PTO

Your notifications by email and to your mobile phone can be adjusted in the SETTINGS menu. These settings can only be adjusted by the user. A Konstella Administrator cannot make this adjustment for you.

There are four possible reasons why your information may not be displayed in the online and printable Directory:

1)   You may not be registered for Konstella

2)   You may be registered for Konstella but not connected to your child and child’s classroom(s).

3)   You may be registered correctly but not have included your contact information in your User Profile.

4)   You may be registered and included your contact information, but you have selected privacy settings that keep this contact information from being displayed to others. These can ONLY be updated by the user.  A Konstella administrator cannot make this change for you.

No. Konstella is a Bugbee PTO tool – NOT a School or District tool. As such, Konstella remains voluntary for both families and staff. The Bugbee PTO is using Konstella to:

1)   manage PTO volunteers, committees, and projects

2)   maintain a current, accessible directory of families and classrooms that allows member-to-member communication while still offering custom privacy options for all users

3)   offer online payment options

4)   provide event information parents can “pull” as often as convenient

5)   provide parents with customizable notification system for PTO information

6)   maintain a public, customizable calendar with sync capabilities

7)   decentralizing PTO communications to allow volunteers direct responsibility for and access to any tools they need for their project

8)   maintain the above features year-over-year, creating a place for organizational memory and requiring less recreating of the wheel.

Classroom teachers, the Bugbee office, and the West Hartford Public Schools all have their own communication tools. Since PTO is an independent organization, we don’t have access to WHPS tools. The PTO makes every effort to keep any overlapping information we might share accurate to what these other sources are providing and to refer back to the “expert” source wherever possible. Any information pertaining to your student that the school needs to communicate comes from the school or district directly. If you “opt out” on PTO communications through Konstella, you may miss information about activities directed by the PTO (and there are many great ones!), but you will not miss out on district, school or teacher-generated communications.

Konstella limits the participation of students to one Classroom per every student. However, there is no limitation for parent participation in Social Groups or Committees. You can create a group for your student’s activity either as a Committee or as a Social Group depending on your objectives for the group. See below.

Social Groups have no lead/administrator position. A Social Group can be created by any registered Konstella member at Bugbee – staff or parent. All members are equally able to post updates, files, photos, calendar items, announcements etc. to the rest of the group. In a Social Group, each member is responsible for joining or leaving the group independently.

Committees must be created by a Konstella administrator, and like a classroom, can have a “Committee Lead” position filled by one or more members, though it is not necessary that these positions be filled. Konstella members can join any open Committee position, but Committee Leads also have the additional privileges of being able to add or remove other committee members, roles, and privileges for the roles. All other activities – posting updates, files, photos, calendar items, announcements etc. to the rest of the group – can be done by all committee members, just as within a Social Group.

Items that are for sale by the PTO can be purchased during the order window on Konstella using a credit card. In many cases, a cash or check payment can also be accepted with an online order placed through Konstella.  All current Sales are found using the MORE tab in the top menu and selecting SALES. Confirmation of orders and receipts for past purchases can be found under the left-hand USER drop down menu (YOUR NAME) under PURCHASES.

For most cash-based PTO fundraising projects donations can be made online using a credit card. All current donations pages are found using the MORE tab in the top menu and selecting DONATIONS. Confirmation of your donation and receipts for tax-deductible donations can be found under the left-hand USER drop down menu (YOUR NAME) under DONATIONS.

Tax-deductible donations as described above are recorded in Konstella and receipts are emailed at the time of donation. You may also lookup your past donations and download the receipt for your records.

Any member registered in Konstella has done so with an email address. Most members have selected to make their phone, address and/or email public to other Bugbee Konstella members. Any member who has elected to keep their email private still can be contacted via Konstella without an email address through the Messages feature.

If you prefer email, you may search for a member’s email and use Konstella to email them or just copy into your own email server. Here are three ways to locate a member’s contact information:

1)   You may use the online classroom directory to locate the parent.

2)   You may use the directory search function to search for either a parent or a student by first or last name, then select their parent to view their contact information

3)   You may begin an email to a parent and use the auto-fill feature to include additional emails.

Yes! And it will be current when you print it. Under the left menu, select DIRECTORY. When your classroom directory appears, select PRINT DIRECTORY on the top right, choose which classroom(s) you would like to download, and select PRINT. The PDF of your selected classrooms will download automatically. You may then print the PDF file. Note: the Konstella online directory has the advantage of being user-maintained, meaning members can correct or update their information as needed, keeping the directory always current. This is especially advantageous to new families and staff joining Bugbee mid-year. Please keep this in mind if you choose to print and use a paper copy of the online Directory, which may not include later updates made in Konstella.

Yes. Sync your Konstella calendar to your personal Google/Apple/Live/Yahoo calendars on the Calendar > Sync. Once Sync Calendar is set up, updates in your schools, classrooms, and groups will be automatically to your personal calendars.

The Feed is the listing of all school-wide notices. How you respond to a notice in your feed determines what happens to it. Any items from your feed that you have not yet replied to will remain in full color with the response options shown (“acknowledge,” “sign up,” “donate,” etc.)  Once you have taken one of these actions, the item will remain in color with the action noted: “you’ve signed up” or “you’ve acknowledged.” If you choose “ignore,” the item will show your action as “ignored” and turn grey. (You still have the option to change your response until the deadline for the event.) Once an event or signup deadline has passed, the item will become gray. The gray items in your feed can be removed only by the organizer of the event or publisher of the notice.

Konstella Help Features: Bugbee PTO has full service from Konstella, meaning you can use the help question mark to ask your questions of Konstella directly anytime.  The response time from their team (on the West Coast) is usually within 24 hours.