Garfield PTA Meeting minutes
October 4, 2007
Present: Melanie Casprowiak, Jan Byers, Crystal Neil, Juan Báez, Axayacatl Brambila, Annie Boatner-Brambila, Sandie Ashland, Margit Foss, Shelli Gelbrich, Sue Helback, Mary Peterson, Lol Cooper, Kathy Harris, Mariae Hunter, Vaerine Bauder, Alicia Jacob, Heidi Garza, Sandra Panshin, Ginnie Esary, Giovanna Rosenlicht, Robin Reimer
Meeting called to order at 6:05 PM.
The Secretary’s and Treasurer’s reports were available at the meeting.
Other Treasurer business- Treasurer Crystal Neil mentioned that Oregon PTA has raised its dues per member to $7.50, however it was unclear whether this would be our complete cost per member or if there were additional expenses for the National PTA. Crystal will find out the exact cost, and dues will be collected during November’s meeting. Crystal moved that dues be raised to the amount that we will have to pay per member, Mary Peterson seconded the motion, and it was approved.
A motion was also approved stating that the members who will have access to the bank account are Crystal Neil, Heidi Garza, Sandie Ashland, and Alicia Jacob.
Principal’s report- Juan Báez reported that the new teachers from Spain have finally arrived. Cristina Daphne Martinez will be teaching music, and Maria Aranza will be teaching PE. They were hired through a program of the Oregon Department of Education, and the school participated in the screening and hiring process. Juan is excited for the opportunity to enhance the Spanish language development for students in the dual language program, and the enrichment potential for students in the English-only strand. Both teachers speak English as well as Spanish, and were interviewed in both languages.
There have been some procedural changes at the school. Students are no longer sent from the lunch line to the office if their lunch accounts are overdrawn. All students will be given lunch, and the office will contact parents who need to bring money. Also, the schedule has been changed a bit to give kids more time to eat their lunch without being rushed.
The Site Council is being re-formed this year! It will be small at first, to get things firmly established. It may expand in the future. The principal plus two staff members will be on the site council. At least one staff member will be a Spanish speaker. There are two openings for parent members. One parent should be a Spanish speaker, the other an English speaker. It is important to Juan that the site council be balanced and representative of the school. Interested parents should contact Juan to join.
All parents are also invited to come to the school tomorrow morning to meet with the principal and share ideas about the school. Light refreshments will be provided.
Juan is interested in increasing parent involvement at the school. He would like to hear from a diverse group of parents and would like for more parents to have a voice in the educational process. He will be seeking input from parents in a variety of ways to reach as many different people as possible. He is also looking in to having a parent liaison on staff.
The school is also helping to start a Lego Robotics team this year. The school is providing some funding for the group, and scholarships are available for kids who want to participate and can’t afford the cost.
Playground report- Phase II playground equipment has been installed! Rubber tiles for the ground will be installed this weekend. Some equipment was delayed and should arrive tomorrow. There is also some cement work that will need to be done that the school district will take care of. Volunteers are needed to install the rubber tiles, and on Friday, El Sol de México will be providing dinner to volunteers. HP has also contributed volunteers.
Although the PTA had previously approved additional funding toward Phase II installation, the Fall Festival calzone booth was so successful that Heidi will not need to borrow any general fund dollars! This means that all future fundraising for the playground can go towards Phases III and IV. Heidi is hoping to be able to install those phases during the summer of 2008.
Upcoming fundraisers- Crystal is the chair of the Gecko Run, which will take place on October 9th and 10th during students’ PE times. The dates in the newsletter were incorrect. Volunteers are still needed for Wednesday morning.
Alicia shared information about a possible cookie dough fundraiser. Shelli and Robin agreed to co-chair, and it was scheduled for November.
Heidi will coordinate Papa’s Pizza fundraisers in December and in the spring.
First Alternative offers two ways for people to contribute to schools: everyone can round their purchase to the nearest dollar, with the remainder going to the school of their choice, and members can have their dividends donated to a school as well.
Verizon will also give us money every time somebody who signs up for a new contract mentions Garfield PTA.
We would like to increase the visibility and effectiveness of our scrip program. Matt Ashland has been running the program by himself, and would need help for it to grow. Sue Helback started a sign-up sheet to form a scrip committee.
Upcoming events- Sandra reports that the book fair will take place on October 18, 19, 22, and 23. It will be open the evening of the 19th during the Sock Hop. All proceeds will go to the school library. Volunteers are still needed for most time slots.
The Sock Hop is being coordinated by Linda and Shelli. A new DJ has been booked. Glow sticks and pizza will be sold at cost, since this is an event and not a fundraiser. There will also he a hula hoop contest. The Shellhammers are again donating root beer!
Grounds beautification will take place the morning of Oct. 20.
Staff requests for money- none at this time.
Unfinished business- Annie will take over the WAMU for kids savings program on Friday mornings.
T-shirts- The PTA has traditionally purchased a Garfield T-shirt for all students every two years. Last time, this was combined with an artist-in-residence program and kids made their own tie-dyed shirts. This year would be a “t-shirt year”; however the general fund does not yet have the money to cover the cost of the shirts. There are several fundraisers coming up, so we can discuss this later in the year.
Crossing guards- Juan is seeking parent volunteers to supervise a crossing guard program at the front of the school (in the driveway, not the street). Parents would be trained and would work with a staff member. This would free up other staff members to do enrichment activities. Interested parents should contact Barbara at the office.
New business- Ron Denning’s last day will be tomorrow. He will be returning to school to become a behavioral specialist. There will be an assembly in his honor tomorrow. He will be presented with a book made for him by the students. There was discussion about the best way for the PTA to honor Ron and thank him for his service to the school.
Giovanna Rosenlicht spoke regarding the need to reach out to parents who are not able to attend PTA meetings. She would like to send a survey to all parents to make sure that the PTA was representing the school as a whole and not just parents who were able to attend meetings. Juan contributed information about how he is working to increase parent involvement at the school, which was added to the Principal’s report. Further discussion was postponed because the meeting was running late.
Meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM.