PTA May 2017 Minutes

  • Call to order: DJ at 6:07 PM
  • Introductions of the board
  • Approval of April Minutes: motioned- Jim, seconded- Corinna
  • Special Guests: Brennan Fontaine of Rocky Mountain Kids (new B&A program director). There are pricing sheets and program expectations available at this meeting and additionally Tuesday AM/PM for new parent tours. They are training support staff and looking forward to getting to know the Quest kids and staff. RMK focuses on:
  1. Leadership
  2. Safety
  3. Wellness
  4. Community
  • 4th grade: Mrs. Meyer and Mrs. Turner- TheAmeritowne video will be on Mrs. Meyer’s Edmodo page. They spent three months getting ready to go with a focus in Social Studies, Financial Literacy, checkbooks, debit cards, and balancing their accounts. (Thank you notes were passed around which the kids made as a thank you to PTA for funding Ameritowne. WE had a lot of overdrafts this year! Thank you to PTA for fundraising and raising money to fund Ameritowne. Kids learned life lessons, created resumes, and not always got the job the wanted. All kids loved the job they ended up with and worked as teams.
  • Mrs. Meyer- I am retiring this year. Ameritowne is a valuable experience and we wanted to show our appreciation for funding it. I hope Ameritowne will continue after I am gone.
  • Dave- Ameritowne inspired us to do the Quest signature experiences. Thank you, Mrs. Turner, and Mrs. Meyer for all of your hard work this year.
  • Mrs. Meyer- We do a project called Mars Mission in 4th grade. When we over space, we learn about space, work as a team, plot points in space, interact with Challenger Space Center (grant-funded) in Colorado Springs who act as Mission Control and help us with the mission. Mrs. MacLeay helps with business cards, resumes, learn about themselves, and who they want to be.
  • Special Guest: Mr. Mural- teaches 7th/8th grade science. 7th grade is a collaboration of science and social studies and they study: germs, bacteria, the plague, and do breakout sessions (Escape Room) based on content for 6th graders. 7th graders design specific puzzles for science and social studies and what they learned in the content. 6th graders are exposed to the content and loved the challenge of the puzzles. The Escape Rooms are ran by 7th graders. We learned a lot of tips for changing it for next year.
  • 8th graders study physics and get high school credit. They start as sophomores in APS schools in science and math. Honors chemistry is for freshman. It doesn’t transfer credit or affect their GPA. Normally freshman start with freshman physics.
  • Dave- In APS, kids take physics, chemistry, and biology as seniors. Our kids get two years.
  • Mr. Mural- Mr. Dunkin got a grant to study genetics and raise clownfish and study their genetics. We will integrate this with the genetics unit. 7th grade has amazing opportunities and this will add to their experiences. Mrs. Parish is taking the step by step out of experimenting and letting kids discover the outcomes by trial and error. They don’t do dissecting much anymore. Kids don’t like it, it smells, and it’s expensive. There will be a second science lab next year due to the bond which was passed. The teachers work collaboratively to make sure they are covering the same content, using same materials, and covering state standards.
  • Mr. Mural would like a weather bug weather station which will work with FOX 13 News. He is hoping to put it in the garden. The discounted rate is $6,000-$7,000 so we will revisit it next year.
  • Mr. Mural would like to work with another school who received a grant for a greenhouse. He wants to get a greenhouse for Quest. The program, Coral, supports the school fish tanks in the library which have donated several $1,000s to the fish tanks. Mr. Mural has been funding the left over expenses with his classroom enrichment money. The on-going expenses for the fish tank include getting new fish. The prices for new fish are as follows:
  1. Atlantic Blue Tang- $60-$80
  2. Pigmy Angels- $40
  3. Swiss Guard- $80-$110
  • Mr. Mural would like to make a budget request to be added to the budget for the fish tanks for $300-$400. Thank you, Jamie, for taking over the Fun Run and making sure it was successful. I loved the t-shirt design and want to continue that in the future.
  • Teacher appreciation- Becca Peters and DJ Potter were blown away by people’s support and help. The hospitality team is amazing! The breakfast tomorrow is going to be incredible for teacher appreciation week. Thank you to all of the volunteers.
  • Treasurer’s Report-

Based on current and forecast expenditure, the PTA will have a surplus of $15,887. This amount is in addition to the $7,500 reserve balance creating a total surplus of $23,387. This could go up if the forecast spending amounts are overstated. The major spending categories that have not been recorded are all the bus costs and Calwood cost information.
Here are a few more fundraising activities for the year, primarily restaurant nights and we anticipate another $600 in revenue.
The 2017-2018 budget is ready for approval. We anticipate raising $33,460 Net with direct donation campaign, fun run, carnival and catalog sale as our major fundraisers. Expenses have not changed much; childcare for PTA meetings is now offered free and we added a line item for community events like flag football, hair braiding for dads, etc.

  • Approval of budget for 2017-2018 school year: motioned: Donna, seconded: Alex
  • Bussing issue/field trips: Dave will meet with teachers during work week to reorganize the field trip schedule so that each grade are taking trips or bringing in classroom experiences. There was an issue with busses this year because we are short drivers. We can only use district-approved vendors for bussing. Dave wants to restructure how money will be spent next year, determining what teachers want to do and what fundraising we will need to make it happen.
  • Vote for additional budget items:
  1. Fish tank expenses: motioned: Terry, seconded: Alex
  2. Sound System for gym: motioned: Alex, seconded: Chandra
  3. Box Tops to fund small garden items for $200-$300
  4. Buddy Bench for playground: motioned: Jim, seconded: Cindy
  • Gem Presentation: Jamie- I want to bring in a program for 1st and 3rd grade classes starting next year. For 1st grade: It is a rock life cycle program. She teaches them whole group first, then they each have their own mining station and they mine for rocks and couple gems. Some of the rocks include: pumice, soap stone, sandstone, etc. This is a 55 min program and she comes to the classroom and sets up everything they need. Each student leaves with some tools and a collection box of the rocks they mined. This is $10 per person and follows the FOSS science curriculum for 1st grade. For 3rd grade: It is a program for properties of rocks and minerals. She teaches them whole group and then they each have a mining station where they mine for gems. These include: amethyst, quartz, topaz, granite, pyrite, etc. This is a 60 minute presentation and she comes to the classroom and sets up everything they need. Each students leaves with some tools and a collection box of the gems they mined. This is $12 per person and follows the FOSS science curriculum for 3rd grade. We will vote on this funding in the fall after Dave speaks with 1st and 3rd grades.
  • Mosley will be holding a carnival on May 19th from 4:30-6:30. Quest kids can attend and any wristbands sold to Quest kids will kick back $2 per wristband to Quest. It will be on Facebook and in the Quest newsletter. Students must be monitored by their parents.
  • Dave: The top 10 of valedictorians of the graduating high schools this year were former Quest students. We also have two former Quest students heading to Harvard and Stanford this year.
  • Kim: I will be leaving Quest this year and will principal my own school, Virginia Court Elementary School.
  • Kim: The Quest garden program is up and running. We should be seeing some food soon. The seedlings are coming along and we are also wanting to add a pollinator’s garden. We will need volunteers and advisors for this. We will be receiving 100% profit from the plant sale next Thursday and Friday. Megan Haley is taking over the garden program.
  • Drawing: Quest Pack- Alex and Shannon
  • Adjournment: Motion- Alex 7:40 PM