Lincoln School
PTO Meeting
November 5th, 2012 – 8:45 a.m.
Attendees: Julia Potter, Gina Hardy, Pam Hyde, Caprice Alexandre, Lissa Kiep, Tina Ciserella, Catherine Smith, Sarah Hampson, Renee Sichlau, Annie Dwyer, Sandy Thorpe, Nick Altier, Sarah Lempia, Nancy Snyder, Laura Maychruk, Nikki Elza, Stacey Williams, Maureen Spielman, Vicki Freund
Call to Order, Welcome
8:47 a.m.
Approval of Minutes
October minutes were approved.
Superintendent’s Report (Ed Condon)
District website is being redesigned and will be ready by winter break. Information was used from website survey to make it user friendly, aesthetically pleasing and improve the calendar.
A Social Emotion Learning grant was awarded to the district from the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation for all three schools. It will help fund additional classroom instruction.
The Superintendent Leadership Committee is evaluating the gifted and talented program. This will include professional development for the staff in identifying gifted and talented students. Approximately 2-4% of the learners at Roosevelt belong to the ATP program. The SLC will provide its report by the December Board meeting.
In the late winter to early spring the district will ask for parent volunteer to be beta testers for the new online school registration. Also in discussions is why 20% of families register late. There is consideration of an early bird discount or implementation of a late fee.
Principal’s Report (Pam Hyde)
Head lice has been a problem since the school year started. The problem is not limited to Lincoln school and is not a new occurrence. Families are asked to send their children in appropriately warm clothes. Borrowing items from lost and found to wear during recess has been discouraged due to problems with lice.
Book fair preparations are underway and will run next week in the LLC.
Teacher Liaison Report (Lissa Kiep)
Teachers are preparing for parent teacher conferences. Staff appreciates start of the year classroom restocking monetary gifts.
President’s Report (Julia Potter and Gina Hardy)
a. Donation Committee: A meeting was held two weeks ago. Ideas that required district wide implementation were eliminated. Currently, the list of possible donations ideas is down to about six. They include grass for playground field, update technology, building on the curriculum, school supplies, field trips and harmonicas. Deadline for idea suggestion is two weeks from today.
b. Injuries at PTO events: The plan is to discuss protocol for handling possible injuries at PTO events with district lawyers.
Treasurers’ Report (Tina Ciserella)
When an event cost $600.00 or greater in a calendar year a W9 form must be completed.
Fundraising Report (Nikki Elza and Sarah Hampson)
a. Pancake Breakfast – 466 were in attendance which is up 43 from last year. 255 paid on-line and 211 paid at the door. Profit of $809 was donated to the PTO. This is $150 from last year. Many supplies are provided by organizer Nick Altier, such as tables and roasters. Discussions were started as to either buying new supplies verses compensating Mr. Altier for the use of or purchasing his supplies. Also new games are needed. Some of the games were of poor quality and were broken during breakfast. Discussed ideas to ask for gently used game donations in the newsletter or purchasing personalized Lincoln games from flea market vendor.
b. Free Fundraisers – Gift card sales at the Pancake Breakfast were of small denominations. $600 was collected in sales. Sales at the Pancake Breakfast also provided a time to educate families about gift card sales. Sales will soon be available on line and there are order forms at school gate entrances. Placing order forms outside classrooms during parent teacher conferences was considered. Small denominations will be available outside Holiday Shoppe.
Other fundraising ideas were Oliver Labels, Juice Joint, Burger Boss and LemonMade. Concern was expressed at over loading families with fundraising requests.
c. Book Fair – Fair will be run from November 12th to the 16th. Currently, the fair is very low on volunteers. Storytelling hour will be on Wednesday the 14th from 6:30-7:30 pm. There will be book shaped cookies. This week volunteers will present book fair books in the classrooms. Latest Diary of the Wimpy Kid will be released and for sale at book fair on the 14th.
d. Picture Day – Currently Emily Ruby is looking into a different school photographer. There has been an interest at the other district schools.
e. Spiritwear – The new logo was displayed. The plan is to have a limited variety of good quality items. They will include shoelaces, tee-shirts and sweatshirts. It was concluded that yoga pant probably would not be a big seller. There is still some of the old spiritwear available in larger sizes. The new line of Spiritwear will be available in January.
f. Mardi Gras – Details will be further discussed at next meeting. Silk screening will be done by an outside source. The suggestion was made to use same silk screener used for Spiritwear.
g. Holiday Shop – Event will be held December 5th through the 7th. Only local vendors, such as Pumpkin Moon, will be used this year.
h. Lincoln Auction - Event will be held on February 22nd. Discussions with Art appreciation co-chairs have been ongoing regarding student art work donation and displays. Letters have been sent to last year’s donators. Get-a-ways for parents within driving distances are a sought after item. A suggestion to reach out to the art teachers was made. Anyone with an item to donate should contact Sarah Hampson.
Social, Community and Hospitality Report (Emily Paster, Tammy Travis and Rowena Abrahams)
a. Winter Sport Camp –The camp will be a social event and not a fundraiser. It will provide a health option for 1st through 4th graders during January and February. It will be run by Legacy Sports and will not need parent volunteers.
b. Heartworks Fall Food Drive –1000lbs of food was donated to the OPRF Food Pantry.
c. UNICEF Halloween Collections - $200 was collected. This was Lincoln first year holding a collection for UNICEF.
d. Hot Chocolate –The event will not be held this year.
e. Lunchtime Leaders – The program is running and doing well.
f. Mitten tree – Collections will be held November 26th through December 7th.
Instructional and Extracurricular Report (Gina Hardy and Julia Potter)
a. Author and Assembly – School House Rock assembly has been planned. Manners assembly was held but presenter was not as good as expected. The presenter discussed items not discussed with organizers prior to assembly. A new presenter will be chosen for the spring sportsmanship assembly.
b. Art Appreciation – The theme for this school year is “Hidden Treasures.” The Art Institute is holding a conference for Art Appreciation parents today and several Lincoln parents are attending.
Liaisons
a. Connect 4 Kids
· New bookmarks with character themes have been distributed to the students during Library time starting this Friday.
· C4K game night was held October 4th. It was well attended and well received.
· On January 17th there will be a speaker discussing media and children. It will be about finding the right balance and less on media safety.
· On April 16th at 7pm speaker Melissa Blackfort will discuss raising appreciative children.
b. Green4Good: Group is planning another exercise in sending home student with their lunch leftovers. This is being done in so that parents can pack lunches according to how much their child actual eats. Discussion regarding end of the school year school supply donation to charity was initiated. The idea of collected items such as scissors and rulers to provide each classroom with their own supplies instead of repurchasing them every year was made.
School Board Liaison Report (Stacey Williams and Sandy Thorpe)
At the October meeting a drop in summer school attendance was attributed to the Roosevelt Readiness program being held during spring 2012. The survey of summer school participant families showed that 80% were either satisfied or better with the program.
At the Committee of the Whole meeting ISAT scores were reviewed. Data is used by the district to concentrate on outlying students. Discussion was held regarding the districts use of the data to assist mid-level performing students.
Communications (Sandy Thorpe, webmaster and Vickie Freund, newsletter editor)
As a reminder, the PTO newsletter distribution was changed from Friday to Thursday. Contributions to newsletter need to be sent by Wednesday prior to release to either Vickie Freund or Ann Mills.
New Business
None.
Next Meeting Date
December 3rd, 2012 – 8:45 a.m. in Lincoln Conference Room
Upcoming Events
a. Book Fair 11/12-16
b. School Pictures Retakes 11/14
c. Mitten Tree 11/26 – 12/7
d. Holiday Shop 12/5 - 12/7
e. Classroom Holiday Parties 12/17 – 12/21
Adjournment
10:22 a.m.