Creekside PTSA Board Meeting Minutesoctober 12, 2012
Creekside PTSA Board Meeting MinutesOctober 12, 2012
Attendees:
Kavitha Kumar, President
Marquelle Morgan, VP of Fundraising Christine Watson, Treasurer
Deanna Trencher, Box Tops for Education Chair Ina Ghangurde, Member at Large
Christine Chafin, VP of Fundraising
Jackie Firth, Vice President
Meeting Called to Order at Approximately 1:10 pm
1) Box Tops For Education
Chair Person Deanna Trencher attended the board meeting to talk about the program.
a) Deanna wants to do more with the Box Tops Program by possibly tying it in with the PTSA sponsored events. Possibly consider giving the kids a small prize for bringing in a full sheet of box tops.
b) Deanna will have a table set up at the Halloween Bash and will give kids a piece of Halloween Candy for every 10 box tops they bring in.
c) Deanna reported that Box Tops For Education is currently having a contest for the school with the most improved percentage of box tops. She’s hoping we can greatly improve our percentage from last year.
2) President Kavitha Kumar’s Report
a) District Council Meeting
1. Council posed the question ‘How do we feel district communication has been over the last couple of months?’ The board discussed how we felt about the breakdown in communication with regards to the incident at Skyline and more and feels that there is room for improvement.
2. Council President Caroline Brown suggested that we do two financial reviews a year; we have recently changed our standing rules to say one review per year. The board discussed and feels that it may be more appropriate to do two per year in a treasurer’s first year of office but one per year is sufficient for the second year. We will prepare an updated proposal and seek approval at the next general meeting.
3. Kavitha signed VP Jackie Firth up for as the Community Reach person, as she already receives many of the notices.
4. Philanthropy Requirement
a. As part of our Standards of Excellence award we have a Philanthropy Requirement in the past we have done Caring Through Sharing, the project has been revamped by the food bank. This year we will instead participate in a Food for Tigers Grocery Gift Card Drive for the Tiger Mountain School in April. The Issaquah Food Bank has also made a plea for food items as we enter the holiday season- they are running extremely low on supplies. We will organize a food drive for the first two weeks of November. Marquelle Morgan volunteered to Chair, she and her father in law who volunteers at the food bank will try to come
to school to talk about the food bank and the need for food donations to the students.
5. Membership
a. Creekside was recognized at the Council Meeting for already having Bronze level membership and being on our way to 100%
b. Reports about online membership- Newcastle Elementary had a low membership the first year of moving online but is now at 100%
b) Principal Meeting
1. Principal Robin Earl requested a stipend for Program Assistant Judy Bowlby. The board discussed the request but decided that as we are already giving Judy $500 for 7 Habits Support, we would decline this request
2. Robin relayed a message that the new Sage teacher wants to find out about who the grant process works- She is interested in applying for a grant in order to purchase magnetics. We have not yet defined the Grant Process; we will make the process known once we have. In the mean time we will remind the Sage Teacher that she does have a stipend to use.
3. Robin shared with Kavitha that the current process for BEL math isn’t meeting the needs of the students and staff and so they are looking to help supplement the program with a computer program called Dream Box. She invited Kavitha to come and see the presentation of the program.
3) Treasurer Christine Watson’s Report
a) Microsoft Online Contribution
1. Several parents returned their bash donation forms indicating that they were making their donations online via a payroll deduction. This is the first year this has come up.
a. Our main concern is that when Microsoft cuts the check that it is not lumped in with the Matching Funds Check- We need to have a way to accurately account for the separate items in our budget. Kavitha as matching chair will reach out to them to get more information.
b. If this works out- we’d like to advertise to make sure all Microsoft employees know they have this option.
b) Money counting
1. Money counters need to pay closer attention to the money they’re counting so far this year there have been eight incidents where money has been counted incorrectly and signed off on.
c) Grant Process
1. We have put the grant line in our budget now we need to put a process in place; Christine brought along the Sunny Hills grant process forms for us to review.
2. After discussion it was decided that we would table the grant process until after the bash.
4) Vice President Jackie Firth’s Report
a) Membership
1. Currently at 91% of members- doing a push to try to get to 100% before October 25th when payments are due.
b) Website
1. We may need to subscribe to jot form on a monthly basis as events arise because the free version has a 100 submission limit.
c) Directory
1. Jackie is currently working on the directory and is hoping to send it to print next week.
5) VPs of Fundraising Christine ChafinMarquelle Morgan’s Report
a) Photocopying at School
1. Christine Chafin requested use of the copy code at school; the board discussed why the current rule of only the secretary and president was in place because we didn’t want to receive any unexpected bills at the end of the year. All board members will now be allowed the code. When possible we should be printing at Office depot. Copies fewer than 25 pages will be allocated to the general printing budget- if you make more than 25 copies you must notify Christine Watson so she can account for that in your budget line.
b) Halloween Bash
1. Fundraising Goal
a. Over half way to the goal- and the team received may forms to sort through today.
2. Check Out Logistics
a. Concerned about the check-out procedure in the hallways and congestion, Christine Chafin would like Kavitha to propose 2 options for Robin Earl’s consideration
1. The bell rings, students who are not staying for the bash are escorted to the buses by their teachers. The 2 classroom volunteers that have helped students into their costumes would then escort students to the bash where they can start playing games supervised by the 200 volunteers at the bash. Parents can then arrive after 4:00, when the buses have departed and find their children. Then we will have the DJ make announcements that if you have not found your parent to come to the DJ booth and we can start locating parents.
2. Grades 3, 4, and 5 would proceed as outlined in option 1 while grades K, 1, 2 are able to fan out in the halls and wait to be checked out by parents.
3. Parking Issues
a. Ina is working with the city in regards to no parking signs for one side of the street. The city plans to put these signs up in the future but as of now- we are looking at considerable fees. Ina is trying to get the fees waived.
6) 5th Grade Fundraising /Camp
a) Ina is expecting that several forms will be coming in late- based on emails she’s been receiving. The deadline for turning them in is today the 12th- she will start tallying over the weekend.
b) Shirts- Tami Thompson was wondering if we were interested in camp shirts again this year and if we’d like her to reach out to the Orthodontist that sponsored last year. At this time the board isn’t entirely sure that they want that to be a precedent.
Meeting adjourned at approximately 3:05