PTO MEETING for November 7th Agenda & Notes

8:48 A.M.

*Meeting before ADULT SOCIAL on Friday, January 25th, 2019 at the LGCC.

Intro from Spring Ave. PTO President, Kate Gilmartin:

Kate Gilmartin opened meeting with a summary of PTO Presidents Meeting across all D105 schools.

-Spring is very fortunate to have our PTO with endless volunteers who run so many committees.

-Other PTO presidents tend to run their own committees too.

-After D105 Dash last year, each school received 2K

-This year might be based on need.

-Kate encouraged Spring Ave. parents to attend the other schools’ fundraisers because of their need for funds and volunteers.

Words from Spring Ave. Principal, Mr. Lawson:

Thankful for the soups donated by parents during Parent/Teacher Conferences days/evenings.

Thankful for the HALLOWEEN parade and class parties. Everything ran so smoothly and there were no food issues.

Veterans Day Care Packages: $1000 Honor Flight

November 26th: 1st and 2nd graders will sort items for this project. There will be card making opportunities on this day, too.

ACES Update: CARE Closet

On Friday, November 9th, at 4:15 P.M., children from all schools will work on Care packages. Ms. Kubelius will lead ACES this year.

Next Care Closet for 5th and 6th graders will be at Seventh Ave. School. They will sort items there TBD. A running list of ongoing donations will be available for parents: toiletries, socks, nonperishable items, etc.

SPRING NEEDS A FREEZER to store items!!!

School Science Fair on January 24th with be in conjunction with Math and Science Night.

VP of Ways and Means (Heidi Brock):

Adult Social on Friday, January 25th at the LaGrange Country Club.

Buy your tickets, link is up and working.

Melissa McGinnis is working on organizing Adult Parties--send your ideas her way.

Monica Villareal and Amy Bailey are working on obtaining local business donations

Book Fair coordinated by Monica Villareal, Grace Diaz, Michelle Tydus and Andrea Hornickle will run during the week of November 12th. Students will go through on Wednesday, November 14th. Volunteers will be needed for this event, especially to help students pick and purchase their books.

Reminder: Sarah Peto id the e-blast person! Send her your events, messages, and dates in a timely fashion: sarahapeto@gmail.com

Boxtop fundraiser:

Fall Boxtop fundraiser earned $333 for the school. April will be the next Boxtop event.

Committee is looking to have smaller gift card options in the future to raise more money for the school.

First VP (Stacey Ponczek):

School pictures will go out on Friday, November 9th.

Library volunteers are always needed. Please consider volunteering for a one hour shift.

School Garden: Aleasa Green and Mrs. Walsh will be sponsoring Garden Club for any interested 3rd and 4th graders.

Students can get involved in future planning on December 3rd. A schedule is in progress (considering monthly meetings). A culminating project idea is setting up a vegetable stand with set prices. Ms. Calder suggested this STEM project.

VP of Programs (Jami Buttron):

Art Awareness volunteers are needed.

Trying to “fix” current volunteer system (current system depends on teacher responses for dates and times).

Goal: supplement art teacher’s concept or curriculum using art awareness

More to come about class Art Auction @ Adult Social….

Vision/Hearing volunteers are needed for one hour time slots. Looking to overlap volunteers between Book Fair and Vision/Hearing Screening.

After 3: PTO will need parent volunteers for approximately 15 min slots for student sign-up/check-in.

Holiday class link is up for parents interested in teaching a class. Look for more info in the coming weeks.

Art to Remember will continue this year. Jen Stortz will continue as coordinator.

Treasurer (Ramya Bavikatte):

She reminded the audience about the link for reimbursement (it’s on the PTO website).

PTO Primary account has $10, 617.47

PTO Secondary account has $30, 431.00

E-mail Ramya directly if you are looking for a specific budget answer @ ramya.bavikatte@gmail.com

She reminded the audience that Teacher Grants and Above and Beyond are every other year.

Secretary (Virginia Kogen):

Read two Thank You notes from current Spring Ave. teachers (Ms. Musillami and Ms. Tobin).

Final Reminders from our President:

A correction for Vision/Hearing link will go out, be sure to look for it.

”Thank you Parents Page”is attached to the agenda.

Clever Fig and Flying High Fundraisers are quickly approaching, don’t miss out on the food and fun.