St Albert the Great PTO

St Albert the Great PTO Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Minutes 6:30pm in Sacred Heart Center

I. Opening Prayer: Jennifer Starke led the group in an opening prayer. II. Secretary’s Report: Eryn Wicinski asked for a motion to approve the April 22, 2015 meeting minutes. Ginny Meiners motioned to approve. Emily McElroy seconded the motion. Minutes were approved. III. Treasurer’s Report–reported by Jennifer Davis; please send invoices/receipts thru Kidmail to Jack Davis in 3A or leave with the bookkeeper, Lisa Kleyer, in the office. Include instructions on how you prefer to receive the payment (via Kidmail or pick-up in the office). Please allow two weeks for reimbursement. Do not sign any contracts, only Larry Brunner can do this for St. Albert. Contact her for W9 forms or tax exempt number. Do not send cash through Kidmail. A question was raised whether or not there was a location to access any needed forms. Jennifer Starke is going to follow up with Bill Henderson to see if he can create something for PTO. IV. Principal's Report: a. Mrs. Cooper has asked us, along with the School Board and all other groups meeting, to state the school mission along with opening prayers. Part of St. Albert’s Catholic Identity circles around the mission statement. The hope is for all (kids included) to learn the mission. a.i. The mission of St Albert the Great School, as a vital ministry of this parish community, is to prepare students to be socially responsible people with strong Catholic beliefs, practices, traditions and values, to guide students to respect diversity, and challenge them to excel academically and grow spiritually. b. We should receive word on the Blue Ribbon Award any day. c. Thank you to Stephanie Kappesser for the St. Albert PTO Yearbook. c.i. Jennifer Starke added that we want to have this book available at all PTO functions and the New Family events. Ideally, the historian will go to all PTO events to capture pictures of each. The hope is to grow this committee to help with the need to attend all events and grow the book. Please send any pictures captured from PTO events to [email protected]. V. New Business: a. Jennifer Starke: Welcome to all the new members and thank you to all for attending the meeting. b. Committee/Executive Board Alignment – reported by Ginny Meiners; all PTO functions were grouped by type (teacher/staff support, events/fundraisers, parent services, and student services) and assigned to an Executive Board Member. Each of the board members have reached out to their committee chairs. Please touch base with your Executive Board Member if you have any questions or issues concerning your committee. c. Work Plans – reported by Jennifer Starke; all work plans are approved. If you need a copy, please contact your executive board member. Update it throughout the year with any changes. These plans will be due sometime in January or February for approval for the following school year. d. Storage – reported by Ginny Meiners; PTO now has space in the basement of the Sacred Heart Center for storage. A platform was built to keep items off the ground but please store in labeled, plastic bins. Let us know if you have anything you wish to store or any items that need to be moved from another location at school. e. Contracts – reported by Ginny Meiners; all contracts for any PTO function needs to go through Larry Brunner, even if the vendor was previously used for the same event. PTO cannot sign the contracts. Submit any estimates/quotes to Larry. f. Thank you notes – reported by Jennifer Starke; passed thank you notes around. Mrs. Colvin’s class made the PTO thank you packet as well. g. Compliance Policy – reported by Janet Nall; everyone must attend the Honor Thy Child class and have a background check completed to help in the school. Background checks need to be submitted every 5 years. The PTO website will be updated with all needed information. g.i. Leslie Burch is going thru all committee information to make sure we are compliant. g.ii. St. Gabriel is holding an Honor Thy Child class on Monday, September 20th and St. Nicholas is holding a class on September 30th. There are also two in October. h. Communication Policy / PTO email addresses – reported by Lisa Bowlin; Lisa handed out a flyer with the different means of communications that can be utilized by PTO. To request your committee email address or have information submitted for any of the below communications, email Lisa at [email protected]. Do not contact the school office to send committee information. h.i. PTO committees now have a school email account to be used instead of personal accounts. This will help when committee members turn over. Lisa will send them out with instructions.  Multiple committee chairs will share the address and password information for the Google account. All documents can be housed here.  The password will be a temporary password that will prompt for a change. You can keep the temporary password or change. If you change, DO NOT LOSE!  You can add this email account to your personal phone/device. This will be separate from your personal account.  Forms, such as the Meeting RSVP, can be generated from Google docs as well. Lisa can show you how to use these forms. Super easy!  A suggestion was made to have a shared drive for all common documents like the School Board uses. This will be looked into with Bill Henderson. h.ii. PTO Sign-up Genius – if needed, you can use a personal account, use your PTO account, or Lisa can set up for you. h.iii. Monday Memo – if you have information to be added, send to Lisa with date needed. Information needs to be submitted by Thursday at midnight to be included in the following week’s Monday Memo. h.iv. Facebook – Please use! There are over 800 people who like our page. Just use discretion with kids’ photos. h.v. Tuesday Folder – email document by Friday to be included in the Tuesday folder. h.vi. Email Blast – used minimally and must be approved by the PTO president. h.vii. Church Bulletin - remember that it will be included in the next bulletin that space allows. This may not be immediate. i. Vote/Purchases for the school – reported by Jennifer Starke; at the last meeting of the 2014-15 school year, we voted on $20,000 of the $35,000 bucket of money to be spent. Still waiting on the final numbers from those expenditures but there is leftover money to be spent. When the faculty has a request, it goes first to Mrs. Cooper for approval, then to the PTO. i.i. Red Ribbon Week (October 26-30) help requested by Ms. Short, the school counselor. She would like to provide a treat/snack on two of these days to fit the theme which will cost $418.01. There were no questions on the request. A vote was taken, all voted in favor. i.ii. PTO Camera – last year the PTO helped purchase a video camera but we are in need of a camera to take pictures at school events to help publicize to Courier Journal and other outlets as well as share for the yearbook. Janelle Richardson will be responsible for the camera. An electronic vote will be sent out once more information is gathered. j. Absences – reported by Jennifer Starke; we need a quorum at our meetings for good conversation around our events and for voting purposes. Please make sure to attend or send someone in your place if you cannot attend. VI. Committee Reports a. New Family Welcome – reported by Catherine Arnold; The Kindergarten Welcome was held on July 19th for the students and families. There was a great turnout and each student received the St. Albert bag with goodies. The New Family Welcome had 19 of the 24 new families attend. They received the St. Albert bag, tervis tumbler and car decal. Allison Gibson provided a great handout. They are hoping the money left over can be used to purchase new signs and hoping to build the committee. b. Open Classrooms – reported by Emily McElroy; afternoon/evening time was a good change. Need balloons for Kindergarten building next year. Any suggestions welcome. c. School Supplies – reported by Jennifer Starke; Brittany Pesce will not be chairing next year so we need a new volunteer. The majority of the work is in January/February working with the teachers on their supply lists. d. Sweatshirts/Decals/Tervis Tumblers – reported by Emily Harm; d.i. Ordered decals and tumblers with the new logo. We need to sell the 200 we have left of the old version first, maybe at a discount during conferences. Should we give to the New Family Welcome committee also? d.ii. Sweatshirts are being revised with the new logo but waiting to see samples to decide between white verses the traditional gold logo. Should receive the sample on Friday. The old sweatshirt can be worn this year and 2016-17. The new sweatshirt will be required for the 2017-18 school year. As we deplete the inventory of old sweatshirts, the new will be ordered. When should we start discounting the old and for what price? If we have a lot of old left over, we could possibly donate to Paula Gyimesi who donates to a school in need. Need to have further discussions on turnover. e. Cafeteria workers – reported by Jennifer Starke; all spots are filled but need a sub list. Open Classrooms was helpful for signing workers up. f. Room Parents – reported by Leslie Burch; they only had a few sign up at open classrooms but are now full. Thanks to all that helped fill the spots. The cafeteria has been reserved for September 21st for a 7:00pm meeting. Lisa Kleyer has the check for the money to be given out for each class. There are 62 room parents. g. Innisbrook – reported by Megan Wade; sales end Monday and we have only received around $1000 in orders. They can provide a pdf order form if needed. The order will be divided between family members. Everyone is asked to share the Innisbrook fundraiser on Facebook. Spread the word that the PTO is only doing two fundraisers this year so please support the school. A question was raised asking if we felt not having the dress down day reward could be hurting sales. Items will be delivered the 2nd or 3rd week in October. h. Yearbook/School Pictures – reported by Julie Corbett; school pictures went great, waiting on a retake date. The deadline for the yearbook to be completed is always close to St. Baldrick and every event after that is left out of the book. This includes summer sports and graduation. The thought is to have a year round book which will add 8 pages. The deadline would be in June and the book will be distributed the beginning of the next school year, possibly at Open Classrooms as well as hosting a ‘book signing’ event for the 8th graders. Addendums have been tried in the past but didn’t work well. They are lost easily. h.i. The extra cost per book for the 8 pages to be included as a year round book is $.85/book. The cost of the addendum is $1.00/book. i. Helping Hands – Reported by Allison Gibson; this is an anonymous group to help others facing a hardship with meals, rides, grocery shopping, yardwork, etc. Please reach out if you know someone in need. They prefer to work with a friend of the family to keep it anonymous. All work is completed by volunteers. Currently not helping anyone but just finished up one family. Any timeframe of help needed is accepted. They do not need details of the situation, just the best thing that could help the family. If you wish to volunteer, let Allison or Aimee Brown know and they can add you to the list. j. Stewardship – Kristin Chin reported for Gretchen Molinari; the theme this year is “Caring and Sharing” for 5th-7th graders. There will be an assembly on Monday, September 21st at 2:00pm and parents are welcome to attend. Volunteers, drivers and chaperones are needed. In mid-October, groups will be out in the community to show caring for others. Contact Gretchen to volunteer. j.i. 5th graders will work with Americana Community Center, a group servicing refugees and immigrants in the Louisville area by providing meals and helping them acclimate to our American culture (ex: Halloween). j.ii. 6th graders will feed the homeless at St. Vincent DePaul. j.iii. 7th graders will possibly tutor kids at Chenoweth Elementary but having trouble getting it set up. They are brainstorming other ideas. k. Student Appreciation – reported by Kristin Chin; they will provide music at recess on Thursday, September 24th from 11:00-1:00. A rainout date will be Wednesday, September 30th if needed. l. Restaurant Fundraisers – reported by Beth Leith; Chick-Fil-A day will be Tuesday, October 7th at Mall St. Matthews, St. Matthews and Springhurst. Hoping to have Mr. Muchow dress as the cow during afternoon carpool. Lisa Bowlin will help. The piece of paper from the school has to be turned into the restaurant for the fundraiser to count, not an electronic version. This paper will be in the bulletin and Tuesday folders. St. Albert will receive 20% of the proceeds for breakfast, lunch and dinner. m. Book Fair – reported by Danielle Walters; rolling out with conferences. Set up is Saturday, September 19 at 2:00 pm and need help. Pastries with Parents is September 23rd and 24th and volunteers are needed. A sign-up genius will be sent for help with the students classes. We get Scholastic money from the proceeds. Last year we were able to purchase 10 Chrome books and books for the library. n. Open House – reported by Janelle Richardson; set for October 20th from 9:00-10:00am and 5:30-7:30pm, which is the same date and time for all catholic schools in the area. The Archdiocese is advertising for all schools but Allison Gibson has been very helpful with advertising for St. Albert. Personal tours are always optional for those that cannot make Open House. n.i. A small group including School Board, PTO and the Marketing Committee are reaching out to numerous groups throughout the community to spread the word. n.ii. PTO is providing balloons, refreshments and volunteers. n.iii. Prospective Parent Day is November 8th from 3:00-6:00pm. There will be a panel in the church for a Q&A session. n.iv. Everyone can hand out marketing cards (provided at meeting) to help in the efforts and spread the word on Facebook. If anyone has neighborhood or other contacts to help, please let Janelle or Allison know. They have 25 yard signs to spread strategically throughout the community. o. Teacher Conferences – reported by Leslie Cronin; dates are September 28th and 29th. We are working on the menus but thinking barbeque for the first night and pizza for the second night. A sign-up genius will be sent soon. Volunteers are really needed even in one hour shifts. p. Box Tops – reported by Linda Blackman; St. Albert has made $30,277 in the lifetime of the program. The goal is $3000 for this year. Kids’ incentives will be coming in the Monday Memo. If you sign up on the Boxtop for Education website, you can get free points for the school. The school code is 156500. Five box tops equal $.50. q. Retail Rebates/Kroger – reported by Jennifer Garlesky; everyone must sign up again for the Kroger rebates. You must redo every August. We made on average $2500 per quarter last year. We currently have 195 families, which is up 50 from last year. Please ask grandparents and other family members to sign up as well for the school. r. Used Uniforms – reported by Jennifer Starke; the July 23rd sale made $393 and the Open Classroom sale made $305. There will be another sale during the fish fry later this year. s. Haunted Halls – reported by Lisa Bowlin; The event will be October 17th from 6:30- 8:30pm. We need volunteers, supplies, etc. This will be communicated via Monday Memo. Bobbie Chitwood cannot help this year. She decorated the 4th/5th grade hall last year. s.i. Cindy McKinley asked if we could help with the Faith Formation and have kids help paint pumpkins for nursing homes. Instead of bringing a canned good this year, we are asking for families to bring a small pumpkin. s.ii. The gym holds 400 people and we have 800-1000 students and family members. This event is only for school families. VII. Announcements a. Jennifer Starke introduced Elizabeth Dallenbach and Melissa Buckman as the new Gala chairs and Megan Cyterski and Rebecca Sutton as the Flower Sale Fundraiser chairs. b. Jennifer Starke mentioned that we have a sound system for PTO functions. Please let her know if anyone needs it for their PTO event. c. The next meeting will be held November 11th at 6:30pm in the Sacred Heart Center. VIII. Closing Prayer: Jennifer Starke

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS ATTACHED: 1. Summary of check requests and cash/check deposit 2. PTO Communications 3. Blue Ribbon Voting Results