Attendees:
Jacki Geoghegan
Angel Rafter
Paul Pirozzi
Mitch Sylves-Berry
Leah Mc Vey
Amada Reimundez
Dancy Balestrieri
Kelley Anniccherico
Andrea Gottschall
Fiona Galloway
Christina Grillo
Juliana Aloia
Sheila Emery Murphy
Thomas Lipping
Samantha Ford Godette
Karina Arreola-Flores
Tara Schatzel
Lauren McBride
-Welcome and Intros:
Our meeting was called to order at 8:42 A.M. by Jacki and Angel.
-Budget:
Kelley distributed a hard copy of the budget. Kelley and Angel are working on a new budget format, to be presented at next month’s meeting. The new format will show the admin expenditures in addition to how much was spent (by school) for prior year, as well as where we are this year.
-Fundraising
The book fairs at Morse and W.I. are finished. After netting, the results are very comparable to last year. Scholastic has provided feedback that much of the country is seeing a plateau in revenue from book fair fundraisers.
Square 1 program is in progress, and should be ready to have products in time for Mother’s Day.
Jacki and Angel asked the board to think about new fundraising ideas that might target a different audience/market. The board suggested targeting 3rd Friday with a booth that had kid activities, as well as a booth at the Farmers market in Patriot Park. The board suggested applying for a grant, as long as we choose a specific project. Lastly, a concession booth/bake sale at some town sporting events i.e.: TNT baseball, Tri-county basketball etc. These items will be added to our volunteer list for next season.
-Screenagers Update
A 1 hour and 10 minute documentary dealing with social media, gaming and screen time management followed by a panel discussion moderated by Superintendent Borsari with a Q&A session will be held Tuesday, January 31, 2017 beginning at 7:00 PM in the SHHS auditorium with Spanish subtitles. The event is funded by Horsemen PTA and will be free for the district attendees. Kids are welcome as long as they are with a parent or guardian, and preregistration will be required for this event. This event will be open to the Rivertown Parents partner districts as well. Jacki and Angel asked the board to please try and get the word out.
-Mini Grant Update
Grant request forms went out to the school principals. February 15th is the deadline for grant requests. The Mini grant committee meeting will be held on Friday February 17th immediately following our PTA meeting. The middle school agreed to keep the $500 mini-grant separate from other projects to build a reserve. Andrea, Mitch and Tom will discuss this with the middle school parents. Lastly, Jacki noted that grant recipients need to know that purchases/receipts have to be submitted quickly.
-School Updates
-MS
Andrea advised that since there has been an increase in the number of 8th grade students who need funding for the Washington D.C. trip, there are a number of upcoming events to help raise the funds.
-WI
Indoor recess is in need of more volunteers. Children have complained that they don’t always get to go outside. VP’s agreed to discuss this, as well as the policies regarding outdoor recess rules at the next principal’s chat.
-Morse
VP’s met with Mr. Holland last week. Safety seems to have improved, and the SH police have been randomly checking in. Box top challenge is ready to go next week. The children will be going on a trip to see Mary Poppins next week. The Morse Hi-5 program is changing to promote better behavior all the time, with all students receiving keychain reward to display on their backpacks, instead of Hi-5 bracelets as reminders. Flooding issues at Morse were caused by tree roots breaking some underground pipes. These issues will be remediated by the village.
-JP
VP’s haven’t had their meeting yet with the principal. Their meeting is scheduled for Monday January 23rd.
Our meeting adjourned at 9:48 AM, our next meeting is scheduled for Friday February 17th at 8:30 AM.
Horsemen PTA 