September 15, 2014 PTO meeting minutes and slides

Waukee Elementary/Vince Meyer Learning Center

       PTO Meeting – Monday, September 15th, 2014

Agenda:

Welcome and Introductions

• Programs and Committee updates
• Budget Update
• Dates to Remember
• Questions/Comments

In attendance: 17 parents and 2 teachers

Welcome and Introductions

This was the first official PTO meeting for the year.  LuCinda Beltman, VP for this year’s PTO, introduced herself and asked others to do the same sharing the student(s) they had attending WE and/or VMLC and their teachers’ names.

Program and Committee Updates

Committee updates were provided by each committee chair.  

Activities: This committee plans Family Fun Night and Movie Night.  

• Movie Night will be held on November 14th and will be similar to last year where we’ll serve popcorn and water.  Students can wear their PJs and bring blankets to “camp out” on the gym floor to watch the movie and enjoy a snack.  
• Family Fun Night planning is underway with the date set at Saturday, February 7th. We will have a basket raffle with themes by grade level as in prior years.  We are also planning some activities for the families.  More information will be coming as additional details are finalized.
• The group is still looking for a co-chair, so please let Alysha Mash or LuCinda Beltman know if you are interested or want to learn more.  

Book Fair: The book fair will take place during the second conference session running Feb 25-March 5.  The book fair will be held in the Waukee Elementary media center.  

Conference Meals: We are hoping Hy-Vee will be catering the fall conference meal for teachers and are waiting to hear back from them.  We will be asking parents to help donate snacks and drinks.

Fine Arts: Again this year, students will be attending live performances at either the Temple Theatre for the Performing Arts or the Civic Center.  The shows by grade level and dates of attendance are as follows:

Grade	Show	Date
Kindergarten	Stella, Queen of Snow Two children discover the world of winter in this charming story told through whimsical puppetry.  Adapted from the award-winning STELLA and SAM books	Nov. 6th
1st Grade/2nd Grade	Peking Acrobats Based on the ancient Chinese tradition from more than 2,000 years ago, the Peking Acrobats perform astounding acrobatic feats accompanied by live music.  This group holds a world record for balancing 6 people on 6 chairs, 21-feet high.	Feb. 12th
3rd Grade	Schoolhouse Rock Live! Megahits like “Conjunction Junction”, “Just a Bill”, “Interplanet Janet”, and “Three is a Magic Number” explode onto the stage for a whole new generation.	Nov. 4th
4th Grade	Adventures of Robin Hood In a forest somewhere near you, a band of brothers seeks to rid the land of evil and return hope to the poorly treated.  Fire up student imaginations with this clever and unexpected take on Robin Hood.	May 20th
5th Grade	Peking Acrobats	Feb. 13th

In addition to these shows, we have the option of purchasing some additional activities for the Stella, Queen of Snow show at $100 per classroom.  We will be exploring this to see if this option to determine if it’s worth the added cost.  

Fundraising: This year, we will have two different fundraising options in the packets.  We will have a Save Around booklet with local coupons as well as the traditional Club’s Choice.  The Save Around booklets will be delivered through students within 10 days of placing the order.  For the Club’s Choice orders, we will have a pickup night on Wednesday, November 12th.  The packets will go home with students on September 26th and will be due on October 6th.   

Gardening: No update this meeting.  We are still working toward creating the reading garden going (space behind the kindergarten and art room). We hope to break ground soon, and then in the spring, we will plant flowers with the special needs students.  

Membership: This committee coordinates school supply kits and district wide directories.  For the directories, please go online to enter information if you want to be included.  Funds raised go to the District office to pay for cost of high school conference meals and new school startup funds.

Party planning: We are doing group party planning again this year.  We have contacted teachers to see what’s worked best to include in the parties/what’s not worked.  Once ideas are in, we’ll form a grand plan for each grade and coordinate with the head parent for each grade.  The head party planner will then be asked about sharing ideas to put together a party for each grade level.  This approach ensures all supplies are collected before the parties, brings consistency within the grade levels, and allows for group purchasing of supplies.

There will also be a letter sent to parents who volunteered to work parties.  This letter will be sent next Monday, the 22nd.  Again this year, we will facilitate gathering party supplies via sign-up genius.  This request will be coming via email from your student’s teacher.

In addition, classroom directories will also be sent out soon for each class which lists student family contact information by classroom.

Teacher Appreciation: Instead of doing teacher treats this year, the PTO decided to purchase teacher “Leader In Me” books for all teachers.  This will help them facilitate the student learning of the leadership concepts in the book.

Yearbook: Beginning to work on a rough layout for the yearbooks.  Like last year, teachers will be able to upload their own photos

Program Updates:

• Box tops – Last year, we collected $2861.90 worth in box tops via two collection turn-in times.  We should receive a check for the remaining amount of just over $2,000 this December.  Please send in your box tops, or you can save them for an upcoming competition between classes.  More info to come on this.  
• Labels for Education – We are collecting these labels on foods, mostly Campbells.  Last year we earned 45,000 points, and with what we had from before, used 51,000 points to buy things for teachers (art supplies, recess equip, etc.) based on what teachers included on their wish lists.   
• Pizza Ranch, Tyson, Sunny D – no update

Budget Update:

We have a budget of $8408 for the year.  The budgeted amounts by committee are as follows:

Committee	Budgeted Amount
Activities	$3,210
Book Fair	$850
Conference Meals	$500
Fine Arts	$1,250
Fundraising	$100
Gardening	$300
General Fund	$568
Party Planning	$500 + asking for $3 per student
Teacher Appreciation	$1,130
TOTAL	$8,408 (plus $3/student for party costs)

Upcoming Dates:

• Fall fundraising packets home 9/26; orders due 10/6 with payments; delivery on 11/12 in gym (3:30 to 6pm)
• Fall harvest party is October 31st;  

Next PTO Meeting: Monday, 10/27 at 7pm; Before the meeting at 6:30pm, Mrs. Tjaden will be leading the first “Leader In Me” book study.

Here is the slide show for review: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-9U_5ZLNTRzWDqv19nOomFShBg6xneJhWcEP1943ZYw/edit?usp=sharing