Tiger Cubs
PTO
Tiger Cubs PTO
January 12, 2010
Meeting Minutes
Present:
Michelle Erb, Becky Livo, Heidi Zejic-Eckland, Mrs. Lewis, Diny Reyes, Dennis Klein, Christie Cone, Danielle Stanley,
Lauryn Lebsock, Patty Cunningham, Susan Sonnenberg, Aylyssa DeSoto, Sandie Herzberg, Mary Nelson, Barbara Nelson, Mary Anderson,
Cliff(Chuck) Lewis , Angela Anderson, Michelle Long, Sandra Cardenas, Michelle Kaiser, Kris Grauberger,
Nena Russell, Jessica Haley, Annie Shalla, Candie Farquhar, Tanya Ramey.
I. Welcome & Introductions: Candie Farquhar welcomed all to the meeting and thanked attendees
for their time. We were very pleased to see the number of attendees.
Guest Speaker:
We had the privilege of having Heidi Zejic-Eckland from the RE-1 Foundation to open the meeting. She shared
with us that the foundation was created to provide funding for district programs and activities
which are beyond the State of Colorado's budgetary support of the public schools in our district. The Foundation’s mission
is to enhance the educational experience of the students within the RE-1 Valley School District. They have partnered
with DonorsChoose.org. The Foundation is providing a 50% match offer, which will activate automatically
when RE-1 Valley teachers submit projects online. Anytime a citizen philanthropist donates to a project
the Foundation will double the amount that is given to the project, with a maximum of $5000 towards the partnership for the
academic year. Encouragement was given to teacher to participate in the program. You
may find more information at their website: www.re1valleyfoundation.org
II.
December Minutes: Michelle Erb shared copies of the minutes from December’s meeting which were reviewed by those
in attendance. Chuck had a question on last month’s meeting in regard to the debit card.
In review, the debit card was stolen on Dec. 3, a police report was filed. The card was reported
stolen to the bank, we are being credited back the fraudulent charges. When asked if the PTO will press
charges against the person responsible the board responded yes. There is also a video of the person in
question using the card which the police are looking into. A motion to accept the minute was made with
Cindy accepted the motion and Mrs. Herzberg 2nd the motion.
III. Treasure Report:
Annie shared the standings on the PTO accounts. Overall total for all the bank accounts is: $67, 858.85.
The account labeled S2-Ayres with $7,606.71 is the playground account fund. They money from the
IRS penalty that was cleared has not been moved over and will be done soon after payment for the school planners is made due
to the funding coming from this account. Once the money is moved to the Ayres playground fund it cannot be used for any other
purpose than playground equipment. The Checking account is at $34,291. A. Annie then asked for the board’s approval to pay the following outstanding bills:
NJC for printing of directories, Advertising for Christmas Craft fair, rent payment on the PO Box all totaling $162.51, all
were in favor with no opposes.B. Also requested were payments to the RIF account for Ayres School. They have made payment to the vendors
but not received payment from PTO. Annie, Dennis, Cindy, and Sue discussed the payment amount and procedure
which was unheard by some of the other members. Michelle Erb requested clarification to get the amounts
by the treasurer but those requests have not been responded to at this time. Another payment needing to
be made was for a school microphone. The purchase was needed for use with the school programs, they are
asking for a check made to Ayres for the cost of $219 to cover the cost of the microphone which was discussed and approved
in the financial request meetings. Annie and the schools are working on the totals and Dennis Klein
will look into getting the invoices on the Campbell’s school planners as well. We will need the invoices
in order to issue the payments. C. There was a question on what all the NSF charges were for on the accounts and it was clarified that these were non-sufficient
checks written for purchasing items during the Fall Fundraiser. These are not NSF checks that the PTO has
written. A motion to accept the treasurers’
report was made with Dennis accepting the motion and Sue 2nd the motion. All were in favor.
IV. 2009-2010 Working Committees:
A. Fall Fundraiser: A message was sent out to all Campbell parents/guardians using the school messenger system
that stated that if there were any discrepancies with your order to please contact us by January 13th as we are
wanting the fundraiser to come to an end. Jacie has stepped in to help with the finalizing of this.
There was an agreement that we will not be placing more orders to correct them and have started issuing refunds.
Thank you to Dennis Klein for recording the phone message for the PTO.
B. Clarification was also made on the amount made from the fundraiser. It was presented to
us in Novembers meeting by the treasures that the total made by the fundraiser was $36,518.96, Annie provided us with a correction
in the total being $38,481.34. We had issued refunds totaling $181 so far and NSF checks and fees totaling
$223. Believe Kids has sent us an invoice for payment of $21,475 leaving us a net profit of $16,985.
With all of the difficulties that were with the fall fundraiser Michelle Kaiser is writing a letter to Believe Kids
in asking that they provide a discount to us for all the troubles we have had therefore the total profit number might change.
This leaves the fall budget a little off but with the money saved with the Christmas Celebration costs we have room
to make the necessary adjustments and cover the difference.
C.
It was asked who the company used for the
fundraiser Believe Kids has treated us. We responded that they have been very helpful in trying to make
things right with us and the customers. We were not charged for any replacement orders and they are continuing
to help us out with any information or questions we may have. Asked if the parents have treated the PTO
well in regards to the problems it was responded by Candie that they are angry and upset as most of these items were to be
used as Christmas gifts and we can understand their frustration, however most in general were kind and thanked us for keeping
on top of the situation. The PTO is thinking of selling left over cookie dough and extra items at the teacher
conferences for half price.
D. Box Tops/ Campbell Soup Labels: The collection
kickoff has started again and will have a final collection date of 2-3-10 to guarantee that they can be collected, processed
and mailed of to receive the money in April. Ice cream cups with toppings will be provided to the winning
classes. The dates for these parties are to be arranged. Thank you to all the teachers
who remind the students to collect these during class time.
E. Classroom Directories: Annie
completed the classroom directories and they
were distributed to the schools on Friday 1-8-10. A total of $310 was collected for directories with a
cost of $46.00 for printing by NJC printing department. This gave us a net profit of $236.85.
V.
New
Business:
A.
Field Trip Grant: Michelle Kaiser shared with us that a while back she had applied for a grant for 2nd grade field trips through
Target stores. She recently received word that we received the grant and it totaled $800. During
the grant process it had to be specified what the money would be used for. Thank you Michelle Kaiser for
your hard work and accomplishment for this grant!!
B.
Printing
Cutbacks: It was discussed that due to the cost and results
of trying to get parents to attend the meetings, we will not be sending home meeting reminder notes. The
schools graciously add our meeting information to the newsletters, calendars, marquee boards out front, and a link to our
website from the schools website. To view upcoming meeting dates and other information you can visit www.tigercubspto.org. We will be sending one
more reminder note home next month and it will mention the changes.
C.
Direction
of the PTO: At this time the PTO board
is currently looking for parents to come forward who would be interested in serving on the board. Right
not we currently do not have any volunteers for this. We also do not have much parental participation at
the meetings. It is asked that the teachers help mention to their room parents that if they are interested
in volunteering to come forward and attend a meeting or contact an officer. A suggestion was also made
to include everything the PTO helps provide to the students and schools which are at risk if we don’t have involvement.
Items such as field trips, help with RIF events, educational materials and assemblies.
· Michelle Long made a suggestion to which they ask 5 of their parents
to attend a meeting one month and another five another month, that way parents wouldn’t feel overwhelmed and committed
to something but are still volunteering and supporting decisions that affect their children as students.
Another consideration was to get the room mom/dad to sign up to attend the meetings.
·
Christie made suggestion
for more advertising in the newspapers and spots on the radio to increase the word of the work the PTO does. Not
only will this get the word out but will spotlight some information on giving back to the community which would get more involved.
·
Ms. Stanley suggested
that we be present at the back to school night and conferences to also provide information and recruit parents.
We did do this during the back to school night and did receive parents signing up to volunteer on committees.
This would be worth doing again for conferences as well.
· Cindy also reminded us of trying to us the Cash
for Class incentive. We did review this in a previous meeting during a presentation from Michelle Kaiser
in regards to the Fall Budget. Everyone was reminded this was approved and we will move forward with it.
D. Reviewing By-Laws: The executive board is currently reviewing the bylaws.
Heidi Zejic-Eckland also stated that her foundation spent much time with reviewing and changing their bylaws and would
like to offer any help to the PTO if needed. Some things that the board feels the need to be reviewed are: ·
The term limits for
serving on the board as some would like to come back but the bylaws state a term limit of 2 years.
· We are not looking into splitting the Board up into two separate PTOs
rather than keeping one united PTO and have a representative for each school. For example we have two co-chairs.
One will represent Ayres School while the other will be a representative for Campbell school.
· Also being looked into is number of votes a grade level will get.
For example: if 5 teachers show up from the same grade level, they would only get one vote not 5. Some
think that parents are discouraged from coming to the meeting because they are outnumbered by teachers. If a teacher was also
a parent they would get a vote counted as well. By allowing 1 vote for each grade level will allow for the voices to be heard
but will not overwhelm the parents from speaking up. Other reasons include that this will also provide
protection to each school from having the other school show up on large numbers to outvote the other. Not everyone is in agreement with this suggestion. Others feel that this would be discriminating
against the board who take their valuable time to attend these meetings for the students. Feelings are
also shared that this might discourage teachers and staff members from attending these meetings if every vote is not counted.
This was a very passionate discussion that at times became heated which
left a lot of questions at the end; it was reminded to attendees that we are all here for one goal: the students.
It cannot
be a PTO without parents or teachers………… “Parent Teacher Organization”
E. Spring fundraiser: Michelle Kaiser will be doing the fundraiser for the PTO in the spring
which will be held at Ayres. Vendors are still being selected.
F. 1st grade personalized books: Wendy Smithgall asked us to consider the purchasing
of the 1st grade personalized books. Unfortunately the costs have gone up from $500 to $1000
due to low business sponsorships. This item is usually on the spring budget. It was
concluded that this expense will be looked at after the results of the spring fundraiser that way we will know the numbers
we have to work with for the spring budget
VI.
Candie thanked
everyone attending and expressing thoughts and concerns. Next meeting is February 9th 6PM @
Campbell School. Meeting was adjourned at 7:36 P.M.
“There
are so many, many projects and needs all of which are valid and important. But, to avoid any misunderstandings the PTO
Budget Committee wanted to remind staff and administration to please not assume that even though a project may have been funded
in the past does not mean that it will continue to be funded ongoing. Please bring any of those needs to the PTO meeting
for approval prior to making plans or ordering items. If it is an annual need, please bring it to the meetings on an
annual basis….”
