RMS PTO Minutes

Tuesday, October 2,2012

Meeting started at: 9:37 a.m.

Attendees: Christine Koobatian, Marni Baggett, Michele Pangle, Cathy Sexton-Dale, Jessica Landmon, Jennifer Connelly, Amy DeWitt, Lori Karp, Marge Skinger, Ann McGough, TJ Salutari, Deborah Schultz and Mary Mahakian (13 participants).

President’s Report (Christine Koobatian):

  • Christine welcomed everyone to the meeting
  • She expressed her happiness that many of the open positions had been filled since the last meeting:
  • Jennifer Connelly will be the Board of Education Representation and run the Booster Club
  • Debbie Nemec will run the Box Tops 4 Education Program
  • Jeanne-Marie Hudson, although she doesn’t have children at the school, agreed to run the book fair, but we are looking for a co-chair to help with scheduling
  • Ann McGough offered to be the co-chair
  • Amy DeWitt and Pam Heckendorf will run the Clothing Drive
  • Dawn Kowalski will run the Hospitality Committee
  • Cathy Callanan will run the Sandwich Club
  • Lori Karp will run the school supplies
  • The Back to School Bash was a great success.
  • Christine expressed her gratitude to all the parents, teachers and student council members for their help.
  • The actual event cost less than $150 thanks to the generous donation of ice cream from Shoprite and to Jordan’s for selling the pizza at cost ($8/pizza). We charged $12 per pizza to cover the costs of the DJ, Popcorn and other supplies.
  • As far as improving next year, the event will be shorter by a half and hour and the DJ will encourage more dancing.
  • The PTO will repeat the event in the spring because these type of events supports its priority of bringing our RMS community together.

Teacher’s Report (Mary Mahakian):

  • The teachers enjoyed the Back to School Bash, as it was a great opportunity for teachers to talk with parents
  • The 6th grade team building event was a wonderful success
  • It allowed the students to meet new kids and work together in small groups.
  • Christine suggested submitting one of the photos from the event to the Voices for positive recognition for RMS.
  • Mr. Curtis, Mrs. Cimelus and Mrs. Gervasio and the rest of the 6th grade team worked hard organizing this event.

Principal’s Report (T.J. Salutari):

  • October 4th marks the half way point of the marking period which means progress reports will be available on Power School; no paper copies will be sent home.
  • Mr. Salutari will be emailing parents a reminder to check Power School and recommend that the student contact the teacher if there are any concerns
  • All parents with students holding a current “D” or “F” average will receive phone calls.
  • On November 13, 2012, paper report cards will be going home barring any unforeseen weather delays.
  • Mr. Salutari gave kudos to the entire 6th grade for the team building event
  • It was a great success.
  • Next year, PTO could get involved and maybe organize an outdoor lunch.
  • D.C. Update:
  • 70% of parents surveyed said yes to their students attending the trip.
  • There are ten definite no’s to date.
  • A deposit of $300 will be required right before the December break, which will give a better indication of those who will be attending,
  • While there might be financial constraints for some families, RMS will not be doing any fundraising or providing scholarships.
  • Some parents have offered to pay for other students in need but there is no fair way of determining who would get the money.
  • Christine suggested holding an essay contest and reward those students who really want to go but can’t afford it, or for splitting the money evenly over those who want to go, significantly reducing the price.
  • Mr. Salutari suggested waiting until he had a firmer idea of those in need.
  • Typically 20 to 30 kids stay behind each year for various reasons.
  • Final Redistricting meeting was held on October 1, 2012
  • Mr. Salutari expressed at this meeting thatan increased number of students actually makes the middle school model operate more effectively.
  • A task force for full day Kindergarten is underway.

Vice Principal’s Report (Deborah Schultz):

  • School year transition is going well.
  • The box of clothing for inappropriate dressing hasn’t been used much but the duct tape to cover rips in clothing is going fast.

Treasurer’s Report (Marni Baggett):

  • Referenced the September financials (also posted on the PTO website), highlighting the startup of the Booster Club and the status of the Direct Donation fundraiser.
  • The PTO has collected $6,625 so far in its direct donation campaign (88% of the $7,500 goal). 24% of RMS families have donated, so Christine will send another email to see if we can increase the participation percentage.
  • Since we haven’t reached our goal, Christine will send out one more plea.
  • Also noted that there is still Spirit Wear available for purchase (and it will be sold on Fridays at Booster Club).

Email Distribution List (Marni Baggett):

  • We have 94% participation to date.
  • If you are experiencing any problems receiving PTO emails, please contact me at or . We have had some glitches along the way, but through communication they have been corrected.
  • In an effort to lessen the emails being sent out to parents while continuing to promote community awareness, one weekly sports update will be distributed.

Stop & Shop Program (Marni Baggett):

  • We are still in need of someone to chair this committee.
  • We have collected & entered 120 card numbers from our RMS families. Christine collected another 50 numbers sitting at Stop & Shop. Refer to the email that was sent out this week about how to enter your own information (and that of your family, friends & neighbors) at
  • Jennifer Connelly suggested copying LMES’ format of raffling off a prize to students provided 500 card number entries are received. It was agreed that this is a great idea, but that it is too late in the program to organize a raffle for this year. This can be implemented next year, provided there is a chairperson.

Visiting Author/Cultural Arts (Christine Koobatian/Marni Baggett):

  • Marni has contacted the reading specialist from RMS to look into bringing in a visiting author
  • We are hoping to coordinate with MMS to split the cost of the author’s travel expenses
  • We are actively looking for cultural art events to enhance the curriculum.

Booster Club (Jennifer Connelly):

  • The Booster Club is doing well selling $150 at yesterday’s Cross Country event.
  • Need more volunteers at sporting events
  • Recently added bananas to the items for sale

Teacher Grants (Christine Koobatian):

  • The PTO will be meeting on Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 12:30 in the RMS Conference Room to review grant requests.
  • This is not a private meeting, so anyone interested in attending is welcome. Contact Christine at if you would like to participate.

Clothing Drive (Amy DeWitt):

  • Pam Heckendorf has agreed to co-chair this committee.
  • Our Fall Clothing Drive will be held on November 9th and 10th
  • An email will be sent out shortly to give families ample time to clean out closets and gather clothes, shoes, etc.
  • A flyer will be made and posted in local stores.
  • To date, about 230 bags have been collected and are at our storage unit. Once we hit 300 bags, a pick-up will be scheduled.
  • Parents can donate clothes at any time. Contact Amy () or Pam () to schedule a pick up.
  • 30 bags were just picked up from leftovers at the UCC’s Rummage Sale.
  • Amy will be contacting Heritage Village to see if we can gather clothes from residents
  • 50% of our donations come from outside our school.
  • Tax receipts are available.

Book Fair (Christine Koobatian for Jeanne-Marie Hudson):

  • October 31st, November 1st and 2nd are the dates for this Fall’s book fair.
  • Ann McGough volunteered earlier in the meeting to co-chair this committee. She will be working on scheduling the volunteers for the event.

Box Tops (Christine Koobatian for Debbie Nemec):

  • Student Council members are counting the box tops.
  • The homeroom with the most box tops will get free ice cream during lunch.
  • The top submitter gets a $10 Nardelli’s gift card.
  • We will raffle off two additional $10 Nardelli’s gift cards in a general raffle to anyone who has submitted box tops.
  • Please send box tops to school with your child’s name and homeroom teacher, plus the number of box tops in the bag. These are being collected by the homeroom teachers.
  • The contest ends October 19, 2012.

Enrichment Classes (Christine Koobatian):

  • Tennis and Intro to Sewing are two enrichment classes that are being considered for a trial enrichment program in the spring.
  • We are looking for other ideas as well.
  • Christine contacted Jenn Atkinson and Eileen Studdert to get ideas about successful programs at PES that will be appropriate for middle school.
  • Jennifer Connelly suggested Mad Science and Southbury Karate.

Coupon Book (Christine Koobatian)

  • PES already sent home their coupon books to students.
  • It is still worth pursuing this at RMS.

Student Council Halloween Dance (Christine Koobatian):

  • The dance will be held on October 26th from 6:30-8:30 for 7th and 8th graders.
  • Student Council asked for prizes to award the best costumes.
  • A parent committee is needed to help decorate for the dance.

Open Positions (Christine Koobatian):

  • The following positions are still open:
  • Student Directory (just typing the document, which will be mailed out electronically)
  • Stop & Shop A+ Program (organizing days to gather S&S numbers at the store, entering the data)
  • 8th Grade Graduation Party (preferably the parent of a 6th or 7th grader)
  • Gem of a Night (Wine tasting/silent auction)
  • March Madness (Basketball game between students and faculty)
  • Perpetual Fund (attending monthly meetings to determine who this fund helps)
  • Publicity (taking pictures, submitting to Voices and other local papers)
  • Spring Bash (Organize DJ, ice cream, popcorn, pizza and volunteers)
  • Main Office Volunteer Coordinator (putting together a schedule)
  • Enrichment Programs (look into programs and make a recommendation to the PTO Board, and manage the different programs/registration process).

Other Items

  • On November 5, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. there is a Redistricting Meeting.
  • PES will have a costume Sale this Saturday from 9-2 in front of the school. Everything will be $5.
  • This Friday, October 5th is an early dismissal day and there is no school on Monday, October 8th for Columbus Day.

Christine Koobatian won the raffle for a $5.00 gift card to Panera Bread.

Meeting adjourned at 10:37 a.m.