Algonkian PTA Minutes



Algonkian PTA Minutes

Algonkian Elementary School, Potomac Falls, VA 20165

September 8, 2014

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm with a motion made by Kristen Ulrich, and seconded by Christine Hoyle.

Attendees:

Annie Powell, Leigh Pappalardo, Sarah Kimberly, Brian Blubaugh, Pamela O’Reilly, Sean O’Reilly, Erin Jackson, Savita Schlesinger, Melissa Lemmond, Kristen Ulrich, Barbara Fontaine, Christine Hoyle, Olga Bhargava, Mahima Pant, Rachel Karnes, JJ White, Claudia White, Jenna Charpentier, Alyssa Lum, Deb Shumaker, Noemi Arthur, Sue King, Jennifer Larner, Wendy Hopkins, April Chandler, Stefanie Hatfield, Kimberly Nelson, Michael Nelson, Mona Shuaib, Gilda VanderHeyden, Soo Yang, Karen Anderson, Teak Lynner, Stephanie McMahan, Maggie Swank, Diana Laurenson, Ellen Buterbaugh, Todd Franklin, Karen Shields, Marann Bonorchis, Chrissie Devinney

Approval of Minutes:

A motion was made by Christine Hoyle to approve the Minutes from the last regular meeting, dated May 6, 2014. The motion was seconded by Brian Blubaugh.

President’s Report – Barbara Fontaine:

• Welcome and Introductions of the PTA board members, Brian Blubaugh, Karen Shields and Marann Bonorchis, one of the Teacher Representatives.

• Excess Funds from last year

o $6000 went to the blacktop redo; painting the blacktop

o $1865 went to new music curriculum

o $3700 went to redo the WALG studio; the studio was analog and is now digital.

o $5000 went into the building fund to bring it to $5,000; perhaps for a new front sign this year.

o $3000 went to Homework Club

o $5057 went into Educational Enrichment Carryover

o $1000 to Landscaping

o $2000 additional funds to Caring and Sharing (for Staff Appreciation Week); perhaps for new furniture in teacher’s courtyard.

o $1000 to ink cartridges

o $6,000 Cultural Arts

o $500 for PBIS

o We need to increase the Audit budget by $100 for this year’s audit.

Melissa Lemmond made a motion to increase the Audit budget by $100 to a total of $400. Jennifer Larner seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion was passed.

• Thanks to the playground committee – Karen Anderson, Christine Hoyle, Stephanie McMahan, Maria Taylor

• Open Posts – Please see Barbara Fontaine if you are interested

o Lego League

o LEAP

o First Day Packets- filled

o School Supply Kits- filled

Following the meeting, Mona Shuaib volunteered to be the Chairman for both the First Day Packets and the School Supply Kits. Thank you, Mona!

Reports of Officers:

1. Treasurer’s Report – Mahima Pant

|PTA Meeting - Treasurer Report | |

|Monday, September 8, 2014 | |

|Checkbook current balance: | | | |$44,944.62 |

|2014-2015 start balance: | | | |49,042.89 |

|Items paid: | | | | |

|10,272.95 |Principal’s Allotment |1,000.00 | | |

| |Spirit Wear (T-Shirts & Magnets) |1422.05 | | |

| |Caring & Sharing (Teacher/Staff T-Shirts) |459.65 | | |

| |Overtime Athletics (2013 ASAP) |700 | | |

| |Landscaping |710 | | |

| |Teacher’s Stipend (Last Year) |140.99 | | |

| |Miscellaneous Expenses |56.26 | | |

| |Boy Scout (Blacktop) |5000 | | |

| |Cash Box (Spirit Wear & Membership) |430 | | |

| |R.V. Nuccio & Assoc. (PTA Insurance) |298 | | |

| |Monster Mash DJ Deposit |50 | | |

| |Bank Service Fee (July And August) |6 | | |

|Deposits: | | | | |

|6174.68 |Grocery Program (Harris Teeter) | |35.82 | |

| |Spirit Wear T-Shirts/Magnets Sale | |1725 | |

| |Membership | |1078 | |

| |Paypal (Spiritwear) | |1661.86 | |

| |Paypal (Membership) | |174 | |

| |Walk-A-Thon Sponsors | |1500 | |

| | | | | |

|Upcoming Expenses: |Annual Audit (2013-2014) |300 | | |

| | | | | |

|Upcoming Income: |Spirit Wear (more T-Shirts/Magnets sale) | | | |

| |Membership Dues | | | |

| |Walk-A-Thon | | | |

|Other: | | | | |

|2013-2014 PTA budget audit not yet done – Should be completed before next meeting | |

|Starting balance: $49042.89 / Ending balance: $44944.62 | | | |

|2014-2015 Algonkian PTA Budget approved at Back to School Night on Aug 28 (see attached budget) |

2. Vice President’s Report and Fundraising Report- Kristen Ulrich:

o 1st BINGO is this Friday, 9/12th. You can pre-order your food!

o Walk-a-Thon – September 26th- the packets are due back 9/22/2014

o Restaurant Nights- September 16th is Menchie’s Night for frozen yogurt from 4-9pm

o Box Tops- collection will be in October.

o Still need volunteers for BINGO. If any middle-schoolers want volunteer hours, working at the snack bar at BINGO is a great way to earn some.

3. Secretary’s Report – Kimberly Nelson: none

Principal’s and Assistant Principal’s Report: Brian Blubaugh/Karen Shields

Brian Blubaugh thanked all the parents, PTA and staff for welcoming him to our school and making his transition to Algonkian a smooth one. He thanked his wife for all of her support, and thanked Karen Shields and Gail and Eileen for their support as well.

• He is very pleased with the teachers and staff. He’s impressed with the teaching practices he has already observed in the classrooms. The teachers are doing really good work with our children.

• He encouraged parents to fill out the volunteer form that is now needed to volunteer at the school. Those forms were in the First Day Packets.

• Before outside vendors, especially those that are new to our school, can work at our school, their contracts should be sent to Risk Management for review.

• The front of the school is scheduled for fall flowers soon.

• Brian discussed PBIS, which stands for Positive Behavior Intervention & Support-

o PBIS assembly occurred last Friday for the students

o Characteristics of PBIS are: Respect, Responsibility & Relationships

o The theme of the assembly was “Expect Respect”.

o Café Incentives- students/classes can earn tickets and other prizes as incentives to use good behavior in the cafeteria.

o The E-card machine for tracking the incentives broke, and Tracy Mayobre has replaced it.

o Rewards for a class may include getting popsicles, shooting basketball hoops during lunch, BINGO in the cafeteria, fine dining day, Cafeteria Class of the Month class picture.

o Bobcat Club- students can still earn golden tickets for good behavior this year. However, when students earn a golden ticket now, a portion of their ticket is placed in a bowl along with others, and once a week Mr. Blubaugh will draw out names to get some prizes.

o Brian thanked the Jenkins family for contributing the prize-spinning wheel to the school.

o Schools have done a great job identifying and teaching about bullying and negative behavior. Now, the focus is on the positive peer-pressure and focusing on everybody else. The idea is not give the bully the chance to bully by standing up for your friend.

o Brian asked Alicia Smith to write a school song. It’s called Purr, and it’s to the music Roar.

o Assessments have started, which give a lot of good base-line data on each student.

o Parents will always be invited to the PBIS assemblies. Notices will be sent out via Connect-Ed. He welcomes everyone to join Twitter to follow his posts.

Teacher Representative – Marann Bonorchis:

• Tracy Mayobre will be doing STEM labs again this year for grades K-5. She would like the PTA to fund these lessons, which amount to about $500.

A parent asked if parents can contribute to the STEM lab instead of having the PTA fund it all.

• Tracy Mayobre wants to use a Jeopardy game to help the 3rd through 5th graders prepare for their SOLs. Cost for board game, extra score board, and USB 3pack totals about $530.

• Tracy Mayobre replaced the cafeteria’s ETM machine before school started. She wants to offer ETMs to all the teachers at a cost of $110 per class. Would the PTA buy these for the teachers?

• Marann Bonorchis thanked the PTA for the staff’s generous stipend and for the PTA’s support.

• She reported the children love the new blacktop.

• She suggested that the PTA might consider replacing some of the chairs in the teacher’s lounge if we are looking for gift ideas for the staff.

Reports of Committees:

1. Social Report – April Chandler

• Monster Mash date has changed to October 17th

• Many changes to the Monster Mash this year. If you want to know more, she needs volunteers.

• Chrissey Devinney- the Book Fair will be the week of October 6th-10th not during Monster Mash.

2. Educational Discovery- Jennifer Larner

• The Spanish program will be offered by Language Stars and will be available for grades K-5.

There will be two 10-week after-school sessions, about 45 minutes each. Cost- about $185.

• Local author will return offering various writing workshop programs for 2nd through 5th graders

• Matt Newinski will offer Little Archimedes (science club) again.

• Still working on details for a math club for the school.

3. Staff Relations - Caring and Sharing: Rachel Karnes

• Volunteers needed to help with baking treats for staff birthdays.

• Souper Lunch for staff is coming up on November 3rd.

4. Staff Relations- Parent/Community Relations- Heather Dyson- no report

5. SEAC- Sarah Kimberly- no report

However, Sarah Kimberly did report she will hold a Special Ed Parent Coffee the 3rd Friday every month.

She also reported that a new program is being introduced at Algonkian called Bobcat Buddies. This program helps provides inclusive activities for special ed kids at all the school activities. Information about Bobcat Buddies is available on the turn-style in the front entrance.

6. MSAAC- Jenna Charpentier

• Meetings are held once a month and she needs someone to share the job of attending meetings.

• She expressed interest in an international night event at our school. Following the meeting, April Chandler, Mona Shuaib and Jenna Charpentier volunteered to plan this event.

7. ASAP- presented by Barbara Fontaine for Leigha Griffin

• Leigha invites parents to teach an ASAP class. All ideas welcome. The more parents we have offering classes the more reasonable the prices will be and the more money the PTA can earn.

• Classes are offered as 6-week sessions; in the Fall and Spring; and teachers earn $200 per session.

8. Chat-N-Chew- Debra Shumaker

• Lunch-time book club is held once a month for 5 months: October, November, January, February and March. Kids read the book provided and then they attend the book club to talk about the book during their lunch time. Program begins October 21st. Available for 2nd through 5th graders.

• Parents are needed to help lead groups discuss the books.

9. Birthday Books- Chrissie Devinney

• Parents can buy a book for the school library in honor of their child’s or teacher’s birthday

• A name plate will be placed in the front of the book with the child’s name on it

• The child will be the first one to check out the book

• Flyers will be sent home with more information

Unfinished Business: none

New Business and Questions for Mr. Blubaugh:

• We are hoping to hold a math night and reading night this year.

• There will be presentations at each PTA meeting, probably not exactly like last year.

• Student-to-Student will be led by Mrs. Thomas and will start in October.

• The Book Character Parade is Friday, October 31st. Mrs. Devinney asked to please have your child check out their book from the library for the Book Character Parade BEFORE October 31st.

• The PFHS band will be joining us again this year for the Book Character Parade.

• Clarity numbers will be available on October 1st.

Parent Question: Is there going to be anything dramatically different to the classroom? Last year it seemed like we were constantly inundated with changes. Can you think of one thing that this might be true of this year? For example, we all had to learn how to do math last year.

Mr. Blubaugh- I wouldn’t say there’s anything dramatically different. In education changes can take 30 years to take hold. We’re in the middle of a change that started in the 1990s. The teaching practices I was using when teaching 2nd grade in 2005 and 2006 are the same practices the teachers are using right now here at Algonkian. They are good teaching practices. Teaching practices have changed though in how we get kids to learn.

Parent Question: Last year there were a lot of new piloting programs. Are you still continuing with those programs now that Mrs. Steeprow is gone?

Mr. Blubaugh- Pathways 3-5 is new. It was called Steps to Literacy back in 2003. It gives teachers grades 3 through 5 a framework, but the same teaching practices have been used for the last 15 years. This is just a framework for them to use.

Sarah Kimberly made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:15 pm. Karen Shields seconded the motion.

Respectfully submitted, this 8th day of September, 2014,

Kimberly Nelson

PTA Secretary

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