PTO Meeting 10/1/13
Introductions
Principal Report
Good feedback about Back to School Night
Loved ending with the principal talk
Safe program came in this week, Fire Department discussed meeting places
School Council Meeting: Discussed playground, wood chips vs. rubber material, how should we use the space, etc.
How is the newsletter?
Cafeteria Question: I spend a lot of time in the cafeteria trying to establish the four simple rules. The kids know how to follow the rules. There is a mic in the cafeteria now. Lights off mean a grown-up is going to speak using a mic. It is noisy/small. It is one of the only times when the kids aren't structured socially. It's hard to ask them to be super quiet all the time. I'm aware it is noisy. We don't want to have to assign seats. We had to do this in one grade and it worked and they are earning back not having assigned seats. I can't make the lunch any longer. It is 40 minutes. It only has to be half an hour. Morning recess is so short because of block programming. We are struggling with how we use WIN time (what I need time), but what ends up happening is we only have about 10 minutes in the morning. Cafeteria is watching. Some kids have 25 minutes to eat, older kids have 20 minutes and then 20 minutes to play. I'm trying to model what a good lunch period looks like.
Parent: I've heard parents feel like there has been over-correcting on the noise-level.
PTO EVENTS:
Harvest Festival: Rain date up until 9am on Friday. Will decide about weather then. Unless 100% downpour rain we will probably go ahead with the date. Ordered 500 pumpkins. Activities, pumpkin decorating, cider, honey for sale, sugar pumpkins and field pumpkins. If we sell half we'll break even.
All good for 5th grade science camp.
Book Fair needs lots of volunteers, 4th grade event
Hardy Hoe Down: Caller confirmed for the date
Movie Night: Friday January 17
Ice Cream Social: Big thank you to Chilly Cow, Brian, he is happy to do other events. He's happy to provide ice cream at cost for other events. Sold out. ^$650
COMMITTEES
Garden: All going well, looking for a composter, Maybe 5th grade could take leadership with composting in the cafeteria, Brackett has a cafeteria compost program,
Team Spirit: Expand idea of the spirit, not only revenue generating, but buy some things that we could sell at events, smaller things like pens with logos, more evergreen- can be used more than one year. Could have a link on the web site to a spirit store. Lots of options for different shirts. Prices are anywhere from $20 to $120. How to create enthusiasm in the school. 2013 contest by grade- drawing contest for shirt designs. Encourage students to think of ideas and get engaged. Next steps: send terms/price points for some of these sites. Should we have an informal vote about the things we can buy. It can happen pretty quick.
Could have a sale before the holidays. Hanukkah starts before Thanksgiving
Discussion about Hardy motto vs. 3 C's, Dolphin background explanation-- which will be on the shirts? Can be flexible.
Should stick with the rainbow Hardy T-shirts, so kids don't feel obliged to buy the new shirts. Need to be clear this is fun, extra.
All elementary schools have blue and gold as the school colors.
Sarah will send out link and maybe send out a poll. Come back in November with feedback.
Maybe we should kick off spirit rally with all students getting the same little item like a zipper pull or something little.
On these web sites you don't have to buy anything up front. When we place an order we get charged and then we add a mark-up. Prices will be better if we buy in bulk. T-shirts might be good to sell this way as a passive tool to find out which designs people like.
BUDGET/ANDY
Budget approved/passes
Some changes from last month
We've received less donations at this point than we did at this point last week
We have started to spend some money: books, fans, wiggle room, bulletin board, etc.
Wiggle room is being used. It's on the 3rd floor. Will arrange a tour for PTO.
BYLAWS
Discussion about updating bylaws. There are so many things that are mute. We need a committee set-up to work on this.
Betsey: Don't need a committee. Can send out old, new, and revised. Antiquated. They appear to come from PTO bylaws that are out there. Issues about leadership/money. Send these out to everyone to take a look. If there are ever disputes you need something to turn to in order to resolve disputes. At that point once we've all looked we can talk to a lawyer, etc. but we don't need to start there. Will send them out before the next PTO meeting.
FUNDRAISING BUTTONS
Haven't received anything from Menotomy. Tried getting in touch with them and haven't heard back. Don't want to put them in our directory if they don't give us money.
Haven't heard from Tradebuzz or Maxima.
How much effort for how much return.
Does anyone want to take this stuff on?
If you look at other PTO web sites there are lots of buttons.
Andy: Amazon is really good. Gets direct deposited in our account once a month. Stop and Shop is OK. Target is good.
Box Tops is one of our largest. We will get about $1000 from Box tops.
Share links with anyone if you click through there we get a kickback.
Can do a boxtop contest. As long as she puts the fliers out the boxtops come back.
If we put a lot more effort may not get a lot more return
Julie is doing Unicef.
AEF grant deadlines are in November. Hardy is way overdue. Last grant was in 2012. Centered around curriculum. Maybe for the Hardy Herald-- a literary magazine for the kids.
Parents who work on grant-writing for their day jobs offered their services.
Daminals -- codes will help schools win money for their playgrounds
Proposal - Clean energy efficiency company is looking to give us money if people will sign-up to get their home inspected. $10 per family for the PTO. One parent has done this and it was fun, educational and it saved money. The appointments have to be made by Oct. 15th. You don't have to do it by 10.15.13 but have to sign-up. Do we think this is something we could put in the PTO Post tonight. You can do this once every calendar year.
Britt offered to run a holiday bazar craft fair.
Thompson PTO has offered that we could sell the community card as well. We would pay them $5 card and get $5 card. We wouldn't be able to sell it until November 1, so Thompson can sell them. It would be helpful for the Thompson community and we could make easy money. It gives you discounts at local businesses. We have to buy them up front. Voted and folks don't want to sell them for Thompson, but they are welcome to sell them here after school or at school events.
ROOM PARENTS
Maybe the VPs can contact the teachers for their grade and get the Room Parents. Can the VPs for each grade be listed on the web site in one place. It is there.
Will there be a letter to Room Parents so they understand how it is different from past years.
As a perk for the room parents could they be first in line to be chaperones? Discussion about field trips and chaperones.
We all love the web site. Yay, Aimee!
Directory: There will be a link in the PTO Post where people can change/update their info. Will be collecting info until Oct. 15. You only have to go in and change info. If you have the same contact info as last year you don't need to do anything. New families who aren't in Kindergarten need to be contacted because they may not be receiving the emailed PTO Post. Need to reach out to them by the deadline.
Ms. D. will get Jenn a list of new parents. Or teachers can send out emails to their parents to let new people know about the directory.
Can sign-up be on web site. Somewhere central on the web site? Hardy News, grade level, teacher specific emails.
Hardyschool.com click on classrooms there is now a link to sign-up for teachers mailing list.
Next meeting Tuesday Nov. 4th @ 6:30pm.
Introductions
Principal Report
Good feedback about Back to School Night
Loved ending with the principal talk
Safe program came in this week, Fire Department discussed meeting places
School Council Meeting: Discussed playground, wood chips vs. rubber material, how should we use the space, etc.
How is the newsletter?
Cafeteria Question: I spend a lot of time in the cafeteria trying to establish the four simple rules. The kids know how to follow the rules. There is a mic in the cafeteria now. Lights off mean a grown-up is going to speak using a mic. It is noisy/small. It is one of the only times when the kids aren't structured socially. It's hard to ask them to be super quiet all the time. I'm aware it is noisy. We don't want to have to assign seats. We had to do this in one grade and it worked and they are earning back not having assigned seats. I can't make the lunch any longer. It is 40 minutes. It only has to be half an hour. Morning recess is so short because of block programming. We are struggling with how we use WIN time (what I need time), but what ends up happening is we only have about 10 minutes in the morning. Cafeteria is watching. Some kids have 25 minutes to eat, older kids have 20 minutes and then 20 minutes to play. I'm trying to model what a good lunch period looks like.
Parent: I've heard parents feel like there has been over-correcting on the noise-level.
PTO EVENTS:
Harvest Festival: Rain date up until 9am on Friday. Will decide about weather then. Unless 100% downpour rain we will probably go ahead with the date. Ordered 500 pumpkins. Activities, pumpkin decorating, cider, honey for sale, sugar pumpkins and field pumpkins. If we sell half we'll break even.
All good for 5th grade science camp.
Book Fair needs lots of volunteers, 4th grade event
Hardy Hoe Down: Caller confirmed for the date
Movie Night: Friday January 17
Ice Cream Social: Big thank you to Chilly Cow, Brian, he is happy to do other events. He's happy to provide ice cream at cost for other events. Sold out. ^$650
COMMITTEES
Garden: All going well, looking for a composter, Maybe 5th grade could take leadership with composting in the cafeteria, Brackett has a cafeteria compost program,
Team Spirit: Expand idea of the spirit, not only revenue generating, but buy some things that we could sell at events, smaller things like pens with logos, more evergreen- can be used more than one year. Could have a link on the web site to a spirit store. Lots of options for different shirts. Prices are anywhere from $20 to $120. How to create enthusiasm in the school. 2013 contest by grade- drawing contest for shirt designs. Encourage students to think of ideas and get engaged. Next steps: send terms/price points for some of these sites. Should we have an informal vote about the things we can buy. It can happen pretty quick.
Could have a sale before the holidays. Hanukkah starts before Thanksgiving
Discussion about Hardy motto vs. 3 C's, Dolphin background explanation-- which will be on the shirts? Can be flexible.
Should stick with the rainbow Hardy T-shirts, so kids don't feel obliged to buy the new shirts. Need to be clear this is fun, extra.
All elementary schools have blue and gold as the school colors.
Sarah will send out link and maybe send out a poll. Come back in November with feedback.
Maybe we should kick off spirit rally with all students getting the same little item like a zipper pull or something little.
On these web sites you don't have to buy anything up front. When we place an order we get charged and then we add a mark-up. Prices will be better if we buy in bulk. T-shirts might be good to sell this way as a passive tool to find out which designs people like.
BUDGET/ANDY
Budget approved/passes
Some changes from last month
We've received less donations at this point than we did at this point last week
We have started to spend some money: books, fans, wiggle room, bulletin board, etc.
Wiggle room is being used. It's on the 3rd floor. Will arrange a tour for PTO.
BYLAWS
Discussion about updating bylaws. There are so many things that are mute. We need a committee set-up to work on this.
Betsey: Don't need a committee. Can send out old, new, and revised. Antiquated. They appear to come from PTO bylaws that are out there. Issues about leadership/money. Send these out to everyone to take a look. If there are ever disputes you need something to turn to in order to resolve disputes. At that point once we've all looked we can talk to a lawyer, etc. but we don't need to start there. Will send them out before the next PTO meeting.
FUNDRAISING BUTTONS
Haven't received anything from Menotomy. Tried getting in touch with them and haven't heard back. Don't want to put them in our directory if they don't give us money.
Haven't heard from Tradebuzz or Maxima.
How much effort for how much return.
Does anyone want to take this stuff on?
If you look at other PTO web sites there are lots of buttons.
Andy: Amazon is really good. Gets direct deposited in our account once a month. Stop and Shop is OK. Target is good.
Box Tops is one of our largest. We will get about $1000 from Box tops.
Share links with anyone if you click through there we get a kickback.
Can do a boxtop contest. As long as she puts the fliers out the boxtops come back.
If we put a lot more effort may not get a lot more return
Julie is doing Unicef.
AEF grant deadlines are in November. Hardy is way overdue. Last grant was in 2012. Centered around curriculum. Maybe for the Hardy Herald-- a literary magazine for the kids.
Parents who work on grant-writing for their day jobs offered their services.
Daminals -- codes will help schools win money for their playgrounds
Proposal - Clean energy efficiency company is looking to give us money if people will sign-up to get their home inspected. $10 per family for the PTO. One parent has done this and it was fun, educational and it saved money. The appointments have to be made by Oct. 15th. You don't have to do it by 10.15.13 but have to sign-up. Do we think this is something we could put in the PTO Post tonight. You can do this once every calendar year.
Britt offered to run a holiday bazar craft fair.
Thompson PTO has offered that we could sell the community card as well. We would pay them $5 card and get $5 card. We wouldn't be able to sell it until November 1, so Thompson can sell them. It would be helpful for the Thompson community and we could make easy money. It gives you discounts at local businesses. We have to buy them up front. Voted and folks don't want to sell them for Thompson, but they are welcome to sell them here after school or at school events.
ROOM PARENTS
Maybe the VPs can contact the teachers for their grade and get the Room Parents. Can the VPs for each grade be listed on the web site in one place. It is there.
Will there be a letter to Room Parents so they understand how it is different from past years.
As a perk for the room parents could they be first in line to be chaperones? Discussion about field trips and chaperones.
We all love the web site. Yay, Aimee!
Directory: There will be a link in the PTO Post where people can change/update their info. Will be collecting info until Oct. 15. You only have to go in and change info. If you have the same contact info as last year you don't need to do anything. New families who aren't in Kindergarten need to be contacted because they may not be receiving the emailed PTO Post. Need to reach out to them by the deadline.
Ms. D. will get Jenn a list of new parents. Or teachers can send out emails to their parents to let new people know about the directory.
Can sign-up be on web site. Somewhere central on the web site? Hardy News, grade level, teacher specific emails.
Hardyschool.com click on classrooms there is now a link to sign-up for teachers mailing list.
Next meeting Tuesday Nov. 4th @ 6:30pm.
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