Petrova Parents' Club
May 14, 2012, 7:00pm, Elementary Library
Attendees: Josh Dann, Kathleen Silvius, Sunita Halasz, Bob Laba, Debi Yando, Jen Yousey, Chrissy Hayden, Polly Kelting, Donna Kleist, Jenn Small, Katie Fischer, Zoe Smith
Next Meeting: Monday, June 4, 2012, 7pm
Mini Grant Follow Up
Donna Kleist came in to say thanks and present what she has been using her mini-grant for. She showed the items used in the Feelings and Emotions "toolkit" that she put together for her students, including puzzles, books, interactive vocabulary words to describe feelings, personalized story books, posters, and more. Mrs. Kleist and her aides and students are all very positive about this addition to their curriculum.
Treasurer's Report
Bob is putting a letter together for the School Board about the $6,700 PPC has used to support the school this year through things like, smart boards, mini-grants, field trips and the afterschool program. We will have about $1500 to carry into next year. We are 3 smart boards away from finishing all classrooms who want one. Purchasing these, plus 3 projectors to go along with them, will be a total of $5000 to budget for for next year. Kathleen noted that this should be celebrated and communicated with families, staff, the community, media, etc. Josh will fill out a claim form in September to purchase these. We will be able to purchase them in December after fall fundraisers. Some new fundraiser ideas for next year: Walk-a-thon (as suggested by Lori Mouranie in the past), Welcome Back BBQ, spring pancake breakfast.
Teacher Appreciation Follow-Up
There are about 125 employees in the building total. About 100 people came to our luncheon and we received great feedback from teachers. Polly noted that she liked using a local business to cater the main part of the meal because it highlighted that business. She thought that perhaps in future years we could get deals with other restaurants and feature their menus at the luncheon.
School Garden Workshop
Chrissy and Polly went to a workshop about establishing school gardens and compost administration. They learned that there are a number of very positive benefits that come from school gardens, such as children who garden have increased environmental responsibility, better attitudes and concentration, better nutrition and health awareness, they are more scientific, and more. A week after the workshop they met with Mia Ross, new Master Gardener, who walked around the school grounds with them discussing good locations for the garden and satellite gardens (such as lettuce/spinach beds in the front of the school) and access to water. Polly noted that a lot of the garden activities take place during summer vacation so she wants to look into getting the Summer Youth Program involved, or have families sign up for a week of caring for the garden. Polly suggested that garden beds could be prepared this school year, ready to plant a year from now.
Fun Day Planning
The group discussed details of Fun Day. We will ask parents to send in any extra carnival-type bead necklaces they have at home to give out as prizes. We'll have a box in the main office where these will be collected. On the day of Fun Day, 8:00am is when set-up volunteers should show up, and 8:45-8:55am is when chaperons show up at classrooms. We need to make sure to ask as many volunteers as possible to stay after for clean-up of the field.
Women's Civic Chamber, 4th of July Event downtown
Zoe presented a 4th of July Event that is taking place downtown, hosted by the Women's Civic Chamber. They are putting on an "old fashioned" 4th of July that is family-oriented and centered around downtown. They are looking for people to set up games and run events. We talked about handing out our PPC red balloons with a blue ribbon and getting a helium tank. We could put out a donation box for the school garden. We brainstormed some Winter Carnival games we have in the closet that we could share at the event.
Review of Accomplishments
Zoe discussed how to officially take note of all our accomplishments this year:
-smart boards (wait till fall and do this with Channel 5)
-mini-grants
-after school program
-composting, working side-by-side with eco club
-donations to SL food pantry and Wilmington Wildlife Rescue
First week that school is out (last week in June), Zoe and Josh could work on publicity about these things (K&J show). Talk about how if you don't have kids in the school, you can still help out (with box tops, etc).
Flyer - Josh suggests making a brochure about PPC - the events we do, the liaisons, how to get involved, how to get on the email list. This could be given out in the community and to new families joining the school.
Grade Liaisons
We discussed ideas for grade liaison program for next year. Jen Yousey noted that special classrooms don't get any communications from PPC, so this would be a role for grade liaisons to step into. We discussed if we should move liaisons up to the next grade. We all agreed that liaisons should feel more comfortable being "pushy" in passing on communications to their classrooms (and liaisons could encourage teachers to sell raffle tickets!). Jesse Jakobe mentioned to Zoe that teachers who are also parents at the school are willing to be very helpful, even if they can't easily come to monthly meetings. We'll talk about this more at June meeting - who we want to recruit for next year. We will encourage all grade liaiaons to come to the June 4 meeting.
May 14, 2012, 7:00pm, Elementary Library
Attendees: Josh Dann, Kathleen Silvius, Sunita Halasz, Bob Laba, Debi Yando, Jen Yousey, Chrissy Hayden, Polly Kelting, Donna Kleist, Jenn Small, Katie Fischer, Zoe Smith
Next Meeting: Monday, June 4, 2012, 7pm
Mini Grant Follow Up
Donna Kleist came in to say thanks and present what she has been using her mini-grant for. She showed the items used in the Feelings and Emotions "toolkit" that she put together for her students, including puzzles, books, interactive vocabulary words to describe feelings, personalized story books, posters, and more. Mrs. Kleist and her aides and students are all very positive about this addition to their curriculum.
Treasurer's Report
Bob is putting a letter together for the School Board about the $6,700 PPC has used to support the school this year through things like, smart boards, mini-grants, field trips and the afterschool program. We will have about $1500 to carry into next year. We are 3 smart boards away from finishing all classrooms who want one. Purchasing these, plus 3 projectors to go along with them, will be a total of $5000 to budget for for next year. Kathleen noted that this should be celebrated and communicated with families, staff, the community, media, etc. Josh will fill out a claim form in September to purchase these. We will be able to purchase them in December after fall fundraisers. Some new fundraiser ideas for next year: Walk-a-thon (as suggested by Lori Mouranie in the past), Welcome Back BBQ, spring pancake breakfast.
Teacher Appreciation Follow-Up
There are about 125 employees in the building total. About 100 people came to our luncheon and we received great feedback from teachers. Polly noted that she liked using a local business to cater the main part of the meal because it highlighted that business. She thought that perhaps in future years we could get deals with other restaurants and feature their menus at the luncheon.
School Garden Workshop
Chrissy and Polly went to a workshop about establishing school gardens and compost administration. They learned that there are a number of very positive benefits that come from school gardens, such as children who garden have increased environmental responsibility, better attitudes and concentration, better nutrition and health awareness, they are more scientific, and more. A week after the workshop they met with Mia Ross, new Master Gardener, who walked around the school grounds with them discussing good locations for the garden and satellite gardens (such as lettuce/spinach beds in the front of the school) and access to water. Polly noted that a lot of the garden activities take place during summer vacation so she wants to look into getting the Summer Youth Program involved, or have families sign up for a week of caring for the garden. Polly suggested that garden beds could be prepared this school year, ready to plant a year from now.
Fun Day Planning
The group discussed details of Fun Day. We will ask parents to send in any extra carnival-type bead necklaces they have at home to give out as prizes. We'll have a box in the main office where these will be collected. On the day of Fun Day, 8:00am is when set-up volunteers should show up, and 8:45-8:55am is when chaperons show up at classrooms. We need to make sure to ask as many volunteers as possible to stay after for clean-up of the field.
Women's Civic Chamber, 4th of July Event downtown
Zoe presented a 4th of July Event that is taking place downtown, hosted by the Women's Civic Chamber. They are putting on an "old fashioned" 4th of July that is family-oriented and centered around downtown. They are looking for people to set up games and run events. We talked about handing out our PPC red balloons with a blue ribbon and getting a helium tank. We could put out a donation box for the school garden. We brainstormed some Winter Carnival games we have in the closet that we could share at the event.
Review of Accomplishments
Zoe discussed how to officially take note of all our accomplishments this year:
-smart boards (wait till fall and do this with Channel 5)
-mini-grants
-after school program
-composting, working side-by-side with eco club
-donations to SL food pantry and Wilmington Wildlife Rescue
First week that school is out (last week in June), Zoe and Josh could work on publicity about these things (K&J show). Talk about how if you don't have kids in the school, you can still help out (with box tops, etc).
Flyer - Josh suggests making a brochure about PPC - the events we do, the liaisons, how to get involved, how to get on the email list. This could be given out in the community and to new families joining the school.
Grade Liaisons
We discussed ideas for grade liaison program for next year. Jen Yousey noted that special classrooms don't get any communications from PPC, so this would be a role for grade liaisons to step into. We discussed if we should move liaisons up to the next grade. We all agreed that liaisons should feel more comfortable being "pushy" in passing on communications to their classrooms (and liaisons could encourage teachers to sell raffle tickets!). Jesse Jakobe mentioned to Zoe that teachers who are also parents at the school are willing to be very helpful, even if they can't easily come to monthly meetings. We'll talk about this more at June meeting - who we want to recruit for next year. We will encourage all grade liaiaons to come to the June 4 meeting.
