Council Membership Meeting
Minutes
November 8, 2016
The Council Board Meeting was called to order on November 8th, 2016 at 11:45am at the Allen High School Multipurpose Room. The President, Marisol Randle, presided over the meeting with the Secretary, Rachel Mitchell being present. A quorum was established.
Welcome
· Hospitality Chair, Kathi Bingham thanked EPI for sponsoring our meal and BLU café for catering our meal
· George Schafer introduced special guests
· Marisol Randal introduced the new Parliamentarian, Julie Rodriguez
· Dr Preston led the Pledge of Allegiance
· Dr. Zoeller, Chief Governmental Relations Officer presented the inspirational
· Kevin Banker, EPI District Manager, presented information of EPI products/services available
Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the September 7th, 2016 membership meeting were approved as distributed.
Treasurers Reports
· The Treasurers Report from September 7th, 2016 – November 7th, 2016 showed the following:
o Beginning Balance - $22,638.78
o Receipts - $21,345.00
o Disbursements - $17,849.67
o Ending Balance – $33,069.11
The Treasurers Report will be filed for Financial Reconciliation.
Reports
· Interim Superintendent
o Thank you to PTA to make our school district successful
o School Board has announced finalist for new Allen ISD Superintendent
o Elementary #18 opening in August, 2017
· President
o Traveling to schools has been really fun. Schools have really embraced following procedures.
o January Council Membership meeting we will be electing our Nominating Committee. Interest forms will go out after the meeting.
· Healthy Lifestyles
o Health Hustle
§ 11 schools involved
§ About 6500 participants
§ 120 vendors
§ Plaques were presented to the 3 schools who founded the Health Hustle
· VP Programs
o 15 Allen schools will participate in parent education program, Celebrate Calm. Two sessions will be held February 23, 2017.
o The WatchDOGS Awards date has been set for April 20, 2017.
· VP Membership
o Twelve local PTAs have already met our “Just One More!” Council Challenge. Please join me in congratulating AHS/Lowery Freshman Center PTSA and the following PTAs: Anderson, Chandler, Cheatham, Ereckson, Evans, Kerr, Lindsey, Marion, Norton, Rountree, and Vaughan and Lowery Freshman Center PTSA!
o Our local PTAs have collectively achieved 97% of last year’s total membership for the Council so far this year and have officially qualified for 22 recognition awards from the Texas PTA with another 15 pending and more milestones yet to come.
o Your PTAs would appreciate any help in continuing momentum in PTA membership development. We ask that everyone here make sure that they are a member of at least one Allen ISD PTA.
o It’s Simple: JoinPTA.org and select our District and a local PTA.
· VP Ways and Means
o Save the Date – Allen Eagle Run – February 25th
o Encourage participation day of event or prior to race day
o Online registration for the Allen Eagle Run is now open at alleneaglerun.org
o Campus Coordinators have had their first meeting
o New campus-based incentives for Allen Eagle Run percentage of participation ($1,000 campus grant and $500 grant) as well as outstanding, extraordinary, creative promotion of Allen Eagle Run ($750 grant).
· Historian
o Scrapbook guidelines are posted on the website for the local Chairs.
o Scrapbooks due by April 3, 2016.
o Introduction emails went out to all Historians or Presidents with the scrapbook guidelines & annual report sample.
· Legislative
o Rally Under The Dome! Austin, Texas, February 27, 2017. By attending Rally Day, we are letting our PTA voices be heard and taking action while decisions are being made rather than after nothing can be done.
o Sign up for National and Texas PTA e-mail information and alerts at http://www.pta.org/takeaction and http://www.txpta.org/.
o Sign up for The OC (Our Children), National PTA publication available online. Texas PTA publishes a quarterly online publication, The Voice.
o The Legislative Chair, the PTA President and anyone interested can also register for Under the Dome which is an e-mail publication that includes legislative information, alerts, and calls for action.
· Volunteers
o The fall Volunteer Chairs roundtable was conducted on October 11th@1-2pm. We had good discussions and shared some neat ideas happening at local schools.
o 15 of 22 Schools submitted names for the citizenship awards with a total of 56 awardees. The awardees names are listed in the attached document.
o Each citizenship awardee will receive a certificate and Trade Mark Carwash coupon.
· Webmaster
o The Allen ISD Council of PTAs website updates are: ever changing and being fine tuned; please have patience.
o Please look over the website, especially your Chair Page under Local Chairs. Suggestions and changes are welcome from Council and Local Chairs.
o Send your event pictures to the Allen ISD Council of PTAs President or Webmaster emails. We want to show how much fun or how amazing your event was!
o New to the Webpage:
§ Parent 411
· Parent education
o Videos and articles about subjects that: parents, your student or their friends deal with.
· Local Boards may share this on their sites; get President and Principal approval first
· Hospitality
· Arts in Education
o Recycled Art contest just concluded. Winners will be posted on the Council website.
o Artwork (from Recycled Art contest) can be retrieved through today (Tuesday).
o Arbor Day poster contest will be promoted for 4th and 5th graders only. The posters will be due on December 16th.
· Reflections
o Student entries are being by Local Chairs; Judging is in progress
o Local Award of Excellence winners to be advanced to Council NLT 11/29/16.
o Council level judging completed by 12/2/16
o Reception invitations to be sent to local chairs on 11/7/16
o Advancing entries mailed to Austin by January 15, 2017
· Community Relations
o Allen Council of PTA Board will be volunteering at the Holiday Program on December 14, 2016
o ACO always looking for volunteers would like to help with ACO holiday programs…. To help receive food and/or Holiday items dropped off as well as and help on the Distribution Days. The Holiday Programs are at the First United Methodist Church on Greenville in the gym. I have the sign up list here if you are interested and can relay your volunteer time to ACO.
o Projects in District Several Schools have hosted ACO Days in partnership with ACO:
§ Boon Elementary had an ACO Day in September in conjunction with their PTA General Meeting and donated nearly 2,500 items to ACO Food Pantry
§ Story is also having an ACO Day December 8th.
§ Olson scheduled in Spring; Cheatham and Vaughn I believe are in the process of scheduling; Marion families have been most generous and they have ongoing donations to ACO.
§ Boon Elementary did the Spencer Squire book drive which benefits the holiday goodie bags at ACO.
o Story Elementary in conjunction with their Environmental Club is having a food drive to benefit ACO. They are collecting food. Anyone who wants to donate can drop off at Story.
o Thank you to the schools who did the Coin Collections with ACO. Those include:
§ Boon, Cheatham, Green, Marion, Reed, Story, and Vaughn. ACO is in the process of counting the coins and will update soon on the totals. The counselors at each school made this such a great success and were great to work with, thank you! From ACO
Unfinished Business
· Budget Amendments
o Treasurer, Clelon Houpt, moved to approve budget amendments to the 2016-17 budget as follows:
§ Increase Health Hustle Income to $39,900
§ Increase Health Hustle Expense to $39,000
§ Increase Donations income to $1,600
The motion was seconded and carried.
New Business
· Waste Works Grants
o Andrea Smith, City of Allen Education Specialist presented grant awards for the Recycled Art Contest.
§ Students from 17 schools participated.
§ Awarded schools will receive checks this Friday
· 21 Day Challenge
o Carrie Zamoria, 21 Day Challenge has become so successful because it is free to schools and meets the health goals for schools
o Competition within the individual school district, not against a neighboring school. Award is a $500 Kroger gift card. Type of competition is still being determined.
o Dates for this year’s challenge were discussed
· College and Career Center
o Jill Stafford, Principal of Lowery Freshman Center presented information about College and Career Week.
§ January 23-27, 2017 district wide College and Career Week
§ Many different activity options for campuses to promote
· Peach Jar
o Tim Carroll, Chief Information Officer Allen ISD, presented information on Peach Jar program.
§ Reducing amount of paper sent home in student folders
§ Information emailed to all school families
§ Link on each school webpage is individual to that school
§ Need to encourage parents to read notices emailed to them
§ PTA events can be posted on your local Peach Jar account
§ Peach Jar has ability to include a hyperlink to registration forms or other web links in your flyer
Announcements
· Kathi Bingham thanked several groups for helping put our meeting together today.
· Next Council Meeting: January 18, 2017
· Arbor Day posters are due December 16, 2016
· Reflections Reception: December 5, 2016
· Celebrate Calm: February 23, 2017
· WatchDOG Awards: April 20, 2017
· Eagle Run: February 25, 2017
· Rally Under the Dome: February 27, 2017
· 21 Day Challenge: January 21 – February 12, 2017
· School announcements were distributed to members and posted on the website
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 12:55pm.
(Signature)______
Rachel Mitchell, Secretary
Approved or Approved as Corrected______
Month/Date/Year______
Initial of Secretary ______
ATTACHMENT #1
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