Goshen Elementary PTO Meeting
Tuesday, May 11, 2015
Meeting Minutes
President Emily Klingensmith called the meeting to order at 7:00. Welcome.
Introduction of our new principal, Mary Miller. Thank you to the Goshen PTO.
As a Goshen parent and district employee, she personally appreciates
everything the PTO and staff do to support the students. Dr. Wells and the
teachers work collectively with the PTO. Students benefit from our programs
and events. She firmly believes in working collaboratively and communicating,
and she hopes we continue the success the school has established. Looking
forward to the challenge. There is a great administrative team to support
her. Her door is always open. Call, email or stop by the office.
We will review the minutes from the March meeting. Raise your hand if you’ve
had a chance to look at it. Maria moves to approve. Nekisha seconds. All
in favor say I. Minutes approved. If something comes up, let us know.
Principal’s Report
Five more principals for the day. Total is twelve from AR. Two from fall
fest. Total 14. The kids had a great time. Great way to celebrate AR
accomplishments. Wifi solid estimate to install in all classrooms for 15-16
school year will be right about 20k. As a district, making an effort to get
in all elementary buildings. $10,000 from Cardinals game can be allocated
toward wifi. Teacher Appreciation Week. Thanks to everyone who has brought
in treats. It helped make everyone feel fantastic. Triathlon 19th. Ocean
Olympics 21st. No school 25th. Last day of school 27th. Teacher’s
institute 28th. Teachers still in building in case you forgot anything. In
office until June 4th. Closes until July. Practice for Cardinals event two
nights. 14th and 16th of July from 6-730. Kids practiced today and did a
great job. Each year goes a little more smoothly. T-shirts will be in this
week. Most tickets are here. We sold 817. Ordered 700. Great sale.
Phenomenal support on that. Ordered two mediums and two larges in child
sizes. July 23rd elementary registration. Office open everyday 8-430. Will
send out emails and do Facebook reminders. 27th Cardinal game. As we wrap
up school year, want to thank exec board, volunteers, committee chairs.
There is no other PTO that can compare and do what you do with no drama.
Everything we ask for as a teaching staff is on it. Everyone is here for the
right reasons. Parents are excited to get involved because of you. Have
enjoyed every moment being here for the last 7 years and especially this last
year. We think about how happy the kids are. They have everything they
could possibly want. Next step was to introduce Mary. She has been in the
office once a week the last couple of weeks. At meetings, she has been
meeting parents and staff. She is excited to be part of this school and
family. What time does triathlon start this year? Triathlon 1-120 starts.
Off track by 315. Not doing fruit this year. Just Gatorade. Trying to
streamline this year. Medals are here. Not doing t-shirts. Kids wear
Gatorwear. Need a few volunteers to help with getting water and Gatorade
out. Emily will work on this. Sign up for that. Staff appreciation.
Kristi Hancock. Regular spring one is next Tuesday. If you want to donate,
we can do tonight. Kristi asked about Teacher Appreciation Week. Did Extra
gum and water bottles and breakfast one morning. Went above and beyond.
Treasurer’s Report
Emily. One sheet front and back. Back is report put together so we can talk
about Tara’s request for wifi. Budget report is income vs. expense. So you
can’t really see profits. You can see that here. We haven’t gotten our
check yet from Texas Roadhouse. $400. What Julia wanted us to do was to
look at 6.12 for tech fund. Inflated because we had not paid for listening
centers. $4500 could be put toward wifi. Julia’s proposal was to take $1400
from fall fest and $4000 from Get Up and Goshen which would bring the total
to $10000 from PTO for wifi. Spending what we have from technology and using
those other overages. Emily makes motion to use to support Goshen in wifi
package. Installing over the summer. Goal is to have it live in fall.
Maria seconded. Does anyone have any questions about the budget in general?
Also, checks for Leslye, Debi and Kristi.
Committee Reports
Need to really push to get volunteers for internal programs going on during
the week.
Accelerated Reader
Leslye. AR was great this year. Ms. V’s class has a student with the
highest amount of points I’ve ever seen. Leslye does the whole program. We
hope and pray Leslye will do this again next year. A Kindergarten parent
would be awesome, too.
Assemblies
Reptile Experience was our last assembly of the year. It went great. The
kids loved it and were able to touch snakes, alligators and a tarantula. It
was a lot of fun.
Box Tops
One last submission. Jami Mayhew is going to do next year. Debi is keeping
Labels for Education.
Charitable Giving
April 21st was Culver’s Night. Did not do staff sign up until day before.
It went well. Texas Roadhouse was fun as well. Don’t want to kill these
dine and donate nights.
Decorating Committee
Chrisann and Kermit did a great job.
Foreign Language Committee
Julia will do again if no one else steps up.
Media Center /Spring Book Fair
Over $6500 in Scholastic dollars. $2500 for Scholastic News. Can’t get a
lot of hardbound books for library from them. Any suggestions about what
teachers want? Tara wants to see catalog. Leave in workroom or lounge with
suggestion list. School starts August 17th. Have us down to meet the
following week. Back to school night or grandparents breakfast might work
better. If you still want to do a night in addition to the day, just not
night before grandparents. September 11th is grandparents day. Bogo fair
first week of April. Can only do in April or May.
Media Center’s last week was last week. Organizing shelves this week. Tress
may be interested for next year.
Rewards Program
Nothing to report.
Spirit Day
Tress Kurzym. Got her Snapper and Snapper’s helper. Everything’s good.
This Friday is the last Spirit Day. FitGo kids from Liberty can get service
hours. They may be interested in helping out. Tress is doing again next
year.
Staff Appreciation
Next Tuesday. Julia did say she needs some help setting up and tearing down.
A fun, special event. Drawing with prizes.
Webmaster
Nothing to report.
Yearbook
Yearbook is good. Bindhu doing again next year.
Old business
Leslye …water fountain update. Talked to PTO president in STL. School is K5. No maintenance or repair this year with it. Also researched on internet.
Water companies have sponsored buying these for some of the schools. Does
district have regulations about things like that. Some ADA compliant. Some
are not. Options to submit to maintenance department to look at and see
which ones they would recommend. Also have kind you can mount outside.
Refillable bottles versus plastic bottles. Kids drink more water, less germ
swapping. We could put proposal together for Dr. Wells and Ms. Miller to
take to the District. $1200-$2600 or tamper resistant $2100-$3200. Just one
for now. In main hallway. If we looked at outside resources to pay, we may
be able to ask for every school. But, we have different water suppliers
throughout the district. HS has some type of group that may fit with mission
well. Could also go into Fall budget proposal.
New business
Election of officers. Nominees stand. President Maria Maxwell, VP Nekisha
Omotola, Secretary Emily Klingensmith, Treasurer Liddy Lafikes. Do not need
written ballot if only one candidate for office. Vote entire slate in
interest of time. Takes a quarter of us here who are already on slate for
quorom. Move to accept from Emily. Seconded by Leslye.
PTO Volunteer Form
Need to talk about committee chairs. Updated PTO volunteer form. AR.
Leslye may need a helper. Get Up and Goshen, Ashley Thompson and Tracy
Baird. Liddy will be treasurer. Done it before. Kindergarten Orientation
August 11th. Might want to have a table. 4:30 and 6:30. Bldg walk through
August 13th.. For everyone, teachers are not here. Opportunities to recruit
parents. Need to step up our game to get volunteers we need. Some people
are intimidated or think they can only volunteer in the classroom. AR fun
way to get to know every classroom teacher. Media center too. Get to know
kids, books and staff. Is Sign Up Genius database updated? Yes. 209 emails
go out every time we are having a meeting. Might want to invest in Constant
Contact to see who has opened emails. Free up to certain number of emails
that go out. Maybe utilize Goshen Facebook page for PTO. Can put sign up
genius link on Facebook page. Or dividing message by working and non working
parents. Need to find decorators.
In attendance: Tara Wells, Emily Klingensmith, Maria Maxwell, Liddy Lafikes,
Debi Hill, Nekisha Omotola, Taran McKey, Leslye Norsworthy, Ashley Deets,
Judy Blaskie, Krista Rudd, Mrs. Riddle, Mrs. Michel, Mrs. Marsh, Ms. Miller,
Ms. V, Kristi Hancock