PTO Meeting Minutes 2-12-07

Attendees: Lina Mraz, Sandy Sivertsen, Amy Watkins, Pang Moua, Tonya Allen, Tracy Corwin, Mixay Phomn, Tom Bohm, Henry Yang, Jose Jesus Sandoval, Maria Garcia, Pai Vu, Kim Winkelman, Julie Linder and Todd Tischer

Principal’s Report: Todd Tischer

February 13 th is the 100 th day of school.

Climb Theatre has been here teaching character education.

February is “I Love to Read Month.” The theme is Reading Down the River.

February 15 th is the kick-off of the Running Start Program for 1 st grade.

February 20 th is picture re-take day.

There is no school Friday, February 16 th or Monday, February 19 th.

March 1 st is Read Across America Family Literacy Night from 5:30p-7:00p here at GC.

*There will be guest readers.

* Students will receive a RIF book.

* Sponge Bob will be here.

* There will be crafts.

* There will be tips for parents on reading with kids in English, Spanish and Hmong.

Preliminary planning for next year is underway. One change is that Mr. Wieser and Ms. Shannon will be doing a teaching loop. Ms. Shannon will move with her current 3 rd graders to 4 th grade next year. Mr. Wieser will move down to 3 rd grade next year and then move with them to 4 th grade the following year.

Family Project Gathering: Tonya Allen, Sandy Sivertsen, Pang Moua and Todd Tischer

The first Family Gathering was Thursday, February 8 th. We had 23 families and 60 kids.

Only K-2 families are being targeted at this time.

It was a successful night. Families expressed their concerns, thoughts, and what they wanted to see happen at GC.

They hope to meet monthly.

A list was compiled of what the different language groups discussed.

The next Family Project Gathering is Thursday, March 8 th from 5:30 – 7:00p.

Volunteer Coordinator Report: Julie Linder

In January we documented just over 230 volunteer hours.

Domino’s Pizza Night is this Thursday, February 22 nd. Order Dominos and give them the certificate that is going home in Wednesday envelopes this week. For every order they receive from GC, they will give PTO $2.00.

The next Parent Volunteer Work Day is Friday, February 23 rd from 9:30 – 11:30a. All parents are welcome to come to school and visit with other parents while working on projects for staff.

Carnival Planning Meeting: Pang Moua

The first planning meeting will be on February 26 th at 4:30p in the staff lounge here at GC.

We are looking for ideas for games and food. All are welcome to come and help plan the event.

The carnival will take place on Friday, May 4 th.

Treasurer’s Report: Kim Winkelman

We did not charge tax at the book fair. It would have been very difficult to do so. PTO will end up paying the tax out of the profit because we are not a tax exempt PTO. Next year more pennies are needed for book fair as most items required a penny change.

Comments regarding book fair:

The Media Center staff was concerned about how much space was used. All the tables were used and the small group area, so groups had to be turned away for the duration of the book fair.

Many students were in the midst of doing research projects and that was interrupted.

The Media Center staff found it very difficult to monitor students who were in looking for library books. Some were confused by the book fair books and wanted to check them out.

It was felt that we didn’t get as much traffic this year by having it in the Media Center. The gym is more centrally located.

Many kids came without parents. It was difficult to monitor them.

The lunch event did bring in some traffic. 35 people came for lunch on February 5 th.

Tonya Allen looked into Books Are Fun for next year. It can be negotiated to have them man the fair. They will also customize the fair to fit the schools needs. Scholastic seems to have lots of “extra” items and we want to focus just on books. Scholastic also had some pricey items that were beyond what our families can afford.

Fundraising : Kim Winkelman and Amy Watkins

Club’s Choice spring sale will kick-off before spring break. It is a low pressure sale without prizes.

Volunteers will be needed the day product is delivered. There is no room to store items for families. They must pick up their orders on May 17 th.

A spring plant sale was brought up. In the past it was felt they are too expensive. People would comment that they can get plants for half the price at Cub or Home Depot. Kim will contact Malmborgs about having a day where GC families could shop and a percent of the profit would go to our PTO.

Amy wants to find a way to make collecting pop cans at GC happen.

Tonya Allen brought up Applebee’s and their Saturday morning pancake fundraisers. Kim said she checked with the BC location and it’s hard to get in.

Tonya also brought up Market Day – they come in once a month with food items for sale.

Sandy Sivertsen brought up personalized cake pans. She has a contact who might be willing to work with us.

Sandy S. brought up that Garrison Keiller might be willing lend a hand with fundraising for us. Deb Hilstom brought this up when she was in to read. Sandy will try to talk to him when he is in on February 15 th.

Other:

Amy brought up Art Adventure. Volunteers were trained at the Mpls Institute of Art. They will then go into classrooms with art examples and talk to the students about seeing art, what it means to them. They are looking for volunteers to “shadow” this year’s volunteers so they can help next year. Contact Amy Watkins if interested.

Pang is working on a letter to send to area businesses for donations to carnival and the Family Project.

Tonya Allen talked about a project the Rush Creek Elementary students are doing. They are collecting shoe laces in remembrance of the Jews whose shoes and laces were taken during the Holocaust. They are asking all the schools in the district to help them. There will be a bucket in the entryway to donate shoe laces. They can be old/used laces.