**DRAFT**

Mill Road PTA Meeting Minutes

January 12, 2010

Call to order, Introduction and Sign In. Establish a Quorum (17 people in attendance)…

Lorrie Kruger: Three items up for vote to amend the budget… Will need 2/3 vote on to pass

Option to recite Pledge of Allegiance

Up for approval: November minutes… Motion to accept minutes made by Patricia C... Seconded by Linda Balloqui-Smith

Treasurer’s report by Dawn Rhea

Lorrie: Any Questions regarding Treasurer’s report? None.

Recess Initiative:

Lorrie: Budget Amendment up to vote on… Went over budget on the Recess Initiative for the black top areas by the back doors heading to the playground areas…

Principal Boyd: Principal Gaynor and I spent time looking… 5K doesn’t go very far… We were able to replace the huge playground on the 3-5 side… but having no black top for kids who have no snow pants or equipment for outside snow was a priority… Popular of late is the Ball Wall on the 3-5 side… K-2 side now has the black top giving them a little space to run even when it’s icy outside… This is a tremendous improvement over having the kids play on blacktop covered with dirt and grit from the front parking lot space reducing the number of injuries from falling on that dirt/grit… (Barbara Shoemaker adds in not to mention less tracking in of that dirt/grit into the school)… The black topping was a MAJOR improvement in quality for the kids with no equipment, etc… They will also be looking for more ideas for the kids to do stuff on the black top… It really helps with the mud getting tracked into the school… In the spring they’ll paint hopscotch boards and other games for them to play on…

Lorrie: Speaking of getting it done before the snow came… We decided to start with a contractor with a line item of 5K and it ended up being 4K more… So this is up for a vote… the total is for an additional 3650… The contractor has been waiting on the money until the next PTA MTG so that funds would be allocated via membership vote now… (At which someone asked if the vote DIDN’T get approved of by membership… what then? Principal Boyd suggested that we’d be doing some serious yard sales and bake sales to raise the funds… Lorrie Kruger expressed that this was considered, but she weighed the options and determined she had confidence that membership would vote for going forth with the project anyway)…

Lorrie Kruger and Dawn Rhea looked at the budget and after discussing options with Principal Boyd and Principal Gaynor suggest taking away 500 from K-2 reading program (Principal Gaynor will still have 500 for the program) and the same thing for the 3-5 side with Principal Boyd Boyd losing 500 from the 1K allocated toward the reading program… The rest of the funds can come from the savings account money… we can take 2650 from savings to meet it and finish off the contract payment. To clarify, they explain that last year the Principals didn’t use the full thousand on their reading programs… (Principal Gaynor used none at that time and Principal Boyd used 500)… Principal Boyd and Principal Gaynor both chime in that they are more than willing to give it up for the blacktop… to them the benefits the blacktop provided far outweighs anything they spend the money on for the Reading Program and getting it was far more important. It was also discussed that Scholastic dollars are available to help with the reading programs as well… Nothing should suffer from these funds …

Lorrie: Show of hands for in favor to amend the line … at least a 2/3 vote to change the budget line item to 8650. The line item amendment is passed (unanimous)

Postcard Postage for Capital Project:

Lorrie: Up next for another amendment to the budget vote… Postcards for the capital project… The funds initially requested were for 300 and that was approved... It went over by another 310 dollars … Ruth paid for it out of her own pocket… Need to vote on changing that line from 300 to 610… Again, Lorrie Kruger and Dawn Rhea went over the budget and suggest taking the funds from the teachers mini-grant (which 2 mtgs ago had been increased by 4k)… so this can come from that mini-grant for the teachers… Lorrie Kruger emphasizes that everyone was behind it in principal and there is no reason to make them eat the cost… John indicates that he agrees… that if the cost had been presented as 600 initially the membership would still have approved the expense. Someone asks WHY we didn’t know the correct cost to begin with. Dawn Rhea explains that Ruth was given the cost of the postcards and she incorrectly assumed that included the cost of postage, but it did not and the postage is where the additional expense came in. Jenny Odlum expresses she is hesitant to take any money from the teachers and asks if we can find the money elsewhere? Lorrie Kruger says she is open to suggestions and more discussions go round about the budget items… Principal Gaynor suggests that we can take funds from the walking club from 500 down to 200 and explains that 200 is enough for ‘do dads’ she uses the money on.

Amy Shein: brings up that in her PTA Training it was emphasized that while savings are nice to have… they also came about by a lot of hard work from PTA Members and it’s there to SPEND… so rather than look to take away from funds already allocated for worthy causes, we might look to use more savings.

Principal Gaynor: re-emphasizes that the monies allocated for walking club are truly only used for ‘tchatchke’s’ and she does not need 500 dollars worth, 200 will suffice. Someone else mentioned that if that is the case, amending the budget line to alter the walking club might be the best idea given we just had an ‘emergency’ come up with regard to the Recess Initiative and that savings may need to be tapped again in the future…

Lorrie: calls for a vote by show of hands to amend the budget taking 300 from walking club and moved to the line item for the Capital Project to cover the postage. Passed by 2/3 vote.

Robocalls for Capital Project:

Lorrie: Begins by explaining this item is different in that this was not voted on before.. The previous item had been approved, but the amount itself ended up being inaccurate… This item was NOT voted on before… In Ruth’s absence, Lorrie Kruger is putting it up for a vote to reimburse Ruth… On the day of the Capital Project vote, Ruth made the decision to put together a robo-call in an effort to get out the vote. She went ahead and did a robo-call for a ‘yes’ stand from the PTA… Cost of the robocall was 93 dollars… Lorrie Kruger jumped right in to suggest that we use the miscellaneous line item from the budget that has not yet been touched this year (200 dollars misc. expenses)… Jenny Odlum: mentions remembering we had approved/discussed doing a phone tree vs robo call… Lorrie Krugerasserts that yes, this was Ruth’s decision… Questions concerning the robocalls: Who did the robocalls go to? Where did the list/names come from as to who to call? What did the message say? Linda Balloqui-Smith: thinks it was a late in the day call to remind people to get out there to get out the vote based on people who had not come out yet… Jenny Odlum: wasn’t one of the reasons we decided to go with a phone tree b/c there was a question as to if it is even legal to do a robo-call ? Didn’t we say at the previous meeting that we shouldn’t do it? Someone had asserted at the previous meeting that legally we can’t do a robo-call as an organization b/c of non-profit status?… More debating the issue. While it is obvious that many people approve the hard work Ruth and the rest of the Get out the vote for the Capital Project Team did a great job and their hard work is much appreciated, the decision to go about doing the robo-call was inappropriate and handled wrong. Several other people assert that it may not have been handled in a strictly ‘by the book’ manner, the general principal that the PTA was behind the vote was being upheld. Jennie doesn’t think that authorizing monies for something that wasn’t come to appropriately is the right decision … Someone else asserts that this would be a poor precedent to set forth and what’s to stop someone in the future from just going ahead with decisions that reflect PTA Membership without obtaining PTA support for that specific decision … John agrees that it was mismanaged and not handled appropriately. Someone else suggests that with so many unanswered questions in Ruth’s absence we could defer the vote… Several people concur… However, rather than defer the vote, Lorrie Kruger determines we should just vote now with the information we have. She suggests Ruth can always come back in at a future meeting to discuss her decision and answer further questions.

Lorrie: calls for a vote to amend the budget taking the money from the miscellaneous line and moving it to the Capital Project line… by show of hands, the vote does not pass by 2/3 vote.

Ride the Reading Wave:

Principal Gaynor and Barbara Shoemaker: Discussed the reading initiative… They are going to go with a ‘Tropical Theme’… participants who read (and parents are encouraged to read and submit their names as well this year) will have their names submitted in a hat and selected names will be invited to come up and dance a ‘hula’ with Principal Gaynor. We need help/parents to work with Barbara Shoemaker to count up the books that have been read…. Someone asks if this is help that can be provided from someone’s home or do we need to come to the school to help count the books… Barbara Shoemaker indicates she can send slips home to be counted…. Lorrie Krugerand Nora Mercier both volunteer to help count the books.

Fundraising Committee:

Lorrie: Forming a fundraiser committee… We need to start it for next year… Sally Foster is already set up next week to prepare for next year. Any time anyone wants to join is fine… It can be ANYTHING you want it to be… It doesn’t have to be Sally Foster or Entertainment books… The only stipulations are there should be at least TWO big money makers and you need to run the fundraisers by Principal Boyd and Principal Gaynor to make sure it’s a good idea and ok in principle for the school to get behind it….

Liz: mentions a program popular in California where you get a percentage for buying products from Amazon, etc… Great ideas… join the committee! Linda Balloqui-Smith says she will be on the committee.

Lorrie: Under the umbrella of the fundraising committee is how to go about figuring out how to spend money on the budget allocated for school supplies… At least one teacher and several parents should come together to figure out WHAT we are going to buy to distribute amongst the classes. .. we have a line item for this budget… Principal Boyd explains that the amount allocated, when broken down, amounts to one dollar per child… Part of PTA requirements also state that it needs to be something all the children can benefit from… 20 dollars per classroom of stuff… HOW do we go about doing this so that all the money is accounted for… Someone suggests just giving the money to each teacher, but Barbara Shoemaker shares her experience that this just doesn’t provide for accountability… that not all teachers will itemize and present receipts for what they choose to purchase for their classes… Trying to get volunteers to address the needs of every single teacher and then take on getting the supplies presents further problems… and for what amounts to 20 dollars per room… Perhaps the funds are better off going to Teacher Grants?

The discussion about the matter of helping out families as recently discussed on RedHookMoms comes up... Principal Boyd and Principal Gaynor discussed the matter with the Nurses… (the matter of the snow pants…) it’s a sensitive issue… a privacy issue… a cleanliness issue… etc… This discussion, so complex, petered out in the meeting… it probably ultimately needs to be done via word of mouth…

Jenny Odlum volunteers to be on this committee for School Supplies… (subsection of Fundraising?)…

John: looking at this… we need to solicit volunteers to join the fundraiser committee and the budget committee… Lorrie Kruger will do an e-mail blast looking for volunteers…

Back to issue of children without outside equipment… Someone suggests maybe we can do a swap at the ice cream social… anything left over can be donated… Amy Shein: suggesting PTA acct. at the Kid Shoppe with the leftovers… We’ll discuss further trying to tie this into the fall for early next year.

Science Fair:

Science fair… looking to finish off the last minute mtgs to set it up… need to talk to the principals… and Slater… the night of the science fair itself we’ll need help with food… setting up and breaking down… There will be a day putting packets together on a day before … Julie Meyers will help with that as will Jennie Stockum. She’ll need someone also to make copies and get them into the teacher’s slots…

Stories by the swings:

Barbara Shoemaker: Money for stories by the swings… Barbara Shoemaker brought up that we might want to continue stories by the swings and add back in the open library during the summer as well now that the construction is over… Principal Gaynor will be asking for some summer enrichment programs.. rolling it into open library…

Lorrie: JUST the executive committee did the budget for this year… We could set it up so there is a representative from the various committee’s (fundraising/budget)… One long mtg for the budget was too stressful… we should do more little mtgs … Budget has to be proposed in APRIL this year and give 30 day notice and vote on the budget for next year at the MAY mtg… (NO June Mtg this year)

Nominating committee:

Lorrie: What is it? Two elected officers… Jen Norris and Jen Munn… and we need three people from membership to also join the committee… there have to be five people… We get together and scour the school and parents for officers resigning… For those on the executive board… it’s their choice to give notice… It’s a word of mouth thing to get people …

Lorrie Krugerannounces she is going to finish the school year but will not be finishing out the two year term… the nominating committee needs to look for a new PRES by the march mtg… and give names of people we’ve talked to and looked at and who are thinking about it… March present… April suggest who it’s going to be… and May is to vote in the new President. That’s the only position right now... Nora Mercier volunteered to join Jen M and Jen N on the nominating committee… (two more needed)

Call to adjourn: Nora… seconded by Dawn Rhea.