Helman Elementary PTA

March 2016 General Meeting Minutes

Date, Time, Location: Tuesday March 1, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

Meeting called to order by Sheri Cellini at 6:10 p.m.

Attendance: Sean Smith, Jessica Bendaw Avril Betoushana, Sheri Cellini, Yoko Hendrix, Arianna Van Heusen, Becky Sniffen, Mark Sherbow, Mia Driscoll

There are 9 in attendance and a quorum was reached.

Minutes: Meeting minutes from 2/2/16 were read and approved with no changes.

Open Items:

Talent Show- given via email by Stacey Poole

• Dress rehearsal is Wed. March 9^th with spaced out call times.
• There will Not be a pizza party this year
• Looking into borrowing lighting from OSF, to be determined
• Selling Helman tee shirts: Arianna will man the table to sell an hour before the event.
• Event takes place Friday March 11^th at 6:00 p.m.
• The event process seems to be running more smoothly this year. There is also discussion about who will transition into the parent coordinator position next year.

EA Appreciation Week- given by Mia Driscoll

• Takes place next Tuesday the 8th.
• A strong plan has been created and many thanks to PTA for their financial support!

Science Fair- given by Sheri Cellini via email from Daisy Herring

• Scienceworks Assembly takes place on March 18^th
• Science Fair takes place on April 14^th
• Herring family would like to give a short 5-7 minutes presentation about the event to each classroom the week students return from spring break. They want “Henry the Dragon” to accompany them. Avril has volunteered to dress up as “Henry”. This all will happen on Wednesday the 30^th starting at 8:20 a.m. sharp. Tips for Henry- he Does Not speak and needs to be accompanied by 2 adults on either side.
• They would also like to be informed on which classrooms will be submitting class projects so they can have additional space and ribbons. Mia will get an informal count at the staff meeting of classrooms participating and email Daisy.

Mayfaire- given by Becky Sniffen

• Becky will contact Alan Harper for help on Mayfaire.
• Auction committee is up and running, helpers include: Arianna Van Heusen, Sheila Jarvis, Jenn Rogers, Lauren Jones and Kim
• Donations are being solicited and collected.
• Sheri will email Becky a list of parents to contact for donations and purchasing. Personal contacts are the best places to solicit donations
• Strongly desiring “experiential” donations- tickets to events, trip packages, etc.
• Needing a volunteer to run the “pick-a-party” portion of the event.
• Needing a volunteer to work with Kat Gould on the petting zoo. We need someone who could transition into running the petting zoo next year, as Kat will be moving on next year.
• Prize committee continues to work hard at cleaning and sorting toy donations. Looking for “high” ticket items.
• Needing food vendors. Some ideas for food vendors are crepes, Sam the gyro guy or Roxy’s empanadas. Check into food vendors at the Farmer’s market. They get 90% of their sales.
• First meeting of parent classroom reps is this Monday the 7^th.
• Photo booth is being considered and upping the charge to 2 tokens.

Yearbook Club–

• 16 students were there but there is consideration to limit the group to less than 10 students.
• The first meeting was an informational meeting; permission slips were passed out to be returned in order to be admitted into the group.
• Some ground rules were laid, such as a strict rule against looking at any other websites other than TreeRing, the yearbook website
• Feedback from students- needs better crowd control; should be limited to 5^th
• Needing 2 additional parent volunteers to assist.
• The yearbook club will meet through the month of March. Deadline to make the yearbook available is May 20^th. The deadline for yearbook completion is April 22^nd.
• Sean will email the id and password for the site to Sheri by Monday as well as create another editor for the account.

PTA gift to teachers-

• Teachers thought this idea very thoughtful and will discuss ideas. Michelle will get back to the board on their suggestions.

50^th Anniversary Update– given by Sheri Cellini

• PTA gave their input on the tee shirt design. Suggests taking off the date 2016 and leaving “est. 1966” and “50 years”. We prefer the dragon without wings.
• Student Council should have input on the design and give feedback to Michelle.

Garden/ Sandbox Update- given by Mia Driscoll

• The tarp was stolen off the sandbox. Mia bought a new one and is brainstorming how to stop this from happening again
• Peas have been planted and garlic is growing well in the playground garden boxes.
• Put a request in the newsletter for parents who are waiting to pick up their children, to pick some weeds in the garden areas throughout the school grounds. This used to be done by Josey, our janitor who has since retired.

 

Old Business

OBOB wrap up- given by Sheri Cellini

• One team from Helman is going to regionals; Sheri will investigate to see if they are receiving tee shirts for their accomplishment.
• From talking to some coaches, there was “pressure” from some coaches to others to “mock battle”. Mock battles are a choice and there should not be negative pressuring between coaches and teams to make them happen. This detail should be communicated next year.
• Some books seemed a bit inappropriate, negative feedback from 4^th-5^th graders not enjoying some books. Some books seemed “dark” for 3^rd
• Sheri made a suggestion to write to OBOB about creating questions that follow “core standards” rather than being based on “photographic memory”
• Teachers are having continued conversation during staff meetings about how to better facilitate team practices in the classroom areas. Teachers are strongly questioning how OBOB impacts their classroom time and space and IF this should be an event that continues. Some details that need to change in order for this to continue include a student/parent and coach participation agreement that would be signed by participants as well as clearly communicated and implementing rules and codes of conduct during team practices during classroom hours and on school grounds.

Soundboards-

• The school district maintenance department does not want them.
• Habitat for Humanity will be contacted to pick them up.
• We still have a strong need for the appropriate acoustic boards in the cafeteria. Michelle needs to speak to Gary Sisk, head of maintenance in the school district, asking him to assess and order exactly what we need. PTA will fund this when we are fully informed. In the mean time, Mia will look into more tack strips being added to the walls for hanging art, which is also much needed in the cafeteria.

Helman Bike Fleet- given by Mark Sherbow

• 37 bikes have been repaired, however two wheels are bent. Mark is asking for $60 extra dollars over what was given for the bike fleet project.
• Mia moves to take $60 from “Pilot Project #3” to give for the remaining repairs, leaving $240 in “Pilot Project #3”. Becky seconds the motion. All in favor, no opposition, the motion passes.
• Mark is asking for parent volunteers to help in cleaning out the bike shed of mold that is accumulating on bike seats and handlebars. He is having an aid and students work on it next week but it is an ongoing problem of the storage facility of the bikes.

 

 

Next meeting is at 6pm April 5th 2016 in the school library

 

Meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. by Sheri Cellini

 

Minutes compiled by Jessica Bendaw, Recording Secretary