PTO Meeting Minutes
PTO Meeting - February 8th, 2007
General John Nixon Elementary School
PTO Meeting Minutes
February 8th, 2007
The meeting was called to order at 9:25 am
Approximately 20 people were in attendance.
Treasurer’s Report
Most major fundraisers have been conducted, with a year-to-date total of $27,862. The full-year forecast is 78% attained. We still have Bingo Night and the General John’s March remaining. This month some invoices for Nixon Gear were paid, while income was received from Coffee Pond Productions. Expenses are still outstanding for the Monster Mash and the yearbook/DVD. Net Income is $36,671, which is 79% attained. As a reminder – Amazon.com and the Direct Appeal continue throughout the year.
Co-President’s Report
Box Tops for Education has brought in $459 so far. A few 5th graders meet 1-2 times each month to trim and organize the box tops. The Student Council voted to spend this money on sports equipment for the playground. The 2nd grade recently brought in the most box tops and they are enjoying Bubba Box Tops, a stuffed bear. Parent Education will be holding a lice program on February 12. This is a district-wide event. (Nixon has 16 reported cases of lice this school year). The Aesthetics committee purchased a rack on which to hang the lost and found items. Please take a look for familiar items. The soccer nets on the playground have been gone since the Fall due to safety concerns. It costs $2,000 for a new set of safe nets. SYSA generously donated these nets to each of the 4 elementary schools. As soon as the ground thaws, these will be staked and up. The Student Council and the PTO will be sending thank you notes. The Bylaws are still being worked on. Given the recent L-S tragedy, the PTO is exploring how to best support the Alenson family. The School Committee approved the ILAP calendar for next year, including 20 early release days and new school hours. This calendar is available on the website. It was suggested that we change the way Nixon approaches community service and try to find a few causes which are supported and explained to the children in depth, rather than having so many causes which do not necessarily mean much to the children. This will be explored further. Similarly, Fundraising is looking to have a few large fundraisers throughout the year, and to keep many of the family nights as strictly fun for the children. They are looking at how to raise the same amount of money without going to the parents as frequently. They are planning to hold a Parent’s Night at Stow Acres this Spring as a way to bring in a large amount of money. Other thoughts included selling a pass which entitles the child/family to entrance to all events and the parents only write one check. It was expressed that the parents should be better educated as to where this fundraising money goes (which activities, guest speakers, etc it pays for).
School Gifts
They received a request from Kathy Zito for $1,000 to replace lost leveled library books and to buy new multiple copies for the literary center. The entire school would use these resources. Since this would take up the majority of the remaining budget for School Gifts, Jo Antonellis suggested that we allow $750 now and then see what other requests come in and possibly fund the remaining $250 later. This was voted on and approved.
Family Curriculum Night
“The Great Nixon Math Mystery” will be tonight from 6:00-8:00 pm.
Geography Expedition
For a variety of reasons, the Geography Expedition will be put on hold this year. They will plan to have Kate and Sam ready for their adventure in November, 2007.
Science and Math Fair
The Science and Math Fair will be held Thursday March 15. The children will have time during their library period to look through books to get ideas.
Website
The grade level websites are up and running. The Weekly Notices will indicate which grade level sites have had changes in the previous week. The 4th grade website is run by Ms. Shilalie, while the webmasters run the other grades. It is the hope that the teacher’s from each grade will eventually take over their own site. The Curriculum site has been redone and improved. They plan to add a 5th grade events section. They are redesigning the advertising section to be able to highlight more PTO committee information and specials as needed. They have purchased an art projector but have had trouble mounting it. They are looking into purchasing new digital cameras for the classrooms.
Fundraising/Events
To clarify, a police detail is needed for all events. The cost to cover this comes out of the budget of the event (Monster Mash pays for their police, Math Night pays for their police, etc). It was suggested that a separate line item be put in the PTO budget for 2007-2008 to cover this expense, since the people planning the events changes over the years and they do not always realize that they need to cover this cost.
The next meeting will be March 8 at 7:15 pm.
10:40 am meeting adjourned