PSTA Board Meeting Minutes

Fairhaven Middle School

September 9, 2008

Board Members:

Present: Jennifer Dolese, Julie Webster, Val Hauter, Susan Feemster, Jana Burk

Absent: none

Others Present:

Steve Rogers, Vice Principal

Anne Seeger and Kerry Sloan, members of the Parent's Advisory Committee to the Superintendent

Proceedings:

Meeting called to order at 6:42 p.m. By Co-President Jennifer Dolese

Overview of the school year to date (by Julie Webster):

6^th grade CUBS day on August 28 was successful; Beth Bacon (counselor) and 10 parent volunteers were present to facilitate

7^th & 8^th grade schedules were handed out on August 29; 40% attendance rate even though the date was published incorrectly on the website

Staff luncheon was held before the first day of school, hosted by PSTA Co-Presidents; it was considered successful and was suggested that it become an annual event

coordination of volunteers is progressing; getting e-mails and phone calls to volunteers, gathering and organizing interest surveys; 4 parents volunteered to do yearbook

Secretary's Report:

Secretary will post minutes and information to the website by e-mailing to Shari Neilan or Cathy Miller

Parent Advisory Committee can also post this way

draft minutes will be e-mailed to officers within the week

cannot post unapproved minutes, so they will be a month old; a question was raised – can we approve minutes by e-mail?

Secretary will work on organizing previous years' notebooks to store in PSTA room, and get past year's minutes to new Co-presidents

Minutes from the June 2008 General Membership meeting, recording that Jennifer and Julie were elected as Co-Presidents, were needed in order for them to be able to sign checks; minutes were brought to the meeting and they can now proceed

Treasurer's Report:

staff luncheon used all of the allotted staff appreciation money on the budget for the year

we have more money than expected - more than $11,000 due to the fact that some expected expenditures were billed for less

a discussion of the budget included the possibility of shifting funds from different line items, establishing a discretionary fund, and to spend more on staff appreciation

Julie would like to do something monthly for the staff, for approximately $50 per month

Susan will inform teachers what their yearly allotment will be

Counselor's Discretionary Fund – board gave $1000 to this fund and was supposed to get receipts but didn't – Treasurer needs these receipts; can't do it this way again, must do it as a reimbursement

Fairhaven tee shirts were given out to CUBS helpers. They were not purchased because we already had them. We need a paper trail; we need someone to purchase them with a check at $5 each and then get reimbursed.

$450 was received from Haggen for School Bucks

Motion: Add $400 to staff appreciation line item in the budget, for $800 total; passed unanimously.

Other discussions:

An idea was presented to start a kind of Booster Club for band, choir, perhaps art; featuring a Spaghetti Dinner or Talent Show with an art exhibit and perhaps sell art work

Mrs. Schwab mentioned to a board member that band doesn't have enough money to take students places; pass on to her that she can make a proposal to us for money for buses

Binder Bar idea was introduced – once every other month, Karl would send kids who have trouble organizing their binders to the “Binder Bar” where there would be binder supplies and other students to be peer helpers.

Need to keep track of tee shirt inventory; have lots of tees but not many crew neck or hoody sweatshirts – need to re-order more for future events

a large amount of “Box Tops for Education” were found; need someone to go through these and organize them

October Fund raiser – Assembly on Oct. 9 to introduce the possibilities to the kids. There will be a menu of choices; (1) they can renew magazine subscriptions, (2) ask family to write a check for $50, or (3) service pledge drive. Service pledge – kids do the work, money goes to the PTSA. Prizes will be done by us, and be fun things to do with a group. The fund raiser will go one for 2 weeks, and at the end will be a Family Fall Social (Oct. 24th). More fund raising meetings and information will be coming.

Directory – try to get it out by end of October. Val will sell ads, but someone else must do the rest.

Audit still needs to be done

Q & A with Steve Rogers:

Open House; PSTA will do a short talk and have sign-ups for volunteers, membership, tee shirt sales, and do refreshments.

Picture Day; Nancy organizes the flow of the day, PSTA contacts the volunteers and tells them what to do

Mountain School for 8^th graders might be happening; is in the planning stages, Kerry volunteered to help with Mountain School

Snow Goose for 6^th graders is happening

PSTA early release programs; a good idea but complicated. Perhaps a couple of times in the spring it could be sponsored as a test run.

After school happenings; sports, math masters, clubs (Improv, sustainability, art, chess) Sunrise Choir, Math Olympiad

Parent Advisory Committee to the Superintendent:

1^st meeting is 9/10 at Wade King Elementary

we can give PAC reps questions to bring to the meetings

any parent can attend the meetings, which will generally be first Wednesday of each month

PSTA Board Meetings will generally be set for the 2^nd Tuesday of the month; however our next meeting will be Monday, October 6^th

Meeting adjourned at 8:33 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Secretary, Jana Burk.