Hacienda Involved Parents & Staff
General Meeting
September 16, 2014
Social: 6:45
Meeting called to order: 7:09 PM
Welcome ~ Melissa Belur
Minutes ~ Laura Prijatel
-Approval of minutes from August, 2014 M/S/A
Principal’s Report ~ Mrs. Loy
-There has been a change in staffing. Mrs. Marsh is on a leave of absence for one year. If she
returns, she will be on District Hire and will not return to Hacienda. The intention is to hire a
permanent teacher as soon as possible. Two internal candidates are scheduled for interviews.
Hopefully one of these two will be a good fit for Hacienda. In the meantime, we are attempting to
find a permanent sub for the position until a new teacher is hired.
-There is another staffing change. The District has provided us with an intervention specialist to work
with students who are struggling. The person hired resigned to accept an Asst. Principal position
elsewhere. Another candidate with experience as an intervention specialist will be interviewed
tomorrow.
- The intervention specialist will focus on grades K-2nd. The District wants to focus on these younger
grades due to research suggesting if kids are not reading at grade level by 2 nd grade, they tend to
struggle throughout their academic career. Many of the kids who are struggling are English language
learners. A tentative plan has been submitted to the superintendent and council which addresses
what we need to do to make sure students are reading at grade level by 2 nd grade. The proposal
involves using the data and resources from our adaptive learning programs. Teachers and
intervention specialists will be coordinating and planning small group targeted intervention for those
students.
Treasurer’s Report/Budget Committee Update~Anna Given
Normally we would present the budget at the September HIPS meeting, however, we don’t have a
budget yet. Due to some unexpected changes, we will have a 2nd budget committee meeting on
September 24th at 7:00 p.m. at Round Table Pizza on Camden & Union. One of the changes is our
music program payroll is increasing by $26,000. We have some reserves, but we must be careful not
to overuse them. We will have to redistribute and re-evaluate our spending for the year. We will
vote on a final draft of the budget in October.
Key Officer Reports
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VP of Volunteers-Michelle Scripoch-Thank you to Lauren Alaimo & Melisa McCoy-Evans for their
hard work on the Traffic Committee, and helping to get the stop sign installed at Rodney &
Vistamont. Thank you to Anna Lilly for organizing Kinder Kick-off. She did a great job coming up with
new ideas such as craft stations, and animal holding. Volunteers are needed for the Go Green Team
and E-Scrip. Go Green team works with the science department in implementing programs to help
students develop a deep concern for the earth. E-Scrip is a program where you enter your store
reward cards and credit cards, and the school earns funds based on your spending. We need
someone to publicize and market E-Scrip to our community. Melissa B. thanked Michelle S. for redoing our parent handbook and for organizing the Back to School Coffee.
VP of Communications- Meredith Stotzner-We have 2 new volunteers for the newsletter editor.
Next newsletter deadline is Wednesday, September 24th for distribution on October 9th. Please grab
an information sheet which will tell you how to sign up for the BUZZ, Yahoo Groups, Facebook page,
etc. Regarding grade level mailing lists, I still need information for Kinder and 4 th grade. If you are on
a committee and would like to sign up for reminders/deadlines, please join the HIPS Leaders Yahoo
Group.
VP of Ways & Means~Peri Kraus-Movie and Food Truck night did not make as much as prior years,
but there was still a good turnout. The Food Trucks made around $3,000, which means people came.
Animal Adoptions are coming up. Paperwork should be coming home soon. Shanti will elaborate on
that later. Fall Festival is on track. Holiday Boutique is on track. Our school calendar is now online.
You can import it to your mobile devices.
Old Business
Membership Drive~Laura Prijatel-Membership Drive started slow, but ended up very successful. We
ended up surpassing our goal by $15,000 for a total of approximately $75,000 is donations. Thank
you to everyone who joined HIPS and supported our school programs. Mrs. Unze’s class was the top
class with 100% participation. They are the winners of the pizza party. 15 classes won all natural fruit
popsicle parties. The top 5 teachers winning $25.00 SCRIP gift cards are Unze, Masterson, Dolan,
Maida & Martin-Moss. Thank you to our hardworking Membership Committee: Jaimee Gravink,
Shannon Yager, Holly Luscher, & Kathy Welch. Special thanks to Keith Flemming for the artwork on
the large mural and Anna Given for help with matching funds. We will now move on to Phase 2 of
the Drive which includes organizing the pizza/popsicle parties, crayfishing parties, distributing thank
you gifts, printing the directory, etc. Thanks again to everyone for coming together and making it
possible for our kids to continue to enjoy all the programs at Hacienda.
Dinner Night~Anna Given for Stephanie Flemming-Bogey’s Pizza made $430.00. We don’t have any
information from Yogurtland at this time.
Movie Night/Food Trucks-Melissa Belur for Astrid Escobedo & Ashley King-Movie night broke even.
Food Trucks made approximately $250.00.
New Business
Animal Adoptions-Shanti Lipari-We are just starting the program. Adopters make a donation that
goes directly to the science program to support feeding/care of science lab animals. You can donate
any amount, there is no minimum. The cost per year is listed, but you do not need to donate the full
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amount. Adopters get a photo with their animal and special holding days to hold their animal as well
as other science lab animals. Please adopt by October 8th.
Fall Festival-Michelle Scripoch--The Festival is Friday night, October 24th. Co-Chair is Anna Lilly.
Everything is running on schedule. The Food Chair job has been split into 3 positions to make it less
overwhelming for one person. We will need lots of drink donations. There will be more games this
year to accommodate more families. We will need lots of volunteers. Please volunteer for a shift.
We are recruiting high school volunteers, as well. We also need containers with lids for game booth
tickets. We are having trouble getting pumpkins. If anyone has a contact that can help, let me know.
Next Fall Festival meeting is Friday, September 26th at 1:00 pm.
Traffic Safety Report~Lauren Alaimo-Next week there will be two traffic safety assemblies for our
kids to help increase their awareness. Traffic Committee needs volunteers to go out and help direct
traffic. We would like 4-5 volunteers from each class. Training is provided. Eventually we may
develop a student Safety Patrol. Once we get the adults trained, we will consider getting the kids
involved. Traffic Committee meets every Tuesday after drop-off in the HIPS room.
PEST Volunteers~Laura Prijatel-PEST is our teacher & staff appreciation program. Volunteers act as a
secret pal for a teacher or staff member throughout the school year. They drop off small tokens of
appreciation about 1-2 times per month. Gifts do not need to be big or expensive, just small tokens
to show how much we appreciate our teachers and staff. I’m doing very well with volunteers so far,
but still need two more people to get everyone covered. If you are interested, see me after the
meeting.
Announcements:
-Newsletter Articles Due- 09/24
-HIPS Financial Survey~Pam Crone- HIPS is trying to get a broader perspective on how to spend the
HIPS budget. A 7 question survey has been created to get input from the community. Please take a
few minutes to complete the survey. Feel free to leave comments if you would like. The survey
needs to be completed ASAP to be ready for review at the next Budget meeting.
-Author Assembly~Michelle Unger- Author Tom Angleberger (Origami Yoda Books) was supposed to
come for an assembly this Thursday, however his publisher could not get a flight. Instead, he will be
in the library after school at 3:15 to sign books. The author visits are arranged with the help of
Hicklebees. If you go to their store at any time, tell them you are from Hacienda and they will give
10% of the sale to our school library.
-Cafeteria/Salad Bar~Shanti Lipari-We have a new program for all grades called “Harvest of the
Month.” Teachers will receive a box of fresh produce with a lesson plan each month. Prior to this
year, only 3rd-5th grade got this program, but this year an anonymous donor provided funds for K-2nd
to have it, too. I have been working on getting a salad bar in our cafeteria lunch line. It was agreed
upon, but never happened. I need a group of people who are interested in forming a team to pursue
this further. The goal is to offer more healthy lunch choices in the cafeteria.
Meeting Adjourned 8:34 p.m. M/S/A
Next meeting: Tuesday, October 21st from 7:00-8:30 pm (6:45 social)
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