PTO General Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, January 14th, 2020
NES PTO General Board Meeting MINUTES
7pm NES Library
1. Principal/Teacher Updates:
- Enhanced lockdown #2 – same drill as in Oct. – any questions should be directed to Mr. King. Teachers are alerting kids so there are no surprises.
- The school has begun the process of adding inclusive playground equipment to make the playground accessible to physically challenged students, but all students can play on it. There are many people are involved. The facilities director, Doug Taylor, is a key player and has been very helpful. Once we have all the specifics – schematics drawn up, itemized list of materials/equipment - we will begin fundraising and moving forward.
- Mix-it-up day – there was a lot of positive feedback – one of the better ones that we’ve had. The parents that came were great and very positive as well.
2. Treasure Update:
- The numbers we have are from closing the books at the end of December. Mostly coming in was Secret shop, logo wear flash sale. Going out, Scholastic and Time payments, winter parties and the deposit for the Sweetheart dance.
- The 6th grade fund is on par with last year, we have almost reached 80% in class dues, which is our lowest point threshold. We really need the 6th grade fundraisers to come through with the rest. Social are doing great - Shadybrook social was fantastic because we had a discount code for all families in general that was profitable. Fundraiser sales have not cleared very much. There will also be a carwash and another flower sale at the end of the year. Pretzel sales are down a smidge.
- Knight with Your Knight was a break even event.
- Other fundraisers - Secret Shop did very well (on par with last year).
- Logo wear is down for the year but we did have a large restock in the fall.
- PTO Musical – we are positive there and now that we know how many kids are involved we can begin to determine ticket pricing, etc.
- Our last investment was the Heritage Festival – we supported the funding there and paid for setup and cleanup. Overall we are in good shape, tracking as expected.
3. Box Tops:
- The app and scanning is catching on and our numbers were higher than originally expected.
- The spring contest is a short time. We will push and promote (please empty boxes from the classrooms into the lobby box so we can bundle to send in by March 1st.)
- Write a brief announcement for morning announcements and the kids will read it.
- Feb 25th will be the deadline for collections.
4. Grant Approvals:
- We still need teachers to utilize that money.
- PTO will resend the link for teachers and we will put it on the PTO website for the teachers to access.
- The newest requests have been approved.
5. Bingo
- Bingo – Feb 20th – we do need someone to chair it - anyone interested please contact the PTO.
- There are 10 games and a raffle ticket $10 admission.
- Sign-up Genius will be sent to recruit teachers to call out #s.
- 6:30-8 (doors open at 6).
- Through registration we will ask about pizza interest and will offer food again.
- We will push out the registration the end of January. It was packed last year, so we will need to cap the numbers.
- Another way we can put more in is to set up tables in the gym like you do for the science fair – that’s an option.
6. Science Fair:
- We will get the metals next week and we are still collecting prizes – grade level drawings for prizes.
- We need to email Mrs. Torrissi and confirm we are good on the tables. Cc Mr. King on that as well so he can reach out to other principals if needed.
- All registered participants will be sent an email about drop off procedures.
- We will sell logo wear that night and we have the Chick-fil-A spirit night as well – a quick grab and go dinner the night of the event.
- 6th grade will sell some snacks as well.
7. PTO Play:
- Play is going well.
- We purchased the rights to the play - that ended up being more than we expected, but the sets will be a lot less because the company will be purchasing a projector for set changes and we will simply be renting it for our play.
- We have 78 kids signed up and we will double check that all have paid.
- Some people also ordered t-shirts, there was an extra fee for that. T-shirt prices vary depending on the number of colors we use. Also, we will get money back for using the ticket website from the company we bought rights from.
- We will have VIP seating for a higher price. Cautionary note – be sure the parents are well informed about when those tickets will go on sale, if someone doesn’t get the message and VIP seats are gone, there will be complaints. A paper flyer will go home with each student on a full cast day. A message will be sent on the remind app as well as email so everyone should be informed well in advance.
- Play rehearsal schedule has been posted on the PTO website, on the remind app and been emailed to all parents, so everyone should be aware of when their child is to be at practice.
- The in-school performance on the 19th has been changed to the 20th due to a conflict with a district band concert. This change will not affect parents in any way.
- A signup went out for parent volunteers, and we will have 3 school parents at every practice.
- We have two PTO members who can sign for Lincs hours, so if any students are wanting those hours there will be opportunities to help out at the performances.
8. Spring Fling Planning:
- To be held May 16th.
- We have extra colors from last year’s color run. We want to use our materials and do another color run for this coming year – we got good feedback from it last year.
- We can also advertise during the spring fling to reach a lot of people regarding the playground equipment fundraising. We can have a visual posted. We can also use sandwich board as well.
9. Other (topics brought up and discussed):
- Legacy project – we have money earmarked from the PTO for this – tiles seen all throughout the school. Our new teacher is aware that the legacy project is something that needs to be continued. She is looking to take the project in a new direction. We are concerned that the families will not be happy if the kids do not get to leave their mark on the school like past students.
- If she wants to take on the tile project herself. If she has a new idea that leaves a lasting mark in another way, that would be okay.
- She’s also interested in purchasing iPads to use in art. iPads will need to be a separate process that can be discussed – bringing technology into the art room is a wonderful idea!
- Valentines parties are all different times like last year. If teachers are changing the times, they need to let the HRCs know.
- Art Goes to School was in art classes this whole past week. It’s really cool.
- When were the ukulele’s purchased for the 6th grade? 4-5 years ago. They are great, the kids really love them. They sit in groups making music together.
- March 11 (6-8pm) & 13th (1:30-3:30pm) are the dates for K-1 registration for 2020-2021 school year. This was also posted on Mr. King’s regular email message.