Stanwood A Murphy PTO
January 2015 General Meeting Minutes
Date, Time, and Location: Wednesday, January 7th, 2015, at 3:30 p.m. in the school library
Meeting called to order by President Jenni Rexford at 3:32 p.m.
Attendance: Jenni Rexford, Emily Lewis, Beth Crnkovich, Faith Hansen, Ronan Collver, Lisa Barsanti
Minutes: motion to approve minutes as written from 12-3-14, approved
Officers’ Reports
(name, of speaker, summary of business discussed)
President: none
Treasurer: given by Beth Crnkovich
Treasure’s report read and accepted. Report attached.
Principal’s Report: given by Ronan Collver
Mr. Collver would like to have the playground in front of the school repaved. He is in price
negotiations now and will let us know if this is something he is going to pursue. If so, we will
need to postpone painting the state map until the project is complete. He also spoke to Gary
Barsanti, who says he doesn’t want anything that he left in our new storage space.
Old Business
(key information and motions voted on)
Box Tops Update: A check for $338.20 was received.
Christmas Store: $160 was made on table rentals and $104.25 was made at the PTO booth. Several
suggestions were brought up for next year’s store:
 Set date for store earlier in the year – maybe in September
 Have form for vendors to sign with information, hours, and expectation to stay until the
end
 Maybe shorten the hours of the store, since it dies down after the students are out of
school
 Make sure there is a tablecloth for the PTO booth and have extras to provide for those
who forget
 Make sure there is someone there to answer questions and help organize vendors and
students as needed
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Cashbox is needed for the PTO booth
No marshmallows –as they were hard to clean up. The marshmallow guns are fine.
Parent or adult with students – Some students were leaving the theater and going to
Hoby’s for snacks and free hot chocolate. Since it is still a school event, we are liable for
the students. Jenni is going to talk to Ronan about this and see what he suggests. There
was talk about sending home a permission slip for parents to sign stating who would be
with their child and their phone #. This might be necessary for at least K-3rd grade and
possibly have a school staff member monitor the 4th-8th grade.
 Use our Christmas Store sign that is in our storage space
Motion for Matt to purchase a cash box for PTO, approved
Santa’s Breakfast: Emily had the pictures developed and Jenni crafted them. Jenni will pass them out to
the teachers. Mrs. McKnight was pleased with us helping her out with this event. She did suggest that
next year we have someone to introduce Santa as he comes in. Singing was also suggested.
Family Game Night: This is still scheduled for Jan. 23rd, 2015. We will have 3 games to raffle off and we
will be playing Bingo (Beth has volunteered to run this game during the event). We have the bingo game
but not the cards. Emily will check with Mrs. Close to see if we can borrow hers or purchase what is
needed. Motion for Emily Lewis to purchase the 3 games for the raffle and the needed supplies for the
bingo game, approved. PTO to provide water, plates, napkins, and cookies. Motion for Lisa Barsanti to
purchase the cookies, approved. We will put on the flyer to bring a snack and your favorite game.
State Map Update: Faith has researched this project and found Gary Knudsen, the man who originally
painted our map. For $100 he will organize this event, pick up the needed supplies, and provide the
stencil if needed. He gave us a quote for the paint and supplies that was $800-$900. He suggests that a
week beforehand we clean the map with bleach and water to kill the lichen and then power wash. We
need between 6-12 adults for this project and a stretch of good weather.
School Spirit Wear Update: Due to the Christmas rush, the designing process was prolonged. But, we are
working on getting the designs finalized.
New Business
(key information and motions voted on)
Valentine Candy Grams : Motion for Beth Crnkovich to purchase candy and supplies for this, approved.
New PTO Storage Area: Mr. Collver has given us Gary Barsantis’ old closet at Scout Hall. We cleaned this
area out over the Christmas break and moved our things in.
STEP Program: The STEP program has not been running this year. PTO has decided to take this on and as
Mr. Collver suggested, make it part of his monthly awards ceremony. We will run this program for K-5th
grades (since GATE is for 6th-8th). Teachers will choose 3 students based on academic achievement,
behavior, etc. Faith will look into certificates to provide teachers with. We will attach permission slips to
the certificates, asking parents to sign and return, telling us if their child will be picked up by a parent,
walk home, or go back to the after-school program. We will also include information on that months’
activity. These monthly activities will be held on the 1st Wednesday of the month right after school gets
out. The first one will start Feb.4th and will be a movie and popcorn reward. Mr. Collver has offered to
help PTO with the cost of running this program. Motion for PTO to take over the STEP program,
approved.
Scrip Fundraising: This is a program that allows PTO to purchase gift cards, at a discounted rate, and
resell them to parents at the face value price. It includes many nationwide chains and there are several
local businesses that we can contract Scrip through ourselves. Emily Lewis and Faith Hansen have
volunteered to figure out if and how this program will work for our school. It has been noted that
getting the word out will be key and using local advertising like the Rio Dell and Scotia newspapers
would be helpful. Motion for PTO to do Scrip fundraising, approved.
Open Discussion
(key information and motions voted on)
Carnival Meeting: promote meeting by automated phone call, Facebook, etc.
Next meeting is February 4, 2015 at 3:30 p.m. in the school library
Meeting adjourned at 5:47 p.m.
Minutes compiled by Faith Hansen, Secretary