Jensen PTO Minutes –October 26, 2010

Jen Craig called the meeting to order at 6:33 pm.

Welcome and Introductions

Approval of Minutes

The minutes were read from the 9/28/10 meeting. After one correction (20 games of BINGO were played on BINGO night, rather than 40), Traci Haenzi motioned to accept the minutes, Julie Crowley seconded.

Approval of Treasurers Report

The report was read. Lisa Graalfs motioned to accept the report, Melissa Gyure seconded.

Teacher Requests

Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Coulter requested $210 for a field trip to the Des Moines Playhouse to see the play “Ms. Nelson is Missing.” The play is on 5/11/11. Transportation is a separate expense, but this can be provided through a grant (Mrs. Taylor will work with the 1st grade teachers to get this figured out). Chris Wessling motioned to approve and Jenny Kruidenier seconded

Todd Pettitt requested $100 for Character Council (for costs to purchase snacks), which will be sold to students before school. The Character Council will donate the money they make to Urbandale Caring Corps. Melissa Gyure motioned to approve, and Jenny Kruidenier seconded.

New Business:

The Club Choice Fundraiser was due yesterday (10/25/10). Just a reminder to everyone to get these turned in ASAP. An email should be sent out to remind parents about this.

October BINGO Night profit was: 587.92. This was a success, considering how nice the weather was. The only complaint was that we ran out of Mountain Dew 

The Book Fair went well. We made about $2000 (down about $1000 from last year). We are not sure about the scientific reasoning for why the sales are down. There could be a lot of reasons for this. The next book fair is 2/1/11.

The Spring Fundraiser is already being planned. We are doing Otis Spunkmeyer. There are 14 items in the catalog, and every item costs 15 dollars. As a PTO, we need to brainstorm some cool ideas for incentives (possibly a large prize to top sellers).

Election Night booth: Coffee and baked goods/snacks will be set out on Election night, and free will donations will be accepted. We are looking for volunteers to bring baked goods, granola bars, energy bars, donuts, etc.

Fun Night:

Mark your calendars. It is 2/18/11

Theme idea: Jensen Rocks (Thanks, Melissa Gyure!)

T-Shirts: Allie Carenza

Decorating: Melissa Gyure

DJ: The PTO nominated Greg Carenza to be the DJ

Games: Kathy Fisher and Jennifer Dunham

Vendor Ideas: Long John Silvers, Incredible Pizza, Texas Road House, Blue Bunny

Hair and Face Painting: Jennifer Dunham will find someone

Drake students: Jen Craig will contact Drake

Builders Club: Melissa Gyure will contact them

Teenagers: Jennifer Craig has a group of teenagers who want to help with games

Food: Jen Craig and Traci Haenzi

Money: Fran Carenza will be in charge of this (per Allie)

Oriental Trading/Glow Sticks: Cathy Fisher and Jenny Kruidenier will order items

Idea: Ugly Cake silent auction (each classroom decorates a cake). Hy-Vee might donate Angel Food Cakes. Mr. Asche is the contact person at Hy-Vee.

Pictures of Jensen events: The Clickers group has always taken pictures of all of the Jensen events. But, Clickers has been reorganized and is set up differently now. Mrs. Taylor will send out an email asking if there is a parent who might want to volunteer to take pictures at Jensen events.

Volunteer Coordinator: This position is still open. A useful website for our PTO might be: pleasebringit.com

PTO website (part of the UCSD website): This has not been kept up to date, and right now we are unsure of the password. Lisa Graalfs volunteered to attempt to update the website. Mrs. Taylor will find out the password, or will have the programmers reset the password.

Principal Report

Mrs. Taylor urged the PTO to change how we do our teacher requests, especially with respect to field trips, in order to be fair about the money we give out. Mrs. Taylor reiterated to the PTO that we should figure out a more efficient system and a system that has more equity between grade levels. There are many grants available to help with funding (Connecting Kids and Culture, Farm Bureau, Yellow School Bus). We should be cognizant of these funding sources as we plan for future teacher requests.

Motion to Adjourn

Jen Craig motioned to adjourn the meeting at 7:40pm and Julie Crowley seconded.

The next PTO meeting will be on November 30th, 2010.

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