Country Lane Home and School Club

December 14 General Meeting

Members Present: Stephanie Little, VasudhaChittar, SangeethaSampath, Parvati del Razo, Chelsea Armann, Keri Billings, Bethany Von Hagen, Jen Loftus, Lisa Marie Lonich

Meeting called to order at 8:50 by Stephanie Little. ParvatidelRazo seconded.

SCRIPT: Calling all Chipotle users. Please buy Chipotle Script cards! We have a good inventory of them.

Review of September and November Meeting Minutes:

(September minutes were never approved because of the guest speaker at the October meeting.)

Stephanie Little moved to approved September and November meeting minutes. VasudhaChittar seconded.

Principal’s Report: Mrs. Armann and Ms. Billings

  • First all school monthly assembly was held today. It was a fun way of bringing the school together
  • Chrome Books have been ordered but have not arrived yet. They will have to be coded through the district. Ultimately, Ms. Billings would like to have all 3rd-5th graders have some kind of device to work on and 1st and 2nd to have one device per two students.
  • First of two “informances” for 4th and 5th grade Starting Arts was yesterday. The next one will be tomorrow. It might be possible to invite a couple of classes in the future. About 40 parents came. The kids improvised and it was very humorous.
  • On Monday, MMS student readers came to Country Lane.
  • Bus driver appreciation gift cards were given out by Bethany Von Hagen. The drivers were very surprised and touched.
  • Mr. Gabe was given an appreciation gift, and one will be given to Mr. Tony as well. The kids also helped make a poster.
  • 400 new titles of leveled readers amounting to 2400 new books for group reading were acquired by Nancy, our instructional coach, through the district.
  • ELA programs are being piloted this year. One is called benchmark. It ties in with F & P, so 4th and 5th grade teachers would be trained in this as well.
  • 3rd Grade did their heritage projects last week.
  • There was a fire drill last week.
  • Cornerstone kids decided on some monthly spirit days. This Friday is PJ day. Kindness Week, including Pennies for Patients, will be in late January or early February. Another spirit day will be in May.
  • Tonya Gazzeraand Gabe organized a clean-up volunteer group and filled two dumpsters to clean out school. We need a receipt from Tonya so that we can reimburse her either from Home and School Club or the School District.
  • 4th Grade Proposition PBL. The students got to present propositions and debate an adult. All of the measures “passed” except for after school sports. Wednesdays will be free seating at lunch. If things go well, they will go up to two days in March.
  • Teachers went through their second round of curriculum mapping.
  • The staff is looking at closing and permanently locking several of the gates to control access to a certain point. Notices will go out and signage will be created. Possibly put it on the January general meeting so that people can come and discuss.
  • Kindergarten Tours are coming at the end of January. Last year one or two Home and School Club representatives were at each tour.

Appreciation was expressed for Ms. Billings and Mrs. Armann in bringing good spirit to the school.

Treasurer’s Report:

ZoriCuturella is away visiting family. She will present the report in January.

President’s Council Meeting Report by Stephanie Little

  • The website for the district has been updated. They are looking for feedback. Let them know if there are areas that you have trouble with. Next each individual school website will be updated.
  • There was discussion of who controls the school website content. We currently have everything go through Sharon Meyers, and we feel fortunate that she is willing and able to do this. There was a training in November that Mrs. Armann, Ms. Billings, and Sharon Meyers all attended on the new website format. Linda Lighthouse will also have access. Eventually the teachers will have their own pages. The thought came up that there should be a process for giving website items to Sharon. This can be an agenda item on the board meeting.
  • Malaya Gores is our new MEF president. Keri Billings is meeting with her in January.
  • MEF is looking at the possibility of hiring a 20% FTE position to help run MEF. For instance, summer school is a huge undertaking that quite time consuming for a volunteer to run. Making the investment to hire someone would ultimately help the group to grow and profit more.
  • Latimer has a Home and School Club handbook that they give to every new family. Stephanie would like to get a copy of this to review. It was suggested that it might be helpful have a one-page Home and School Club handout before the Kinder tours.
  • The SCRIPT team would like to review the signed contract before we go on break.
  • Master Calendar for the District: Please send dates for 2017-2018 to the February president’s meeting. Chelsea sent the WAT date to Tanya DeLaCruz. It is October 14.
  • EDS has a Spring family dance which decreases the cost of Science Camp for all students the following year. There was some enthusiasm about doing something like this at Country Lane. Stephanie is interested in finding out more details. Ms. Billings suggested doing an outdoor dance in the warmer months.
  • SangeethaSampathmentioned that the possibility of a babysitting night fundraiser came up at the last meeting. It might be good to do something near Valentine’s day.
  • Parvati mentioned that some schools do mom’s night out at a restaurant. Drop child off at school child care, go to restaurant night, and then return to pick up child.

Box Tops: Bethany Van Hagen

  • Box top trimming volunteers are being asked for. An appeal for help will be sent out in the first January Wednesday envelope.
  • Ms. Billings will have the “Principal for a Day” second graders help with trimming box tops.
  • Information regarding how to prepare box tops before sending them in will continue to be distributed. Sangeetha will be making a video on the subject.
  • Next trimming will be on January 9.

Upcoming Home and School Club business:

  • Next board will be on January 11 following the general meeting.
  • Stephanie is working with Mary Eschen to have a Love and Logic Class here.
  • There will be another evening General meeting on March 8.
  • SangeethaSampath presented Miss Costanzo’s class with a Yoga class called “Breath Is Your Frien” and is willing to work with other classes.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:00 a.m. Stephanie Little moved. SangeethaSampath seconded.

Respectfully submitted,

Gina Argenti-Schultz

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President’s Signature