Minutes of the RCE PTA Executive Board Meeting

Minutes of the RCE PTA General Meeting

Friday November 8, 2013

Call to Order – Jen Koithan

Jen called the meeting to order at 9:08 am.

A quorum is present.

Review of Minutes – Amy Bartlett

The October meeting minutes were distributed for review and a clarification was noted.

Heather Sheffield, Caroline Bennett, and Shannon Otermat will review today’s minutes.

Treasurer’s report – Michelle Yoder

An iPod and iPad were donated to the school. A majority vote is needed to earmark these donations as Fall Festival raffle prizes.

Heather Sheffield made a motion.

Caroline Bennett seconded the motion.

The motion carried.

Michelle provided a Profit and Loss statement. Total expenses to date are $45,736.63 and net income to date is $127,968.09.

The Fall Festival brought in over $36,000.00.

Principal’s report - Nancy Harn

Nancy and Kim Reynolds will hold a STAAR information session after today’s meeting.

Fall Festival was a huge success. A big thank you to Lisa Rose-Morrow! Next year will be different as we will not be on campus. It is a good time to make changes. The staff expressed interest in joining the Fall Festival committee. There was a good turnout, despite the rain. The mess left behind was disappointing.

There is lots of professional development taking place this year. Susan Saied is coming Thursday to work with primary teachers. Ricky Mickelmann came and worked with the intermediate kids. Rigor and relevance staff development prepares the kids to be successful adults. Also, Alana Morris is coming to help with vocabulary in Language Arts. She is the author of Vocabulary Unplugged.

There are other schools within the district that do better than us and we have to learn to work smarter. The Wilchester staff came over and met with our staff and the next meeting is with Frostwood at the transition campus on November 19th. This will kill two birds with one stone and allow us the opportunity to see the new campus and share best practices.

The building committee met yesterday for an update. They are the eyes and ears in regards to things happening with the building. The meetings give an opportunity to ask questions and give suggestions. A blog about the transition was started. We are getting feedback about transportation and the best way to get to the transition campus is via bus. Buses will be added to our route. School will start at 8:15 am to coordinate with the Westchester start time. A survey is going out about the best use of the $200,000.00 the PTA is providing for enhancements. The blog address is

Nancy is forming a Sunshine committee of the PTA board along with two grade level representatives. They will provide support to teachers during the move. This will include beautifying the campus and providing snacks/meals.

Librarian’s report – Jen for Karen Harrell

Karen is teaching an evening lesson on eBooks. She is really promoting eBooks since not all of our books are moving over to the transition campus. The class will be November 21st at 6:30 pm.

1st Vice President’s report – Karen Ross

Project Review funds were approved for Raz Kids for 2nd and 3rd grades. Moving forward, this item will be added to the budget and no longer paid through Project Review.

Cyberspace parking was paid to 2nd grade for their math teaching videos.

A storage unit was rented and will be paid for through Project Review. We have a storage need as the current PTA storage shed will be gone with the old school. We may use storage as the transition campus but it is not available until February.

Please encourage the staff to use the Project Review resource.

2nd Vice President’s report – Heather Sheffield

The three fundraisers made approximately $3,200.00 combined. You may continue to order through Write Away along with Shamrock Press through the end of the school year.

Committee reports –

Spring Branch Education Foundation/Sprit Wear – Susan Marks

Susan continues clearing out spirit wear. Due to the number of hooded sweatshirts still available, she is considering donating them to our sister school, Sherwood Elementary.

The style show and luncheon is November 22nd with designs by Tory Burch.

The fundraising gala is February 21st. Cory Morrow, a SBISD graduate, is performing.

Each PTA is coming up with a themed basket for the auction. Our theme is cooking and Amy Mahood will coordinate filling it.