Mount Wolf Elementary PTO Meeting
Held on October 4, 2014 in the school library
Board Members in attendance were: Sandy Datesman, Veronica Reitzel, Chris Heiland, Tara Nolte, Wendy Latshaw, Laura Mulligan, Alexis Reachard
PTO Members in attendance were: Megan Muehling, Michelle Delaney, Chris Heiland, Sarah Wooden, Angie Lesher, Tara Nolte, Kristy Webster, Laura Mulligan, Mary Jo Welker, Staci Wise, Rebecca Csubras
Excused members: Teresa Wilson, Randi Payne, Shannon Adams
Approval of minutes:
· The minutes from September 4, 2014 were distributed through email. Laura made a motion to approve the minutes & Megan seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried.
President’s Report– Sandy Datesman
· Wendy Garman updated that the food campaign sponsored by PTO has been a success so far this year. This is done to encourage children to try new fruits and vegetables. Each grade will try a fruit or vegetable 4 times a year. The presentation she does lasts about 15-20 minutes. They are given facts about the fruit (ex: where it grows, how many seeds are in it). They also get to touch the skin and and seeds before tasting the fruit. This marking period it cost 96.84. This marking period they tried: K-blackberries & Raspberries
1st – pineapple, 2nd – dragonfruit, 3rd – pomegranate. Next marking period she will try vegetables.
Vice President’s Report— Wendy Latshaw
· Student directory papers sent out. There has been 3 mistakes reported at this time.
Treasurer’s Report—Shannan Adams
· Checkbook balance is $3011.52 with no outstanding bills.
· $447.75 was spent on “class of” shirts for the kindergarten. The color this year was much brighter.
· $375 was used for AR store purchases. This lead to the question what is AR? Mrs. Welker and Sandy Datesman explained. AR is used for comprehension testing to help gain strength throughout the year. Mrs. Welker reports that there is a noticeable gain in the comprehension using the AR program. Children read a book and take an AR test on the book. They are allowed to use the book during the test, very similar to the PSSA testing. Each grade level has a different goal for the amount of points they need to earn to attend the bi-annual AR events that are held, the points also earn AR bucks($1=1pt) that can be used to purchase books and trinkets from the AR store. Kindergarten does testing as a class for AR and 1st – 3rd take the test individually. PTO holds “Wake up with AR” where students are invited in to take tests on books they have read from 8-8:30 several times a year. You can view your child’s progress with AR using their student number and first and last initial as the password.
https://hosted117.renlearn.com/26023/HomeConnect/Login.aspx
Principal's Report— Randi Payne
· DJ for fall party has been booked. Check is needed the day of the party.
· Conferences are coming up. Will PTO be providing the food?
· NESD is starting an outreach program for all families with new babies in the district. They will be sent a welcome letter and a book from the school that they will attend kindergarten. If you know of any new babies, please contact the school with the family’s information.
Teacher’s Report— Teresa Wilson (Mrs. Welker)
· Teachers will serve the food for the fall party.
Committee Reports
Membership- Wendy Latshaw.
· 72 members raising $600. Out of that $365 was from the teachers
Hospitality– Veronica Reiztel
· Next event is the teacher dinner during November conferences. Mrs. Welker will check if the teachers have a preference of tacos, subs or pizza & Stromboli for the meal. Megan Muehling & Michelle Delaney will bring desserts in. Tara Nolte will bring ice tea and soda. Any other food and drinks can be brought in Wed Nov 5th before 2:00.
Yearbook– Chris Heiland
· We need to order the “order forms” for the yearbook. She will check with Wendy Garmen when it was sent out last year, what was included on the order form and if we customized the order forms or used a standard one.
· The price of the book is $17.55 this year. We will need to decide the amount we want to sell the book at.
Book Fair– Laura Mulligan
· Fall book fair is Monday Oct 20th and Wednesday Oct 22nd. Any and ALL volunteers are welcome during the day. The children with money from each class will be allowed to go to the bookfair. Monday Megan and Sandy can help. During the bookfair, it would be helpful to have someone help bag the books.
Party Coordinator– Veronica Reiztel.
· Fall party will be held on Wed October 22 from 6-8. It was discussed as to have a balloon person and/or pumpkin. The majority voted to just have the pumpkins as in the past. Pumpkins will be purchased from Farmer Dan’s pumpkin stand.
· Food for the party is listed and price included on the flier this year. (Pizza $1.50, sandwich $3.50, water & pretzel $1) The flier will also ask for a count on sandwiches and slices of pizza. This is to help estimate the quantity to order this year with the changes. The food will be pizza, pretzels (4 dz to be ordered), chick-fil-A sandwiches, bottled water and donated snack items.
· It was voted by majority to try selling Chick-fil-A sandwiches this year. You have to order min of 25 and they have to be sold with in 90 minutes of pick up. The cost is $2.99/sandwich. It was decided to sell them for $3.50 each rather than the recommended $4 to see how it turns out.
· 50/50 raffle is not an option because everyone working the party would have to have clearances and fingerprinted due to gambling rules. We can do raffle of gift baskets or gift cards so we can keep this in mind for future events.
· Shelly has been given the flier to be distributed with the express mail on 10/9.
Fundraising—Tara Nolte.
· 28 kids stuff books are still missing. A reminder was posted on the facebook page to turn the books in asap.
· Wolfgang candy orders have been collected. Delivery will be November 4th with pick up during teacher conferences November 5th & 6th. We will need volunteers for pick up both days from 1:30-3:30 and 6-8. Please contact Tara if you are available to help with pickup.
· Sarah Wooden ask if we can get links for fundraisers for email and other social media sites so that we can sell to out of town family and friends. Tara will check into this for future fundraising.
PTO member comments/concerns:
· Angela Lesher brought up the idea of a doing an American Girl doll Bingo as a community event. She suggested getting local businesses to sponsor a doll or partner up to sponsor a doll. She said that money could be made on the food sales, ticket sales as well as raffle tickets sold at the event. She is going to gather more information to bring to the November meeting. Concerns for how to handle multiple bingos on one game came up. It was discussed that we could have consolation prizes like accessories for the dolls. Everyone thought that this event would take a lot of work but would be a great fundraiser.
· An evening AR event is still wanted. This will be discussed at the next meeting.
We will hold our next meeting on Nov 3, 2014 at 5:45pm in the library .
The meeting was adjourned by Sandy Datesman.
590 Maple St. PO BOX 1013 Mt. Wolf, PA 17347 • 717-266-6570 • Mount Wolf PTO