Minutes of Meeting

Central School PTA Executive Board

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, Noon

At the Home of Liam Robb O’Hagan, Mamaroneck, New York

Attendees: Mary Brennan, VP Communications

Kristin Carpenter, VP Faculty/Community Outreach

Anne Cox, Parent Services Chairperson

Martha Friedland, Co-President

Angela Holton, Secretary

Kim Huang, VP School Services

Pam Kernie, SEPTA Rep

Romy Kirwin, Co-President

Frankie Lanausse, Faculty/Community Outreach Chairperson

Liam Robb O’Hagan, Programs Chairperson

Miran Robarts, Treasurer

Guest: Sam Orans, Playground Co-Chair

Apologies: Cathy Bizzard, School Services Chairperson

Maria Franzese, VP Fundraising

Liz Leifert, Communications Chairperson

Virginia Picciotto-Marsella,VP Parent Services

Lisa Silva, Fundraising Chairperson

Krista Williams, VP Programs

Ms. Dinelli, Grade 2 Teacher

Ms. Moyles, Grade 1 Teacher

Ms. Wollner, Grade 2 Teacher

Carol Priore, Principal

Joanne Hindley, Assistant Principal

MINUTES A motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the minutes of the Central School PTA Executive Board meeting on November 20, 2013, subject to a correction to the Scare Fair accounting report as requested by the Treasurer.

UPDATE FROM CO-PRESIDENTS Romy reported on the PT Council meeting that took place at Central School on Friday, December 13, 2013. The following topics were covered:

1)  Principal’s Presentation: Carol Priore discussed the buddy benches project underway at Central and how it ties in to the peer mediation program. Other school PTA members in attendance expressed interest in establishing similar programs at their schools.

2)  Board of Education (BOE) Liaison Ann LoBue’s Presentation:

(a)  Presentation by Annie Ward: On January 8, 2014, Annie Ward, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction for the district, will give a presentation that will be televised about a week later on LMC-TV and will cover the topics of Common Core and also the importance of preserving specials (e.g., art, music, library and physical education), particularly at the elementary level.

(b)  Budget: Ms. LoBue discussed the challenges of this year’s budget, including tax cap override issue – i.e., that the district cannot request a year-to-year increase of more than 2% without getting approval from 60% of the voters.

(c)  Common Core: Template letters will be developed to assist parents in communicating their concerns regarding the new Common Core requirements and related state testing.

3)  SEPTA programs:

(a)  Building Bridges: The district speaker this year probably will not be Rick LaVoie because his usual format does not include children. SEPTA would like to continue the tradition of the Building Bridges community presentation involving both parents and children.

In light of this change, the Central PTA Exec Board agreed to hold the $500 approved at the November 20, 2013 Exec Board meeting as Central’s contribution to the Building Bridges presentation, and will re-visit this matter at the next meeting.

(b)  Dates Set: The Fifth Grade Book Read event and Louise Draper’s presentations have been set for May 12 and May 28.

(c)  Turkey Trot: The Turkey Trot was successful.

4)  Budget / BOE Meetings: At the December 17 BOE meeting, hot topic budget issues were discussed – the Pre-K program, summer camp, transportation for children living in the district who attend private schools, and funding for various athletic programs.

The next BOE meeting is January 7, which will be a Study Session focusing on the budget. Budget planning is starting much earlier this year due to the challenges posed by the expiration of the 2-year teacher salary/benefits freeze as well as the ongoing issue of pensions, which are governed by federal and state law and are therefore not within the BOE’s control.

UPDATES FROM VICE-PRESIDENTS AND COMMITTEE CHAIRS

1)  Playground Design and Fundraising Goal: Sam Orans and Frankie Lanausse presented information on the status of the lower playground refurbishment.

Sketches – Frankie and Sam circulated to the Exec Board very preliminary sketches of possible playground lay-outs available at approximately $45,000 and at $65,000. The $65,000 option has a tower. Sam and Frankie are exploring different vendors, including the vendor used for last year’s playground project and also Landscape Design, the vendor responsible for the large, universal-accessible playground on North Avenue near the New Rochelle High School. Sam noted that it can be difficult to compare proposals from different vendors because the playground designs are never quite identical.

Design Elements -- The plan is to include structures and pieces that the older kids like about the current playground. Sam will try to set up a focus group that would include the school occupational therapist, gym teachers, parents and children, in order to determine what is wanted and needed in the new playground design.

Fundraising Goal / Potential Donor – In order to discuss playground designs with vendors, Sam said the Exec Board needs to decide what range to aim for in terms of fundraising. He said there is a potential donor who will contribute funds in the event the PTA fundraising does not quite reach its goal. Liam offered to donate a large fundraising “thermometer” that can be set up at the CATS circle, showing fundraising to date. After some debate, the Exec Board decided to set $70,000 as the goal. If the goal is reached and the playground does not cost that much, the leftover can go toward other playground improvements, such as painting the blacktop so that games can be played on it, similar to what Chatsworth recently did, and also possibly basketball hoops and/or benches. (It was noted that Chatsworth has had some issues with the painted area being slick.) It was decided not to ask the community at large for donations, as was done by the PTAs for Murray Avenue School and Chatsworth Avenue Schools when they did fundraising for their playgrounds.

Current Funds / PNO Forecast -- Martha reported that current funds allocated for the playground are $25,000. Based on past performance, this year’s PNO should bring in an additional $25,000.

Cost-Saving Measures – The following potential cost-saving measures were discussed: (a) using the same vendor as Murray Avenue School PTA (also refurbishing its playground), thereby bundling playground purchases and saving money; (b) investigating ways to reduce the cost of installation (typically 25% of the cost of the entire project), including the possibility of a “community build,” although that may not be permitted by the school district due to liability issues.

2)  Book Fair: Romy, reported on the book fair, which took place December 10-12.

Highlights - Romy reported that compared to last year, which was the first year with the new vendor, All Book, this year’s book fair ran more seamlessly. Highlights of this December’s fair were the following:

n  Good selection

n  Teacher wish list more prominently displayed than last year

n  Better “advertising” – Banners were displayed above the LGI entrance as well as at the walkway next to Trader Joe’s. This was in addition to the usual C-Blasts, Central Calling announcements and notes home in backpacks.

Profit -- Romy estimated that this year’s profit was $2800, down slightly from last year, which was $3000-$3200.

Evening Hours – There was a sense that this year’s evening hours were less busy than last year, despite having the simultaneous Circus Arts event again. It may be that the staggering of attendance (i.e., the school was divided into two groups by last name and each group allocated different attendance times) made it feel less crowded than last year’s evening hours. Did the restrictions affect attendance?

Scholastic vs. All Book - In a continuing effort to determine whether the PTA is better off using All Book or Scholastic, the following issues were considered:

Monetary: PTA’s profit with All Book so far has been greater than with Scholastic, which used to be about $2000-$2200 per book fair. However, the greater profit earned with All Book is offset somewhat by the loss of the “free” Scholastic magazine subscriptions that now have to be purchased separately. Also, All Book gets a small cut of the money made by selling Central merchandise at the book fair.

Logistics:

(a) The big silver bookcases used by Scholastic will not work in the library, which will be the location of the book fair for the foreseeable future, due to the Pre-K program’s use of the Little Gym.

(b) Check-out is much simpler with All Book than with Scholastic.

(c) Although All Book’s set-up and break-down is more complicated than Scholastic’s, the book fair team is now accustomed to it and this year’s break-down took only an hour.

Reusable Bags – It was suggested that we sell reusable bags with some sort of Central School logo at checkout. Murray Avenue School has had success with this.

Pre-K – Currently, the Pre-K does not attend the book fair. Last year, Pre-K was invited and the teachers were interested, but the logistics of getting the Pre-K kids there (and to understand the book fair) proved difficult.

3)  Directory: This agenda item will be continued to the next meeting.

4)  Central Cares: A suggestion for next year’s Thanksgiving drive would be to structure the collection differently, perhaps having each class supply a complete bag rather than having the collection done by grade (e.g., 1st grade bring gravy, 2nd grade bring stuffing), which would resolve the problem of having too much of one item and not enough of another, as well as the challenge of organizing volunteers for assembly of the bags. Melissa Aversa’s idea of reaching out to Central’s Girl Scout troops to assist with collection was very successful.

It was also decided that next year there will be only one Fall event for Central Cares and one Spring event. This year, the Thanksgiving effort overlapped with the veterans’ event and may have had an impact on participation in each.

5)  Yearbook: Liam distributed a sample yearbook from Coffee Pond for examination by the Exec Board. It was agreed that the quality, lay-out, high gloss paper, and binding were superb.

Vendor Quotes - The quote from Printcraft (the vendor Central PTA has used for the past several years) is $7.32 per yearbook for 675 yearbooks. Coffee Pond’s quote is $10.98 per yearbook for a print run of 600-699 yearbooks. The Coffee Pond yearbooks would be of the same quality as the sample provided. The quote includes use of Coffee Pond’s on-line ordering service and their bundling of orders by classroom.

Ideas To Offset Cost of Yearbook - The Exec Board agreed that, based on the yearbook sample provided, Coffee Pond’s binding, layout, paper stock and overall yearbook is of higher quality than what Printcraft has provided in the past. The Exec Board debated ways to offset the $3.66 increase in cost per yearbook, were Coffee Pond selected as the vendor. The different options are set forth below.

·  Charge families for the yearbook. Assuming 70-90% of the Central community would order a yearbook even if they had to pay for it, the PTA could charge approximately $7 per book and then have an allocation in its annual budget to pay the balance due for the final cost of the print run. Every child would receive a yearbook, regardless of whether s/he ordered one. The main difficulty with this approach is the uncertainty of how many people will order the book. Also, once people realize they do not have to pay for a yearbook but will get one anyway, they may in subsequent years choose not to pay. The Exec Board decided that if any amount is going to be charged for the yearbook, then the PTA should stick with the lower cost yearbook.

·  Increase PTA dues to $20. Dues would be increased but the policy would remain the same that regardless of membership, each child receives a copy of the yearbook and literary magazine, but only those families who join the PTA receive a copy of the directory. The amount charged for PTA membership varies widely by school.

·  Have ads in the yearbook. Many schools have ads at the back of their yearbooks. The ads can be sold to local businesses and to families. It was suggested to limit the ads to just the fifth grade, similar to the way MHS has a senior “ad” book. In terms of managing the process, it was suggested not to permit photos in the ad section, but just have copy, with a limited amount of characters permitted. If we had the e-capability, the ads could be ordered on-line through the PTA website and typed out by the family through the ordering system as well.

Final Decision: The Exec Board decided to leave the system as is for this year -- i.e., not charge for the yearbook, not put ads in, and stick with Printcraft -- with a plan to re-visit the issue with respect to next year. Liam will follow up with Printcraft to ask how much they would charge for upgraded binding.

6)  Cultural Arts: Liam reported that Northeast Children’s Theatre Company (NCTC) can present two shows at Central for a total of $1000. The Cultural Arts budget is $4000.

It was debated whether just providing the shows would be sufficient. It was agreed that this would not reflect the spirit of the Cultural Arts program, which in the past has included some sort of artist-in-residency. For example, when the opera was performed a couple years ago, Nathalie Orans and members of the Taconic Opera Company worked with Ms. Matsushita in music class to assist children in understanding the art form of opera as well as the storyline and music of the specific opera being performed for the school. And last year, for the tile art project, Anneliese Peters, along with Ms. Burton, worked for a couple weeks with the children during their art classes to discuss the process of making a design and transferring it to a tile and incorporated age-appropriate themes into the work.