Executive PTA Meeting Minutes

PTA Meeting Date:11/08/2012

An Executive PTA meeting of the Buffalo Trail PTA was held at Buffalo Trail Elementary Schoollocationon 11/08/2012 at 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The meeting began at 6:36 pm.

Attendees included NehaJadhav: Treasurer, KatharinGiaradi: Committees, Caitlin Palmisamo: Fundraising, Jennifer Longest:Events, Julie Lech:Communications; PayalJain: Volunteers; and Kathy Munsell: Recording Secretary;SriSrinivasan: President; and Alisa Rogaliner: Principal. A complete list of attendees at this meeting is attached herewith – See Meeting Attendance Roster

Previous meeting’s minutes: The minutes of the previous meeting held on10/23/2012were approved as read by Kathy

  1. MOTION: Neha motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Julie seconded; everyone else approved; no opposed – motion passes

a.Review any motions between 10/28 and 11/8 - NONE

b.10/23/2012 Executive Meeting minutes since passed will be posted on PTA Website

President’s Report – Sri Srinivasan

a.Opening Comments –

  1. Meeting is dedicated for Budget discussion ONLY
  2. Listed areas of focus for budget:
  3. Grade level wish list; Educational Video
  4. Marquis fund and MIE fund plus Principal Discretionary Fund, Schools Supplies can be reduced
  5. Reading, SEARCH, Special ED, Technical funds are not proportional to rest of section of school.

c.Review Teacher Survey Results:

77%OF TEACHERS RESPONDED

1. Have you submitted items on you individual wish list to Barb for PTA purchase ($50.00 Teacher Grant)?

YES- 6 NO- 28

2. Has your team submitted any large purchase items for a team wish list or purchase yet? ($1,500)

YES- 3 NO- 25 MEDIUM REQUEST- 3

3. Whatare the two top things you'd like to see purchased for the school this year? ($10,000 - 15,000 budget)

TABLET- 14;TABLETS OR LAPTOPS FOR STAFFUSE- 15; ETABLETS- 4; POSTER MAKER-8;ELECTRONIC BOOKS-3; EXTRA CLASS COMPUTERS -3; DOCUMENT CAMERAS- 2; THE FOLLOWING ITEMS GOT ONE VOTE EACH: LAMINATOR FOR STAFF; YAMAHA KEYBOARD; FENCE ALONG ROAD; COMFORTABLE CHAIRS AT WINDOWS FOR WAITING AREA; TABLET W/PRO LO QUO2; MORE INK FOR COLOR PRINTERS; LEVELED READERS FOR CLASSES; MORE ACTIVOTES; OUTDOOR TRASHCANS AND BENCHES BY PLAYGROUND; FUN/CULTURAL ASSEMBLIES FOR KIDS; ELECTRONIC SPELLERS; WATER COOLER FOR BETTER TASTING WATER

4. Would you be interested in contributing back $100-200 from your team $1,500 toward another tech cart for the school?

YES- 19 NO- 7 UNDECIDED - 8

5. Would you prefer the purchase be more laptops or would you prefer a cart with tablets like anTablet?

LAPTOPS - 13TABLET- 16 EITHER IS FINE-4MUSIC ITEM-1

Officer Reports:

No officer reports for this meeting as it is only a budgetary meeting only.

Principal – Alisa Rogaliner

Discuss Budget Priorities and Needs to BTES

Present new proposal on Science and Technology items and school’s wish list to buy 30 TABLETs:

During email exchanges, the following questions and answers were asked by Board and provided by Principal regarding TABLET system:

Principal's perspective:

1) What would TABLETs be used for and how would this improved Science and Math (STEM initiative)? We are maximizing our laptop carts to their full extent and have a tight schedule for teachers to access them as we are a growing school. These would be used as much, if not more than the carts. Yes, STEAM would be part of the process.

2) What is the assumption on how soon TABLETs would have to be replaced... 3, 5, 10 years? Information needed from vendor. Personal experience is that updates in software can be pushed to extend usage. With special care, they should be good for at least 5 years.

3) The TABLET for Speech Teacher has to be returned to get a lower version due to compatibility issues, are we sure we know the correct specifications that would align with LCPS? This purchase was not sanctioned by principal as there were too many unanswered questions. It appears the first concern has be realized. I believe there is also an equity issue with one specialist getting an item like this, when others have equally important reasons to need one.

4) What are the warranties and insurance on TABLETs? Information from vendor.

5) The Board allocated and spent $1200 on Check-in system that is not being utilized, how would we ensure the same would not happen for TABLETs? The system is operational; HOWEVER, due to some logistical concerns about hardware sensitivity, a monitor is being donated to protect the laptop itself. The monitor has not yet been delivered, so we are in a holding pattern. We are veryexcited to get this started too!!!

6) Can there be a formal proposal since this is a very big ticket item?ABSOLUTELY

7) How can the Board spend 13 to 18k on TABLETs with a 8k shortfall? Is the Board’s understanding the budget numbers correctly? This, of course, is a board conversation.

Another suggestion by Caitlin was the FOSS system and Principal researched and agreed. Captured email comments below.

Treasurer’s Report: NehaJadhav

a.Review total profit/spent to date (see Neha’s Profit/Loss document) – Gave us an updated P/L at meeting to review

  • 5K update – No numbers yet
  • Amazon - $300
  • Innisbrook - $175

b.Neha provided a Budget vs Actual FY13 P & L (see Neha’s Profit/Loss document) – Net Income is $8,783.08 – Reviewed numbers; Fall Fundraiser once you net expenses is really 11K profit we would normally bring in to give perspective, since we did not do a Fall Fundraiser and instead did Direct Donation, with Bingo and direction donations and the 5k profits, Neha projects that the PTA shortfall as of November is 6k.

c.Do we need to cut items and/or move other projects forward? Neha, Alisa, and Sri are recommending moving Marquee (10k) and MIE (8k) founds to our current needs. Discussing reallocation, PTA believes we can makeup fundraising shortfall:

Budget / Add/Remove Amounts / New Totals to be Voted On
Educational Video Conferences / 400.00 / 800.00 / 1,200.00
Kindergarten / 1,000.00 / 200.00 / 1,200.00
FLES Department / 1,000.00 / -1,000.00 / 0.00
FUTURA Department / 1,000.00 / -700.00 / 300.00
Reading Department / 1,000.00 / -500.00 / 500.00
Special Ed Department / 1,000.00 / 600.00 / 1,600.00
Technology Department / 1,000.00 / 600.00 / 1,600.00
Total / $6,400.00 / $0.00 / $6,400.00
  • The Board Proposes that $8,625.40 from Music-In-Education Funding carryover from Year 2011-2012 be reallocated to General PTA Funds to reduce the shortage in Fundraising.
  • Proposed Costs for S.T.E.M program

Tablet Purchase Includes:
Dscription / Quantity / Unit Cost / Total Cost
Volume Voucher / 1 / 500.00 / 500.00
Tablet 2 16GB with Wi-Fi Black (10-pack) / 3 / 4,580.00 / 13,740.00
PowerSync cart / 1 / 2,599.95 / 2,599.95
MacBook Air 11" 64 GB / 1 / 949.00 / 949.00
17,788.95

Points that need to be considered before purchase:

  1. Tablets/kindle fire/Google chrome/Nook/Netbooks
  2. Buy vs Lease
  3. Volume Discount – Bulk Purchase
  4. Operational Support & Maintenance
  5. Teacher Training
  6. Learning Frequency

7. Security & Privacy

Guest Speaker – No Guest Speaker was scheduled for Exec Board Meeting

Memberships – JehaneMegzari

No Report

MSAAC – N/A

LEAP -N/A

OTHER:

Next Exec PTA meeting schedule on Tuesday 11/27 at approximately 7:30 am was cancelled due to holidays. .

Meeting AdjournmentThe meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm

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