President, Shannon Scott, called the regular meeting of the Middle Paxton School Association to order.

Members Present: Shannon Scott, Dawn Durham, Ashley Bullers, Steve Burns, Tracy Kocher, Amy Zoellner, Jenna Shickley, Melanie Song, Shelby Sammartino, Jennifer Rockey, Missie Thrush, Cassie Moyer, Laura Briner, Louise Hutchinson, Ellen Wenwrick, Tara Truskey, Laura Updegrave, Kelli Flickinger, Amber Martin, Tammy Novinger, Nichole O'Gorman, Rebecca Novak, Missy Baird, Carol Lopez, Marcella Wolfe and Kathy Conway.

Recording Secretary – Carla Hagy

There are no August minutes as the recorder was lost.

Treasurer – Steve Burns

August Treasurer’s Report: Top section of the Treasurer’s report is the projected income for the year. The middle section is the projected expenses for each of the committees. Over the past month we had the following expenses:

  • Playground equipment
  • Teacher and support staff checks were issued for classroom expenses
  • Corresponding Secretary purchased a gift card for Mrs. Todd’s baby gift
  • Hospitality committee for food/supplies for kindergarten and first grade orientations
  • Check was issued to New York University for the scholarship recipient
  • School store had an advance from last month
  • New checks were ordered
  • Historian to cover the itunes purchase that was used for the year end slide show

Motion was made by Kelli Flickinger and seconded by Kathy Conway to approve the August 2011 Treasurer’s Report. All were in favor. Motion stands approved.

Report from the Executive Board:

At the beginning of each year, MPSA issues checks to each teacher and support staff to help get their classrooms started. Teachers are given $100.00 and support staff is given $55.00.

New Business:

Back to School Night will be on September 14th at 7:00. We will have the following table’s set-up:

  • Giant A+ Program – A Giant representative will be present to collect bonuscards. Parents will also have the opportunity to get information on ways that Middle Paxton can benefit through your shopping.
  • Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts
  • School store will have a display of the items that will be available at school store this year.

New Business (Continued):

Family Fun Night – The event will be held on Wednesday, October 26th from 6:00 to 8:00. We are looking for ideas on ways that every family can come and enjoy time with their families and therefore doesn’t require a lot of volunteers. Last year’s family fun night was a huge success; however, what we didn’t anticipate was the fact that everyone would come to eat. We would like more activities that don’t require a volunteer to run and we were thinking about doing pretzel sandwiches, so that no one has to run a food stand or handle cash. Parents could buy them to eat that night and maybe some would buy them for Trick or Treat night as well. We could also maybe have soup and bake sale. If anyone could make a corn box, please let Dawn know. If you have comments on what you liked and didn’t like from last years event, please let Dawn know as well.

2 Hour Pledge Program – Forms were given out during kindergarten and 1st grade orientations, but they will also be going out to the rest of the school. The form will list the events to be held for the first half of the year. When the forms are returned, the interests and contact information will be entered into a system. When a committee chair needs volunteers, they need to send Carla Hagy an email, four weeks in advance (if possible). An email will be sent out to everyone who had an interest in helping with their event. The email will include a link to a time to sign up sheet. The sheet will have time slots and the parents/guardians can sign up for the slot that best works for their schedule. They will be able to go back in and change it if they need to or can contact the committee chair. We would rather use this system rather than sending an email out to the entire school. If we are not able to fill the slots, then an email blast can go out to the entire school.

The MPSA website can be accessed under the organizations tab of the Middle Paxton Elementary School. On our website you can find our meeting agenda’s, minutes, treasurer’s reports and contact information.

The costume parade will be held first thing in the morning. Students should come dressed in their costumes. Parties will then be held at 2:45. Other schools do it this way and it is a way to retain the school day for learning.

Old Business:

Our last open committee has been filled by Amy Zoellner. She will be taking over the Special Events committee. If anyone is interested in helping out with any of the committee’s, please contact or see Shannon Scott or Dawn Durham. Any of the committee’s are always open for more help.

Mrs. Lopez:

We started with 305 students this year. We now have 3 classes in kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade.

New teachers this year are:

  • Stephanie Geiger - Learning Support Teacher
  • Mrs. Mbuu – Afternoon Kindergarten Teacher
  • Chelsea Jackson – Third Grade Teacher
  • Rich Irving – Gym Teacher
  • Barb Smith & Julie Rob – Librarians
  • Linda Hoover – Gifted/Talented Teacher for First, Second & Third grades
  • Mrs. Benton – Gifted/Talented Teacher for Fourth & Fifth grades
  • Linda Lowe – Cafeteria/Recess Helper
  • Terry Sutherland – First Grade Teacher
  • Amanda Bowman – Cafeteria Aide

Mrs. Lopez (Continued):

Marcella Wolfe and Kristin Breithaupt will be attending MPSA meetings on alternating months to represent the staff of Middle Paxton. They will relay any necessary information back to the other staff members.

Helping Hands will be held on Day 4 and Mrs. Lopez will discuss it with Dana Lomma. Since fourth and fifth graders do not have the same recess, they will be held separately at back to back recesses.

Fourth & Fifth graders have a scheduled Chorus time that is not during recess. Hopefully this will encourage some students to go out for chorus who may not have done so, if they had to give up their recess.

We made AYP in Academic Achievement this past year. We had a combined total between third, fourth & fifth grades of 89.6% in Math, 74.6% in Reading and Science of 95%.

The Dibels reading test will be given this week for all grades.

A Four-Sight test for reading and math will be given to third, fourth and fifth graders this week. This is a mini PSSA test that is given three times a year.

The Olweus, bully prevention program, has begun. Students can be a bucket filler or dipper. If they make nice comments, they would be bucket filler. If they make a negative comment, they would be a bucket dipper. Students will have a monthly project, which will create a mural. In September the kids will be receiving brown hands, which will be used to make a tree trunk.

The Central Dauphin website ( is an informative place. You can pay on your child’s cafeteria account. Third, fourth and fifth grade parents/guardians can go into the home access center to view their child’s grades. The middle of the first marking period is September 30th, so an IPR will be sent home to parents/guardians.

Committee’s:

Assemblies – (Mr. Singleton & Open Position) – All of the assemblies have been decided on for this school year. The next assembly will be the fire safety assembly on September 20th and the bus safety assembly is to be determined. On October 14th is Kits & Kaboodle Sleepy Hollow Halloween. MPSA will be looking for someone to take over this committee next year.

Book Fair – (Tara Truskey & Ellen Wenrich) – Our Book Fair will run the entire first week of October. Classrooms will visit and their will be two family fun nights. It will also be open during Grandparents Day for anyone visiting to make a purchase. There will be a teacher preview for teachers to make up their wish lists for anyone wanting to purchase a book for their classroom. Volunteers will be needed to help run the book fair, so if you are interested, please contact Tara or Ellen.

Eagles Nest – (Kathy Conway) – The Eagles Nest is the school newspaper and is published four or five times a year. Each teacher or grade will submit an article on what they have been working on. Committee chairs may also publish information on past or future events. Please send any articles to be published in the Eagles Nest to Kathy Conway at . The first deadline may be October 7th, but Kathy will send out an email to all teachers and committee chairs in regards to this.

Fifth Grade - (Barb Schmidt & Monica Braddock) – A end of the year party is organized for the fifth grade students. Meetings are held to decide where to have the party, what food to have and what gifts will be given to the students.

Committee’s (Continued):

Helping Hands – (Dana Lomma) – Helping hands will get started soon. She is also going to be fixing up the garden and the broken bench. The supplies have been bought in order for the students to make the gifts that are handed out to the grandparents at Grandparents Day. Students will be meeting every other Day 4.

Historian – (Harriet Bull) – Forward any pictures that you take during the school year to Harriet or give them to a teacher. Pictures are used for the end of the year slideshow.

Hospitality – (Missie Thrush) – Coffee and water will be provided during Grandparents Day. Moms will be needed to serve donuts and drinks to students and their dads at Dads & Donuts on October 18th and 19th. Quarter Days will be held each Wednesday in November. It is for 1st through 5th grade students. Each grade will be assigned a Wednesday to provide the snacks for that day. Students will be able to purchase a snack for a quarter during their lunch. Volunteers will be needed to help out during the three lunch periods. Clown Around Town & Troutman’s have been booked for Mayfair.

May Fair – (Shannon Scott & Dawn Durham) – Each committee helps bring the May Fair together. It is a one day event and students love it. Students and their families also donate items to fill their classrooms assigned raffle basket. Donation letters are also sent out to corporate and local businesses to help fill the raffle baskets. More information will be sent home about Mayfair toward the spring.

PAC – (Pat Conway & Jeff Thrush) – Parent Advisory Committee consists of a representative from each school in the District. They meet monthly and it is a liaison between the School Board, Administration and the schools. Jeff and Pat will report to the MPSA discussions that are held at the meetings. If you have any issues that you would like addressed with the School Board or Administration, please direct them to either Jeff or Pat.

Publicity – (Carla Hagy)– Theschool directory form should be coming home. The school directory is a listing of the students in each classroom along with the parents/guardians names, addresses and phone numbers. This is very helpful when sending out invitations or to just be able to contact someone. If a form is not returned, the students name will not be included in the school directory. The form is a little different this year. There are four options that parents/guardians can choose from: be included in the school directory and it sent via email, be included but receive a hard copy, not be included but receive email communications from MPSA or not be included or receive any emails. MPSA is trying to eliminate so much paperwork being sent home with the students, so most of our communications will be done via email.

Santa’s Shop – (Cassie Moyer & Liza Smith) – Will be held December 5th through the 9th. Shopping is done throughout the year to find bargains and an inventory of items is made. A shop is set-up for the kids. Each classroom gets to come through. It’s like a secret santa shop where the kids bring in money from home and shop for the parents, brother and sisters etc.

Scholarship – (Dawn Durham) – MPSA awards a scholarship to a Central Dauphin School District student who attended Middle Paxton. The information is publized within the two high schools and applications are received. A committee of teachers and parents review the applications and a winner is picked. The scholarship is then presented at the year end awards assembly held at their high school. A check is then sent to the school that the students will be attending.

School Spirit - (Kelli Flickinger) – Fun things that are held throughout the year for the students are a fall and spring guestimmation, door decorating contest, holiday and year end gifts and spirit days. The first spirit day will be on Friday, September 30th and it will be to wear green and white or their spirit wear. We can try to offer a spirit wear sale in the fall or winter.

Committee’s (Continued):

School Store – (Missy Baird & Laura Briner) – The first school store will occur on September 23rd. Students get to shop for school supplies. Items range from .25¢ to $4.00.

Special Events – (Amy Zoellner) - Events are held for the teachers and staff to honor and thank them for their commitment. A fall guestimmation will be held in the fall for a basket full of goodies. A Mexican themed luncheon will be held in November during the parent/teacher conferences. Teachers are also given gifts for the holidays and drawings are held for teacher appreciation week.

Student Achievement/Bug Club – (Laura Updegrave) – This is a way to recognize students who achieve good marks. It is for students in 3rd, 4th & 5th grades. There are requirements that were agreed upon by MPSA and the teachers. There are three categories: Distinguished Achievement, Student Achievement and Bringing Up Grades (BUG). Certificates are given to the students after each marking period along with a certificate to the school store.

Ways & Means – (Stacy Tinsley, Laura Updegrave & Ashley Bullers) – We used to do fundraising every other year, but to keep our budget going we need to do further fundraising. The following are a few of the fundraisers that are being planned:

  • We will be selling BRAX sports cups/popcorn buckets. A few will be on display at back to school night.
  • We are also planning to offer Zumba classes. Liza Smith who is a certified Zumba instructor at Central Penn and is also a parent of Middle Paxton, has offered to teach the class for free. All the proceeds will go directly to the MPSA. We are trying to set one up for October. We need to decide if we should have separate Zumba classes for students and adults or have a combined class. We may get a bigger turnout if we have separate classes, but on the same night. We can do the first one for adults only and then have those attending fill out a questionnaire to get their opinions about the classes for the students.
  • We would like to hold more restaurant nights. The first one will be held at the Stoney Creek Inn on September 19th and 20th from 4:00 to 10:00. They will be donating 10% of the proceeds. A flyer and letter will be sent home with the students. The website will be updated to include the information. The next restaurant night will probably be at the Texas Roadhouse. We will also sell the gift cards again. We also get a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the gift cards. We will try to have them during the 4th week of the month.

The Giant A+ program will run from October 9th though March 31st. Middle Paxton will earn 1 point for every dollar earned. Each year you must register your bonuscard in order for it to count. Triple points can be earned from the purchase of certain healthy labeled items. A letter will be sent home with students detailing the program. Last year we had a contest to see who could submit the most bonuscard numbers and the winner received a gift card. Carla Hagy and Missie Thrush are donating 6 tickets to a Disney On Ice performance to be held in Hershey in November. This program is a very easy way for us to make money.

Box Tops also offers E Box Tops online. When you register the school and shop online, we earn money. More information will be sent home about the online shopping along with the regular Box Tops information.

Next scheduled MPSA meeting October 3, 2011 at 7pm. in the school library.

Minutes submitted by Carla Hagy, Recording Secretary