York Avenue Home & School
General Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, December 2, 2014 @7pm
1. Welcome
2. Guest Speaker: Pam Gallagher, Nutrition Services
• Pam shared her background in Dietetics/Healthcare before becoming involved
in school lunch (in Philadelphia and Allentown before coming to North Penn)
• Mission: to provide high quality, healthy and wholesome meals to students
while supporting the educational environment to make sure that students are
ready to learn
• Tray-Waste Study found that children are throwing away full, unopened cartons
of milk
• Children are talking and may not be eating their lunch, creating a great deal of
waste
• Plan being developed to reduce waste realized during the Plate-Waste Study
• New Regulations are very strict:
-Calorie restrictions
-All grains must be whole grains (applied for waiver to allow pasta as
exception)
-Sodium restrictions
• All students buying lunch must take fruit/vegetable
• December 31, 2015, President will renew healthy school lunch legislation
• Applied for Farm-to-School Grant, but did not get it, will reapply next year
• National School Lunch Program
-staff trained (150 employees across 18 schools) on how to serve lunch
-meals are reimbursed if the child has three out of five points on their
tray (grain, protein, milk, fruit, vegetable)
-annual training provided to staff
-1000 breakfasts, 6000 lunches, 1000 after-school snack
-Summer Food Initiative: last summer was first year to bridge gap
between school lunches over the summer break
• Every year, families can apply for Meal Application in order to receive
free/reduced lunch
• “My Payment Plus” program is convenient, but does have a service charge
• Parents can restrict account to limit what extra items child can purchase
• Questions:
o Is High School not participating in National School Lunch Program? No,
the High School will continue to participate in the program
o Partnership with Prism Brewery: selling creamies, in which 30 cents of
every creamy sold will go to NP grant
o Was any feedback received regarding the Farm-to-School Grant? The
notification was just received today so there was not opportunity to look
into this
o How is the menu created? By looking into what sells based on past data
and using commodity dollars to purchase/process food
o How much of NP population is Free and Reduced? 27% across the
district and increasing each year, 51% here at York Avenue, although
Hatfield and Oak Park are the highest
o Do you have to participate in the National School Lunch program? No,
but you would not receive federal funding
o Pretzel Sales & Bake Sales? Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act includes
“Smart Snacks in Schools,” which has restrictions in what snacks can be
o
sold based on calories, sodium, whole-grain; All fundraisers that sell
food during the school day (ending 30-minutes after dismissal) have to
follow guidelines as well, although there is a waiver in place for one year
(2014-2015)
Is there a gluten-free option? Not a whole meal, but there are options
3. Principal’s Report- Mrs. Moseley
• Very successful American Ed week—a marked increase in attendance
• Art Goes to School at beginning of November
• 4,5,6 participating in math competition to promote higher level thinking
• Reading Olympic teams up and running
• Dec 4 Winter Assembly 9:30 am and 7:00 pm (Chorus/Orchestra) Dec 10
Orchestra at Nash
• Dec 12 RIF event in first grade
• Dec 18 Band concert at North Wales
• Dec 19 Celebration Assembly 2 pm to honor writers, yellow jacket, and honor
roll/distinguished honor roll recipients
• Dec 22 Mad Scientist Assembly at 9:30 am
• January—Brett Baker will talk to primary teachers to work on using
iPads/laptops
• January Super Reader Bowl—NP High School football players will come in to
read to students
• Harlem Wizards come Jan 21st to play against NP staff
• Parking issues in back lot, signs to remind community members to avoid using
lot between 8:00 am and 3:30 pm
• School Goals shared; having students look closely at the structure/language
authors are using
-Use of Effective Instructional Practices
-Access PA Core standards-aligned curriculum
-Purposeful planning and monitoring of strategies to promote
engagement
• Three Data-points throughout the year; January data-collection will give
information as to how students are working toward these school goals
4. Teacher’s Report- Mrs. Alloway was not available to report
5. Parent Discussion: Fitness Fundraiser
• As of today, fundraiser has raised $9909, surpassing $5000 goal
• Ideas for ways to spend the extra money raised
-Mascot
-Shorter Basketball net
-Rock Wall for gym
-End of Year Bash
-Fence for Kindergarten
-Murals for walls
-Consider giving back to a needy school in the future
6. Home & School Business
• Fundraisers
-Fitness Fundraiser was so successful that H & S will not be initiating catalog sales
-Some fundraising that comes home is in place to benefit 6th grade events
-Working to reduce the pressure families are feeling to continue to give
• DNO/Five Below
-Dec. 9 at Wendy’s 5-8 pm
-Dec. 8-12 at Five Below
• Family Dance- Chair needed
• Treasurer’s Report
Total income receipts $15018.77
Directory advertising $275.00
Tabora Farms $235.00
Target $340.82
Fall Book Fair $1320.24
7. Next Meeting- February 5 @7pm
8. Questions/Comments
Upcoming Events:
December 5th
December 8-12th
December 9th
January 23rd
Family Skate Night (InLine 309)
Five Below Fundraiser
DNO/Wendy’s
Family Dance
5:30-7:30pm
7-8:30pm