Ferguson Township Elementary School

Ferguson Township Elementary School

PTO Meeting Minutes

April 13, 2016

Meeting called to order by Debi Shaner at 7:01 pm

Attendees: Anne Louise Cropp, Debi Shaner, Katie O’Hara-Krebs, Tonia Sulman, Charlotte Zysmlo, Lisa Harrington, Christina Clair, Jessica Dublar, Trace Embser, Julie Bechtel, Alison Bieber, Deb Anderson, Shae Lynch, Kelly Kaminski, Alanna Leicht, Mardi Frye, Sean Hanna, Marisa Ferger, Lucy Barber, Chrissy Fiore

Welcome and Announcements

Motion to approve the March meeting minutes by Debi Shaner. Seconded by Katie Krebs.

Treasurer’s Report

Current checking account balance - $33,587.71; Current savings account balance - $26,326.45

Debits in the last month: Donation to SCASD High School National Art Honor Society ($140),

Donation to Cathy Herrera and Nittany Valley Symphony ($75), Library grant ($125.32), Accompanist for choir and orchestra concerts ($100), Volleyball t-shirts ($220), Clothing for nurses office / miscellaneous ($71.18), Bingo/Basket Raffle ($646.42), Marianna’s ($2,709)

Credits in the last month: Yearbook ($4,472), Read-A-Thon ($54), Bingo/Basket Raffle ($3,994.75) – including $966.75 in food sales (442.04 to the 5th grade), Marianna’s ($3,656)

Will spend $16,000-$20,000 in the coming month or two for field trips and such.

Motion to approve the budget – Debbie Anderson. Seconded by Tonia Sulman.

Teacher’s Corner

Kindergarten – Mrs. Harrington

Kindergarten was thankful for the list of volunteers who will help with the kindergarten orientation. Teachers will provide a schedule to ensure that there’s equal number of visitors.

Primary – Ms. Clair

Thank you for Bingo night and all the tickets and also the field trip at the end of the year to Bernel Park. Primary will have speakers for the playground unit; they are working on persuasive writing.

3rd Grade – Mrs. Bechtel

Thanks for all we did for Bingo night.

3rd grade has a field trip coming up, but they will not be asking for money from the PTO.

4th Grade – Mrs. Kaminski

Thanks for the field trips that the PTO is sponsoring.

They have the invoice for the planetarium, which is included on the Harrisburg trip. The cost is $360. The trip is scheduled for the last Friday in April. Students will have a chance to visit the legislative chambers since they will not be in session.

PSSAs currently going on and the students are working on writing informational pieces.

In May, they will be traveling to Penn’s Cave. This trip enhances the geology unit.

5th Grade – Sean Hanna

Thanks for moving the book swap – 5th grade is having a career day so they are looking for volunteers on April 28th to come and talk about their careers from 9am to noon.

The 5th grade pool party is scheduled forJune 3rd. Would the PTO be willing to pay for these buses again this year? The cost will be around $200.

Carnegie Science – asking for bus and invoice for Carnegie Science Center. Will get that information to the PTO ASAP.

Students will visit the middle school on the 11th of May.

Library – Mardi Frye

Thanks for our support. Talked about the new Harry Potter book – 5th graders checking it out and requesting.

Current Business

5th grade pool party - Denise Cameron (Debi Shaner)

The 5th grade pool party for Welchhas beenbooked forJune 3rdper the 5th grade teacher request. We will besending an email out requesting parent volunteers to help with the day's festivities.

5th grade food sales recap - Denise Cameron (Debi Shaner)

5th grade students made over $900with their food/drink sales at the Bingo/Basket raffle event. Thank you notes were sent to Papa Johns and Chick-Fil-A for their contributions.Denise thanked everyone who donated and volunteered at the event. We had so many parents/kids step in and help at the food table and so many donations of chips, fruit snacks, baked goods...it was really wonderful!Thank you!

Book swap - Debbie Anderson

They will be setting up the book swap on the 27th. Swap is on the 28th. Thanks for the donations that are already here, keep sending in donations. Kids took two books last time. Interns 2-3 books. Then what was left over was given to Goodwill. Few rules – suggest that you give what is in your kids age range. Swap will be in the upstairs hallway so that the career fair can take place in the APR.

Book fair - Katie O'Hara-Krebs

Book fair will take place on May 5 and 6. Katie sent the volunteer request email, but if you want to help, let her know. Can also come on Friday evening. This is the BOGO sale, so the PTO does not take a profit from the sale.

Starting this year, books will be taxed. For volunteers, remember to start with taxable sales.

Garden update - Debi Shaner

In the process of getting the materials for the raised beds. Seeds are already started inside. Will be transplanting the seeds in May.

This is a learning year for us.

Hoping to get things constructed next week. Lots of hands are helping. Makes it tricky to coordinate.

By next year, expect that things will flow smoothly.

There will be an Earth Day event on Friday. Community nutrition course – there will be brief educational activities about garden, fresh food, etc. – hope that as they are going through the booths, they’ll see them building the beds too. This will be on April 22.

Seeds of change grant provided a grow light shelf system which is in the upstairs hallway. There should be a heating mat on the racks next year.

Bingo Update – Megan Schuchert (Debi Shaner)

The Bingo night went well after we were able to find the Bingo supplies. In doing this it took finding Mr. Gill's phone to call him at home because the bin had been put into a closet that we didn't know about. I was wondering if the PTO has ever considered giving some sort of gift to the janitors at the school. We have a lot of big events and especially ones like Bingo night take a lot of set up and clean up. I just thought it might be nice to recognize their extra help. If it is not in the budget for this year perhaps it would be something people would think about for next year.

There is a line item in the budget to provide a gift to the custodial staff. Suggestion to double the trash cans for next year, and include recycling bins. Can make a note of that on the building use forms that we fill out ahead of the event. Stacking pizza boxes would also help.

Project Haiti PSU students- we had 6 students from Penn State project Haiti again volunteer their time to help with Bingo night. I know Ferguson has partnered with them a lot but I was wondering if the PTO might be willing to do something (a small donation to project Haiti?) to thank them for their help. Either way I plan to send them a thank you.

The school does many things with Project Haiti PSU and we believe this is the student’s way of thanking us, therefore, we do not plan to do anything extra for them.

Anne Louise also commented that the collection for Jared Boxes was great.

Tonia commented that we made about $2,485 in the baskets. There are all sorts of state requirements if we go over $2,500, so this number is carefully watched, with ‘supply purchases’ to control the profit.

New Business

Chairs needed for next year include PTO directory, 5th grade fundraising, restaurant nights, book swap, community service, Jump Rope for Heart. We are also looking for volunteers to serve as co-chairs for ice cream social, and read-a-thon.

Breakfast w/ visiting author - Alanna Leicht

We were wondering if we could have time at the April meeting to discuss having the PTO buy breakfast items for that morning for the faculty room for the teachers to come in early and have breakfast with the author. Being that we are both new we don't know if this has been done here before. Some of the other schools do this. Also, we would like to be able to buy lunch for the author that day as well. I can have a dollar amount that night.

There is a list of parents willing to bake as needed, so perhaps this is a way to put the breakfast together.

They are going to check with the author to see if he would like to do a breakfast.

Teachers will also order lunch and we’ll provide lunch for the author.

Should be able to cover this out of the expenses.

The author’s fee check needs to be ready for the day of the event. Afterward, the travel expenses (transportation, hotel, etc,) are separated out after all school visits and divided among the participating schools.

Funding for training session -Lisa Gatzke-Kopp (Debi Shaner)

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lisa and I am the PTSO president for Mt. Nittany Middle School. I was recently contacted by the counseling staff at MNMS with a request. They had been approached by a concerned parent about some relational bullying problems their child was experiencing. The counselors, in an effort to develop skills and strategies for dealing effectively with the problem had attended a training session with a regional educational consulting firm that specializes in this area. They were extremely impressed with the person who provided the workshop and thought that she was an excellent speaker and provided a lot of useful and constructive information. They felt that she would be a tremendous resource for parents as well, and inquired as to whether she does presentations for parents. She does do this, and the cost would be $550.

The request was sent to me to see if I would be willing to support pursuing funding for this through a shared PTO venture. The school district can not provide these funds since it would be for parents rather than staff. Since the topic is one that is of importance to parents district-wide, she suggested that perhaps the various school PTOs would be willing to chip for the costs. If all schools did chip in, the cost would be $50 per PTO.
I know every group probably has different policies or practices about how decisions to spend money are made and each group is likely to be in a different budget state with regard to current balance available and committed funds for the rest of the year. If you could respond to me just to let me know what your thoughts are on this, I can communicate that back to the counselors interested in organizing this event. In particular if you could let me know whether you are definitely out, definitely in, or willing to consider it but need to wait until it is approved at a meeting (and let me know what date that would be). If you are in and/or willing to consider, it would also be helpful to know if you would be able to contribute more than $50 (e.g. $75) should one or more schools not be able to participate.
I just want to state that I am not personally familiar with the speaker and am only relaying the enthusiasm that the counselors conveyed to me. However, as a parent I am struck by their commitment to responding to this type of problem as effectively and thoroughly as possible, and throughout the district. I think opportunities to provide resources for parents that help connect parents into the school's approaches to dealing with problems is an excellent coordinated approach to addresses our children's development as a community, and it is something that I think PTO organizations are well situated to support.

Other schools have committed.

Not sure of the date or the location. Other schools are meeting this week.

Tonia made the motion to approve. Anne Louise Cropp seconded the motion.

Eagle Scout project - Matt Vivas

Matt Vivas presented his Eagle Scout Project proposal for a 3-bin compost system made from recycled wooden pallets, and requested permission from the members of the PTO to go forward with the project.

He expects to complete the project over summer break.

Matt shared pictures of what the project would look like. Estimates that the cost will be $150. He has still not asked about stores offering discounts, but will do that.

Timeline: He thinks that it would take a few days to complete the project, which he would start at the beginning of summer.

Location? Thinking perhaps it will work behind the dumpsters by moving the black composting bins that are there.

This would be a new expense, not part of the garden expense that is already in the budget.

Pallets will be donated from the recycling place. The hardware accounts for the cost.

Didn’t want to do lids because of safety concerns for the smaller children, worried they might get their fingers caught.

He said it would cost an additional $100 to put a roof on it. They would be able to open the top or the sides of the compost bin.

Trying to build something sustainable. Perhaps we can use the compost for the garden.

Custodial staff will turn the compost.

After some discussion it was decided that we would want to include a cover for the project. The roof will have three different pieces. Total cost expected to be $250.

Marisa motions to approve. Tonia seconds. Motion passed.

There’s a beneficiary approval to be signed – this was done by Charlotte.

Principal’s Corner (Charlotte Zymslo)

Thanks for the basket raffle and bingo. She was really pleased with the turnout.

She is also glad the plants are shooting up as she has been watering the plants! Need just one a day.

Charlotte mentioned that many students are in the middle of PSSAs.

From here on out, just getting the rest of learning, cleaning, etc. that needs to be done for the year.

With a brief discussion about progress reports, Debbie Anderson mentioned her role on the district committee about progress reports – she believes they’ll be asking for some parent feedback. If parents want to comment, they can also share their feedback with Debbie!

Next meeting is scheduled for May 11, 2016. This will be the last PTO meeting for the year.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:55pm.