PTA President Anne Marie Frascella called meeting to order at 7:09pm

 

AnneMarie (AMF) welcomed everyone to the meeting and reminded everyone that this is the first official meeting for 2009-2010 school year. Great to see so many faces and so many new ones as well. Thank you also to all the teachers who are here. 

 

We will get straight to the agenda, would like to introduce our superintendent Dr. Richard Weisenfeld.

 

The first PTA meeting of the year always brings a crowd, thanks to all for coming out. This is the first time I think we have run out of chairs!

 

It is going to be a great school year. Please remember my door is always open, in fact the door way between myself and my secretary is literally opened all the time. If you have any questions or concerns about anything that has to do with your child and their experience with our schools, teachers anything, please do not hesitate to come to me. You can call or email as well, I will listen. I also love to hear the good things. 

 

The hour before this meeting we conducted a tour of this building (Wanaque School) to show off all we have done over the summer. Your money has put smart boards in all our grade levels, as well as better lighting, more materials, air conditioning and many more great things. It is great to have the support of the community as well as the PTA. Have a great year and t hanks again for coming out.

 

AMF: now we would like to introduce Rob Adams, the president of our Board of Education (BOE)

 

Rob: Once I again, thanks for coming, it is great to see so many of you here tonight. As Dr. Weisenfeld said, we need you to come to us with your questions and concerns, the only way we know if something is working or not is if you tell us. 

 

To that end, we have started the Community Outreach meetings with the first one this year scheduled for September 30 at 7pm here in the library. It may not be as easy for you to speak up at a BOE meeting, but these Community Outreach meetings are designed to gather your feedback on programs and services of the BOE.

We rotate where we meet between here and Haskell to make sure there is a convenient meeting for everyone. All your opinions and ideas are important, thank you to those who have shred in the past and welcome to all the new members. Have a great year!

 

AMF: next we would like to introduce our new principal, Ms, Celia Morales

 

Ms. Morales: thank you for all the welcomes to the school. I have felt a very warm welcome from the Wanaque School family and I appreciate it very much. The school year is off to a great start. We had our first fire drill today and it went very well. So far it has been a very successful year.

We will be starting Terra Nova testing at the end of this month. These tests help the teachers to know what to teach guiding them to the areas that are of the greatest need for their class.

 

We have added a reading recovery specialist to our roster. Her job will be to start early with reading intervention and make sure any student who struggles with reading has a resource for help.

 

Academic support for grades 4 through 8 will start very soon. Homework assistance will start the week of September 21. Remember Back to School Night is scheduled for September 22 starting at 7:00, you will get a schedule sent home with your youngest in the next day or two. We are also going to ask you to sign up for your parent-teacher conferences that night, there will be a sign up at each classroom so you can fill in your time slot.

 

There has been some concern about teachers not responding to Homework Hero so I have made a special request to the teachers to be sure to check in on it regularly and get back to parents and any inquiries.

 

We are trying hard to be more efficient in the main office. When you come in, please sign in, take your name tag and proceed to your destination in the school. We are trying to help the children be more responsible for themselves as well. We will have the student ambassadors helping with drama starting next week. We want to try and reduce the traffic in the office. Of course if your child forgets something, you can bring it to the office, but please emphasize at home that kids be more responsible for their homework, lunch etc.

 

Q: when will we be getting the scores back from the NJ ASK testing?

 

Dr. Weisenfeld: We have only received the collective report where all the student’s names are listed, we have not received the inidividual reports. Once we get them you will get them.

 

Q: can their teacher from last year give us the information?

 

Dr. Weisenfeld: If you can just be a little more patient, the scores will be sent home. We need to review them and see if we have to adjust any of the class assignments. For example, if your child is in a high math class but did not score high on the NJ ASK, we are going to have to change their schedule to accommodate. This will require contacting the parents etc. That is why we are having the Terra Novas early so we can help the teachers with that as well. You cannot compare last year’s 4^th grade to this years’. It has to be an individual student evaluation so we have the Terra Novas to help us with that. That way we can annually test for growth for the individual.

 

Ms. Morales: To address the concerns about the flu, we have put hand sanitizers in every classroom.

 

Dr. Weisenfeld: According to the CDC, to be effective the hand sanitizer has to be no less than 60% alcohol – the sanitizer we have purchased for the schools is 71% alcohol. We are of course emphasizing hand washing, this is just for individual events. We have been to 4 meetings on this topic, the bottom line is that cleaning the schools and all the measures we have taken are good, but the reality is if your child is sick, keep him home. Schools are going to be mandated to stay open unless there is a major outbreak or a significant number of faculty fall ill. Programs like Homework Hero are in place to help kids work from home if they are well enough.

 

Only kids in the hospital are tested for H1N1, otherwise flu treatment is the same for seasonal flu as well as any other.

 

Rob Adams: We have also made sure to clean door knobs and desktops to be sure that we have taken every measure necessary to keep the kids healthy.

 

Dr. W: Don’t be alarmed if you come to pick up a sick child and they are wearing a mask, this is also a precaution we have been instructed to implement. Both the school nurse and the child will be required to wear a mask until the student is picked up. Sometimes if parents work in the city, it might be as long as 2 hours so we want to localize the germs as best we can.

 

Q: Is there any information on Homework Club yet?

 

Ms. Morales: Right now it will be two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday through December 31.

Janet Ross: In January the AWARE kids have a program they will be implementing to help with community service hours and also help the kids.

 

DR. W: Monday through Thursday there will be academic support for those children who scored below or just at the proficient level on the NJ ASK. This will help them prepare for the next round of NJ ASK testing.

 

On Fridays we will be hosting the combined chorus with Haskell school. Beginning October 16, the chorus students in grades 6-8 will be rehearsing here at the school from 3:30 – 5:00pm. This will go through June 4, about 25 Fridays.

 

Q: Will the K-2 drama still have use of the technology room?

 

AMF: the plan is to split the group to work in different places including the technology room, the hallways etc. From 5-6pm the gym will be used for drama.

 

Ms. Morales: Please remember to check calendars before you plan things for the gym, there is a lot going on here and we want to avoid double booking anything.

 

Q: As far as the academic support program, will there be a curriculum this year, my son was in it last year and felt he did not get much out of it?

 

Dr. W: yes, there will be a structure. Last year was the first year we ran this program but we feel like we have the kinks worked out and that this year it will be much more productive.

 

Q: When we get backpacks home there is a ton of paperwork in it, is there any way to reduce the amount of paperwork, especially the irrelevant papers?

 

Ms. Morales: I will speak with Mrs. Conklin and see what we can do to avoid that.

 

Dr. W: Part of the problem is if we send the information home with the youngest child and they are not in school that day, the information does not get home.

 

Q: For example, free lunch program, there were a ton of papers on that both in English and then the same stuff in Spanish, isn’t there a way to send one piece of paper that says if you need the free lunch program, please contact _____?

 

Dr. W: We will take a look at that and see what we can do.

 

Rob A: Perhaps we can integrate something on line. Where we can, we should try and go green.

 

Q: My child told me that the little ones are not allowed to use the grassy areas of the field at recess?

 

Ms. Morales: There are gym classes going on at the same time so we are trying our best to share the fields with recess, all the kids are allowed to use the grassy areas though.

Rob A: this is a perfect example of the communication process, if you don’t bring these things to our attention we don’t know, so thanks.

 

Ms. Morales: We did stay in for recess for a few days because of the bear in the area, but other than that or bad weather, we are outside.

 

Q: What about the mulch on the playground, it is really hard out there?

 

AMF: The playgrounds get mulched once a year by the town. I know they were mulched last year. I was going to get to this later, but now is as good a time as any, we have received a $2000 grant from Lowe’s for beautification of the grounds. They are going to come this week and assess the grounds and make recommendations. Some of the things we asked for were a big shade tree for the teachers. We did not request mulch because that comes from the town and we did not want to use the grant for something that is already funded elsewhere.

 

Q: Can we use rubber pieces?

 

Dr. W: Since the money comes from the town, we would have to do what they say.

 

AMF: If I could get a volunteer to speak with Jim Post regarding our mulching options, we could get more information?

 

Janet R: Tom Carroll from the town controls the funds, I believe it is $500 per year.

 

AMF: I am sure we can talk about other options, I think the black tires are really dirty., If someone wants to make that call let me know.

 

Rob A: We can contact the town and see what we can do. Tom Balunis comes to the Community Outreach meetings and he is on the council so we can talk about it there as well.

AMF: Lowe’s will make it all newer looking. They have volunteered to paint the “Extinct is Forever” wall unless there is some reason we do not want that painted. They would put a new mural up, if we wanted that. They plan on having this all underway in the next 2 weeks.

 

Q: Do we need that wall? Could we get more parking there?

 

Dr. W: Cannot expand the parking there, it is all about wetlands laws.

 

Q: The field hockey team was here again yesterday taking all our parking. What can we do?

 

Ms. Morales: I spoke with the team coach as well as the head of athletics, we will be sure to mention it to them again.

 

AMF: If there are no more questions we will dismiss Dr. Weisenfeld, Rob Adams and Ms. Morales.

 

My next introduction is Ms. Morrow, she is the school guidance counselor. I just wanted to take a quick second to thank the teachers again for being here, they are here all day with the kids and then take more time to attend these meetings. There is a saying “If momma ain’t happy ain’t no one happy” we can say the same about our teachers so thanks again.

 

Ms. Morrow: As Anne Marie mentioned, I am the school counselor. I see the kids both individually and collectively with their classes. We are instituting a program here this year that has been going on at Ryerson in Ringwood for some time. It is the Cross Ages program for grades 6^th and 8^th. Letters have gone home to the parents regarding this program so that they know what is going on too.

 

8^th graders are chosen as guides. They receives a questionnaire that they had to answer thinking about themselves honestly. Once they are chosen, we will ask the 6^th graders to sign up, it will be first come first served and we will have 10 in the fall and 10 in the spring. They will get together with the 8^th grade guides and discuss important issues like peer pressure/alcohol abuse/tobacco etc. Rather than be a lecture format, the program is activity based and a lot of fun while they learn. Helps to make a bond between the 8^th and 6^th graders as well.

 

Q: When will the chosen 8^th graders know?

 

Ms. Morrow: End of next week.

 

AMF: thanks Ms. Morrow, sounds like a great program. I wanted to take a minute to remind you that there is a door prize tonight, we are going to draw a name from the basket up at the sign in table, if you did not enter please be sure you do before the end of the meeting. We want to have a motion to have a door prize at each meeting, we would not want to use PTA $$ for this, but rather have someone donate something each month.    If we could have a motion:

 

Motion:                        Lisa K.

2^nd:                               Lori S.

Now we would like to take a moment to introduce our executive board:

 

4 kids, 3 in the Wanaque School, I went to school here, happy to be part of the family here.

AMF: joy will also be the cultural arts committee chair person, right now she is talking to teachers for ideas, if anyone has anything regarding assemblies, please see Joy.

 

We will be going through the list of committees, if there is anything you would like to be a part of, let us know. There will also be sign up sheets at back to school night so please volunteer.

 

I have 3 kids, 2 in the Wanaque School. PTA is a great thing, please join if you haven’t already. If you are involved, your kids are happy. They love to see you in the school and they do better. It is important to everyone. Coffee and refreshments are ready, please help yourself!

 

I have 2 kids in Wanaque School. This is my 4^th year as treasurer. Anne Marie and I have been working on the budget for this year, if you chair a committee and you think you need more money than you have gotten in the past, now is the time to ask. Basically everyone will stay the same as last year, so if that was not enough, let us know now.

 

Our audit is done and filed thanks to the donated efforts of Tawon Thomason. Our taxes are being compiled and will be ready for the November due date.

 

AMF: Anne could not be here tonight. Her role on the board is to make sure events are recognized, cards are sent, gifts if necessary are sent and then she also reads the thank yous we received. That being said, we have some thank yous from last year.

2 kids in Wanaque School, 7^th and kindergarten. 4^th year as recording secretary, fastest fingers in town~!

 

AMF: Now we will go to our standing Chairs. We will start with Theresa Earnest and drama.

 

Theresa: I have 2 daughters in the school. I have been helping out with drama for 5 years and it has been a very successful program. The kids and the parents love it. We have 3 productions each year, K-2, 3-5 and 6-8.

K-2 will be doing a great show called Toy Camp, theater in the round, at the school December 18 & 19

3-5 will be doing Guys & Dolls at Lakeland on April 23 & 24

6-8 will be working with Tom Paster doing Beauty and the Beast May 7 & 8

It is going to be a great year, can always use extra hands, let me know if you want something to do and I will find something for you!

Fundraising: AMF – Sue Mazar is in charge here but could not make it tonight, we will be doing Kids Stuff books the same as last year, you send in the money and the book will be sent home to you. Worked well last year so we will do it again this way.

 

The first fundraiser will be Kastle Kreations, Linda Stepanchek will be helping out here, she is also not here tonight but will have more information next month.

 

The second fundraiser will be cookie dough. We have no one to runt his fundraiser, if someone is interested, please sign up as soon as you can.

 

The third event is the holiday shoppe. Lisa Keyzer runs this. It is for grades prek-5^th. They go shopping in a classroom filled with inexpensive - less than $8 - items for their family and friends. You will get an envelope home that you put your money in and designate who they should buy for on the outside so they remember to get for mommy as well as themselves!

 

This runs December 3 and 4 and then at the Holiday Bazaar on the 5^th. This is non-profit, it is just fun for the kids and gives them a chance to shop for the holidays as well.

 

Q: what if thye decide to buy for a lot of people?

 

Lisa K: There are prices listed on the envelope so you can decide how much they spend on each person and there are older kids to help them every step of the way.

 

AMF: Next is the Holiday Bazaar. Donna Bernardon and Debby Sloat are chairing this event.

 

Holiday Bazaar: Donna – I have 2 kids in the school, Debby and I are running this event on December 5^th in the gym. Last year we sold out the tables and had a great sale. We are hoping to do the same this year, please get your requests in early if you want to buy a table or you know someone who wants to. If there is anyone who works for a newspaper or knows someone, free advertising is always great too. We will need to re-paint the sandwich board signs, so if you are interested, please let us know, we will give you all the supplies.

 

Debby: St. Francis is not doing their bazaar this year, so if you know any of those vendors, let us know and we will contact them.

 

I am also in charge of the Box Tops for Education program here at the school. I have a 5^th and 6^th grader in the school. I head the Box Tops committee. Basically each month I gather up the box tops everyone hands in and count them, check them and log them. Then when the checks come in I report on what we made!

Basically it is simple, just cut out the pink box top and put it in a baggie with your teacher’s name on it, your name is ok as well, but I don’t need it, I need the teacher’s name so he/she gets credit for it. The class with the most box tops logged every two months gets a voucher for the snack cart. The kids love winning so keep sending them in. We are also collecting labels from Campbell’s soup, we only need the UPC now, in the past we have had other requirements, but now it is just the UPC, be sure if you send in the whole label that the UPC is part of it.

 

Right now we have banked over $600 and will get that check in December. It is a great way to make money for the school without really doing much. Please be sure the labels are not expired, you can either send them in with your child or drop them in the big box in the main office, again, just be sure the teacher’s name is on the baggie.

 

AMF: Next committee is the Kids Tricky Tray. MaryAnn Morgan is heading this committee.

 

Kids’ Tricky Tray: MaryAnn - This is our first year doing this. We are holding the tricky tray on November 13 in the gym. We are relying on parent donations for the prizes, every kid will go home with a prize. The donations have to be new toys, never opened or played with. So far we have collected 175 toys. We have 3 bigger prizes, 2 bikes and a Dora doll house.

 

We have not decided on a time yet, if you would like to sign up to help with set up and clean up, that would be great. Tickets will be $5 per child and will include some prize tickets, a snack and a drink. Adults will be $2 and are obviously not allowed to win. No drop offs for sure and siblings under 4 will be free. Kids from PreK – 5 will be invited. We need donations of toys for boys, girls are ok, but we are definitely in need of boys stuff.

 

AMF: Just want to thank you for bringing that to us, it was a little idea last year and now it will be a great event.

 

Next up is regular tricky tray, Liz and Tina are not here, Lori can you fill us in?

 

Tricky Tray: Lori Sahanas - The tricky tray will be at the high school this year. This will keep the cost of the entry ticket way down and it is really a lot of fun. You bring your own food for the table and of course no alcoholic beverages. We are securing a date this week and there will be more details soon.

 

Newsletter: Karen Branciforte – The good news is that all flyers and events will be in the newsletter. Newsletter is going green, will only be available online from here out. October will be the last paper issue being sent home. There will be copies available at the office for anyone without any access to a computer, but everything will be on the website. Please make sure that all info gets to me asap so I don’t have to call you and bug you.

 

Website: Karen DelSignor has redesigned the website and we have a working copy to show you on the library smart board. I have children in 2^nd and 5^th grades here at Wanaque. First of all would like to acknowledge the great job that Jackie Huber did on the original site. I just refreshed it and it will be live in a few days. I have loaded it onto a new server but sometimes it takes a day or two to go live. I will always be tweaking, but as you can see there are some new things on it and a lot of new pages too. www.wanaquepta.com . If there is anything you would like me to post, please send it to me in whatever format works for you. PDF and word works best for me if I have the choice.

 

After School Activities: Janet Ross, the first past-president is too good to lose all together so I have asked her to head up the after school activities committee. We will be talking about incorporating her DARE stuff and other acitivites for after school.

 

Reading Activities: Kathy Dykstra – I have 3 kids in school here, 7^th, 5^th and kindergarten. This year’s reading theme is Heroes.

For the younger grades we will use Super Heroes and for the older ones, more historical heroes.

 

There will be a reading scavenger hunt on October 9^th for the 4^th and 5^th grades with a Who’s Who theme.

 

The 5^th through 8^th graders will be working on an essay contest with prizes being Border’s gift certificates and a lunch with the principal.

 

January there will be more Super Hero stuff, we will also continue with reading logs – it is going to be a fun reading year.

 

YS: have been talking to Ms. Centrella over the summer to implement a “bagels & books” program for 6-8^th grades where a parent and the child will read the same book and then once a month meet before school with Ms. Centrella to discuss questions she has prepared on the book. This is still in the idea phase but will hopefully kick off soon.

 

Field Day – Michele Adams. This year we have not had much discussion about Field Day yet, but we are planning on keeping the BBQ for the lunch program that day, the kids just really like that. We are shooting for the last Friday in may as the first date, that leaves us Fridays in June for rain dates – we are hoping that after 2 years of cancellation we will actually have Field Day this year. Mrs. Matteo and Mr. Trahan really run the day, PTA volunteers help out with different needs throughout the day.

 

Q: regarding gym, my child mentioned that they only get half the gym for class and sometimes they share it with much younger grades?

 

AMF: we will have to talk to Ms. Morales about that. I will get more info for the October meeting.

 

Cops & Kids: Trish and Lori – we held one event last year, it is a hard thing to coordinate calendars with Haskell, right now this committee and programs are at a stand still.

 

School Pictures: Dianne V. – I have 2 kids in school, one in 8^th and one younger daughter. The picture schedule is:

 

Pictures – October 7^th

Retakes – November 12

Graduation pictures – November 12

Retakes & yearbook pictures – January 13

 

Back to School Picnic: Lisa K. – 3^rd annual picnic at Spring Lake. It is a get together for families to reconnect after the summer. Bring your own food and drinks – non alcoholic of course. There will be a lifeguard on duty if anyone wants to swim. No drop offs, you must stay with your kids. Mr. Paster will provide the music and there will also be a police officer on site. It is Monday September 21 from 4:30 – 7:00pm. Teachers are the guest of the PTA. Cost is $5 per person, kids under 4 are free.

 

Wanaque Town Picnic: Laura Wallerstein – I have an 8^th grader here so this is my last year in the PTA. It is great to see how the meetings have grown, this must be triple what we used to get at meetings. Being a part of the PTA was always great for my kids. The town picnic is September 26^th from 2pm until sundown. Once again the PTA will sponsor the inflatable gladiator joust attraction. It will be for ages 8 and older. There is plenty to do for the younger kids all the time so we try to do something for the older ones. We will also be selling snow cones so pray for a warm day! All the money goes to the PTA. If we can get some volunteers, it is a great way for the kids in the middle school ages to get community service hours.

 

Membership: Donna Bernardon – this is my 3^rd year in charge of membership and if memory serves me, we are doing much better this year compared to last. Please get your forms in, you cannot vote on things or participate in some activities if you are not a member of the PTA. I will provide summaries starting next week with comparisons to previous year’s membership numbers. We do look strong this year, so let’s keep that going.

 

Q: Will there be Bingo this year?

 

Lisa K: It is on the list, we will do it, just have to work on dates now.

 

Q: What about Student of the Month?

AMF: I am sure there will be a Student of the Month assembly, what it looks like Iw ill have to find out from Ms. Morales.

 

8^th grade committee: Lisa Keyzer – there is a lot to do for our graduating students. I have been there before, class trip, dance, shirts just so much. We will be sending around letters asking for volunteers soon. More info on the first 8^th grade parent meeting is on its way.

AMF: If there is no other business, we will pull our door prize: Donna Bernardon is the winner.

 

Motion to adjourn:                    Wendy W.

2^nd:                                           Lori S.

 

Meeting is adjourned until October 19th

 

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Respectfully submitted but not approved           9/21/2009