Meeting Called to Order at 6:02 P.M

PTO Meeting Minutes October 15, 2008

Meeting called to order at 6:02 p.m.

Members and guests present: Ami Muse, Barb Hansen, Billie Scofield, Christina Roachell, Debi Steinmetz, Elizabeth Karsk, Kathleen Morreale, Kelly Hanson, Lisa O’Carroll, Peggy Zapata, Peter Hissong, Shalynn Patterson, Stacie Higgins, Tamminy Fisk, Tracy Garcia

September 17, 2008 minutes reviewed. Ami Muse moved to approve the minutes. Kelly Hanson seconded the motion. Minutes approved.

Principal’s Report

 Tracy sent home a letter to all the parents about reduced lunch. We went from 33% of our students on reduced lunch to 42%. Our school now qualifies as a Title 1 school which gives us about $150,000 more a year. This money pays for reading intervention teachers, Kindergarten teacher aides, and part of the funding for our counselor, Sylvia.

 10/16 & 10/17 are picture days

 On Friday, the 5th graders are going to CSUSM. This is the first fieldtrip to CSUSM and they will learn about being an athlete while attending college. They will see the fields, meet the coaches, and also watch a women’s soccer event. We hope this will be an annual field trip.

 10/27-10/31 is Red Ribbon Week. Students will receive their Make Healthy Choices tag.

 Our Star Tutors were selected; there are 50 of them.

 Marvin, our custodian, is coming back tomorrow, 10/16.

 Peggy Zapata followed up to a question from the last meeting about after school programs. She said Mad Science and Chess have started. KidFit will also be coming and will offer karate and hip hop. KidFit will donate some of their proceeds to our PTO. Julie, our music teacher, will also be offering music lessons after school. After school programs are becoming more restrictive.

President’s Report  No PAC meeting this week. It is scheduled for next week.

 Gift wrap fundraiser – we almost made budget. We were just $300 under what we budgeted.

Treasurer’s Report  Please review the checkbook handout. We currently have just a little over $15,000 in the PTO account.

Teacher’s Report  Barb Hansen thanked Christina Roachell for helping in computer lab. She’s always so helpful and cheerful and Barb has learned so much from her. Tamminy Fisk also added how helpful Christina is. Christina will call Tamminy before they get to the lab and ask what program they should open up on the computers for the kindergarteners.  Christina mentioned the tricycle shop we used to go to went out of business. The only other place we found that can repair/maintain our tricycles costs $250 over our budget of $650. Can we approve the additional expense? There are only 2-3 that are really broken. It was discussed that the kinder teachers could send a note home to parents asking for someone to help fix the bikes, but then it was mentioned the tricycles are very expensive and we should have a professional work on them. Ami Muse said if you keep up on the annual maintenance it won’t cost as much each year. Ami motioned for the $250 increase and Kelly Hanson seconded the motion. The increase to the tricycle budget was approved.

Current Business  Mia Piro gave an update on the golf tournament. She said the golfers suggested we have it twice a year. We barely had enough people signed up to get us to our minimum amount. We could look at doing it in the spring, but would it conflict with the carnival? Both events have different attendees so we all agreed it wouldn’t conflict. We could try to get a Sunday reserved in November 2009 and the cost would be $58/player, but would it affect those men that watch football? It was suggested that we pick a Sunday where the Chargers play an evening game. We could also do a Sunday in March of 2010, but the cost would be higher. We could also increase the price per player to $125 rather than $95. Mia said we could start now to get “hole sponsors.” The “hole sponsors” can sit at that hole the entire event and hand out cards, meet people, etc. This money from these sponsors is pure profit for the school.

 Halloween Key chains – Ami Muse showed everyone the light up bat key chains. Flyers will go out on Thursday and they are due back on the 24th. Ami will try to assemble them over that weekend and whatever she doesn’t get done, she will have people over to her house that Monday, the 27th from 10-12 to finish assembling.

 The Family Picnic is 10/24 from 5-7pm. Flyers are going out on Thursday. 4th & 5th graders will be selling hamburgers. The hamburgers were donated by Debi Krichbaum. It would be really great if teachers could come to the picnic. There will be smoothies for sale from the Smoothie King. Ami will have the key chain forms at the picnic for those parents that still want to buy key chains. Lisa O’Carroll donated 5 prizes for the costume contest. Barb Hansen said she’ll talk it up in her class. Christina said Heidi Stonebraker offered to barbeque. There will be a hula hoop contest and some teenagers running the games. We will also sell popcorn at the picnic. There will be no prizes for the games; it is just for fun. It was suggested the 4th & 5th graders could make posters or even Student Council could get involved.

 Debi Steinmetz mentioned the school pictures will be taken in the cafeteria. Having pictures taken in the classrooms didn’t work out. Tracy Garcia will talk to the photographer in the morning about taking the class photos in front of the panther.

 Entertainment Book sales will start 10/24.

 Billie Scofield gave an update on Restaurant Nights. She is selecting the restaurants that will actually provide the flyers to save us on printing costs.

o 11/4 – Chuck E Cheese o 12/9 – Pizza Hut delivery o 1/13 – Smoothie King and another restaurant in the food court

 Kelly Hanson spoke about having a Talent Show with our students in April at the San Marcos Civic Center. The organizers will be Kelly, Ami Muse, and Stacie Higgins. The cost for renting the civic center would be $62/hour and we would have their sound system and everything. We would have kids try out over two days and select who will get to be in the show. The limit would be 25 acts at 2 minutes each. We would have rehearsals on Wednesdays and a dress rehearsal before the show. The date selected is April 8th. Spring Break starts the next day. We could have a program and have parents pay to write messages to their child and also have sponsors pay to advertise. Entrance to the talent show would be $3.00-$5.00. Kelly also mentioned having a bake sale there. Debi Steinmetz said maybe we could turn it into a baking contest. There were several suggestions and much discussion around this topic.

Open Discussion:

 Escrip – Elizabeth Karsk said a flyer will be going out next week explaining about Escrip. Escrip is free money to the school and parents don’t have to donate anything! There was much discussion around trying to make a contest for the classrooms that get the most parents to sign up for Escrip. Tracy Garcia and Elizabeth Karsk decided to take the discussion offline.

 Debi Steinmetz spoke about yearbook pictures. She is working to set something up to make it easy for parents to submit photos. Peggy Zapata said she would work with the Student Council to make sure they are taking pictures at events. Debi said you can either email the pictures to her or give her a hardcopy to scan. Tamminy Fisk said she would send a letter home to parents letting them know how to submit pictures for the yearbook.

 Shalynn inquired about the holiday baskets and what she should be doing. Christina Roachell said she would forward an email to her explaining everything and mentioned Anne McDaniel would also be able to help her. They recommended she start collecting boxes from UPS or someplace else now.

 Stacie Higgins offered to do a quarterly PTO newsletter. It was decided we would keep it brief and in black/white to cut on printing costs.

 Billie Scofield mentioned at a previous school her kids attended in Colorado, they had advertisements on the Thursday envelopes. She suggested that it be something for us to consider for next year.

 Kelly Hanson suggested having a bike-a-thon for the kinder students. It would be a way for them to raise money and participate in their own event. The money they raise could go towards the tricycle maintenance budget for example.

 Debi Steinmetz suggested holding a PTO open house for people to get to know the board members.

Meeting adjourned at 7:11p.m.

Next meeting scheduled for 11/19 at 6:00p.m.