Petrova Parents' Club Meeting Minutes
Monday, December 5, 2011, 7pm - 8:30pm, Elementary Library
Attendees: Sunita Halasz, Kathleen Silvius, Michelle Davis, Christy Nier, Carrie Bradley, Norma Woodruff, Zoe Smith, Polly Kelting, Jen Yousey, Lori Mouranie, Chrissy Hayden, Jenn Small, Debi Yando, Bob Laba, Josh Dann
Next Meeting: January 9, 2012 at 7pm in the Elementary Meeting.
1. Welcome, Introductions
2. Treasurers Report - Bob Laba - Holiday Raffle money has been tallied, and we earned just over $3300. For the concession stand, the final profit was $333. Blankets earned $480 during the pre-Thanksgiving raffle ticket sales.
3. Principal's Update - Josh Dann – Need Homework Haven coverage next Monday due to a staff meeting and hoped we could have this regularly on the agenda so that there is always parent coverage for these days. Josh discussed that the Uihlein-Iron Man grant money for the afterschool basketball program is being used to purchase new basketball hoops.
4. Holiday Giving - Lori Mouranie – We have a lot of nice gifts and lots of mom/grandma gifts, and there’s more things for dads now. But, there’s still not a lot of stuff for kids, relative to the response to the survey we sent out near Thanksgiving where we asked families to write down how many gifts will be bought by each child. Bloomingdale has offered to give us any leftovers from their sale. Lori has set aside some extra nice things to use for Winter Carnival raffle baskets.
Lori talked about the flow of the kids through the room for Holiday Giving. She’d like to have all the kids traveling in one direction and then ending up at the giftwrap station in a methodical way.
Josh is going to have the teachers help the students to keep their purchases to their immediate household only, which will ensure that all kids have an equal opportunity to buy gifts. Though we’d love to have kids buy gifts for anyone they want to, we have to be conservative this year because we don’t know exactly what to expect.
5. Next Family Night, January 26, 6:30-8pm – Zoe – Math Games and Arts and Crafts. Katie Laba is the point person planning this Family Night. She has some good ideas for math games from her new math series. She is open to any ideas PPC might have to make this night fun for families. Josh mentioned that Petrova has a $200 gift card from Michaels craft store. Lori has Tubers and Zotts activity which might be good for this family night. This is mostly a teacher-run event and not so many parent volunteers are needed. Bob noted that Petrova Winter Carnival is two weekends after this, so we need to keep our focus and volunteers geared up for that.
6. Activity Chairs
7. Grade Liaison's Update - Polly will tell 4th grade teachers that 4th graders in NYS get an opportunity to ski for free, at a discount, or get free lessons at many ski areas throughout the state.
8. Pedestrian Bridge – the group discussed the importance of the Village getting this bridge repaired. Zoe discussed a grant program that she will alert the Village about funding that is available (deadline for application in January) to ensure kids’ safe commutes to school.
9. Communication Home to Parents – Zoe showed a paper newsletter that the LPES parents’ group sends home weekly with activities at school and in the community for the week. A discussion ensued about the success of email communication from the school and PPC. Josh discussed lots of measures that are being taken to reduce paper communication.
Monday, December 5, 2011, 7pm - 8:30pm, Elementary Library
Attendees: Sunita Halasz, Kathleen Silvius, Michelle Davis, Christy Nier, Carrie Bradley, Norma Woodruff, Zoe Smith, Polly Kelting, Jen Yousey, Lori Mouranie, Chrissy Hayden, Jenn Small, Debi Yando, Bob Laba, Josh Dann
Next Meeting: January 9, 2012 at 7pm in the Elementary Meeting.
1. Welcome, Introductions
2. Treasurers Report - Bob Laba - Holiday Raffle money has been tallied, and we earned just over $3300. For the concession stand, the final profit was $333. Blankets earned $480 during the pre-Thanksgiving raffle ticket sales.
3. Principal's Update - Josh Dann – Need Homework Haven coverage next Monday due to a staff meeting and hoped we could have this regularly on the agenda so that there is always parent coverage for these days. Josh discussed that the Uihlein-Iron Man grant money for the afterschool basketball program is being used to purchase new basketball hoops.
4. Holiday Giving - Lori Mouranie – We have a lot of nice gifts and lots of mom/grandma gifts, and there’s more things for dads now. But, there’s still not a lot of stuff for kids, relative to the response to the survey we sent out near Thanksgiving where we asked families to write down how many gifts will be bought by each child. Bloomingdale has offered to give us any leftovers from their sale. Lori has set aside some extra nice things to use for Winter Carnival raffle baskets.
Lori talked about the flow of the kids through the room for Holiday Giving. She’d like to have all the kids traveling in one direction and then ending up at the giftwrap station in a methodical way.
Josh is going to have the teachers help the students to keep their purchases to their immediate household only, which will ensure that all kids have an equal opportunity to buy gifts. Though we’d love to have kids buy gifts for anyone they want to, we have to be conservative this year because we don’t know exactly what to expect.
5. Next Family Night, January 26, 6:30-8pm – Zoe – Math Games and Arts and Crafts. Katie Laba is the point person planning this Family Night. She has some good ideas for math games from her new math series. She is open to any ideas PPC might have to make this night fun for families. Josh mentioned that Petrova has a $200 gift card from Michaels craft store. Lori has Tubers and Zotts activity which might be good for this family night. This is mostly a teacher-run event and not so many parent volunteers are needed. Bob noted that Petrova Winter Carnival is two weekends after this, so we need to keep our focus and volunteers geared up for that.
6. Activity Chairs
- Holiday Trees – Polly – 36 Trees were sold. Our profit is $450, and we budgeted $500. We make a profit of about a third of the cost of each tree. The trees are from Asplin Tree Farm. Next year could we make it that if you buy a special ticket from Mrs. Moody, then take it to Asplin to cut your own, a portion of the profit goes to Petrova. That way you get the people who don’t want to order a tree to be delivered can still participate in fundraising for the school. Next year Dec. 8 is the 2nd Saturday of December. Perhaps we can send flyers to Bloomingdale and St. Bernard’s to tell them to buy our trees. A variety of new ideas, such as including wreaths for next year were discussed. Polly will follow up with Asplin Tree Farm. She reminded everyone that Dec 10 from 9-11:30am is the pick up for this year’s trees.
- After School Program – Josh Dann –the numbers are in and there’s an appropriate number of kids for basketball, and an abundance for science club and 4-H. This week, the first week we will be doing this, Kelly Arnold will help with 4-H, and Katie Laba with Science Club. On a weekly basis, Josh said he’s going to try and get staff to rotate and volunteer with Mr. Baldwin and Ms. Banker.
- Holiday Raffle - Bob Laba – A lot of ticket books came back unsold. NCCC craft fair is a good time to sell them next year. Michelle Davis can sell more tickets, even though the raffle has already begun, at this weekend’s Ladies Day at Coakley’s Ace Hardware where PPC gets to set up a table.
- Concession Stand –Zoe Smith asked was it worth the amount of work for the amount of money? Bob thinks that it’s not worth doing a basketball game, but doing a football game was OK because there are more spectators. Kathleen says it helped that we were scheduled for Homecoming. Sunita says she feels like it was worth it and it will be so much easier next year now that we know what we’re doing. Bob says it may not seem like a lot of money, but in perspective with some other fundraisers, it actually comes out OK. Norma said it was difficult because there were so many restrictions and it was a bit confusing, but we’ll know so much better for next year. Kathleen said that if we can have more control over ordering and returning leftovers for credit, it might make more money. Bob said good discussion for next September!
- Blankets – More needed for Coakley, the Packbasket Diner and for Josh’s office because people are coming in asking for them for the holidays. This Saturday 11-2, Coakley’s is having a ladies day and they’d like us to set up a table with blankets, a cash box, and a sign. Michelle Davis says that she can do this. Lori also suggested that we could sell raffle tickets.
- Recess Volunteers - Josh said that this is going well and he's happy to have so many volunteers.
- Book Fair - Kathleen had to leave before this report could be given.
7. Grade Liaison's Update - Polly will tell 4th grade teachers that 4th graders in NYS get an opportunity to ski for free, at a discount, or get free lessons at many ski areas throughout the state.
8. Pedestrian Bridge – the group discussed the importance of the Village getting this bridge repaired. Zoe discussed a grant program that she will alert the Village about funding that is available (deadline for application in January) to ensure kids’ safe commutes to school.
9. Communication Home to Parents – Zoe showed a paper newsletter that the LPES parents’ group sends home weekly with activities at school and in the community for the week. A discussion ensued about the success of email communication from the school and PPC. Josh discussed lots of measures that are being taken to reduce paper communication.
