Belmont Station Elementary School PTA Board Meeting

Belmont Station Elementary

A 2011 National Blue Ribbon School

Belmont Station Elementary School PTA Meeting Minutes February 2, 2015

Attendees: Kelly Wooley (President), Denise Werntz (Treasurer), Saige Burns (VP), Marna Gettleman (Secretary), Jamie Neel (Sponsorship Chair)

Note: Amber Prescott (VP) joined at 8:55 and Hollie Wilee (Belmont Station Assistant Principal) joined at 9:40

Welcome: Kelly opened the meeting at 8:30 am. It was noted that the December minutes were previously approved by email vote at the end of January.

Financial Review o Denise gave the financial report for both December and January, because we did not meet in January. At the end of January, the PTA had a balance of $37,433.79. Denise did note for the teachers running after school programs that she won't cut checks for them until all their program's checks have cleared. It was agreed that made sense.

Principal's Report: A written principal's report was given after the official meeting was adjourned but inserted in the minutes for informational purposes o Lori met with Linda and Julie about 5th grade promotion to go through preliminary details and we are starting the planning process. We are off to a good start. o After school remediation will begin in March. Denise please confirm the budget for snacks and also for teacher pay. I think they are two line items...we only use the teacher pay once the grant funds ($3,600) are depleted. Last year we did not use much of the PTA $, but the grant funds were a little of $5000. Demerise (SOL Blitz snack chair) and I have touched base and she is ready when final plans are made. o Personnel changes: Troy has been promoted to a LCPS grounds position and Eryne Racino has moved to a middle school counselor position. Jennifer Garcia is now our day custodian. She is helpful and learning the school and the job. Because she is still familiarizing herself with the school, we will have to be more detailed and clear of our needs during the day. Susan Ellis is our new itinerant guidance counselor. Susan was our part time counselor several years ago before she decided to stay home with her boys. She is delightful and we are happy to have her back at BST.

Calendar Review:

o Kelly noted that the Boosterthon will end on May 7, rather than the May 8th that is on the calendar. Marna noted that Amber had emailed her prior to the meeting to say that the April and May Teacher Snack Days have been changed. Marna will change the dates on the website and the hard copy of the PTA calendar.

By-laws review o Marna opened the by-laws review, noting that at their previous discussion, there had been a desire for further discussion about the length of terms. Denise mentioned that she had some questions about some of the financial items and requested that we convene a separate meeting just to discuss the bylaws. All agreed that was a good idea. Marna will work to set up another meeting before the end of February.

Vice President Reports o Winter Wonderland Wrap Up (Kelly): Kelly noted that there was not much to wrap up, but did note that attendance seemed down this year. General discussion followed about the event and how/if it could be changed/improved for next year. Marna noted that there will be a new chair next year and she may have some fresh ideas. Kelly suggested doing a survey monkey to ask parents about what events they like, what they don't, and maybe ideas for new events. Marna noted that the parents might like one event, but their kids another, so we might take that into consideration. o After School Programs (Saige) o Saige noted that there are 21 programs currently for the winter session, but that will change because some of the programs may be cancelled. She is trying to get some to stay (Drama Kids and Brickz4Kids, for example), because some people sign up late, sometimes the day the class sessions start. She does think it would be best to whittle down the number of classes to the most popular ones, to ensure that the classes we do offer get filled. Feedback about the single flyer was positive from the parents. Jamie asked if it would be possible for parents to get confirmation when their child/children get into a class. Currently, parents are only notified (by their returned check) when their child does NOT make it into a class. Discussion followed about improving the process. Amber suggested having some time to talk about it in the summer, maybe at the teachers' "welcome back" day, giving them a list of everything the PTA would need before their class could be offered. o New Dance Class: Saige handed out a proposal from Kim King, who would like to offer a dance class after school. Kelly mentioned that she taught a class for her daughter's Girl Scout troop and she thought it was really good. All agreed that it would be a welcome addition to increase the variety of types of classes (there is currently no dance class offered after school). Kelly asked Saige to see if she could add it to the spring session, if possible. o Square1 Art & Miscellaneous (Amber) Amber said that the Square 1 Art program is starting and art submissions are due (tentatively) by February 19, with orders being due March 23. Karen Mineo is chairing this program, as in the past, so she is on top of everything.

 Circus and Harlem Globetrotters: Amber also noted that Julie Harris is organizing tickets for the Ringling Bros. Circus and for the Harlem Globetrotters. In addition to getting a discount on the tickets, the PTA gets $3 back for every Globetrotters ticket sold and $5 back for each circus ticket.

Other upcoming events: SOL Blitz Snacks (chaired by Demerise Scott), Spirit Night at California Tortilla (Alex Irizarry).

o Teacher Appreciation Week o Saige has been thinking through ideas for Teacher Appreciate Week and would like to make sure that the PTA works on things for the teachers that are more meaningful and thoughtful than just serving lunches. She has some ideas (decorating their classroom doors, having the kids make things to put on the doors), but she will first talk with Lori Mercer to try and figure out a theme and bounce ideas off of her.

o Valentine's Day Parties: Because we did not meet in January, there is not much to discuss about the Valentine's Day parties for this year, but Saige put forth the idea to have the PTA just buy bags for the valentines for each class. Kelly noted that some teachers buy their own and have the kids decorate them before the party, but it is worth looking into for next year.

Other

o Sponsorship Guidelines: Jamie noted that she has provided a separate version of the sponsorship guidelines geared toward the sponsors. If anyone had any questions or comments about it, she would be happy to talk about it. Marna noted that the committee has not taken a formal vote approving the sponsorship guidelines. No further action was taken.

o Online Store/Deposits process: Marna shared information she had received about a service PayPal offers for PTAs to process payments. Denise had some reservations about it, price being one (it seemed more expensive that going through my-) as well as wondering if we were obligated to use the payment processing/on-line store feature of our my- hosts. Will continue to look into it.

o PTA Social: Kelly had brought up this idea at the last meeting and was wondering what everyone had thought. The general consensus was supportive, but the details still would need to be worked out. We would need to recruit a chairperson to plan it. Marna will post something on Facebook to see if anyone would be interested.

o Shed Update: Kelly mentioned that she thought that $2000 (our original budget) was not going to be enough, given the research she's done in the area. It was noted that, since Troy was no longer at the school, the project has kind of stalled, but all agreed we should still pursue it. Hollie noted that she might be able to find someone to build it if we bought the materials. She will check and get back to us. Denise wondered if we could put some of the Boosterthon money that we raise towards the project.

o Boosterthon: Kelly asked Hollie if we could get the teachers to rally push that first day to collect pledges, perhaps promising 10% of that first day's total toward classroom expenses. She noted our goal is $20,000. Discussion continued around what we were fundraising for, because that might get people more excited. Hollie noted that the courtyards needed to sprucing up to make them more useable, perhaps putting in a sensory playground in

one that could be used for the special needs kids, who use one of the courtyards most often, but could be appreciated by all. Those spaces could be better utilized than they are now. Hollie will talk to Jane Dettra to see if they could provide a mock-up of what the space could look like for us to use in the Boosterthon information materials. o Other: Amber brought up another idea for teacher appreciation that her aunt's school does. They give each teacher $100 at the beginning of school, minus their PTA dues, so that they start out as a PTA member as well as having some extra cash to spend on their classroom items. Many liked that idea, and Denise noted that, for auditing purposes, we would have to collect their receipts (even for gift cards), but we could build it into the budget for next year. It was suggested that a labeled box could be set up in the front office for teachers to drop their receipts in for us to collect.

Adjournment: Saige moved to adjourn the meeting at 10:08. Kelly seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

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