Call to Order: Wendy Beus

EDWIN MARKHAM P.A.L.S.

MEETING MINUTES

SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

12:00PM

Call to Order: Wendy Beus

1. Wendy asked everyone to introduce themselves and their affiliation with the school.

2. Reviewed PALS meeting from June 21, 2015 regarding the AR program and what changes would be made to meet the needs of the sixth graders and growing student body.

·  6th grade will have one activity @ the end of the year. Students must reach a point threshold to participate.

·  AR store is for 1st & 2nd graders only.

·  AR auction is for 3rd-5th graders only.

·  Need an AR committee to help the AR coordinators (Lori Hayles & Jamie Gilmore)

·  The teachers will do two “Benchmark Success” activities, one in November, and one in March, to encourage year-round AR participation. The requirement will be to reach a specific threshold in points, but points will not be used for these activities.

NEW DISCUSSION:

·  Mrs. Schull mentioned the need to increase the AR “slots” for test-taking by 29 slots, to accommodate the influx of students for the 2015-2016 school year.

·  Lori Hayles moved to pay for 29 additional slots at $4.50/student from the PALS budget. Katie Moore seconded the motion.

3. Wendy Beus spoke of the need to replace Marissa Schmidt as the Edwin Markham PALS Secretary as she had moved out of the school boundaries and no longer has students attending Markham.

·  The duties of the Secretary include: taking notes at PALS meetings, submitting the notes to Tiffany Bailie to place on the school website, and to help fulfill assignments and responsibilities of the PALS organization.

·  Stephanie Hoeft nominated Katie Moore for the office of Secretary. Nadene Vincent seconded the motion.

4. Wendy Beus resigned her office of President of the Edwin Markham PALS organization.

·  The duties of the President include: Running Meetings, preparing agendas (can be done in conjunction with the Secretary, keeps track of, organizes and coordinates PALS activities with the help of the Volunteer Coordinator and delegated volunteers. Helps keep track of the PALS monies with the Treasurer.

·  Cindy Woodward nominated Melissa Rojas for the office of President of the Edwin Markham PALS organization. Stephanie Hoeft seconded the motion.

5. Upcoming Events and Organization Responsibilities:

·  Vision and Hearing Screening on November 6th, 2015. A signup was sent around at the meeting.

·  Parent/Teacher conferences (along with the staff dinner by PALS) and the Scholastic Book Fair will most likely occur in November.

·  Alayna Blaezard will be organizing the Book Fair this year.

·  Karie Strong will be putting together the Markham phone book.

·  Liza Lindsay is signed up to run Box Top collections. If she is unable to perform this duty then Katie Moore will take the assignment.

·  Audrey Thompson will help mentor Alayna Blaezard and Lori Andersen to organize this year’s Fall Carnival.

6. Fall Carnival

·  Concerns regarding overcrowding at the event were discussed and it was concluded that with the attendance of the sixth graders at Markham this year, the numbers would not grow due to the fact that most of these families would attend anyway.

·  The date of the Fall Carnival will be Wednesday, Oct. 28th, 2015 at 5:30pm. The time was set a half hour earlier than last year in order to encourage attendees to purchase the food that is sold by PALS. Wednesday was chosen in hopes of providing extra set-up time and an opportunity to use youth from the various church youth groups that attend church on Wednesday evenings as volunteers to man the booths.

·  It was voted by the organization to eliminate the Trunk or Treat and provide candy at each game/booth as a prize for participation, and to simplify the evening and provide extra parking space in the parking lot.

·  A vote was made to move all auction items and baskets to the Bingo Night to increase availability for donations and purchase of items.

·  It was also voted to eliminate the bounce house/obstacle course and put manpower into more carnival games. Some ideas for the games include:

a.  Cake walk

b.  Music/Dance room

c.  Fishing booth

d.  Face painting

e.  Football toss

f.  Golf

g.  Bean bag toss

h.  Outdoor Movie-(Charlie Brown: The Great Pumpkin)

i.  Costume Contest

j.  Costume Conga Line or Parade

k.  Box Maze

l.  Spook Alley

m.  Pie throwing at Mr. Mahaffey (pay to throw the pie)

n. Guessing Jar of candy (pay to make guesses)

·  Specific assignments for the carnival are as follows:

a.  FOOD- Wendy Beus

b.  ENTRY/CASH BOX- Heidi Stuit

c.  GAMES

i.  Cake Walk- Betsy Kemp

d. BOX MAZE

e. SPOOK ALLEY

f. DÉCOR-Reanna VanRyn volunteered to decorate w/ her sister-in-law

g. COSTUME CONTEST/CONGA LINE?

h. VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR/CANDY RUNNER

·  Another Fall Carnival committee meeting will be held in the future. TBD.

6. Wendy Beus mentioned the request from several parents to implement the occasional evening PALS meeting to coincide with the evening ATP meetings. The hope is to accommodate those who cannot attend the daytime meetings and to decrease the amount of evenings at the school for attendees by combining the night with ATP. All in attendance agreed this would be a good idea to implement occasional evening meetings.

Meeting Adjourned: Wendy Beus

Meeting Attendance:

Wendy Beus

Lori Andersen

Karie Strong

Audrey Thompson

Jeri Schull

Meredith Harker

Melissa Rojas

Jen Garrison

Nadene Vincent

Stephanie Hoeft

Betsy Kemp

Cindy Woodward

Katie Moore

Celeste Wegner

Reanna VanRyn

Lori Hayles

Alayna Bleazard