Powell Middle School
Minutes of PTO Meeting
September 20, 2007
The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. Present were Sheri Brasher, Debbie Cordero, Paula Onofrio, Teresa Waller, Becky Friend, Laura Melphy, D. D. Walsh, Steph Petersen, Melissa Miller, Jessica Martinez, Karen Brink, Renata Harrold-Donnell, Sandy Presta, Becky Beall-Moore, Kelly Perez, Amy Riedel, Chris Sugo, Holli Sparks, Chris and Laurie Marlowe, Karen Mayo. Introductions of the Board were made to all present.
Secretary’s Report: Paula Onofrio
Minutes of the July Executive Board meeting were read. A motion was made to approve the minutes. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.
President’s Report: Becky Friend
Honor Roll assemblies are this week. The PLC’s are in full swing. Two late start days have already occurred and there will be one next week. Staff meeting time is also used for PLC meetings. The School Improvement Plan consists of the following: to bring boys CSAP scores up in writing because 90% of girls are at standard or higher while 70% of the boys are at standard or higher. The District goal is to have this discrepancy reduced by half by 2009. The federal goal is to have 100% of children at proficient or above by 2014. This standard is not different for children with severe learning disabilities. To assist boys in improving, parents could encourage their children to write more as the children’s writing skills will improve with continued practice. A parent noted that prompts on the CSAP can be boring and Ms. Friend responded that this year the focus for math, science, etc. is to write an intelligent short answer response.
Treasurer’s Report: Teresa Waller
There was discussion regarding the selling of t shirts and hoodies. A motion was made to sell Powell t shirts and hoodies in the fall this year. The motion was seconded. The Executive Board voted unanimously to sell the hoodies this year. This will be a year to year decision to be voted upon by the Board, Approval was also given to apply for a sales tax license and to pay the $16.00 fee. The PTO will need to collect and remit sales taxes because the PTO will have over $25,000 in fundraising and the sales of Powell clothing will continue over 12 days of sales. The PTO is not allowed to have a profit motive with the clothing sales because it is a tax exempt entity and the PTO also will not be charged sales tax by the clothing manufacturer because it is a tax exempt entity. It was also noted that this is Teresa’s last year as Treasurer.
As far as the financial statements are concerned, magazine sales have been $124,000 so far with possibly $4,000 more in late turn ins and internet sales. At the magazine wrap up meeting, we will need to pay the expected cost of $55,000. We also need to pay for the assignment notebooks but possibly this is paid in the spring. Another bill to be paid is for the magnets issued at registration. Possibly this year’s gift to the school will be $35,000, which is down a little from last year. Also, it must be noted that donations cannot be collected from neighborhoods door to door instead of magazine sales. Donations in lieu of sales go directly to the school.
Teresa is the only signer on the checking account right now. Deb & Sheri will be cosigners and copies of the monthly statements go to them as a checks and balances system. Teresa will try to get the statements online as an added security. Deb mentioned that PPC suggests the PTO presidents approve and sign all bank statements.
VIPS: Renata Harrold-Donnell
Red Ribbon Week begins October 23 and she needs a contact person or leader. Classified Employee Week needs a contact person or leader. The newsletter needs a lead contact (the person who collects the information which goes into the newsletter). Administrative Persons Week needs volunteers. The Puma Prowl is today and adequately staffed. A good response was received at registration to requests for volunteers. Renata wanted to know how to thank volunteers. The spring tea is organized by the principal’s office. Invites are sent out to all people whose names are entered into the computer. Not a lot of people attend the tea and Ms. Friend is open to suggestions. A suggestion was made to table this discussion until the next meeting so people can have time to think about what to do. The carpool was late getting started but now has 29 participants. The carpool information is in the newsletter but maybe it should be on the website. Should we put information in the registration packet next year?
Sheri and Deb split the district volunteer forms and called several new families. Sheri got good positive feedback. Registration went very well.
President’s Report: Sheri Brasher and Deb Cordero
On March 13, 2008, there will be an evening PTO meeting with Ellen Lynch as the guest speaker after the regular meeting, Ellen Lynch is a marriage and family counselor whose specialty is adolescent issues. This meeting will be in conjunction with Euclid, Newton, and Goddard. She is a wonderful speaker and it should be an interesting presentation.
At the recent PPC meeting (which is a district wide meeting of PTO presidents) the most important issue discussed was collection of sales taxes. Also a lot of information about PLC’s was offered and a DVD about PLC’s was viewed. This DVD is available to every school and perhaps it could be viewed at an upcoming PTO meeting. The DVD shows what actually happens at a PLC meeting and was very illuminating. On the website a 4 minute clip of the DVD is available to view for all three levels of education-elementary, middle, and high school. There will be an education forum at the ESC building on 9/26 from 7-9 with Joe Rice, State Rep, as speaker. The October PTO meeting will be 10/11 with Detective Denner from the Littleton Police Internet Task Force as speaker.
Deb and Sheri will start to keep an issue log where continuing issues are kept track of from one month to the next until they are resolved. They will also post a board brief on the website with the meeting agenda posted one week ahead of a meeting and a brief summary of each meeting after the meeting.
PAC Liaison: Sandy Presta
Sandy Presta will be unable to continue as PAC representative after this month. Holli Sparks volunteered to replace her as the PAC representative.
Mark Talley is the new PAC President; Pam Jewett the new Vice President and Ben Lacey the new Secetary. Copies of the bylaws were passed out at the recent meeting. PAC norms were passed out and agreed upon. PAC meetings are twice a month with the second meeting on an as needed basis. At the last meeting the second year of the school improvement plan was discussed. In October the subcommittee will report on the monitoring of indoor air quality. There will be a report at the next meeting on hallway improvements; a plan will be made and money will be allocated.
New Business:
The cancellation of the Fall Follies this year prompted a discussion between parents and Mrs. Friend. To summarize, the Fall Follies has been organized by Kathy Summers and her sister, Karen Meersman, for the last 20 years approximately. This is a parallel program that is not part of anyone’s job description. Because last year’s presentation exceeded the expected time limitation, several children were out quite late. Teachers were upset because quality instructional time was interrupted by sleepy children, tardiness or absence the next day. Ms. Friend requested that the program be limited in time to avoid this problem but Ms. Summers feels that one hour was not adequate to the scope of the program. Several suggestions were made such as beginning the program earlier, having the program on the evening before a late start day, having the program be divided into two separate performances, having the program on a weekend night and limiting introductions and jokes in between performances so that the focus is solely on the performance. Ms. Friend took note of all the suggestions and will meet again with Ms. Summers so that the issue can be resolved.