St.
Brendan’s PTO Board Meeting
October
2004 Minutes
Attendees: Margie Schmutz, Monica Carlin, Julia
Walters-Burns, Liz Kieffer, Mrs. Sullivan, Sally Sonnen, Mary-Jane Fatigati,
Lynda Weldy, Raelyn Colleran, Pam Schwartz, Kate O’Brien-Rourke, Judy Maccarone,
Deanna Loutsis and Maria Perez-Torkildson.
The Board, Committee Chairs, School Function and
Enrichment Coordinators met in the teacher’s lounge. Margie and Monica called the meeting to order
at 7:07 pm. Monica led all present in a
prayer.
Principal’s Report (Mrs. Sullivan) – A resource library has
been created in the St. Francis Conference room that has many books ( addressing different teaching styles, special needs of
students etc.) available for parents and teachers to check out. This library was created with federal funds
received from the “No Child Left Behind” program. A listing of books available to check out
will be posted in the bulletin.
The
Annual School Appeal has been scheduled for Oct. 16-17 with John Pendergast as
speaker.
The Band program starts Oct. 5 and the Spanish
program will begin the week of Oct. 11.
Past President’s Report (J. Walters-Burns) – Development has a goal of
$50,000, with 60% of funds to go to the Endowment Fund and 40% to the Father Michael Schmitt Tuition Assistance
Fund.
The new 5-Year Plan will begin July 2005 with
preplanning to begin at end of Oct.
Sandy Moran has chosen to stay with the School Commission thru
the year to see us through this beginning phase.
Treasurer’s Report (M.
Fatigati) – The 2004/2005 budget was created at
the end of last year. A fundraising
summary of the last couple of years was also created. This will allow fundraising chairs to do a
comparison analysis of expenses/proceeds for the major fundraising events of
the year.
Balance owing on the new playground has been
paid-in-full with $300 remaining in the account.
It was suggested that timely reporting from the
committee chairs was needed. Two
suggestions were given: Chairs need to
deliver expense receipts sooner and the Scholarship Fund award needs to
be distributed at the end of the school year rather than at the beginning of
the following year.
Fundraisers:
Auction (D. Loutsis and J. Maccarone) – The auction ‘committee
chairs’ kick-off meeting will be held Oct. 21.
Pam Schwartz has stepped forward to chair the Family Night auction. The auction will be dedicated to the
children. Still needed is a “Fund-an-Item”;
considerations are funding for the undercover play area and a new digital
reader board for the school.
Sally Foster (reported by M. Schmutz for J.
Hobgood) –
Orders are due Friday, Oct. 8.
Scrip (S. Sonnen) – Sales have slid
dramatically, with a drop of $6500 in grocery sales and $4000 in total scrip
sales for the month of Sept. We receive
5% on all grocery scrip sold and so the decrease created a big impact on
profits for Sept. A cause for the dip in
sales has not been determined.
There are three new volunteers that have begun
to shadow Sally and Lisa with the purpose of taking over the Scrip program next
year.
The steps to converting Albertson’s Community
Partner’s card to the Preferred card are being
published in the school bulletin.
Any profits earned over $10,000 for the year
will go towards funding for a new covered play area.
School Lunch (reported by M. Schmutz for S.
Iverson and L. Wygant) – The lunch program is going well. The number of volunteers
was reduced using students and a staggered lunch schedule.
Technology (reported by M. Schmutz via M. ’s email
update)
– Mrs. Carlson has been busy handling computer and network issues and is doing
a masterful job! A few software updates
were made to the teacher’s computers.
Mr. Evans and Mrs. Minor now have e-mail and all teachers and staff are
operating with Windows XP. The teachers
will soon be upgraded to Microsoft Office 2003, which will include Publisher
2003.
Carpool (reported by M. Schmutz for J. Bodmer) – An adult volunteer is
still needed for Tuesday afternoons.
Hospitality (K. O’Brien-Rourke) – Preparations and
planning are underway for Catholic
Schools Week. In appreciation of the
school staff, Latte Day is being planned.
An additional event may be considered for a
later date.
Memory Book (R. Colleran and L..
Weldy)
– Held first meeting with 8 in attendance.
A new idea that was discussed was for the students to design the front
and back cover with other designs and drawings to be included in the book. The student’s drawing chosen for the
covers of next years book would be determined by a winning bid at the school
auction. It was determined to pursue
this idea.
Photos turned in by parents need to be in a
digital format and can be e-mailed or submitted on a disc.
The pages will be done in black and white; it
was too costly to do color for 8th gr. pages. The book will remain published at 36 pages to
stay within budget.
A request was made to purchase Adobe In-Design
software at a discounted price of $225.00; software will be needed by December.
* Action Item: an
inquiry for a further discount will be put into bulletin for any parents who
may have connections with Adobe.
PTO Photography (reported by M. Schmutz for J.
Kennedy)
- All events will be photographed in digital.
They will pursue events as they come up.
Jim Jacoby did the photography for all the CYO individual and school
team photos.
Parish Publicity (M. Torkildson) – Notices will be placed
to announce upcoming school events (i.e. Bite, Holiday Craft Fair and Auction)
with the hope of increasing parish attendance.
Speech (reported by Mrs. Sullivan for
Phone Tree (J. Walters-Burns) – A list was sent to all
parents in the Wed. envelope with a request for any changes or
corrections. Any changes made will be
republished in a listing given to affected classes.
*Action Item:
Put into bulletin a request for anyone who did not receive a phone
list.
Uniform Evaluations (Mrs.
Sullivan) -
To be conducted on an “if needed” basis and by the school commission. If a request is made by a parent to review
the uniform code, a parent committee will be formed to discuss the issue and
will include Mrs. Sullivan’s assessment.
The review would take place during the school year, with approval made
by the school commission at the end and implementation the beginning of next
year.
Playground (Mrs. Sullivan) – There are currently three issues
outstanding. First, a decision to be
made by facilities to place a chain link fence on top of the cement wall
surrounding the play structure. Second,
how to landscape the western slope between the play structure and fence. Third, it has been determined that the
curb next to the cement wall and play structure needs to remain as a safety
separation between playground and parking.
A feasibility inquiry will also be made to add a
taller bar for the older kids to the play structure.
PTO Hours Documentation (M. Schmutz) – The Compliance
Committee will hold first meeting in Nov. and will be reviewing report of
volunteer hours by family. Hours are to
be reported May thru April.
School volunteer hours will also be listed in
the Parish Contribution letters sent to each family.
It was discussed that committee chairs need to
return timely calls to parents that are soliciting for volunteer hours, and
also need to call the families listed on the registration volunteer lists.
Barnes & Noble Night (K. O’Brien-Rourke) – Will reserve the night
of Tues., Nov. 23. Possible readers
include Mrs. Babb or Miss Constantino. A
determination needs to be made for use of funds raised.
Scrip will increase stock of Barnes & Noble
scrip in preparation for the event.
Bite of St. Brendan (M. Schmutz) – Scheduled for Oct.
29. Still needed are volunteers for Dad
Patrol, Setup/Cleanup, Decorations and 4th gr. Coordinator.
Seahawks Community Award (Mrs. Sullivan) – The Seahawks are looking
for school parent nominees for the Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Award. Forms are available for those that would like
to nominate an outstanding parent from our school.
Margie and Monica adjourned the meeting at 9:00
pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Liz Kieffer