April 15, 2015 PTA Committee Reports
VP Reports
Briarwood – (Nicole Takla, ; Nicole Raphael, )
2nd grade fun night was a success with a great turnout.
We are accepting field day shirt orders until April 24th. The order form can be found on Briarwood's Document Manager.
Brooklake– (Hannah Bayait, ; Tracey Hilden, )
4/17/15- 5th Grade Fun Night $5 per child. We hope all 5th Graders can attend this memorable evening, come see Dr. Caponegro Sumo Wrestle and get your turn in the ring, plus many more fun activities are planned! The time is 7:30-9p.m. This is a drop off event and parents must come in to drop off and pick up their child.
4/24/15- Field Day T-shirt orders due, if you need a form you can download it from the Brooklake Document Manager.
5/8/15- 4th Grade Bingo Night 6:00-7:00pm in the Brooklake Gym, cost $3.00. This is a "drop-off" event please be on time for pick up! Thank you to Jen Straub, Carmela Ahern and Karen Cifelo for volunteering to help out that evening.
RMS – (Alfie Zirpoli, ; Linda Rozek, )
PTA is providing the RMS students with Italian Ice during lunch on Friday May 1 st to celebrate the conclusion of PARCC.
Dates to remember include: RMS Spring musical, Annie - May 14th & 15th, Spring concert - May 21st & Tech Club's solar sprints - May 13th, with County Finals May 28th
Treasurer Report (Jennifer Dunphy, )
Account balances as of 4/13/15:
Checking account: 62,241.44
Food Account: 99,604.54
Money market Account: 10,095.11
Gaming account: 100.00
Food Treasurer Report (Jennifer Pulice, )
The final hot lunch dates are as follows:
Briarwood: June 12th
Brooklake: June 12th
Ridgedale: June 10th
Also, note there will be no hot lunch served at Briarwood on Field Day on June 5th.
Please remember to send your children in with a packed lunch after these dates.
Please contact Jennifer Pulice at if you would like to coordinate or serve lunch
next year.
Board of Ed Liaison Report (Lynn Kahn, ) BOE Meeting Summary from meeting on 3/16/15
PARCC - Administration all well prepared and only had minor glitches. Feedback from students included: Students felt time allotted was enough, & Students felt they were well prepared and were able to navigate test.
3 BLK students gave their perspective on the Pennies for Patients Program.
Daughters of American Revolution Essay - Mr. Peter Christ presented certificates to 4 RMS students of which one was awarded the Morris County Leadership Award and won overall at the State level. This is the 2nd year in a row RMS won at the State level.
Public Comments - Three teachers spoke (Cheryl Bernstein, Sondra Paulson and Cindy Regan) about the pending contract and how it is impacting the teachers and morale overall.
Committee Reports:
Personnel – Additional volunteers for CPR training, Revising job descriptions (social worker & special services)
Finance/Facility - Approved tentative budget: Approximately $ 327,000 more than prior year & Impact would be a slight increase in taxes; Discussion held on traffic in parking lots at Briarwood and Brooklake - survey was conducted , Schools are working with FP police to outline possible solutions, Also discussed driving etiquette in parking lot
Public Relations
Communication - Information on RMS sign, Information on website, Looking at future dates, NEW – social media avenues, NEW – survey of community
TAB (Teachers/Administration/Board) - Hot Topics: special education, foreign language, ESI, recess and lunch, technology and traffic, ADP donated $ 1,000 (used for 8th grade graduation); Continued support from Mayor, working on shared services and began discussions on open land
Equivalency Evaluations - Tenure teachers are required evaluations, looking for 1 less evaluation for those teaching at optimum level
Superintendent - Dr. Melissa Varley will be starting 7/1/15. She spent a majority of her time with elementary and middle school students. She went to the University of Georgia for her doctorate in Educational Leadership. She was recruited to start a new high school Georgia. Dr. Varley led the Administration and Supervision Certificate program at Johns Hopkins University before becoming a curriculum director at Carlstadt – East Rutherford School District in Bergen County. Several years later, she accepted the position as Assistant Superintendent of Sparta Township Public Schools. She has been with Sparta for two and a half years.
Pending Teacher Contract - 3/2/15 tied vote 76-76
3/31/15 fact finding hearing at 5:00 PM
Next meeting 04/27/15 @ 6:30 (2015-2016 budget )
RMS Talent Show (Christine Coster, )
The 2015 RMS Talent Show, “An Evening of Stars” was a big success despite the many rehearsals cancelled for snow, and even the show needing to be rescheduled at the last minute due to more snow! The kids showed terrific teamwork, work ethic and positive attitude throughout the show preparations. We would like to thank all the parents who helped us and all the families for coming out to support our talented kids. With your support, we were able to raise almost $4,800 towards the eighth grade dance and other activities!
Eighth Grade Dance (Joan Goss, )
The 8th grade dance committee met 4/13/15, planning well underway. Kelly Malone received the fire permit.
Teacher Appreciation Week(BWD-Denise Adesso, ; BLK-Kathy Henning, ; RMS – Katy Julich, )
Briarwood – Plans for teacher appreciation week (May 4-8th) are in full swing. These include: Teacher Appreciation Luncheon & breakfast, Teacher Doors and Front Bulletin Board decorated, Small tokens of appreciation placed in each staff mailbox, Class Gift to Teachers -- “BRIARWOOD BEATS” CD – compilation of staff favorite songs, Music will play in teachers lounge (location of lunch, breakfast and dessert bar) all week, Teacher gift cards awarded (60 total), and Dessert Bar - food donated by parents (sign up genius link will be set up). At this time, help is needed with: Door Decorations, Front Bulletin Board (across from Student of Month board) & teacher gift card donations. We will discuss this in more detail at tonight’s meeting
Brooklake – Please contribute gift cards - we are in the final time period for collecting them to give to our teachers. They give so much to our children, please consider contributing. We have something special planned each day for the staff starting with a luncheon on Monday and ending with a dessert bar on Friday. Also, we will be sending out sign up requests to assist with a teacher breakfast and dessert bar - we would appreciate any help.
RMS – Will be sending out requests this week for DD gift cards and items for other days.
Book Fair(Sue Nash, ) Book Fair made $2741. Thank you to all the volunteers that helped out. We are in need of coordinators at the schools next year, if interested please contact me.
Fundraising Committee(Karen Corrao, )
Display my Art – The display my art fundraiser was a huge success!! We raised approximately $2700.00!!! The kids really did a wonderful job and the artwork looks great!! Thank you to Mrs. Crotty for all of her help and support and thank you all the kids and parents that participated. If you didn't get achance to order and would like to there is still time to place your orders online. If you have any questions contact Christina Clark.
Smashburger fundraiser -Coming in May.Details to come soon.
We are always looking for some new fundraisers. Anyone with any ideas can contact either Christina Clark at or Karen Corrao at
Spring Fundraiser (Lil )
The March 26th FDU "Night of Magic at the Mansion" was a great success. We sold out with over 250 people in attendance. I am grateful to all the dedicated volunteers that worked so well together and helped to make the evening so wonderful. We received a ton of positive feedback and compliments from so many that I have shared with the volunteers. Everyone seemed to have a great time and were very pleased with the food, service and the wine and spirits tastings from Main Street Wine Cellars. Please spread the word to patronize his business if you can as he and his vendors provided all the tastings for free to us. We are still awaiting some checks but the estimated dollar amount raised from the 2015 Fundraiser was approximately: $25,000. Thank you to all that attended and for those that supported the event with donations and their time.
Arts in Education (Anna Cave, )
April Assemblies: BWD/BKL- Jack Brannigan presented “It’s All in a Drop” focusing on the water cycle on 4/2/15. He also presented “Earth Matters: Vanishing Habitats” at RMS on 4/1/15.
Next up is “The Brain Show” for all 3 schools right before Memorial Day Weekend. BWD/BKL on 5/21 & at RMS on 5/22.
Track (Karen Alessio, )
Another successful registration. We have 30 RMS runners and 35 Brooklake runners. I have returning Brooklake coaches and Joe Lavalle is coaching RMS this year.
Tshirts are ordered for Brooklake runners.Pinnies are ordered for RMS runners. RMS has 6 away meets this year. All permits, insurance docs and bussing are complete.