LINGLESTOWN MIDDLE SCHOOL PTO
MINUTES FOR MEETING HELD: SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
Alexis Kierce, President – (717) 395.7361
Mary Towns, Vice President – (717) 695.9262
Michele Mixon, Treasurer – (717) 497.5637
Ann Lawson, Secretary – (717) 343.5077
CALL TO ORDER: Meeting started at 7:01 p.m.—Alexis Kierce, President welcomed everyone.
MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Alexis Kierce, Mary Towns, Michele Mixon, Ann Lawson, Mickey Termin, Lori Goldman, Kris Nieves, Renee Young, Avie Banks, Anne Marie Jacoby, Lisa Aleve (sp?), and Jeannette Zimmerman.
APPROVALOF MINUTES: None to approve as this is the first meeting of the year.
MEMBERSHIP REPORT: 248 members as of 9.17.13
TREASURER’S REPORT: $3,666.76 – beginning balance
$1,110.00 – income
$ 48.89 – expenses
$4,727.87 – ending balance as of 9.16.13
NEW BUSINESS:
A. LMS Website: The org tab at the top shows the committee chairs and PTO Board contact information.
B. Timetosignup.com—We will keep adding to this as we need money and volunteers. Principal Termin has sent out email blasts regarding the website, and we have had a huge reception. Easy to set up, easy to sign up, and it makes our lives much easier!
C. Twitter account: LMS PTO is the Twitter name. Kris Nieves, Chair of the Newsletter Committee, has agreed to manage the account for us. It is a great tool to remind kids and parents about box tops, dances, events, etc. We will keep it generic to the PTO so it can stay with PTO. Principal Termin agrees that the world is communicating this way, and he gives his approval to start this account. He will check internally to make sure it’s not problematic for us to have an account. Principal will email Alexis with the approval or disapproval once sought. A suggestion was made for a possible Facebook account. Principal Termin feels that Twitter is our first step. Once that is set up, and running smoothly, we can explore a Facebook account.
D. Committee Chairs: All Committees chairs are now full! Alexis will send out an email blast thanking them for joining, and will mention some items that are brought up this evening. In the same email, committee chairs will receive all the volunteer information for their respective committee.
E. Monthly Events: Mrs. Young, Mr. Termin and Alexis Kierce met over the summer, and trying to come up with something different to do each month with the PTO. We want to do more than fundraisers every month—mix it up a bit—dances, donations, charity walks, etc.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. Dance (Sandy Simmons)—Not much involved with these. PTO chaperons only; we do not collect money, make food or anything else. First dance is Friday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m. Need 10 volunteers to help and Sandy will contact her volunteers directly. All students are welcome to come—6th through 8th graders. The cost is $3.00 for each student to come and the snack bar will be open. A suggestion was made to have a chaperone in the coat room due to valuables that the kids bring in (purses, phones, etc.).
B. Hospitality (Bonnie Yingst)—There are only two events this year: Back to School Night and Junior Honor Society Night. No donations will be needed until the spring when Junior Honor Society Night takes place.
C. Newsletter (Kris Nieves)—They usually go out right around report card time, and they will also be up on the website under the “Organizations” tab with updates from teachers and PTO, etc.
D. Spirit Sale (Sandy Simmons & Kris Nieves)—Alexis has talked to a few companies and one of them sounds very promising. They do all the packaging individually by student’s name. The packages can be sent home with the students or it can be picked up after school like we do with subs. In the past, anything that is ordered, was put in by team name. Information will be distributed online. However, we will also have printed forms provided by the company, and give as many packets out as there are students. We are looking at the usual items: sweatshirts, t-shirts, drawstrings bags, hoodies, etc. Principal Termin brought up the school store and how often it is open. He would like to see some of those items displayed or for sale at the school store on a regular basis. There is a showcase in front of the gym that we can display items for sale. It was suggested to take pictures for the newsletter so parents can see what they look like. Principal Termin would like the PTO to yield their showcase in October for Renee Young to put her breast cancer awareness walk in the center. PTO is fine with Renee using the showcase in the center. Renee Young wants the kids to learn what the PTO is and all the good that this group does. Principal Termin wants to start making morning announcements to the kids about the can tabs and box tops, etc. It should also go in the newsletter as well. We also want to retweet these items and mix it up in the newsletter to keep it interesting.
E. Hugs (Patty Schwab)—Every Friday two parents are at every lunch time for Hugs to be handed out. Teachers give hug slips for a good deed they see a child doing. We give hugs slips for box tops too. One kiss per box top, max of five. Three kisses for a hug slip from a teacher. Renee Young would like to mix it up a little bit to make the hug slips seem more important. Perhaps give jolly ranchers out for box tops or something similar. Renee Young would like to see the teachers push it more. Alexis thinks it may get too difficult for a person who is handing out the candies on a Friday, it can be too cumbersome. Some suggestions were perhaps a pencil or erasers w/ kisses. Principal Termin would prefer that we no longer give out lollipops as they can be hazardous. Principal Termin wants to start collecting the hug slips and start tallying them to track where they are coming from to try to get the teachers to hand out more. He wants to see something come out the back end to help spur teachers to give more out. A suggestion was made of perhaps doing a monthly drawing for both the student and the teacher for a $5.00 gift card. A suggestion was also made to post the names of the hugs, however, we don’t want to do that as that would take away the anonymity of the person’s name who received the hug slip. Perhaps a monthly drawing at lunch time at the end of the month for a $5.00 gift card. Suggestion was made to have homeroom teachers talk about the Hugs program in the morning. Principal Termin and VP Hernandez would be willing to talk at the lunchroom to the students about the Hugs program. Principal Termin will also talk to the faculty about giving more of these out.
F. PAC (Christina Warfel)—Parents Advisory Committee. This is a monthly meeting that a few parents signed up for it and we will switch them around so the same person does not have to go every month.
G. 8th Grade Party (Avie Banks)—This happens at the end of the school year and we do have a committee chair.
H. Arts in Education (Bonnie Yingst)—This occurs in the springtime. Renee Young said it is not really pushed and would like to see more announcements regarding this event. Generally, there are only a couple of posters in the building. We need to do more encouraging; we need to get the attention of the parents. Perhaps we can do a parent/PTO function to get the parents involved too.
I. Staff Appreciation (Jamie Gordon/Mindy Goodman)—This event does not occur until the end of the school year. Renee Young said the teachers absolutely love it. They are used to being spoiled; every year the PTO does a great job.
J. Scholarship (Jill Tenney)—This event does not occur until the end of the school year. We give a scholarship of $500.00 to a graduating senior from Central Dauphin, who attended Linglestown Middle School. We want to increase it to a larger sum or perhaps two scholarships. There is no criteria, no checklist, no names--just which one the Judges think best deserves it. We remove the name of the student so that it is totally blind. Generally we only get 11-15 essays altogether. At the end of the year student assembly, the students are told about the scholarship. PTO Committee Chair goes to the award ceremony at the high school with the seniors to present the scholarship. Principal Termin wants us to call CD Middle East to see what they give so we can match it.
K. Box Tops (Deb Stover)—We have a chair, and the box tops are rolling in.
L. Fundraising (Alexis Kierce)—We threw a couple of sub sales into the mix last year and they went well. We will be using R&K subs again this year. Renee Young mentioned that the students didn’t know that the sub sale was going on last year; it needs to be advertised better. We want to be sure to tell parents that monetary donations are welcomed if they don’t want to sell subs. A suggestion was made to add a secondary donation line to the PTO membership form to give a donation in lieu of selling subs (or whatever item we are selling). Principal Termin is fine with sending home R&K sub forms since R&K supplies the forms directly.
TEACHER REPRESENTATIVE (Mrs. Young):
Cancer Walk:
October 10--fundraiser at Red Robin. You have to have the coupon—10% of the bill goes to the cancer walk; it runs from 5-8.
October 4--Hat day. Students pay $1.00 and wear a hat and that money goes to the cancer walk as well.
October 19—Cancer Walk--All the information for the walk is on the LMS website in pink. Kids have been given until September 27 to sign up so t-shirts can be ordered. We usually average about 100 students, teachers and parents. There are pictures placed in the cafeteria afterwards so they the students get to see themselves. We have a corporate sponsor so any monies we raise over $10,000.00, they match it! Buses will transport the kids back and forth the day of the walk. It is a 5K (3 miles). Renee will go into the 6th grade students’ homerooms to encourage them to walk. Will need PTO help during the week of October 21 for each morning of the week at the front door of the school from 7:15 to 7:45 to collect money envelopes when the student arrive at school. Michele and Alexis volunteered to do to help. If the students raise at least $100 individually, the Cancer Society gives them an additional shirt the week afterwards.
PRINCIPAL REPORT (Mr. Termin):
A big thanks to everybody for coming. The kids are behaving so well, except for the bus rides home. He looks forward to all the activities planned for the kids this year. LMS is an incredible place with volunteers and teachers and young talent. Looking into the Friendship Center to hold some activities.
Polly Murphy is embarking on a 250 anniversary of Linglestown to take place in 2015, with all types of activities. They want to establish a physical site where they are going to sell commerative bricks to put family names on. Mr. Bricker is going to have the 6th graders start on this mosaic so that the 6th graders today will be 8th graders when the anniversary occurs. Academically, we have incorporated study island and bought 75 licenses specifically for Algebra 1. Our state average looked good at the state test arena, and we want to keep that going.
Parent/Community Initiative has been started to try to identify what we need to do to change. An email was sent out to all the parents and students to complete a survey. The coordinators are coming in on Monday and Tuesday, September 23 and 24, in the afternoon to interview some of the parents. If you are free, please come in.
Reminder from Renee Young:
Starting in October from 2:40 to 4:40 p.m. there is free after-school tutoring:
Mondays—Computer Lab Help
Tuesdays—Homework Help
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