Barton Hills Elementary 2015-2016 PTA
Executive Board Meeting Minutes
November 10, 2015
Members Present: Kati Achtermann, Nicole Truelock, Meredith Weiss, Bob Gillett, Stacey Gardner, Sean Moran, Becky Pursley, Aaron Mitchamore, April Smith, Rebecca Forchione
Nicole Truelock called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm.
Carnival
Rebecca Forchione reported carnival was a huge success; it raised about $50,824. Another sponsorship arrived today.
Minutes were approved by Stacey and were seconded by Becky and Bob.
ACPTA Report/Principal’s Report
CAC will meet virtually.
Bring-Your-Parent-to-Lunch-Day: It seems that parents did not understand they were supposed to eat cafeteria food! Tastes of watermelon and jicama were given out. Next year it must be advertised differently so parents do not bring their own lunches.
Parent tours for prospective families are done differently this year. Kati is conducting them every third Friday of every month. In January Kati will offer tours twice since transfers will be coming due. This has been a great way of dealing all the parents who want tours and tours are frequently requested.
Choir has lots going on. 6th grade choir sang with the Four Canadian Tenors at ACL Live and were fabulous. They did three songs and then one of the encore songs. The Halloween concert with 3/4th graders was fun and the 5/6th grade choir sings Thursday with AHS Glee Club.
ACPTA meeting was two weeks ago. It meets four times a year, first just the principals, then with parent representatives. The principals toured AHS and got to see culinary arts, graphic design, news station, journalism department, etc. Austin High highlighted the great programs for kids that are electives, but help to draw kids to AHS. The college and career center is an amazing place, too. For career day, BHE will take 3/4/5th graders to AHS to visit the campus. The Austin High vertical team met at the AHS football game and the first 100 Austin High vertical team kids got t-shirts. At half time the 6th grade band members got to play with the AHS band. BHE second grade will go to an AHS theater production.
Why doesn’t O. Henry come to do a presentation for 5th graders? They will for 6th graders, but magnet schools are required to be allowed to come present. 6th grade offers a lot here and BHE wants to retain their 6th graders.
Safety drills pay off! October 30 when we got so much rain, kids knew just what to do. BHE may need to define some of the terms used like Reverse Evacuation and Shelter in Place, and Lock-Down. These terms/definitions may need to be added to the PTA publication and on our website.
Sidewalks are coming to Homedale Drive! Ann Kitchen came to the last neighborhood meeting and worked some magic. Kati does not know which side of the street they will be on, but assumes they will be on the school side.
The PTA is still looking for a rep to serve on the Barton Hills Neighborhood Community Park Committee. Seconds later, Stacey Gardner volunteered so the position is filled.
Annual Fund/Membership
Will begin again in January—let the dust settle from carnival and get through the holidays.
Committee Reports
Greenworks has not yet set another date to reschedule from the rain out. Other committees kick back up in January. PTA needs a yearbook chair. Plan B is to have only class photos and a group picture—the PTA would like a bit more if someone could step up. This position will be advertised in the newsletter. Could the 6th graders help with the yearbook? And adult would still be to supervise. Float this idea by Kathy Carr and see if she would like to work with 6th graders. A team of adults is less daunting than putting all the responsibility on one adult, if possible.
Treasurer’s Report
More money keeps coming in but it looks like we really made $52K which includes Parties-With-A-Purpose (about $7K). Melanie really wants to move ahead with Annual Fund after Christmas and try to reach our goal. Not all carnival expenses have been submitted—custodial and cafeteria staff will be getting some money. Fun Raising will begin in the spring (dining to donate). Library shelves are no longer needed (the PTA has carried the money along for this expenditure for a year); Ms. Ewing would like to spend that money on books, instead. Bob moves that we allow her to spend the money on books and Sean seconded it. Ms. Perry was asking for more money but once we get the final carnival numbers, the PTA can re-assess how much she could be given.
Could we raise the amount of the Nick Akery scholarship to $1K?
What is happening with Mr. Trainor’s position? Mr. Valdez (orchestra) was not full-time with district and has stepped in and is paid an hourly rate for working in the computer lab. He is here 10-1 M-F. His position probably will not need all the money allocated in the PTA budget.
New Business
Budget: Nicole suggested the next meeting focus on how to spend the surplus money we made from carnival. Last year we surveyed the teachers and the adults—the PTA would like a better feel for what the teachers need. Can two PTA members meet with the teaching teams to get a dialogue going to get a better idea of what is needed? Kati and Becky can put the idea out there to begin another list. Last year a lot of parents wanted classroom instructional materials, but what about things outside of the school like more field trips or field trips that were too expensive before? One idea is to let Austin be our classroom and look for exhibits around town that could be explored. Maybe we explore the idea of not getting anything this year but pooling money with next year to get/do something really big. Other ideas are to host more authors or professional musicians and to purchase or make Maker Space carts.
One question to be addressed is what are we raising money for? Our goal is not to be a profit machine but to meet our needs. Do we need to scale back carnival now that we also have Parties w/a purpose? We need a clear vision and a goal in mind. The other line of thought is we are meeting what we need at the school and nothing needs to be changed. As a board, we need to reflect the parent population and their ideas. Shall we just beef up everyone’s budget instead of amending the budget every year? On another note, can we get advertising for the carnival going earlier so sponsorships get more name recognition? At the next meeting we will brain storm ideas for the budget.
Community Events: Kara Dunleavy and Michelle Smith are the chairs. They have proposed a hot chocolate play date on the playground on Dec. 4th and maybe a movie night in the spring outside on the slab.
Mindfulness group: This is a fabulous program and worth trying out. The sponsors/PTA must be quite clear that it is secular. After school may be a hard time (space is an issue), but perhaps before school in the library would work. Perhaps funding a small group of teachers to take the training and implement it in the classroom is worth pursuing. Then, if it is successful more teachers could be trained. We were talking about a club but now thinking of incorporating it into the classroom. However, there has to be acceptance from the teachers; the PTA cannot mandate it. The school is required to have a moment of silence, so could mindfulness be woven into it? Starting the day with it makes the most sense. Becky thinks the teachers would go for it because of brain breaks, movement and SEL. Maybe the club should begin and allow teachers to go in and observe it to see if they are really interested in doing it in the classroom. We need to give more information to teachers so they know it is about more than discipline. Perhaps Liz could come to a PTA meeting with more of that information.
Lice: What can the PTA do about lice? Put information in Eagle News about lice!! Include a link to AISD policy because kids are not required to go home.
Ms. Perry was wondering about kinder marathon t-shirts—Nicole is on it.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 pm.