PTA Minutes
03-03-2014
Attendance-
Heather Craig
Denise Warren
Tony Fletcher
Leana Nieves
Michelle Weiss
Julie Hull
Anna Millenson
Cynnie Boyer
Caro Turba
Tracey Marcario
Rebecca Barry
Marcey Brownstein
Lori Matteson
Linda Sella
Principal’s Report- Principal Sella announced that the Hip Hop residency is off to a wonderful start as of March 3rd. There is a scheduled dance performance on March 13th at 6pm. Mrs. Sella also states that we have had a few date changes. Our spring portraits have been moved to March 20th as opposed to the 7th, and The Phoenicia Family Literacy Night is now on March 27th. School will be in session on April 14th&15th which are the first two days of Spring Break to cover the snow days used. Principal Sella reports that in this coming year we will be allotted $10.000 for residencies/assemblies and field trips. This is a decrease from last year's budget of about $14,000. Tony Fletcher said he was going to bring up this matter in the next B.O.E. meeting.
B.O.E.- Tony Fletcher reports the next Board of Education meeting is March 4th at 6pm and will be held at Phoenicia School. At this meeting they are planning on talking about budgeting which he states should be relatively painless. It is possible that there will be voting in May for a capital project, to fix the Phoenicia Elementary Schools front parking lot which is not draining well and freezing over, and to fix the Woodstock/Phoenicia’s school playgrounds. Also to be discussed is the school's boiler. There will be several seats opening up on the Board. Ideally the board would like a member from each school.
Committee Reports/ Event Updates/Community- Our Annual Western Night/Square Dance is March 21st at 6pm. Live music will be performed by the Earl Pardini Band. Peekamoose will be preparing the food. We do however need volunteers for donating cakes, servers, and volunteers to help set up/take down. Sheriff badges, bandanas and hats will be on sale at the school during the event.
CCE/Hip-Hop- Begins on Monday March 3rd, and final performance will be held on March 13th at 6pm. Thus far the children are very excited to be dancing once again with Drew.
Earth day/Science Fair- Heather Roberts is looking for parent volunteers to help coordinate, set up tables/take down tables. As of now there will be many interesting events and tables such as, Mad Science, DEP (water pollution), Aaron Bennet (Esopus critters), Mat Savactchi (Skins and Skulls), Solar Generation and Harmony Builders. WAAM and Michele Weiss will also be doing a school wide project using clay in conjunction with Earth Day. All 3rd graders will be doing an individual project for the fair as a part of their science grade. The whole school is invited to do individual projects as well. For any questions or volunteering please feel free to contact Heather Roberts at .
Garden- The first gardening meeting will be held on March 14th at 3:45pm at the Phoenicia School. There will be much to discuss such as, garden pathways, clean up, soil prep, fence mending, building beds, composting, planting times, what to plant and how to incorporate the classrooms into the process. Please contact Caro at if you have any spare time and are looking to dig into or have some new creative ideas to make our schools garden beautiful.
Spring Fundraisers- Krause’s fundraiser is going on and will end on March 10th.
After school programs for Spring- Possibilities are Zumba on Tuesdays, Art classes on Wednesdays and Karate on Fridays. It was discussed whether Phoenicia Primary could sponsor some of these after school activities as an ongoing service to it's students. It was unclear exactly as to the process of how this would occur but seemed unlikely for this year and the PTA would sponsor these after school activities for the current year. Tony Fletcher said he would discuss this with the board. Principal Sella said she would also look into the matter more for next year.
Recycling grant- No one at the meeting was available to do this project at this time. If you are interested in the recycling grant please contact .
Primary School’s committee update- Marcey Brownstein, one of the members of this committee provided an update to the Phoenicia PTA. Marcey says that there was much discussed but a good portion of the meeting was a meet and greet being the first meeting. Some of the topics that came up during the meeting were, Pre-K, early literacy and financial issues. If you have any questions please contact .
PTA Officer Elections will be held during the May meeting. All positions are opening up: treasurer, president, vice-president, historian, correspondence secretary, recording secretary. Please speak with any of the current officers (Anna, Caro, Yuki, Michele, Amy and Heather) or email if you have any question, or are interested in learning more about an officer position for next year.
Dates to remember-
March 4th- B.O.E. meeting at the Phoenicia School @ 6pm
March 7th- Bennett Dodge Ball Tournament 6pm
March 18th- B.O.E. meeting at the Woodstock School
March 13th- CCE Hip Hop residency performance 6pm
March 20th- Spring Portraits
March 21st- Western Night/Square Dance/Cake Walk 6pm
March 27th- Phoenicia Family Literacy Night 6pm
March 28th- Woodstock’s Science Fair 6pm
April 7th- Next PTA meeting @6pm