Patterson PTA Minutes General Meeting September 17, 2015

Members Present: Colleen Garrison, Natasha Ditoro, Jorie Snyder, Dina Garabedian, Elizabeth Carroll, Rakhee Raveendran, Michelle Frost, Julie Mitchell, Beata Emmens, Karen Young, Sarah Stevens, Emily Dobry, Erin Sulkin, Rosanne DeConto, Beth Bauer, Jenn Cole, Debbie Walsh, Lauren Brymer, Natalie Rupert, Rita Malloy, Gira Rajan, Bonnie Bowers, Carrie Giacobbe, Holly Duck, Gretchen Greever, Kim Grikis, Melissa Tolla, Mindy Miller, Diana McCullough, Pryanka Kabra, Nowneet Kaur

I. Call to Order  The meeting was called to order by Colleen Garrison at 9:37 AM.  Introductions

II. Approval of May, 2015 Meeting Minutes  No corrections to minutes from May, 2015  The May minutes were approved as written

III. Principal's Report Michelle Frost reported:  Curriculum night was a positive evening with good information shared  Parent University on Oct 7th will give the chance for more academic information. Sessions are: assessments, technology, etc. Listserv will contain the other topics. Please put in blue box suggestions about what you would like to hear more about at Parent University. These are general topics, not individual.  Author visit this week due to Patterson participation in Glow 5K in June. Patterson had highest participation thereby winning free author visit.  IPEF description and purpose. Examples given of what IPEF funds. 50% of Patterson money raised for IPEF goes back to Patterson. Described the IPEF marathon and shirts to help fundraise for this.  Magnets by sign in sheet are a plug from Carlene O’Brien in the office. Please call in the attendance line by 9:30am if your child is out for that day. We need to investigate absence if we have not called in by 9:30am. Please take a magnet reminder and one will be sent home to oldest and only child.  Chipotle night is 9/23 for IPEF from 5-8 and mention there for Patterson or IPEF.  LMC Director, Mrs. Maly, is new this year and the LMC has been reconfiguring the LMC. Mrs. Maly is very tech savvy  PBIS – we are still doing random drawings for prizes from blue tickets. In addition, we are continuing the citizenship award at year end. We wanted to expand this program, so we are going to do citizenship winners every quarter from every class and they will be invited into breakfast. Breakfast sponsored by PTA.  Patterson has 5 AC classrooms. It is better, but not perfect. The units work well. District controls when we can turn them on based on a formula and on those days there are mandatory rotations for mandatory minutes. We have assigned AC classrooms for each grade. Our hope is more classrooms will be added each year. We do want to say “yes” to board when they consider funding more AC. Thanked parents who brought in ice and water. Liaison is great way to manage this so not to disrupt instruction.  Robotics club will come to Patterson. We are one of 4 pilot schools in district. For 4th and 5th graders. We need still a teacher sponsor. Design projects and go to competitions. Competitions can be out of state. Competition is in February.

IV. President’s Report A. Standing Rules o Colleen Garrison explained what Standing Rules are. Colleen read the changes to the standing rules. Chairs and co-chairs will have a copy. These will be posted on PTA website. Highlights of changes are: . Communication vs. flyer . Party sign up versus lottery system . Gretchen Greever moved and Beata Emmens seconded to approve changes to Standing Rules. Motion passed as stated. B. Approval of 2015-16 Budget o Colleen discussed a few changes to the budget from prior year and the process by which the changes were made in response to question from Emily Dobry. o Emily Dobry moved to pass the budget and Rita Malloy seconded. Motion to pass the budget passed as stated. C. Audit of 2014-15 Budget o Explanation of audit. Bonnie Bowers motioned to approve the audit. Mindy Miller seconded. All voted in favor of approving audit as written. D. Updates from superintendent meeting o 1:1 trial of tech for Crone 6th gr. o New assessments in ELA for certain grades. o District only buying laptops no desktops. Ratios given. o Parcc testing: one testing window after spring break only. Science will be added but testing not provided by parcc. o High school: hoping by November a decision will be made if ACT will be given instead of PARCC o State budget: Schools are being paid. Pending bill includes two year tax freeze with a change in funding formula in year 3. Mostly likely D204 would not benefit. Legislation breakfast at 7:15 am on 9/18 at Still.

V. Treasurer's Report Dina Garabedian reported:  Current Bank balance given see 20-15-2016 financial document. Budget, income and expenses given in financial statement by Dina Garabedian.  Highlights: o Revenue: $3600 from membership; $500 Hospitality match from AIG deposit o Expense: accounting software purchased; PTA insurance payment made. Smaller expenses discussed. o About $580 income projected from pictures with Pete. Estimated about $675 from fall photography fundraiser. Motion to request to increase Karen Young motioned to increase software budget by $9 Debbie Walsh seconded. Approved, motion passed as stated.

VI. VP – Finance/Fund Raising Rakhee Raveendran reported:  Income from Pictures with Pete were reported. 56 Students did this.  Fall Photography update: Only 6 spots are left for sign ups.  Fall catalog is large fundraiser for the year. This will start on Friday. Patterson will receive a portion of all sales. Online will expand reach of fundraiser. Link is on the website to order online. We chose to do catalog to reach out to broader audience to fund school instead of primarily funding ourselves. We thought the volunteer numbers would decrease for carnival. This does broaden the audience to contribute to our PTA. Catalog is similar to Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma catalog. The program costs PTA nothing. Online catalog store does stay open all year. Michelle Frost reiterated the electronic piece to send this out to others outside of our school community to help our school fundraise. All items delivered before Thanksgiving.  Spirit Wear: Apparel orders are due on Sept 19th. Apparel will be delivered in October.  Box tops: We have a volunteer for every classroom except Mrs. Ambrose. We will submit first collection the end of October. Question on how program works and a brief description given. Box top chair will find out how we can gather the bonus points that are available from Costco purchases and Jewel receipts. Ideas shared on how to increase the number of boxtops you can collect.

VII. VP – Administrative/Service Natasha Ditoro reported:  Esther Desouza is our chair for Greeter desk and she still needs volunteers. Morning shift is 9-10 am.  Erin Sulkin reported on party sign up and everyone appreciated the process and Erin and Theresa White. Current sign up is locked to audit the list to make sure proper names are on and rules were followed.  We are going to add one spot per class per party as an assistant. Will open up Tuesday night at 7:30 pm. 17 spots also were not filled. Communicated through listserv on Monday. Rules are the same rules. If we get to a point where spots cannot be filled we may change rules. There will be total of 3 helpers, one lead, and one photographer. The photographer floats.  Theresa White asked for class list numbers so we will have for snacks for parties and Mrs. Frost will give to Colleen Garrison to give to Theresa.  Directory: Rosanne Deconto is chair. It is underway and we are looking for sponsorship opportunities for that and lining that up with sponsorships for fall family festival. Looking for businesses. Sponsorship form available on request and contact Roseanne if you would like an opportunity. White Eagle is doing write a check for fall fundraiser and has corporate sponsors as well.  Hospitality: Need another co-chair for hospitality. No report. VIII. VP – Enrichment/Social Jorie Snyder reported:  Fall Family Festival o 10/23/15 Fall Family Festival in the evening. Not a fundraiser. Liz Lawrence is in charge. Inflatables in gym. Geared toward all ages. Pumpkin decorating and judging contest. Baking contest for kids. Popcorn and snacks and Kona ice. 6-9 pm. Celebrating great fall catalog sales. Liz is looking for volunteers to help that night. Flyers will go home at beginning of October.  Birthday Book o Birthday book program has been revised and new form and program was described. See flyer. o Reflections . Reflections is 9/28-10/19. Let your Imagination Fly. This is National PTA sponsored Art Competition . See tab on PTA website. . Colleen Garrison emphasized following all of guidelines which are extensive. Melissa Tolla reported that projects did not come back or came back destroyed or broken last year. She has an email trail of the problem. Gira Rajan described the process from last year and how the person handing it delt with the artwork where it was displayed. The process of artwork advancing for further judging and being returned was a little disorganized last year. o Walk to School . Walk to School is 10/7 which is a Wednesday so we will leave the parking lot about 8:30 o Red Ribbon Week . Red ribbon Week is 10/23-30. Theresa White is working on this program. o Stem . April 15 is Stem day and February 3rd is Science Fair. We are looking for parent volunteers to assist with Stem Day. We are working on Stem awareness piece which is grade level curricular enhancements.

IX. Old Business A. Keep Change Let it go o Colleen Garrison updated about this exercise which was completed at the May meeting. She briefly explained this exercise and explained Board action on this to date. We will continue this discussion at October meetings after we know revenue from fundraiser. Divided the issues as Principal issue (curricular issue) or PTA issues (suggestions for adult night fundraiser or outing need a chair and cultural night and painting with Mom). Still under review to see scheduling and funding. Some are for after school program and we do not have programming space available for renting. Suggestions on how to improve current programs were given as well. X. New Business o Carrie Giacobbe said that she will need help running fall photography fundraiser. She has a sign-up sheet available. o Mindy Miller will co chair variety show. She had a question on times and they need to meet with Mrs. Frost on day /time. o Gretchen Greever asked about clubs. Mrs. Engle retired. Garden club will continue with Lisa Schneider as chair. Will also encompass environment. Typing club will continue. Homework club will continue. Safety patrol continue. Spirit council is ready to go. Adding Robotics. Postal club is in question. o Amber Sweda said she needed a co chair and said they will not be at school next year so she very much needs a co chair to help w/ transition.

XI. Collen Garrison adjourned meeting at 10:48 am.