, walls standardized to a single shade of warm white
- Radiators covered with student handprints
- Soft seating area created with giant rug, bean bags, and soft moveable hexagon seating
- Fiction chapter books arranged by genre
- Old books weeded, cleaned, stamped, and scanned into our system
- ~2,000 new books brought in
- New plants, book drop, book displays & easels, and shelf dividers to improve organization and the feel of the room
Thank you to everybody who supported this large project, including through:
- Donating to the PS 111 PTA
- Shopping and/or volunteering at the September 2024 Book Fair, which was entirely devoted to the Library Renovation Project
- Volunteered during Library Fridays or when the students placed their handprints on the radiators
Thank you as well to the West Side Community Fund for supporting this project with a literacy grant, and to Council District 3 Council Member Erik Bottcher and the New York City Council for supporting the PS 111 PTA.
Status: The library was successfully opened in late March 2025 at our first Family Reading Night!
But that doesn't mean that the library's improvements are over. An order for ~900 books, from early-readers through advanced fifth graders, was placed in April, and additional tables are on their way. Cataloging also continues, as we work to allow our students to check out books.
📽️ Family Movie Nights 🍿
We introduced free Family Movie Nights in early 2024, and the turnout has been incredible!
As of mid-April 2025, we've held five indoor, and two outdoor, PS 111 Family Movie Nights. These are wonderful events for our PS 111 students and parents/caregivers to spend time with each other in a low-cost, low-stress environment.
Thank you to our incredible volunteers for running these events. They're a significant amount of work. And thank you as well to the West Side Community Fund for providing funding for outdoor movies, outreach, and low-cost concessions.
Status: Active. In the 2024-25 school year, we've hedl two outdoor Movie Nights, on 9/27 and 10/25, and two indoor movies, 1/10 and 2/7.
Investing in our Classrooms
Our classrooms are awesome! But, in cases where furniture — such as rugs — have aged beyond their useful lives, or where in-class libraries would benefit from additional books, we are there to help.
In 2023–24, we replaced thousands of dollars of rugs that were fraying and had lost their padding, and purchased more than one hundred books to supplement in-class libraries.
As of early April 2025, we've made the following investments:
- Replaced eight aging rugs in our classrooms
- Replaced the ten-year-old music room rug
- Purchased two Hoover deep clean vacuums, which will be used by the Pre-K through 2nd Grades.
- Purchased 14 28" 5lb traffic cones, to supplement the existing cones and replace the ones in poor condition (RIP, split yellow peeled-banana cone).
Status: Active.
Class Trips
To increase student access to cultural institutions and the other amenities of our wonderful city, the PTA is providing $1,600 in the 2024-25 school year to support PS 111 class trips at any grade level.
Status: Funding approved on October 16, 2024!
More Afterschool Programs
PS 111 offers a number of afterschool programs, including KING, Chess, Table Tennis, Girls Leadership, and YOSL.
Parents have requested more afterschool programming, including STEM and a Spanish language program. The PTA is working with the school administration and two providers to bring these afterschool programs to our school, hopefully in time for the Spring 2025 semester.
Status: Success! PS 111's Spanish language afterschool program started in late January 2025.
Read-a-Thon & Book Fairs
Building a love of literacy is important to us. Our Read-a-Thon and Book Fairs raise money for the PS 111 library and in-class libraries, and result in hundreds of new books being enjoyed at home by our children.
Status: Two Book Fairs were held this year: The first, in September 2024, was dedicated to supporting the recommissioned school library, while the second, held in early February, was devoted to supporting our classrooms, is scheduled February 4th through 7th. The Read-a-Thon was held in April 2025.
School Newspaper: PS 111 Times 🗞️
PS 111 is named after a newspaper publisher, and yet we didn't have a school newspaper. That's now been remedied, and, as of March 2025, the PS 111 Times ("All the news that's fit to hoot!") is active!
Our school newspaper, run by PS 111 volunteers and students, helps build school spirit and community, addresses communication issues at the school, and teachers our students about the importance of small local newspapers.
Thank you to everyone who supported this project through donations, by submitting work, and/or by submitting and voting on potential names, and to the West Side Community Fund for providing a literacy grant to the PS 111 PTA in support of this project.
Status: First issue distributed March 2025!
School Website 🌐
The school's website is outdated and does not meet accessibility requirements. It should be replaced.
Rather than spending $4,000-5,500 annually for a slow, bandwidth-inefficient site provided by a school-focused vendor, we should piggyback on the PTA's existing infrastructure and create a modern, accessible, useful site, at no cost to the school.
Status: Pending further discussion with school Principal and time availability.
PTA Website & Email List 🌐
The PTA's website and email list (established Summer 2024) are important communication tools for our families. By keeping the site updated, we show prospective families that we have a vibrant community, while providing useful information to our current families.
The PTA's server infrastructure, and the maintenance of the site, are donated to the PTA by one of our PS 111 families, freeing up funds for our many other programs.
Status: Active! Redesigned, accessible site deployed in Fall 2023. PTA email list started in Summer 2024.
Computer Lab: Creative Coding 🖥️
The school is replacing the outdated computers in the computer lab!
The PTA will work with the school administration to provide — at no cost to the school — a creative coding program for our older children. While nothing is guaranteed until it happens, we're very excited about this possibility.
Status: Provided recommendations to Principal on replacement computers in December 2024. At the Principal's request, if an initial Creative Coding program is offered, it will only be available to a limited number of students in its first run.
Teacher & Staff Appreciation
We appreciate our teachers & staff members!
🥯 October 5th is World Teachers' Day. To celebrate our teachers, and to thank them for their support of our September Book Fair, we provided a free bagel breakfast on Wednesday, October 9th, which was open to all teachers and staff.
Status: Free bagel breakfast held on October 9, 2024. More events planned, especially around Teacher Appreciation Day (May 2025).
Composting & Container Garden
Wherever people eat, there will be waste. Rather than sending our food waste to a landfill, we compost what we can.
Not only will this educate our students, we could use the compost to support (1) the young trees on 10th Ave, 52nd St and 53rd St, and (2) a PS 111 community container garden that will be built in the Spring, thanks to a grant from kidsgardening.org and Crescent Garden.
Our on-site program complements the City's off-site program, and provides nutrient rich soil additives for our school garden and our sidewalk trees.
Status: Active!
Streetscape Beautification 🌳
10th Ave tree pits: before and after clearing & mulching in October 2024.
Thank you to City Council District 3 Councilor Erik Bottcher for providing funding for trees around our school!
Now it's our time to step up. Tree pit guards increase the chance of these young trees surviving by ~30%, and reduce animal waste and trash from accumulating in the beds — lowering the incidence of rats and mice.
With tree guards, the PTA can plant flowers in the beds, brightening the sidewalk and creating a more inviting environment for our children!
Status: Nine tree guards funded at November 2024 meeting! Funding disbursed in December 2024. Tree guards delivered and installed in mid-January! The two tree beds adjacent to the school on 10th Ave were weeded and mulched in October, with native plants planted in November. The beds around the school were cleaned, aerated, and mulched in November.
Outdoor Lending Library 📘
An outdoor lending library helps get more books into the hands of our students and adds to the vibrancy of the street adjacent to the school. Ongoing time and cost to the PTA is minimal.
This project involves minimal expenses, as we already have the library box: Toward the end of the 2023-24 school year, the PTA purchased a discounted outdoor lending library with Scholastic Rewards incentives that were about to expire. However, because of end-of-year commitments — especially the PS 111 Carnival — we were not able to install it at the time.
Status: Library box put together in October 2024. Pole acquired (covered by donation) in November. Expected installation in early Spring 2025.