Meeting Called to Order at 6:35 Pm

DFC Meeting February 3 2015

Present: Tom Botkin, Elisabeth Dunbar, Margo Rogers, Amanda Ryder, Del Carmichael, Miriam Hubbard, Dyann Parker, Leslie Keefe-Hernandez, Rissa Eggleston, Vita Parsons, Liam Nobbs

Meeting called to order at 6:35 pm.

Principal’s report:Del updated us on the status of the school grounds improvement plan. The plan entails planting 5 trees and making some improvements to the areas in front of the Cooper and Hernandez portables. Funding comes from Rev It Up grant which has a balance of about $1100. Will need some parent help with this in the spring.

Additionally: apparently there has been an increase in complaints of harassment reported by the YakimaSchool District. The District has made an agreement with the Office of Civil Rights that the District will develop a task force/committee to include parents, community members, members of community organizations and students to meet at least twice a year to make recommendations to improve school climate, implement intervention and prevention strategies for preventing harassment, ensure that student and parents understand the right to be protected from harassment and retaliation, and develop a system to report incidents of harassment and retaliation. Del is looking for volunteers for this task force and has more information he can pass out to those interested. Elisabeth, Amanda and others expressed an interest.

The minutes of the meeting from January 6th were presented and discussed. Elisabeth moved to approve, Rissa seconded, all approved. Del made one correction and this will be noted in the revised copy.

Tom mentions that we need to start thinking about officers for next year. Names were discussed. Leslie mentions that having two co-presidents instead of a president and vice president might be a good idea. He suggests that each of us come up with at least one viable nominee (i.e., anyone without a felony conviction who has not actually said “no” ) for officer positions for next year. Nominee names will be presented at the Feb 24th Parent Forum. Rissa indicated that it would be nice to have job descriptions. Margo believes job descriptions are in the by laws and Tom will find these and send them out. Attendees called “dibs” on possible nominees.

Budget: Margo says it’s fine, no significant changes from last month. Information is passed out.

ASB: Liam reported that the Lee Paggett food drive brought in 606 items, far below what other schools brought in but other schools have done this for many years so we can try again next year. ASB is going to have 2 more movie nights: 2/20 from 6-8 pm “Rio 2” and on 4/ 17 “Wall-E.” Mrs. Delozier might be getting a new playground cart. Walk a thon and Spirit week will be April 13-17 and each day will be celebrated that week: crazy hair day, crazy hat day, pajama day, crazy sock day, and school colors day. Walk a Thon will be April 16th. ASB discussed bullying and would like to work on preventing bullying at DLS. Rissa states there’s another Box Top deadline coming up; recent deposit was just over $500 for the last collection, which goes to ASB. Rissa sees a need for using ASB funds for Shakespeare play practice, snacks for sexual health week, etc. and she wonders if others would object if she asks Mr. Rhine if ASB funds can be used for this. Margo does not believe these funds can be used for this reason but all agreed it was fine to ask Mr. Rhine.

Calendar:

Skateland February 12th

February 24th: Program on Social Media Awareness with Eric Franz, nominations for DFC officers for next year due

History Day is Thursday Feb 19th, volunteers needed

Movie Night Feb 20th

DFC meeting March 3rd

Rummage sale March 7th

Middle school dance March 20th 7-9 pm

Spring break March 30-April 3

Science Fair is April 8, volunteers needed

Rummage sale was discussed.

DLS and more specifically the third and fourth grade classes are having a Humane Society donation drive. Needed donations include office supplies, pet food, puppy pee pads, etc. Donations are to be dropped off in room 1 by the end of this month. Leslie is helping to coordinate this.

Student led conferences and book fair week is March 23-27. Leslie will work with Tom on this and will work to coordinate next year’s book fairs (thank you Leslie!)

Old/new business:

Tom moves that we give Miriam our $400 Scholastic credit balance, and in exchange we take $200 from the $679 leftover 8th grade gift fund for use for the microphone fund. Elisabeth seconded. Margo wondered how the Scholastic credit will be made available to Miriam and this was discussed. All approved. (Author’s note: I ran into Miriam at Encore books 2/7/15 and she’s willing to do more of these kinds of ‘trades’ as she can use Scholastic book credits.)

Tom is also suggesting that Mr. Churchwell, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Rhine, Mr. Segura and Mr. Lembeckconsider donatingor earmarking a portion of their $150 DFC classroom funds to the microphone fund. He will contact them this week to ask them.

Rissa suggests that ASB may vote to allot $500 from ASB funds to the microphone fund. She plans to have ASB vote on this at the next ASB meeting.

Total amount for the microphone project is about $ 6000. The Yakima Schools Foundation has pledged $2500 in matching funds, and Del’s Kiwanis club has donated $300. Jodi and Patric Smith have pledged $100 and a thank you card was passed around for this but Margo has not yet seen their check. Tom will ask the Smiths about this. That leaves approximately $4000 that needs to be raised. (someone please check these numbers: is the $2500 part of the $4000 or not?)

Vita has names of vendors for the fall Bazaar the day after Thanksgiving. She will work with Miriam on this. Miriam has one parent who is willing to help coordinate.

Directory: Margo suggests that when parents are asked to fill out the form indicating whether their child will return to Discovery Lab for the 2015-16 school year that there be a line for their email and phone numbers if they wish to be in next year’s directory. We would then have a big head start on the directory for next year. Margo and Tom indicate they will get together with Angie and others to finishthis year’s directory.

Cookie dough seller’s ice cream party: Tom says he will contact folks to get this organized in the next week.

Meeting adjourned at 8:04 pm

Respectfully submitted,

Amanda Ryder, co-secretary