Hyman Fine PTO Minutes
September 15th, 2016
Introductions
Meeting called to order by President Lynn Porto, all those in attendance introduced themselves
By-Laws
By-laws have been updated to include the co-president, co-vice president, and co-secretary positions. By-laws were passed around for all to preview before voting for approval. At the end of the meeting, a motion was passed to vote on the by-laws and they were unanimously approved.
Treasurer’s Report -- Denise Desrosiers
Update on last year’s expenses. Playground is now done. Total cost was approximately $31,000.
There will no longer be a Target 1% program. They have discontinued it.
We now have an account with Amazon Smile. Info will be going home about it.
Principal Update – Tricia Martin
Staffing Changes:
Laura Fairweather – new part-time clerk in office. Among her responsibilities will be a focus on attendance and absences. It is important to keep the office updated when students are out. You will receive a phone call if attendance is an issue.
Mrs. Robinson moved from 3rd grade back to 1st grade which she taught previously
Mrs. O’Brien moved from 4th grade to 3rd grade (there was one fourth grade position cut)
Ms. Amorim is the adjustment counselor. She worked at Hyman Fine previously. Most recently she has been at the middle school level in Attleboro. Mrs. Brunault has left to work in private practice.
Ms. Quinn is new to Attleboro and will be teaching Kindergarten to take the position vacated by Ms. Abreu’s retirement. Ms. Abreu is still in the building doing some substitute teaching.
Music teachers are being shared among the buildings due to the budget issues. Mrs. Bedrosian is here two days a week and Ms. Torres is here one and a half days.
Enrichment – Mrs. Weir, a technology teacher, is coming from Thacher for one half day each week to help with technology enrichment
Other Updates:
Drop Off and Pick Up are going well. Thank you for following the procedures put in place to keep students safe. There may be some tweaking to procedures if needed.
Bus routes may also have slight changes. Some busses are currently arriving to school a bit too late in the morning and Mrs. Martin has been working with transportation to get it fixed. Hopefully it will be taken care of by the end of next week.
There are no more librarians at the elementary schools. Teachers are still bringing classes to the library and helping them to check out books.
Curriculum Night – Next Thursday, September 22nd from 6-8 p.m. Children should stay with their parents throughout the night acting as tour guides. The PTO will be in the library, Book fair and other support staff will be in the library.
Buddy Bench – There will be a Buddy Bench dedication and Playground ribbon cutting this Saturday, September 17th at 9 a.m. Students will be instructed by the teachers in how to use the Buddy Bench to find kids to play with. There is a curriculum/lessons that go along with it. We also have two new recess monitors who will be helping with it.
Hawk Heroes – This is a PBIS Initiative. PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Some of the staff is working on putting together this program which is kicking off with an assembly on Friday, September 16th. There will be assemblies on the first Friday of each month, each focusing on a core value. The core values which Hyman Fine already focused on – Respect, Responsibility, and Honesty – will continue with the addition of Ready to Learn. One part of Hawk Heroes that has already started is the use of hand signals and common language to reinforce proper voice volume in the building.
Rotating Days – The days will no longer rotate this year. Monday schedule will always be Monday, Tuesday will be Tuesday, etc.
Feinstein Leadership School – We are continuing to be a Feinstein School.
Free Lunch Forms – Please return the forms if you have not. The school earns access to federal funds based on how many forms are returned.
Title I – The school currently qualifies for Title I funds for academic support.
Website – The website is new this year. Still working on getting everything up and going. Things will continue to be added. The dismissal form will be put up there for families to be able to print. A question was asked about the Parent Portal link. This is for access to the Aspen Parent Portal. This is mainly used in the upper grades (middle and high school). Elementary parents can have access though. Report cards can be viewed on there (in addition to the paper copies), attendance and other information is available.
President – Lynn Porto
Open House: We will have Bake Sale, Spirit Wear and PTO Info tables. New this year is a “Can You Lend a Helping Hand?” display where parents can take a sticky note and purchase the requested supply for teachers.
Feed the Hawk will be our main fundraiser this year. Families are asked to make/solicit donations instead of purchasing catalog items.
Book Fair – Brenda Hussey and Diane Richard
Book Fair will be running Monday through Thursday next week. The schedule went home on Monday of this week. It is also open during Open House. There will be a raffle basket with tickets for $1. Teachers will be making wishlists. Melanie Harvey volunteered to make a poster for the wishlists. They are still looking for volunteers, especially for Curriculum Night (Wed. 6-8), Thursday 9-10:30, and Friday for breakdown starting at 9:30.
Open Discussion
Question was asked about what the money being raised this year will be going towards now that the Playground has been done. The PTO currently funds Scholastic News for students (approx. $2700), assists with field trip costs (approx. $1000 per grade level), the school planners and homework folders (approx. $1300), helping to fund other enrichment activities that come in such as the Underground Railroad musicians that came last year, technology such as the chromebooks, and many other smaller expenses. A focus continues to be technology. The school would like to increase their chromebooks and possibly add a projector to the Auditorium.
Seri Batkin brought info about a possible author visit
Trunk or Treat/Fall Festival which was scheduled for October 29th will not be held this year. There were scheduling conflicts.
Supply packs were very successful for the first year. The lists will be tweaked for next year as needed. Teachers did not receive as many “extras” as in previous years – donations of things like tissues, cleaning wipes, copy paper are greatly appreciated.
On behalf of the staff, Mrs. McLoughlin thanked the PTO for the Panera lunch on the first day.
Help is needed for Open House. We are trying a new online sign-up this year to try to reach more people. An email was sent from Donna Morgan in the office to get the link to everyone. You can also sign-up with Pam Schwieger who is our volunteer coordinator and through our Facebook page.
Meeting Adjourned at 7:44