WSPTA General Membership Meeting
January 11, 2010
PTA President Anne Marie Frascella called meeting to order at 7:35pm
Happy New Year to all and thank you for coming out.
Please review the minutes from our November meeting.
Motion to approve: Anne P.
2nd: Wendy W.
Dr, Weisenfeld has some information for us so without further delay:
Happy New Year everyone, pleasure to be back. We are facing a very challenging time right now in the schools. You may have read in the paper that the schools are going to be severely impacted by the budget deficit that exists in NJ. In fact, in order to make up the budget shortfall, each employee of the state of NJ would have to be fired twice. Obviously this translates to the school budgets as well. We need to be thinking ahead and to prepare so that drastic measures can be avoided. State aid was flat this year. We have been able to manage that because we had the interest from the referendum, we don’t have that any more.
The bottom line is that we will be over our cap by $100-$700K before we bring the budget to vote. We will not know the true number until mid-March after the governor meets on March 16th.
We are planning now because the election is in April and we will not have much time to get the news out. Due to the inevitable school budget cuts, we are going to have to unfortunately cut personnel. 75% of our budget goes to salaries and benefits. Fortunately we have purchased all the new curriculum materials and books we needed already so we don’t have to allocate much to that budget. All programs will be squeezed, but the reality is that there will be jobs lost. We are doing our best to mitigate this situation. It is a bad time for schools across the nation, unless they pass another stimulus package immediately, it will not impact us this year. I wanted to share this news with you now so that there are no surprises – it is a challenging time for sure.
Q: Passing the budget by increasing the tax burden is going to be very difficult to pass as not only are the schools suffering, but business in general is terrible and our neighbors are suffering as well.
A: The tax bite will be greater but we don’t want to have to turn the budget decision to the town council and end up losing control over the funds.
To that end, we have decided to put the science lab project on hold, we will lose the 40% from the state match, but hopefully they approved it once so they’ll approve it again when we reapply in a better economic climate.
We have a great faculty and staff, they will be critical in the tightening of spending and hopefully any cuts we have to make will be minimal.
AMF: thanks Dr. Weisenfeld, next we will hear from our principal Ms, Morales
Ms. Morales: We are working hard on budgets in order to save our staff. On that subject, our secretaries have been very busy too. We are trying to make the office more efficient. We have made some changes in the office structure. Lori is our point person for parents and other office visitors. Linda Conklin will be working closer with me. If there is anything you need help with in the office, please see Lori first. We are hoping this will make things run smoother, our secretaries do so much that you don’t even realize, by making clear distinctions we should be able to have a great working environment.
AMF: Now we would like to hear from our teachers who are here tonight, first Mrs. Spirko.
Mrs. Spirko: Good News!!! March 18 we are having a square dance. This is not a fund raiser, just a night out. It will be for Pre-K through 5th and will not be a drop off. Kids will be practicing from now on so they will know what to do. All grades will be learning the dances. Last year it was so successful that we are going to do it now alternating years in each school. Cost will be $10 per family and will include ice cream. When the flyers go home, the first ones back get the first spots on the ice cream line!
The second thing I wanted to talk about was a suggestion for a portable spot light. Haskell purchased a light like this about 3 years ago and it has been used over and over again. I am sure that many times you have come to performances and your child has been in the shadows, this light will help that. It will also make your home videos much clearer! All children are on the stage for one thing or another throughout their time in school so everyone has the chance to benefit. Since Lakeland has become less accessible to us, we are seeing more productions here so it is my feeling that this would be a great asset to all programs as well.
Motion to approve the spotlight purchase for approximately $1600
Motion to approve: Anne P.
2nd: Lisa K.
AMF: Next we will hear from Mrs. Horst and Pennies for Peace
Mrs. Horst: This program started back in the 1990s with Greg Mortenson’s journey to climb the highest peak in memory of his sister who passed away. That journey landed him in Afghanistan where he saw how bad the schooling was and after some time started this program to raise money to build schools and stock them with the supplies they need. So we are challenging the children to bring in their pennies for this project.
Phase II is the Reading for Peace program I (Mrs. Horst) will sponsor Wanaque School by donating a penny for every book read for the next 6 weeks ending on March 2 with Dr. Seuss Day. I would like to invite parents and teachers to do the same; you can sponsor your child, his/her class, grade level or school. You can choose your level of support, per page, per chapter, per book – depending on the age of the child.
Phase III would be to get the community involved – if you know a business owner or individual in the community who would like to participate we would love that. This is in conjunction with our Heroes reading program. Checks can be written out to Pennies for Peace and we ill be sending sponsor forms home to parents in the next few days. The kids will be recognized with a Wall of Heroes. All the tips from mulberry Street Mall will also go to the program.
Dr. W: I heard about this program on NPR radio and the statement made was: changing kids changes the world”. Removing illiteracy removes targets for terrorists; I think this is a terrific program.
AMF: once again I want to thanks all the teachers and faculty for coming tonight.
New Business: We are putting together a Committee Chair form for every chairperson to fill out. This form will include tons of information and once your event is over we will collect the forms and the notes you make so that we can pass it along to the next person to chair that program, it will have things like what worked and what did not work, things you would do differently etc. We really feel this will be helpful moving forward.
We are also going to try something called a Q&A Forum on the PTA website where questions can be posted throughout the month and we will try and funnel through them and get the answers from the appropriate administrators, we will see how it goes and if it works will give it a permanent home on the website.
Stop & Shop A+ Bonus program: we are now enrolled. All you have to do is go to the stop and shop website, click on A+ Program, put in your sip code and choose Wanaque School. Points accumulated determine cash back to the schools, and they round to the nearest dollar and credit us monthly – easy way to get us additional dollars.
Officer Reports:
1st VP – Joy Gurreri
Nothing in this capacity.
2nd VP – Lisa Keyzer
Nothing to report in this capacity.
Treasurer: Sue Katz
We were able to get everything in and straightened out and our charter is renewed.
Some numbers: Children’s Tricky Tray made $1700
K-2 drama was over budget by $800
Cookie dough made $800
Holiday Bazaar made $700
Holiday shop – still waiting for the expenses to get the total
School Apparel – sold out
We will need to have a motion to increase the budget for this line item. It is not intended to be a fund raiser, it is simply an in and out situation. We need to approve an additional outlay of $982 to replenish stock.
Motion to approve: Joy G.
2nd: Yvette S.
There was a check sent in to the PTA for $73 – Debby Sloat identified the check as from a Holiday Bazaar vendor who offered to donate 10% of his sales of the day to the PTA.
Corresponding Secretary: Anne Padovano
I have a thank you note from the kindergarten for our continued support of the Thanksgiving feast.
Recording Secretary: Yvette Stoker
Nothing to report tonight
Committee Reports:
K-2 Drama –The K-2 program was terrific, thanks to everyone involved. The kids were amazing. Really came together with the help of the parents.
3-5 Drama – we had 45 students sign up, along with lots of volunteers, it should be a great show!
6-8 Drama – Rehearsals will start up again in March
Cultural Arts – Joy G.: Liberty Science Center workshops are coming:
4th grade: Creepy Crawlies
3rd and K-5th will also have programs, topics to be determined
We are also working on a creative writing workshop for the 5th grade. We will have an the group will come in and work one on one with the kids after reading the stories they submit ahead of time.
AMF: remember these programs are all driven by the teachers, the budget is there, programs just need to be requested.
Holiday Shop – Lisa Keyzer: Went very well considering we only received merchandise based on last year’s sales and last year we only really had one day to sell.
We had to order over 400 items. Please also remember if you sign up to help, please help. This year no one showed up to help out. The kids really need you
.
Bingo – Lisa Keyzer: Still having trouble getting dates. Anne Marie offered to help as she is meeting with Ms. Morales and will get us three dates.
Fundraising – Sue Mazar: Sue is not here today. Wendy, how did the cookie dough sale go? WW: Was expecting more orders, can we possibly change the date for next year? It seems to collide with a number of other fundraising opportunities and maybe if it were at a difference time it could be more successful. Maybe in March?
Box Tops: Debby Sloat– Congratulations to Mrs. McGonagle’s class, they collected 964 box tops for the Nov/Dec time frame. Ms Andresen was 2nd with 484.
We just received a check for $660 for these efforts.
We have accumulated 61,000 points so if we need to purchase something we have this account. Maybe I could get together with Wendy and we could purchase items from the Giving Tree with the points.
Q: Does the school buy anything from Staples? They also have a point program that might benefit us.
A: The school is required to purchase supplies through Ed Data School Specialties and Cascade – it is a bid process.
Kids’ Tricky Tray: Great success! Thanks to Maryann and everyone who chaired this and helped us have such a great night. This should definitely be carried on year to year.
Q: What happens to the money from the kids’ tricky tray?
A: It goes back into the PTA general budget.
Q: We wanted to see if we could give gifts to the teachers in the grade levels we targeted.
A: No, unless we are raising funds for a specific need, we absorb the income into the general budget. Fundraisers are for all programs, money moves around through the pot where it is needed.
Website: Karin DelSignore everything seems to be going well. Karen Branciforte suggested we do an email blast to the PTA list when something new is on the website. This will help drive traffic to the website and will remind people of all the resources there.
Reading Activities: Kathy Dykstra – January 22 is date for the Superhero party. Pre-K through 1st in the library. Kids should wear superhero pjs or costumes. Parents must stay and we could use help from anyone there. If anyone has a grown up superhero costume we would love to borrow it.
We are also running a 5th grade fun night called Let’s Get Physical with games and a lot of fun. $3 per child – healthy snacks and lots of great extras.
The next activity will be in April for 2nd and 3rd grades.
AMF: Any grade can have these activities. If you have an idea, get a date and run with it!
8th grade committee: Lisa Keyzer – There will be a meeting for 8th grade parents interested in helping on 2/3 at 7pm at the Haskell School. At our last meeting December 6th we tried to finalize decorations – still have work to do!
AMF: Do we re-use decorations? I know storage is an issue, it seems a shame to throw them away every year
Lisa K: I can store a lot in my attic if we need space
AMF: We also want to thank everyone for helping with the Holiday Bazaar and the Thanksgiving baskets
Giving Tree: Wendy Weisse – the Giving Tree will remain up all year. Should I send the list of requests to the PTA list via email in case there are people who want to give but don’t get in to the school that often?
AMF: I think that is a good idea, even when parents come into the school they have a purpose and might not stop there.
Spring Egg Hunt: Nothing on this even just yet.
Announcement: YMCA Enrichment starts 1/26 for all in K-8
There will be school on the 15th, no school on the 18th
Motion to adjourn until February 8, 2010 at 7:30pm
Motion to adjourn: Anne P.
2nd: Joy G.
Meeting is adjourned until 2/8/2010
Respectfully submitted but not approved 2/3/2010
