Willow Springs Elementary School PTA Board Meeting

Willow Springs Elementary School PTA Board Meeting

November 15, 2017

7:00pm School Library

Dave Truncellito, the PTA President, called the November meeting to order promptly at 7:00 PM. There were 13 individuals in attendance.

Girl Scouts of America representative, Samantha Marandino, was introduced during opening remarks.

Samantha serves as the regional membership specialistand works directly with the troop leaders at Willow Springs.
She wishes to have a stronger presence at the school and fostering a lasting relationship. Samantha also mentioned that the Girl Scouts are continuing to form additional troops.

Robert Walter motioned to approve the minutes from the September 20th meeting.

Motion was seconded by Merissa Larson and minutes approved with no changes.

Finances and Book Keeping

Open Discussion
Bookkeeping practices are out dated and the board continues to utilize outdated QuickBooks software.
We do not require specific skill sets for the treasury positions. We want to avoid having errors in our bookkeeping and establish a check and balance within our book keeping practices. The president believes that we need to have multiple individuals with access to the online book keeping system.
The national PTA recommends that all financial dealings are overseen by 2 board members. Typically this is the Treasurer and the President.

DECISION/ACTION: From this point forward, the Treasurer will provide the entire PTA board with both monthly bank statements and quick book reports prior to each board meeting. This new process will allow for total transparency and time for review and analysis of the financial statements. Responsibility rests on all board members to review the financial reports and raise any questions or concerns.

Principal

A 2018-2019 School Year Focus:
Principal Taylor discussed the “proposed” 2018-2019 school calendar. The first day of the school year will be Tuesday, August 28th and the last day of school could potentially be the 13th of June. There will be a 2 week winter break starting from the 24th of December and running through January 4th.

The Fairfax County Superintendent has a laser focus on the budget without increasing the class sizes. The other piece revolves around the teacher compensation packages in order to attract and retain top professionals.
One issue from our teacher representative is a concern about parking for after school clubs. The issue is the parking by the trailers along the blacktop and the teachers are being blocked into the spots.

DECISION/ACTION:The PTA will send out a notice to all of the after school program coordinators.

Teachers

Annual FCPS awards for teachers and administrators
Process – Willow Springs collects nominations for the community and there is a vote from the school level and then passed up the chain for further adjudication.
The school encourages the parents to participate in the award submissions.
The deadline for submission to Willow Springs is 27 November.
The online award form will be sent out in the weekly PTA e-mail.

Treasurer

2017 – 2018 Budget Review
Discussed the monthly budget versus the actuals. The figures are reflected from July 2017 through November 15th, 2017
Hassle Free Fundraising target = $40,000; we are currently at $17,270.
Continue to increase marketing the fundraiser throughout the Willow Springs Community
Membership level dues target stands at = $3,000. Currently we have received $2,490.
The PTA reserve fund account balance = $18,000

2016 – 2017 Audit
Concerns have been raised about the process of how the audit is conducted.
On an annual basis, the PTA must vote on the process prior to an audit. The by-laws provide that an audit maybe performed by an independent auditing company or by a 3 member volunteer committee.
A more robust process must be established to achieve a meaningful report.

DECISION/ACTION: In April the board needs to have a discussion/vote on the way forward for the annual audit process. There needs to be a proper out-brief on the audit conducted to the entire PTA board. The PTA will investigate the cost of an independent professional audit.

Ways and Means

A fundraiser was conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday at the California Pizza Kitchen, we are still awaiting to learn the proceeds from this event.
We will coordinate another fundraiser in the spring, more details to follow.

Volunteers

Thank you for everyone that came out and supported the book fair, it was an amazing event.
Prassu hosted a Principal’s coffee session on October 26th
We have a couple positions remain available
Community Services Teen
Library Volunteers
Screen Free Week
Spelling Bee Coordinator

Corresponding/Recording Secretaries

N/A

PTA President

New designs for our Spirit Wear are currently being developed.
On-line orders and on-line demand, this will eliminate any inventory storage.
We will work to liquidate our current items during events such as World Festival. Also, the Spirit Wear is available on-line to include magnets and t-shirts. Once we have a new vendor identified, the PTA will put this information out to the school community.
The no-hassle fundraiser hasn’t yet produced as much funding as we wished. Soliciting ideas and advice on how to creatively obtain new donations.
Date scheduled for the bus driver appreciation in early December.
The office staff has completed the school directory and it should be uploaded within the A-Z application. For the first month it is open to the entire community will receive this service free of charge and then it is closed to only paying patrons.

Clubs

Processes for PTA clubs(formation, registration, finances)
The registration process should be transparent. Provide a list of the time stamped registration for each club. What are the rules for establishing a “new” club? Last year the PTA never discussed, reviewed, approved or denied a club. We struggle to find coordinators to run the clubs.
PTA handles the funding for each sponsored club
Every club is more popular that it is able to support
Need to have a follow-on discussion about increasing the number of clubs offered to order to potential add additional opportunities for students to participate and make a connection with the school and community.
Consider offering more community wide events where the entire school is invited to attend such as an ice cream social, fun fair, back to school picnics, or a family kick-off event.
Multiple sign-up options based upon individual club organizer
First come, first serve sign up system
Lottery system with a 24 hour window
Whatever system we utilize it should just be transparent to the community. We should not dictate to the clubs on how to run their registration process.

Meeting adjourned at 8:42

ATTENDEES

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