Raymond Elementary PTO Meeting Minutes

February 13th 2018

In attendance:Tamie Gordon, Maria Sheldon, Bethann Morey, Katie Boggs, Melissa Jackson, Kristen Beery, Traci Markert, Kendra Ingle, Sara Miller

Meeting was called to order by president Traci Markert at 6:30.Welcome message followed.

Last month’s minutes, Principal’s Update, Treasurer’s Report

  • Review and approve January 2018 meeting minutes: approved
  • Principal Update- Sara Miller, on behalf of Mrs. Lentz
  • We scheduled COSI on Wheels for next school year! The theme will be all about Energy
  • We are in full swing with parent-teacher conference scheduling. (If you haven’t scheduled yours yet, please do so ASAP!) It’s going great - big thanks to Sherri for managing all the scheduling.
  • Pride Lunch tomorrow - this is an opportunity for kids to meet with their “pride,” eat lunch together, and have time to play games together & get to know each other better! 4th graders are invited to bring in favorite games from home to share with the kids in their group. Students are in the same Pride through their whole time at Raymond, and this is a great leadership opportunity for 4th Graders!
  • The staff “Beat the Winter Blues” challenge is beginning to wrap up, and it’s been a lot of fun for all the Raymond staff to participate in. Thank you to PTO for supporting - we made some big purchases of flexible seating (we’ll discuss that further in the treasurer’s report!)
  • Treasurer’s report- Kendra Ingle
  • Current actual balance less net income: $815.85
  • Income: $667.60 from Box Tops, $20.84 Amazon Smile, and $2,565.10 Whoooo’s Reading Read-A-Thon. Family Movie Night collected $525, but paid out $482.12.
  • Spending: $25.00 staff reimbursement, $45.89 Donuts with Dad, $237.44 indoor recess supplies, and $2,595.37 in personalized learning seating, etc.
  • Recap: we are $365 ahead of projected, $8,541 beyond what we planned - we expect to carry over $4,000 at the end of the year

Old Business:

  • Mad River Tubing Night – Mad River tubing night cancelled - we will not reschedule for this year. Will look into again next year.
  • Read-A-Thon –presented by Traci
  • Ultimately we totalled over 78,000 minutes - Mrs. Lentz has agreed to kiss a goat!
  • Currently we do still have $700 outstanding pledges to collect
  • Our profit to date is $4,183.
  • Mrs. Kummerer’s class was top both for reading minutes & raising money. (She made for time daily for students to read & log their time at school!)
  • There were some technical website issues throughout the fundraiser.
  • Mrs. Kummerer’s & Miss Cramer’s classes were the top “Wisdom Coin” earning classes - they each earned $150 to spend at the Book Fair for their class.
  • T. Swartzentruber & S. Bakalas were the top cash earners - they each earned a $25 PTO gift card, good for any PTO event!
  • Student Raffle tickets - Traci will do a letter to students and give them their number of tickets and raffle items.
  • Basket ideas (budgeted $200 to spend total for prizes):
  • basketball game w/Mr. Easton & Mr. Stackhouse & friends
  • book basket
  • ride on a fire truck
  • book fair gift card
  • earn for your class ideas: popsicles, extra recess, dance party, etc.
  • Movie Night – went great! Need to order popcorn bags (used up remaining.) Overall it was a lot of fun! Here’s the numbers:
  • Ended $42 ahead
  • Sold 52 pizzas
  • 180 bottles of water wasn’t enough
  • Next year advice: Have families enter through the art/music hall. Do RSVP. Start popcorn at 5:00 to be ready. Do glow sticks for everyone - it was fun having them in the read-a-thon prize baskets!

New Business:

  • Paint Night – will be 3/9 – presented by Sara. Have been in contact with Katy Sanford - she sent sample painting - shared at the meeting - we all agree it will be great! $20/canvas, will limit to 40 canvases. Will do Sign-Up Genius page for parents to sign up - will have payment due a week before, and open up to any wait-listed families at that time & unpaid spots will be filled “first-come first-served.”
  • Parent/Teacher Conference Meals (3/1 & 3/7) Jenni is handling the main dish ordering, we have a Sign-Up Genius page for parents to sign up for sides & desserts. Jimmy Johns for one night - staff order own food online. Ideas for other night: Leon’s BBQ, baked potato bar, Chipotle catering.
  • Indoor Recess Budget - presented by Kendra. Purchased magnetic tiles. Looking into Hoop Shoot game. Should we request parent donations before purchasing new items?: sounds like a good place to start. Sara will put out an email asking staff what ideas they have for indoor recess items they’d like to see.
  • SpiritWear - presented by Katie. We need to set a 2-week period for a discount period. It was agreed we could do a time that would also benefit incoming kindergarten families - we could get the word out, if the period ends 4/29.
  • KidStuff Books - presented by Traci. We received orders for 19 books in the “flash sale” - added 2 more orders at the meeting, allowing us to meet our minimum order needed to get free shipping!
  • Book Fair - presented by Melissa. Feb 28-March 7. Set up Tues 2/27, room 112. Katie will do SignUpGenius page to organize volunteers. Puppy them! Tear-down will be 3/8, will be picked up 3/9. We have $982.87 balance of Scholastic Dollars to spend (1,550 spent on flexible seating, $100 to Mrs. VanDuzen for Readbox) - do 2 coupons per staff member to hand out to students as they wish. Look for books for Readbox, especially popular books.
  • Playground Updates - We ended our Read-a-Thon $2,000 over budget - this money should go toward playground updates. Katie Boggs asked about policies regarding donations - we will need to look into that.
  • Spring Plant Sale - presented by Kristen & Traci. Friday, March 22nd kickoff. New this year there is an online store - there is a 4% processing fee, but that is paid by the person placing the order (not us, doesn’t cut our profit.) Foertmeyer is supplying prizes, but we may want to do an incentive for selling 5 items, kids can pick up prize in office when parent signs off. We shared the flyers with those in attendance - agreed it looks good!
  • May PTO Meeting - due to the 4th grade music program, we should reschedule our meeting date. Agreed May 1st would be best.
  • OtherQuestions - Maria Sheldon asked if we’ve considered doing Father/Daughter or other parent/child dances/events - she would like to see us host those types of events. It was brought up that we typically keep events for the whole family, but as other schools do these, we can leave the idea open for discussion.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40 by Kristen Beery

Minutes compiled by Sara Miller, Secretary