Welcome to Thoreau Elementary School

The PTO welcomes you to Thoreau Elementary School. We look forward to a successful year full of learning and fun.

As a parent or a staff member at Thoreau you are automatically a member of our PTO! No paperwork and no membership fee! We encourage and welcome all of our parents and staff to be involved.

Volunteers are an important part of Thoreau community. There are a wide variety of volunteer-opportunities to choose from. You might choose to join one of the PTO Committees, help out in the lunch room once a month, volunteer in the library, or in your child’s classroom. You are always welcome at Thoreau!

We will be making extra effort to improve general communication this year by the following measures:

  • We want to make sure that all Thoreau families are informed about events at Thoreau and about issues in the school district. Register to receive Thoreau PTO email blasts so that you know what is happening at our school. Feel free to email Rosita Gonzalez at thoreaupto@gmail.com to be added.

    We are also on Facebook. A lot of the information we send out on email blasts will also be repeated there, along with other neat things, like coffee day reminders, school food information, and science projects.

  • All events and other items in email blasts will be included in the monthly newsletter.  Our first newsletter will be coming out in October (Thanks Laura Glazer for taking on such a large project!)   In addition, our major events will have flyers that go out into backpack mail.

We also support the school by providing necessary books, supplies, and enhancements that have been lost with district budget cuts. Please support the PTO through donations and/or participation in fundraisers throughout the school year. The PTO supports programs that enhance learning for all children at Thoreau.

About Thoreau Elementary

Thoreau Elementary School is located on the west side of Madison and serves 400 children in grades 4K - 5. We are a child-centered school where staff, parents, students, and community members work together to create a model learning environment for all students. Thoreau Elementary is also a Professional Development School. Our dedicated staff works in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Edgewood to train a select group of future teachers each year.

Mission Statement

Thoreau Elementary PTO exists to foster a greater sense of community by increasing access to the school in an all inclusive approach for families and specifically the children in our community.