FAIR HAVEN PTA GENERAL MEETING
Friday, March 20th, 2009
11:30 AM
Sickles School – Art Room
AGENDA
Meeting Called to Order
Pledge of Allegiance
Approval of February General Meeting Minutes (available at meeting)
Treasurer’s Report
President’s Report
Executive Board Reports
BOE Reports
Faculty Reports
Old Business
New Business
Announcements
Adjournment of Business Meeting
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Fair Haven PTA General Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Knollwood School – Media Room
7:30 PM
For the names of those who attended, please see the sign-in book kept with the minutes.
The meeting was called to order by President, Carrie Marxen, at 7:35 PM.
RECORDING SECRETARY’S REPORT: The January minutes were accepted as distributed.
TREASURER’S REPORT: (Tina Joyce) September Treasurer’s Report:
Opening Balance: $ 50,035.39 Cash Receipts: $ 875.46 Cash Disbursed: $ 3,276.17 Ending Balance: $ 47,634.68
PRESIDENT’S REPORT: (Carrie Marxen)
· Luncheon- this Saturday. We are in great shape for a great day! There are going to be lots of great baskets to try and win.
· We will have lots of Open Committee positions being announced over the next couple of months. Please contact Amanda or me if you are interested in chairing a committee or in a Board position.
PRESIDENT-ELECT’S REPORT: (Amanda Stevens)
Art Appreciation Grade 4: Art Appreciation Day has been scheduled for April 17th,, from 8:30-11:30. Volunteers are still needed, please contact Lynn Scott to volunteer.
Directory: The position for editor has been filled. We’d like to thanks Aida Murphy for her role in the past years with the directory. We welcome Beth Sanville as our new editor for the 2009-2010 school year. We will send out a flyer to collect alternate phone numbers in the spring so we can validate info in September.
Parents Email Directory: A new email directory was sent out on February 16th, with updates up through the end of January 2009.
TCSP: The committee has two new members Tori McAndrews and Tracy Rehder. We’d like to thank Ceil Snyder and Aida Murphy for their past help with this committee. 3 more applications have been received and approved totaling $1,642.50
On January 12, 2009, the First Grade teachers requested a subscription to the following four magazines: National Geographic for Kids, Zoo Books, Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard, for each of their classrooms. The cost will be approximately $78.90 per class. Total for the 5 classes will be approximately $394.50. On January 23, 2009, the specials teachers requested the purchase of Flip Video cameras. We would like to purchase two Flip Video cameras to share among the six specials teachers. These cameras are low cost, we have purchased 2 at the cost of $209.00 each for a total $418.00. On February 2, 2009, the 2nd grade team requested the purchase of colonial materials to be used throughout the colonial Williamsburg study. The cost is $830 total, which includes materials for 5 classes. The materials address their main topics of history, homes, school, and clothing. They also plan to use some of the new materials to have a colonial game day.
Staff Appreciation: Staff Appreciation week has been scheduled for May 4th-May 8th
RECORDING SECRETARY’S REPORT: (Kim Browne)
Family Fun Activities: Family Fun Bingo Night is Friday, March 13th- 6:30-8:30.Cost is $3.00 to enter. Contact Marion or Cathryn if you are interested in helping that night.
Babysitting Class: Babysitting class is scheduled for April 29th and May 6th from 3-4:30.
Community Action and Awareness: Tuesday night was their meeting about keeping kids off drugs. It was a success and people can still sign up to be on an e-mail list to be informed if anything happens in town, as well as McGruff and neighborhood watch lists. An abbreviated version of this presentation will be done at a future PTA daytime meeting.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY’S REPORT: (Sue Hodgkiss)
Friends of Different Learners: There is a meeting on March 11th from 6:00-7:30pm at Knollwood. Beth Keefe, of the FH Special Services Department, is hosting a meeting on Strategies for Classified Children in the Mainstream. RSVP with the Special Services Department 747-0381
Disability Services for Families of Students with Special Needs Overview of services available at 7:30pm on March 4th at the High School. Speaker: Ramona Carmeci-Family Support Center of NJ. Contact Sarah Maris if you want to attend
Science Club: We just completed our 3rd session of Science Club. The 4th, and final,session begins on Tuesday and runs through the end of March. So far we have had 57 students attend. We have 21 students signed up for the last session.
Understanding Disabilities Day: Third Grade Understanding Disabilities Day is scheduled for Thursday, March 26th. We have speakers scheduled and activities planned to help children understand how it might feel to have a disability and gain empathy for the people who live with these challenges. Thank you to our large committee of volunteers who help make this day happen.
Cultural Enrichment: The Cultural Enrichment Committee has the following assemblies planned for the month of March:
1) March 12th - Kids on the Block (3rd graders)
2) March 24th - World of Rope Jumping (K-3 in the am and 4-5th grades in the pm).
We're in the process of rescheduling some programs that we had originally planned for March (Battle of Monmouth and Anne Frank), based on requests from the teachers, who preferred that we hold those assemblies later in the year.
TREASURER’S REPORT: (Tina Joyce)
Fifth Grade Social Dance: 5th Grade Social Dance and Etiquette is scheduled for March 23rd, March 30th, April 13th, and April 20th from 3:45-5:00pm in the Knollwood APR. Sign-ups will be going out.
PTA Membership: We are looking for a new chair for Membership. All work can be done at home. Just need good organization and computer skills
Art Show: Preparations are underway for the student Art Show on April 16. Interested in helping out? Contact Fran Stefanelli.
Parent Book Group: Two New Jersey childhood-relationship experts, Natalie Madorsky Elman and Eileen Kennedy Moore, offer readers, “The Unwritten Rules of Friendship: Simple Strategies to Help Your Child Make Friends.” Recommended by our own Rachel Bronstein, this guidebook provides parents with types of friendship behaviors, relationship scenarios and advice for teaching the important “unwritten rules” that help kids form happier, healthier friendships. Please join us for discussion and inspiration on Tuesday, March 31st from 1:30pm–2:30pm in the Sickles library. Hope to see you at our new meeting time! Contact Kate Appezato at with questions or future book suggestions.
VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT: (Cathy Alescio)
PTA Luncheon : The Luncheon is only two days away! As of our February 23rd deadline, we have 278 reservations for the Luncheon. Our baskets are wrapped and ready to go and we have enough drivers and volunteers for the day of the event. The baskets look fantastic and as always, Fair Haven parents and businesses really came through for us! We look forward to seeing on Saturday for what should be a fun day!
House Tour: We've had many ups and downs but we are happy to report that we will have eight distinctive homes on our House TourWednesday June 3.Fair Haven Dad/Graphic Designer Dave DeSantis has designed a logo and wearenow moving forward on advertising and marketing materials. A Save the Date postcard will be distributed at the luncheon, and tickets to the event will go on sale in April. We welcome any names/businesses from the board whom we can contact for advertising. We are also going to be putting together raffle items for the dayand welcome ideas.
BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT: (Kathi Cronin)
· There are 3 Board of Education seats available. If you are interested in running for open positions on the BOE, you can pick up a petition at the Board office. Petitions are due March 2nd.
· Investigation has begun on a communication system for parents. The borough currently uses the C3 system which can send e-mails and/or text messages to residents at a very fast rate. We could possibly add a portal for the school and share with the borough the cost.
· Consolidation possibilities are being discussed to save tax dollars. The county is doing feasibilities studies to create model districts with about 6000 children for grades K-12 and approximately 6 buildings.
· Absentee ballots are going to be made available for school elections with the hope of increasing voter turn out.
· Budget meetings will be held March 16th and March 31st.
FACULTY REPORT: (Maria Schiano & Bonnie Crotty )
· Thank you for the great assemblies.
OLD BUSINESS: None
NEW BUSINESS: None
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
· Thank you to the RFH PTA for inviting our district to the Nutrition meeting they are hosting on March 10th. The speaker is Dr Felicia Stoler.
· Remember that March 16th is a school day. Making up for snow day.
· Next PTA meeting is Friday, March 20th at 11:30 am in the Sickles Art room-all are welcome!!
· Thank you to our speakers this evening! Greg Dill and Donald Witkowski of Merrill Lynch. We look forward to their guidance on how to handle this market and still save for our children’s educational futures.
Meeting adjourned by President Carrie Marxen at 8:00 PM.