August 2009 PTO Minutes

Tuesday Aug 4, 2009 PTO Minutes

Christine Kneeland announced the new phographer that will take the school pictures, Sullivan Studios. All other schools in the district have been using them for a # of years w/ great success. Smaller family owned company. Keith Sullivan came and did a presentation and brought some sample pictures. They will do the 6th grade year book. Keith has a lot of great ideas and will do lots of fun things for Pine Grove. They could come to our PTO/Pine Grove events to take pictures.

Introductions: Everyone introduced themselves.

Minutes: (votes since last PTO meeting on June 2nd)

Additional votes:
tables for Dan Collins $105.00
Gift money editor of Pine Times and Mrs. Budd $75.00
Meet & Greet/good bye principals afternoon: Amber Quigley donated waters for event
Hilary Odoy approved. Jill Bouley seconded.

Treasurer's Report: Jill Watson reported

Student Council will be taken off the report....we're going to beomce a 501c3 on our own.
PTO books closed the year on June 30, 2009.
Lots of money came in at the end of the year for jog alog. aprox 6600.00 in total.
$15000.00 to field trips
$6000.00 in enrichment funds
$2400.00 in general account to start the year
Jean Atherton approved. Hilary O'Doy seconded.

Past Event Updates:

Jog Along: around $6600.00
Gold Fundraiser: $206.00
Institute for Savings: Coins for a CAUSE total: they donate to a school each month. Our month was July 2009. 5% user fee goes directly to PGS $1159.66. That was a nice easy fundraiser!

New Business:

Fund Requests:

Destination Imagination - Lori met w/ Christine Kneeland to talk about what DI needs. Looking for help w/ the DI fees for the kids. aprox $1600.00

There are three DI teams. Mainly 5th and 6th graders.

This is the first real year doing DI. There was 1 team last year.

We donated $320.00 last year in January of 2009.

They will be fundraising this year for the funds needed for next year’s teams.

Aprox $75.00 per student was estimated. If families pay the $75.00 per child, what is the difference of what they would need? Maybe the DI team could do a little fundraiser at the Fall Fest. Maybe do a $1.00 donation to paint kids faces. We'll table this until Sept PTO meeting so Lori Flodman can go over things and exactly what they need.

Fall Fest: 4th Annual! Will be held Friday October 30th - need aprox $875.00 to support.

Takes place on Rowley Town Common for a fun night for families. Donate canned goods for the Rowley Food Pantry as admission. We need to push the canned donation.....last year not many folks brought food for the pantry.

Hilary O'Doy approved. Jill Bouley seconded.

Fall Fest volunteers are needed. Please email Liz This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you're interested in helping out at this fun community event!

Upcoming Events:

School Council elections: to take place in Sept; need 1 parent to volunteer. Joan Petersen is the community rep
Kindergarten Orientation: Sept 1st - volunteers needed for greeting and directing families.
Parent Info Night: volunteers needed.
Gift Wrap fundraiser - committee needed - see below:
Fall Book Fair - scheduled for Nov 2-10 - PTO is taking over the book fair this Fall.
- Lisa Bettencourt will help organize the book fair. Others are needed to help her and we'll need LOTS of volunteers.
Jean Atherton went over the gift wrap fundraiser: Sept 11th-Oct 8th

- We'll use Innisbrook again. New way to get orders placed....much easier to get the orders in the system. Innisbrook is owning the process of getting orders booked. There are more items online. Those items have to be booked seperately. We won't get credit for them until the Innisbrook's books close at the end of their year. NO cash to be sent into school. Must send in check, or use credit card for online purchase. Order questions - go directly to Innisbrook. 83% of their products are made in the US.
- New prizes! Waived the minimum participation. They will donate the paper for flyers. Coupons for teachers to purchase items. Innisbrook rep helps w/ distribution and will do a basket for the environmental camp fundraiser. Need to think about the distribution day here @ PGS.
- We'd like to see if we can send the stuff home on the busses. People could have items shipped directly to their house. There is a minimal shipping fee. Maybe we can have parents pick up boxes at the Book Fair in Nov. Jean will check w/ the Innisbrook rep. Christine will check on bringing items home on the bus.

FUTURE Events/Fundraisers:

Event worksheet: Liz Butler put together a check list sheet of how to work up a fundraiser. Sort of like a 'to do list'. If anyone has a great fundraising idea, you can take this form

to get the ball rolling.

Calendar of Events:

A handout was given to show a listing of last years events and a list of how our funds were used.

Outdoor movie night? maybe next Spring? Need a committee.
Potluck dinner? Mom's Potluck dinner?? we'll check calendar to see what
dates are avail possibly @ the end of August. Bring a dish, meet the PTO, bring a recipe, say hi to your friends before school starts.
Antique photos? table that for now. not much interest
Any other ideas? Joanna White suggested a daily planner idea; Jill Watson a wall calendar for Rowley/PGS w/ all the school dates and will look into it; Christine Kneeland will contact Keith Sullivan to see if he can do a school calendar.
Amber Quigley & Jill Watson. came up w/ an idea of a Giggles Night at Prince Pizza on Rt 1. Thursday night or Sunday night? Thurs night may be better. Maybe in Jan or Feb.
Fashion Show will not happend this Fall. Maybe in the Spring. Need a committee.
Parent Info Night - Before the parents go off to the different classrooms, Christine Kneeland will invite parents to meet in the AP room and introduce herself and the PTO board. Amber Quigley will talk a bit about our PTO organization. Just so folks can understand what we (PTO) do and where the fundraising money goes.

Event Debrief: After an event or fundraiser, we'll send an email out to folks letting them know how the event went and how much money was raised.
Another idea was getting matching Tee Shirts for PTO members and/or volunteers to wear at events. So folks would know who's on the PTO – and where to go to for help or questions during an event. Liz will ask Pamela Gay to see if there are any more Rowley tee's avail.
Another nice idea is to give volunteers info on exactly what they'll be volunteering for and how much time is needed for a particular event. We're thinking that we may get more volunteers for events if folks know exactly what's involved in volunteering!
An idea for giving Kyle Campbell & Ms. Remley some additional support from us to help him get their Kindergarten classroom ready was left on the table until we asked them if they are in need of support.

Reminders:

1st day of school is Tues Sept 1st
1st day of Kindergarten is Wed Sept 2nd
Parent Info Nights: Sept 16, 17, 23, 24

PTO Meeting Dates:

9/8, 10/6, 11/3, 12/1, 1/5, 2/2, 3/2, 4/6, 5/4, 6/1

Principal's Report:

New carpets in the office. Time for an upgrade. 1st week of Aug - they are installing carpets. Spruce up bldg....make it more appealing to students and families.

Getting questionairs back.....not have gotten a lot back yet. Hopefully she'll get more before the 1st day of school.

Barbara Barry will be an IA in the Library this year. There is a district librian - Anne O'Brien will work w/ all schools in the district.

New student registration is on Aug 13th.

Still only 3 teachers for 4th grade.

Discovery Center children have moved up to Middle School. Greater Lawrence Edu Collaborative will be renting space from PGS (where the Discovery Center was)

5 kids. 2 of the 5 kids are already in the Triton Regional District.

All the instructional assistants will be w/ the children. That rent money will hopefully come back to PGS....we'll have to talk to the district about that....seeing that we're hosting the program.