WSPTA General Membership Meeting
March 8, 2010
PTA President Anne Marie Frascella called the meeting to order at 7:37pm
Welcome, thank you all for coming, a special thank you to Mrs. Peschl and Mrs. Basedow for representing the teachers this month.
Please review the minutes from our February meeting.
Motion to approve: Anne P.
2nd: Wendy W.
This is a very important month as we prepare for the changes to the state budgets for education. Without further delay I will turn the time over to BOE president Rob Adams.
Rob: So far we do not have specific numbers from the state; we are hoping to have them around the 16th. Until then we are trying not to get caught up in speculating numbers because we just don’t know.
We have thought through a couple of plans for how to make up the difference. The BOE finance committee is working to try and have the least impact on the children as possible. We are also planning for the future when we the funds are reinstituted and how to ramp up. Right now, the reality is we just don’t know.
The next BOE meeting will be on the 19th, and we need your input. The community is so important here, we need to hear from you. We have met with the teachers, now it is your turn. We have to submit our proposed budget, based on what we receive from the state on or around the 16th, by the 22nd. So please try and come to the meeting to share your thoughts and ideas. The meeting will be here in the Wanaque library 7pm on the 19th. There will be another BOE meeting on the 23rd and then the public hearing is scheduled for 3/31 in Haskell.
The community outreach meeting will be 3/25 7pm at Haskell. There is always room for your ideas and input as well as questions. We really need you to participate in one or all of these meetings – we depend on a good turnout.
AMF – there will be an emergency PTA meeting on the 22nd at 7pm here in the Wanaque library for the PTA to vote to support the budget, we cannot ask people to vote one way or the other, however as an organization we can support the budget. Once we do that we can get the literature out and help folks to make their decisions!
Q – 3/19 is family skate night?
A – We had to have a date, it is also a dance night, it is inconvenient for sure, and hopefully families can split responsibilities for one night.
The important thing is to get educated on the changes and what it means to our school and our kids, and then make a good decision and vote. Please try and attend one or more meeting and then be sure to vote.
Turn the time to Ms. Morales
Ms. Morales: thank you to everyone who participated in Dr. Seuss Day, it w as a great day, our volunteers were amazing and put in so much work, it was a great experience.
The Pennies for Peace program was also wonderful.
We had a great awards assembly, it was a good experience we will learn from it and do some things differently next marking period but all in all it was good.
Q – is there a set curriculum for Academic Support – is there a gauge to see how kids are doing?
A – There are books to assist the teachers for preparing for NJASK. Teachers stick to these protocols and make sure the students are “getting it”.
Q – If all we are doing is re-learning the same concepts, how is that helping with comprehension and the other issues the child is having?
A – It is a program that follows everything needed for the NJASK test. All of it should be sequential. Class time is focused on the individual needs of the child.
Q – What happened to the floating teacher?
A – That was for BSI – there are teachers there, kids may not recognize her, but she is there.
Q – When the district looks at the program, do they review the scores?
A – Yes, they compare the scores year over year to see if they have improved.
Q – Is Academic Support reinforced with testing to be sure the student understood?
A – Classroom teachers are doing that, assessing on a daily basis.
AMF:
Pennies for peace was a huge success. Over $800 was collected by reading over 3400 books in 6 weeks. Thank you to all who participated.
Dr. Seuss Day was also a lot of fun. That you to Mrs. Horst for both programs and to all the volunteers who helped out for both as well.
We need to collect games and activities for inclement days in the lunchroom. DVDs and educational games as well.
After the emergency PTA meeting on 3/22 it will be up to us to get everyone we know out to vote. There will be get-togethers planned for educating each other; if everyone brings a friend it will be twice as successful.
Officer Reports:
1st VP – Joy Gurreri
I just have a question for Ms. Morales – have there been any code blue drills?
A – We are working on a plan for these drills – at the end of the month we will wrap up the plans and actually have the first drills.
Thanks – more news on assemblies in April.
2nd VP – Lisa Keyzer
Nothing to report in this capacity.
Bingo dates are 4/15 and 5/21.
8th grade committee had a meeting 2/3, everything is moving along nicely, the next meeting will be at Haskell on 4/14 at 7pm.
The Spring Egg Hunt will be 3/27.
Treasurer: Sue Katz
Nothing major going on, awaiting Tricky Tray and Drama proceeds, stay tuned!
Corresponding Secretary: Anne Padovano
Nothing to report
Recording Secretary: Yvette Stoker
Nothing to report tonight
Tricky Tray – Sue Malson representing: moving along, we are already wrapping baskets. Donations are of course needed and appreciated. Soliciting is going well - get your tickets requests in and sell those 50/50 tickets!
Q – for the teachers: we were going to send around a flyer to all the teachers to donate to a grade level basket and also to ask them to please participate and join us that night. Would you prefer we not solicit a grade level basket and only ask you to buy a ticket?
A – As long as we have the option to say no, I say go ahead and ask (Pam Peschl) maybe we could donate tutoring hours and you can auction off the teachers??
Drama – Teresa Earnest.: We had a meeting recently and decided we need more than one go-to person for drama, there has to be committees within this committee as it has become so big we need job descriptions. We have lots of people who want to help and then do not know what to do; we are going to work on this for next year.
3-5 drama is going great – March will be a big month for us.
We would like to request body mikes for the whole drama program K-8. We need $2000 for this year, and then that money could go towards purchasing them later on. The high school will not let the younger kids use theirs and we should have our own.
Motion: Teresa Earnest
2nd: Ann P.
Our movie night was a lot of fun and we actually ended up making a few dollars.
Beauty and the Beast rehearsals start again 2/9
Another change we made was that each child in the show gets 2 free tickets and then additional tickets are $7 – that way we are sure that parents at least will be able to attend.
Box Tops: Debby – Congratulations to Mrs. Peschl’s class, they are the winners of the Jan/Feb contest. The program is doing great. Wendy and I will re-visit the list as some of the items we had earmarked have now been purchased from the Giving Tree. We have a total of 64,000 labels available to cash in so we can get whatever we choose. Thanks for all your help and keep the labels coming!
Website: Karin all is going well, if you have any questions please let me know or email.
Reading Activities: Kathy Dykstra – The next activity will be in April for 2nd and 3rd grades. This will be the last official program for the year and then we will have addressed every class. We will be scheduling this for after the tricky tray. This program will focus on real-life heroes and we can always use volunteers.
Our 5th grade fun night is scheduled for 3/26.
AMF – there are more funds for these kinds of programs just come up with and idea let us know and the money is yours to host the event. Our kids love for us to be involved so go for it!
Q – Do the programs have to be after school or can they be in the evening?
A – You set the parameters – that includes the time of day and even where, just let us know so we can check for any conflicts.
Giving Tree: Wendy Weisse – I just emailed Anne P. the list and Karin will post it on the website – this will help the parents who don’t always make it in to the school. We will have to come up with a way to update and a timeline, we will work on that.
Q – Do we have a teacher email blast?
A – Yes, we can send out an email to all to see what the want/need most.
Old Business: Be sure and sign up your Stop and Shop card with the rewards program, it is super easy, just go to stioandshop.com and get started.
New Business: None
Announcements:
Square dance
3/18 from 7-9pm at Wanaque
Grades K-5
Need 3 volunteers to scoop ice cream and collect tickets.
Skate night is 3/19
Ice Vault
7-9:30
Emergency PTA meeting
3/22 Wanaque Library
7pm
Q – Whatever happened to the school directory?
A – The task became too overwhelming – if we can find a way to do it we would love to take it on.
Our next meeting will not be April 12th; we will post a new date once we have decided on one.
Motion to adjourn: Anne P.
2nd: Lisa S.
Meeting is adjourned until April 2010
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Respectfully submitted but not approved 4/16/2010
