December 4, 2007

GEPTA Meeting LER December 4, 2007

Welcome:
Members present:
Helen Wright, Jen McKenna, Tony Theberge, Jill Jamison, Ellen McGuire, Tony Veit, Katherine Kollman, Veronica Babcock, Judi Morin, Paula Bourque, Tiffany Awley, Liz Hall, Karen Moody

Last Meeting Minutes

Ellen made a motion to accept the minutes and Jen 2nd. People were invited to look over the minutes on their own. All in favor.

Treasurer’s Report

Tony passed out copies of the report and shared the account information.
Meadowfarms netted: 9801.03
Octoberfest earned 1180.98
Classroom support to teachers totaled $1950. There was some brief discussion regarding who was “eligible” for classroom support.
The district will match up to $5000 for our playground fund. We are setting that amount for our target goal. Currently we transferred 1667.83 into our playground account.
Ellen motioned that we accept the report, Jen 2nd

Principal Report

Judi wanted to thank the PTA on behalf of the staff for the checks they were given for classroom support.
Karen also said the teachers were very excited and appreciative of the cash support. She also extended the teachers’ thanks for the meals during conferences and she was grateful for the book fair volunteers and coordination..
She wanted to remind us all to check out the new and improved website and that she can link it to the River View website. She’d love feedback about the site.
She’s going to upload pictures of our fundraising baskets. Judi asked her to add a piece about the donations to troops that was organized by River View.

Family Fun Nights-Jen McKenna

We need to have a license to show movies at the school. The cost is $75. So we discussed changing the movie night to a science fun night- all agreed.
We want to ask families to save this year’s Christmas cards for next year’s activities.
Jen needs volunteers to man the tables, to bake cookies and to bring in Christmas/holiday cards. A sign up sheet went around for each.
Volunteers should show up by 5:15-5:30. We will probably do cookies in the cafeteria and crafts in the gym.
The winners names for the baskets will be drawn that night.
Good feedback was given on the family game night. It wasn’t a huge turnout, but very well received.
There was discussion regarding having pizza at one of the Fun Nights, people thought perhaps the Science night.

HOLIDAY BAZAAR

December 13 (Thursday) - at River View during the school day from 9-2. Volunteers should arrive by 8 am. Students can “shop” for family members- spending about 50 cents per gift. Students can choose 2 items, if after all students have shopped, children can come back and purchase additional gifts. A notice went home asking for donations. Judi is looking for volunteers. A snow day will be December 20th. Judi would like the PTA to perhaps purchase some wrapping paper and tags if needed. Judi is asking for a volunteer to collect the donations and coordinate the volunteer time slots. Veronica Babcock agreed to do the scheduling. She will contact Judi. Tiffany Awley and Jen McKenna already agreed to be there.

Fundraiser Baskets
Tickets should have gone home with students. Karen will post pictures on the websites.

Reading Incentive Tshirts

We get 100 free shirts from Meadowfarms. We decided to get orange and black shirts with I LOVE TO READ. Jen will try to determine which sizes we need.

Scholastic Book Fair

Tiffany said we have a little over $1158 for books. Tiffany wanted to collect enough books so that at the end of the school year each child gets a book. Jen motioned, Katherine 2nd.
Judi suggested getting a list of titles from classroom teachers to help us decide which books to get. Tiffany will go to the Scholastic Warehouse on Dec. 11 to get more books for reading incentive. For 4 weeks starting next Wed. we will have a drawing of 5 names for books (book fair raffle)

Hannaford Helps

Tiffany is organizing this. We want to combine the slips from both schools. Helen will contact Morgan at RVCS to get those. We need to get the slips from Hannaford. We are missing the paperwork, Helen will call to find this.

Family Fitness/ Health Day:

Katherine Kollman- from surveys she found that parents are lacking information on what is healthy food. She would like to have a day in January to put together a FamilyFitness/Health day with 4 active corners in the gym for teaching parents and kids how to stay fit. In the cafeteria, have someone from cooperative extension to give a workshop on nutrition. Anthony Anderson is willing to help. Perhaps the PTA could provide some healthy snacks. Jen suggested that we combine it with Family Fun and have it on a Sunday afternoon instead of Friday evening. The last Sunday in January (January 27th) was suggested. Karen will check the schedule.

STARS program requested reimbursement for a field trip. Jen motioned to pay for the bus ($86.40) trip, Tony 2nd. All in favor

Weekly Reader

Can PTA subsidize subscriptions for students who cannot afford to pay. Karen thought this should be included in the budget. Judi said it is covered in RVCS budget. Paula motioned that we pay for any students who are unable to pay for Weekly Reader IF it is NOT covered in the budget.

KIDS ARE AUTHORS

Tiffany shared with the principals a program in which kids can submit stories for scholastic. They work in groups of 3. 2nd grade at LER may do it as well.

Next meeting: January 8 at RVCS.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:26pm.