November 2009 Meeting Minutes

November 3, 2009 PTO Minutes

Approvals:
- Minutes: Amendment: Action Ambulance will be donating 100 purell refills – not 1000 as reported in the October meeting. (refills are on back order. While we are waiting for the refills, they donated 40 pump bottles:Motion to Accept: Hilary O'doy. 2^nd by: Stephanie Comeau

Treasurer's Report: approve treasurer's report: Motion to Accept: Hilary O'doy. 2^nd by Jill Bouley

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Updates:

School Council Elections – Tom Marsh was elected.
Gift Wrap Fundraiser - Pick up is Thursday Nov 6^th from 3pm-6pm (during Book Fair family shopping times) 133 orders. (60 less than last year. cost per order was much higher this year) $10,116.00. $1065.00 from the total was from dot.com orders! Only 8 people owe money at this time. Highest order was Emily Colby - $579.00 from Ms. May's 2^nd grade class. Christopher Pellitier from Mrs. Lang's 1^st grade class was picked as a random winner of a family pass to Water Country. Still don't know exact amount of money that we made. Will still have to pay Innisbrook – hopefully we'll have exact dollar amounts @ the next meeting.
Purell Drive - $522.00 was raised by Pine Grove families. 100 refills were donated from Action Ambulance plus the 40 pump bottles. (because the refills are on back order)
Wild Cat ski passes - 30 people purchased passes. $300.00 will be given to Pine Grove. Thank you Mary Murphy for organizing this.

Antiquities - Mrs. Gagnon is organizing. Will be put on hold – because of the lice problem. We will revisit it in the Spring.
Spiritwear - not a lot of orders. It didn't cost us anything. Maybe we can buy a handful of tee shirts to have the Craft volunteers wear at the fair – so people would know they're there as volunteers. A motion was made for $100.00 for Pine Grove tee's for volunteers to wear at PTO events. Hilary – approved. Jean – 2^nd. Vote passed unanimously.
Fall Fest - well over 300 people. 16 good size boxes of food pantry donations plus a $10 cash donation. There were pumpkins on the table to collect donations to help with the event expenses and $117.00 was donated. We had lots of volunteers. Great family/community event!
Language Advantage - first flyer that went out...only 2-3 families signed up. 2^nd letter went out. We are now up to aprox 10 students signed up. The first class started last week and will go until May.
Children's ID - NY Life contacted us regarding a children's ID program. NY Life does it as part of a community outreach program. They will come w/ volunteers or we can provide volunteers. Free program. We could do it along w/ another event. Only need a table and electrical outlet to set up. We could do it during the week, or a weekend. Very flexible. Jean will check w/ the Rowley Police Dept to see if they were thinking of doing something like this. Maybe plan it w/ the Ice Cream Social in the Spring.

NEW BUSINESS:

Fund Requests:

Bins for Kindergarten Quilts - Aleta Budd presented – get 6 bins to put the quilts and the quilt books in it. Bins are on sale at Target $5.99 this week. A motion was made for $60.00 to purchase 6 bins. Amy accepted. Hilary Odoy 2^nd. All in favor. Joanna White offered to pick up the bins.
PTO Today Plus membership - $199.00 – our insurance (for events) is due in early December and this membership gives us a great discount for the insurance. The magazine has great ideas, as well as the online resources available. We've been a member 4 years. Joan Petersen 1^st/Pam Gay 2^nd. All in favor.

Upcoming Events:

Fall Book Fair – this week! Til Monday 10^th. Volunteer schedule is set.

FUTURE Events/Fundraisers/Ideas/Discussions:

District PTO/PTA's coordinating calendars – held an outing at Starboard Galley – meeting once a month at Central Office. A lot of folks are complaining that we are doing fundraisers that are conflicting w/ the middle and high school.....so we will work together to get a calendar set so there is no overlapping of fundraisers.
Search for new Superintendent - looking for 1 Pine Grove parent to represent our school in the Superintendant search committee. (1 per school in district) there will be 17 people on the committee in total. Need name submitted by Dec 4th.
December conferences (snacks for staff) Dec 3^rd & 4^th - Kim Marsh will be in charge of this. Info will be going home soon on this. Need snacks and food donations for the staff. (healthy choice snacks should be provided)
Craft Fair – December 5^th - Working on advertising. Waiting on approval to get a sign up at the intersection of Rt 1 & Rt 133. Still working on getting parking volunteers. Will go out in the Pine Times to seek volunteers. Need to get approval to have parking on the fields behind the school. Blizzard day will be Sunday Dec 6^th. Everyone can touch base early that week to make sure we're all set for possible plowing that could be needed if there is bad weather. Lynn McCaskill is the coordinator with Jean Atherton to help. Lynn Parsons and Mary Rooney will coordinate the bake sale table. Need food items w/ no nuts, store bought items are fine. Coffee, cream, coffee cup donations will be accepted now. Please email Lynn Parsons at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Mary Rooney at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Student Directory – Kim Marsh proposal. We've talked about this in years past. Parents will need to send in their info at the beginning of the year and choose to opt in to the directory. Great idea. Kim Marsh will get the ball rolling.
Cookie Swap – Monday December 14^th 7pm. Flyer to go out soon. Meet in the AP Room w/ aprox 2-3 dozen cookies to swap with who ever else is there.
Comedy Night – Amber – Mission Oak Grille – Newburyport aprox. $25.00 per ticket. $1500.00 expense. We could do a Friday/Saturday night at the end of January. We have a Pine Grove parent that would be one of the comedians. We approved the money last month, but we've decided to do the event at Mission Oak Grill in Newburyport. More details to follow.
Last batch of boxtops: over 5000 submitted! Anyone can sign up to have their store bonus cards tie to Pine Grove. No cost to the consumer. We could put a box in the Bakery. There is a box in the post office that people can put their boxtops in. Joanna White will collect. Maybe we can put a box @ the Council of Aging...Joan Petersen can look into this.

Assistant Principal's Report: Chris Kneeland will be out for a few weeks for medical leave. Staff asked if their help is needed at the Craft Fair. In the Globe last week.....student growth thru MCAS. Trying to develop a growth model. Margot can go over in detail if people would like more detailed info about this. Last week at the Prof Development Day......the MCAS results were looked at. Only 1/3 of the questions were released. Don't forget to check out the silent auction in the Link Art Gallery. It'll be going thru Nov 20^th.