Ponderosa Elementary PTA Minutes
September 12th, 2016
Board Members: Emilie Ayoub & Lucy Stredde, Co-presidents, Nicole Jackson, Vice President, Stacie Davis, Treasurer, KandiSmith, principal.
Staff present: Sarah DeGrande, JenyLaugel, Kyla Neuhalfen, Lisa Bratten, Sandy Bilstad.
Others present: Jenn Schneider, Dayna Campbell, Kortney Arrington, Shannon Voggesser, Sarah Kaverny, Jackie Doman-Peoples, Michelle Sandersen, Amy Gebhart, BrindaHadeen, Nicole Busch, Debra Stebbins, Rich Stebbins, Jenn Adee, Christina Comeau, Lisa Downer, Haley Dreweck, Kim Dietrich, Christy Ross, Deidra Vinzant, Karissa DeTienne, Cindy Glass, Jen Melaragno, Tara Hallahan, Michele Johnson, Andrew Shearer.
Meeting began at 5:30pm
Presidents Report: Emilie welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming, the goals of the PTA were explained and the board members introduced themselves and also brought up the need for a secretary as Monica had to step down due to work commitments.
*Update: After the meeting several parents offered to be the secretary...the new secretary is Amy Gebhart. Thank you so much for stepping up to fill this position.
Vice Presidents report: Nicole brought up that we would be having another Spring Carnival this year and would start asking who would be interested in joining the committee for this event at the next meeting.
Treasurers report: Stacie had the latest budget available for all to see and opened up the floor to see if their were any questions. She also informed those present that the PTA dues were $6.25 and would be due by the next meeting. You do not have to be a PTA member to attend meetings, but if you want to be able to vote on the issues at hand then you do have to be a member.
Principals report: Kandi stated that she is at the meetings for council and to recognize people and events throughout the school year. She said that back to school night was a great success and thanked the PTA for providing the otterpops. Transition days were brought up as they were different this year and Kandi reported that she had really positive comments from the education side and asked for some reflections from the parents. Some comments were that it was hard to start and stop then start again for the Friday students, that beginning later in the week was a nicer lead in to the school year, the small classes for the transition days were appreciated as it gave both staff and parents some time in a smaller group to get to know each other, it was also noted that the full day of testing was easier on those working parents. Kandi thanked the parents for their comments. The Grandparents Day breakfast was very well attended this year with 360 meals served, kudos were given to the staff and kitchen staff for their hard work for this event. She stated that school pics, vision and hearing screenings had taken place Monday and went smoothly. She thanked the PTA for the technology funds and stated that once the new chrome book carts were delivered they would be loaded with the needed software and put right in to school use. Kandi also brought up practice drills, she acknowledged that although these were necessary for safety some students do find them scary. She said it is extremely important to be prepared, parents are normally notified when these drills have taken place and can address these with their children if necessary. She stated that if anyone had any questions about these drills to please ask. SAC meetings were brought up, this committee meets before the PTA meeting from 4:30 - 5:30pm. The SAC deals with data, academia and how the school is performing, Kandi said that if anyone was interested in joining this committee they would be welcomed. Kandi finished her report by stating that parent/ teacher conferences were coming up fast and would be the 12th and 13th October.
Technology Update: The PTA wrote a check to the school for $14,000 which is all being used to provide 3 additional chrome carts each complete with 30 chrome books. This is huge for the school and the students allowing each grade level to have a cart readily available for student use. All our children benefit from this added technology which have been ordered through the school district and should be in place in a couple of months.
Walk-a-thon: As far as fundraisers this year the PTA is going to try to do just one fundraiser...this means that parents are not bombarded with various fundraisers as the year progresses. To be able to do this we have to be able to raise $25,000 to keep providing support for the various needs within the school, these include technology, club support, ambassador shirts, transportation for field trips, health and wellness budget, global learning budget which also provides the fun assemblies the children enjoy and a stipend for the teachers to use in their classrooms. We are hoping to use Cheddar Up which provides a link for each child that can be sent passively to long distance relatives and friends. We will not be getting the tshirts from USC this year as they require us to put $4 for each shirt into the health and fitness fund thus tying up quite a portion of the monies raised , we are also hoping that this will encourage parents to buy the school spirit wear. The premise for the walk-a-thon was explained to those parents that were new to the school. We are going to be providing prizes this year for the top earning boy and girl from each class and encourage all parents to attend this fun event. A committee sign up was started to help with the walk-a-thon and will be meeting shortly. The tentative date for the Walk-a-thon was set for October 20th. It was also brought up by a parent that they would like to be able to get the cute notecards with the pandas on so children could write a thank you note to those that supported them for this fundraiser, it was brought up that some of the staff would be willing to have their students write thank you notes in class as it aligns with the global initiative of responsibility and integrity.
Spirit Days: The PTA will be having spirit days for the students this year as it was such a hit last year. We will be having these the week before the PTA meetings to remind parents of the upcoming meetings. Some ideas thrown out by parents and staff were twin day, silly socks, kooky hair, sports day, pj day, neon day and decades day. We will be putting together a schedule for these days and running it by the staff and Kandi for final approval.
Passive fundraisers: It was asked that we remind parents of the various passive fundraisers the school participates in. We will get this information out on the parent portal that goes out weekly. Right now we participate in the King Soopers cards, box tops and Campbell's to name a few...we are also going to be participating in Amazon Smile which donates a percentage of your Amazon purchases to your school, this is done by going to smile.amazon.com and ordering as you normally would with Ponderosa Elementary as the recipient of the percentage...more information on this passive fundraiser will be sent home shortly.
Spirit Wear: Lisa Downer has done an amazing job running the spirit wear side of things for several years and is again taking the helm for this year. All sales are done online and the store will be open sometime in the fall for a specified amount of time. Lisa stated that some feedback she received last year was that the children get so many 'free' shirts from the school that spirit wear is not supported as it could/ should be. She said that communication is super important regarding when the store is open and for how long. We will be having school spirit days once a week this year and hope to get more families involved with school spirit wear, we are hoping to award the classroom with the most participation a class Golden Globe. Lisa showed the green tshirts that were the most popular this year and it was agreed that they were a good color and would be offered along with white and grey...it was suggested that black would be a great color which Lisa is going to look into. It was also suggested that we look into some bling wear for those moms and girls who like a little bling in their world....Lisa will be looking into all the suggestions and welcomes anyone that would like to help her with spirit wear.
Meeting was adjoined with grateful thanks for an amazing participation at 6:30pm.
Next PES PTA Meeting is Monday, October 10th