Highland PTO Meeting Minutes
October 19, 2015 7:00pm
Pretzel sales back on – mini pretzels from Taste of Philly will be sold, these are okay per the Healthy Food Calculator.
Share and Care – Erica said that flyers have been ordered and will go out soon, collection starts 11/9, provides Thanksgiving food for some Highland families, teachers and staff are always very generous; students are asked to bring in certain items based on grade and parents can send in their Giant free turkey coupon; last year there were 33 boxes put together; 11/23 is the shopping day during the morning, volunteers are needed (33 frozen turkeys!); packing day is 11/24 and a couple volunteers would be useful to help Mrs. Heuer’s class with the sorting, please contact Erica if you can help: ericabacich@yahoo.com
Class parents – 1 or 2 leads per class, should be hearing/have heard about Fall party; either the teacher will send something by email on behalf of the room parent, or you will get a paper copy of the sign up (this can lead to duplicates of items needed, and confusion over who is coming); you can only go to one child’s party, and only your own child’s party; you do not need clearance to attend a classroom party or to be room parent; only need if you are directly supervising children, like on a field trip or in the library
Special Person’s breakfast – was a great success, thank you to Laura Enama for selling apparel (those grandparents bought a lot!); next year will have jazz music playing, Donut Connections gave a great discount for food
Ms. Crouthamel, Ms. Tuffy, Ms. Arnold, Ms. Fisher gave a special presentation on the STARS behavior program – Please see this prezi presentation to read all of the details about the program: http://prezi.com/vujcxd48v6mb/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
- need a cafeteria volunteer to be in charge of cafeteria reward program, will check with Mariana; will change it up this year to keep it exciting – will still do popcorn for each winning class each month, but then one of the 7 winning classes by raffle will get to choose from a prize bin or have extra gym class.
- principal’s club – yellow ticket is given for demonstrating succesful STARS behavior; is a secret which teacher has it each day; needs to go home for parent signature, then they get to pick a number and put up on board, once 10 in a row, get a special reward from Mr. Etlen
- pink ticket – stays at school and is for the whole class; if comes home, please send back; winning class gets a certificate, journal that gets passed between grades so they can see what other grades are doing; husky visitor; and Mr. Etlen makes a big deal about the win
- STARS card – started mid-year last year, but starting at beginning this year; goal is for students to not get 3 strikes to be able to attend fun assemblies (minute to win it, etc.); get strikes for non-STARS behavior; kids loved assembly last year, so hopefully motivated to keep card; will need volunteers for assemblies
- OLWEUS – anti-bully program; 4 rules, have class meetings to discuss; learn difference between bullying behavior and being a bully; conflict is a separate issue and is dealt with ongoing; important not to label children and teach them appropriate behavior
Treasurer report (Vicki) – membership was budgeted at $1,600, have brought in $2,100; apparel has brought in $867 so far; PINGO covered the cost of prizes
- Mandated changes to financial reporting/bookkeeping from district; new forms for check request; new financial reports; cash box will have form and need to be counted by two people at beginning and end of event; no debit cards; if PTO deviates from budget, need to get Mr. Etlen’s approval
- if collecting money, do not hold onto it, leave it for Vicki in the PTO office; need to get a PAID stamp
- if you have a question about the budget for a committee, chairs should ask president/Vicki
- $608 from 6th grade 2 years ago will go to chairs and table for foyer
- $3,600 from last year 6th grade for sign outside, has been delivered, waiting for invoice
PINGO – thank you volunteers, it was a fun night
Picture day – went very smoothly; Would it be possible to have teacher pictures in the morning 8:30-9?; everyone should make sure to show a positive attitude when getting their picture taken; There was a question about the possibility of going back to a group class shot instead of composite pictures
Communication/newsletter – seems like once a month might not be enough for reminders; will start sending an electronic-only version mid-month, Val will send to Mr. Etlen to distribute through Skyward, the deadline will be set and anything received after deadline will have to wait for next one; will also send beginning of month newsletter electronically, in addition to paper copy
- Facebook page – please use courtesy when posting or commenting; some people post aggravations and don’t think that there are people reading them that were directly involved with that project/event; please consider how your comment will be received; 6th grade will be posting on the main page instead of having a separate 6th grade page
Restaurant fundraising – next one will be Dec 7th at Boston Market from 4-8, pending approval; will have them every other month
Blood Drive – Beth Kerr is taking over from John; Dec 16th, Wed of conferences from 2-7 in gym; goal is 29 pints and 40 bodies; there are eligibility requirements, so not every person gets to donate; will have electric signup and flyer in newsletter; there is a new award program for children, will need approval; can only be 5 hours, but if successful, there’s a chance to extend an hour next year. PTO would like to rally the school around this and consider that there are students at Highland who have benefited from blood transfusions; we’d like to make this a huge success.
Apparel – has been sold at all 3 PTO events so far; the online sale just ended and orders are being printed and processed and will be delivered by teacher; still have a lot of inventory, but need short sleeve adult shirts/small kids; will possibly put out an order form later this fall; put a sign up in the mailroom for teachers to order items; use case downstairs to display items; maybe after first of year ask Laura Kress to coordinate donated Highland shirts so all children can participate in spirit days
Special Person’s Dance – meeting for anyone interested in helping is tomorrow, Wed 10/21 at 9:30 in cafeteria
Kid Stuff books – still about 130 outstanding, Jaime will send out letters to have money or unsold books sent back in
Next PTO meeting is November 16, 2015 7:00pm in the library. Please come out and learn about what’s going on and be involved in the discussion.