Harrison Elementary PTO Meeting

16 September 2019 / 6:30 PM

ATTENDEES

Jessica Grandt, Monica Kubala, Jenny Bammert, Jamie Lavelle, Jodi Adler, Nikki Tourdut, Becky Fisher, Brittney Luchterhand, Drew DuBose, Shawn Hamilton, Lynn Sarauer, Stacy Jersild, Sheri Krogman, Mary Westness, Phil Moore, Erin Stacey, Jenny Kallio, Emily Rein, Heather and Brian Hansen.

AGENDA

Principal Update

• Discussed Staff Changes:

  • Added a Kindergarten and 1st grade teaching position

  • Added a full time Innovative Specialist

• Thanked PTO for the wonderful Dessert Bar!

Unit Updates

• K/1 - Jodi Adler/ Lynn Sarauer

  • 2 New staff members for 2019/2020 school year = Smaller class sizes!

  • October 17th - Field Trip to Busy Barn

  • September 25th - Norweigan Dancer Assembly

  • Working on STAR

• 2nd/3rd - Nikki Tourdot

  • 2nd/ 3rd - TBD-  Field Trip to Milwaukee Public Museum

  • 3rd Grade - Oct. 10th - Field Trip to Rotary Gardens - “Great Pumpkin” 

  • Finished STAR

• 4th/5th - Jenny Kallio

  • 4th Grade- October 16th- Field Trip to Old World Wisconsin

  • November 5th - Biz Town

  • November 8th - JSOL

  • 5th Grade - December 19th - Chicago Field Trip

  • Finished STAR

Treasurer Update

• Discussed 2019/2020 Annual Budget

• Current treasurer position transfering from Monica Kubala to Phil Moore

• Must update signature list for PTO bank account

  • Remove all names - except Monica Kubala

  • Add Phil Moore

Membership Specialist Update

• Looked over membership signup form for 2019/2020 school year

• Discussed ways to accept PTO membership payments online

• Discussed current PTO board member openings

President Update

• PTO President position is currently AVAILABLE!

  • Please contact Jessica Grandt if interested in more information!

Upcoming PTO Events

• September 19th - Picture Day

• September 26th - Harry’s Color Blast 2019- 5-7pm

• October 1st - Scoopie Night

• November 1st - Halloween Party

• February 7th - Game Night

Harry’s Color Blast 2019

• Thursday, September 26th - 5-7pm (Rain date: October 3rd)

• Discussed Details of event:

  • Donations and T-shirts

    • $75 raised earns a T-shirt

  • Food Venders

    • Discussed which vendors have confirmed 

  • Bounce House

    • $2.00 for 5 minutes of bounce time

  • Music/ PA System

    • We have a DJ this year!

  • 50/50 Raffle

    • Winner drawn at 6:45. Must be present to win.

  • Color Run

    • Run starts at 6:15

    • Need volunteers for color tables

  • Coin Wars

    • Coin wars run Monday - Thursday of Spirit Week

  • Spirit Week

    • Monday: Emoji Monday

    • Tuesday: Tourist Tuesday

    • Wednesday: Wacky Accessory Wednesday

    • Thursday: Harry’s Color Blast

    • Friday: Full Green Friday

  • Incentives

    • $6000- Teachers provide a treat for each student

    • Every $500 after $6000 - One teacher will receive a pie in the face

    • $10,000- Mrs. Grandt will sleep in her office!

  • PR

    • There have been several FB posts, flyers and reminders on DOJO 

  • Volunteers

    • A link will be sent out for Volunteer sign-up for the event! 

NEXT MEETING

Monday, October 21st at 6:30 pm

PTO Meeting 

October 21, 2019

Members Present: Jessica, Monica, Phil, Emily, Mary, Jodi, Catherine, Erin, Jamie, Brittney, Sarah, Jenny, Stephanie

Principal Updates

• Conferences:

• Wednesday 4-7, Thursday 8-7
• School on Wednesday-Not Thursday or Friday
• Book fair is set up and ready to go. Kids have had a preview
• Satisfaction survey will be available for parents to take here or at home. PTO pays for a 50$ target gift card prize for doing the survey
• PTO gives teachers $20 gift card for the book fair to buy classroom books
• Thursday Teacher Luncheon 

• Cross Country Jerseys has come across as a request for funding
  • PTO would be recognized as a sponsor on the Jersey  
  • Set of Jerseys for the team to use every year
  • PTO members agreed to $100 one-time donation to MMS for this purchase

Teacher Updates

• Primary Unit: Jodi A.: Busy Barns field trip was a success
  • Doing academic checks to get ready for conferences
  • PTO Luncheon: Desserts and soda coming in - thank you!
• Intermediate Unit:  not represented
  • C.  Upper Unit: Sarah Binversie
  • 4th Old World WI field trip
  • Character analysis, multiplication and division 
  • BizTown Nov 5 (grade 5)
  • JSOL November 8th (grade 4)
  • Robotics competition coming-date not known yet (grades ⅘)
  • Dec 19 Chicago Trip (grade 5)

Color Run

• Positives: DJ was great, Good on a Thursday Night, Parent involvement and connection was great, weather was awesome, turned dark in time, time frame worked well, kids loved getting dirty with the color 
• Ideas to keep in mind for next year: made a lot more money on our food vs the food truck 764$ on our own food (water, hot chocolate, pizza), about 150$ each from South Padre and South Padre. South Padre had a long wait-They were prepped for hot dogs and brats, but everyone wanted lobster rolls and sea food instead. They were not ready for that. Suggestion for next time Next year, it would be better to offer more of our own food
• Bounce House: only made 69$ after paying our half to rent. Line was long. Liability and two volunteers needed. Maybe scratch this or do something else next year. Yard games, sidewalk chalk?
• No middle schoolers doing the color powder-Adults only!!!! 
• Color was hard to squeeze out of the bottles- next year, cut the bottles or come up with something different to distribute. They were also too hard to refill in very little time. More training for powder distribution needed. Tables pushed back from the track, more information to volunteers ahead of time on how to do the color. Adults only. 
• Many volunteers were needed for the color-maybe take out the bounce house and have more people doing color
• Money from color run
  • 8820.13 family donations
  • Bounce House 138.00
  • 50/50 Raffle 327
  • Food 764
  • Coin war 2561.77
  • Expecting 300 more from South Padre and Kona Ice
• Color Run Expenses
  • Color Run Packets 1000
  • Food and Ice 137
  • T-shirts 629
  • Pies 57.27
  • Squeeze Bottles 59.96
  • Bounce House 69.00
• Net Proceeds from Color Run: 11,003.54
• Next year’s fundraiser/Color Run Thursday September 24, 2020

Treasurer’s Report:

• Cleared Bank Balance 17,283.42-219 Outstanding Checks, Book Balance 17,064.42
• Worried about bus expenses for field trips to spend all of the money on the sign right now. Parents are now contributing 1$ per trip towards the bus currently. TABLED FOR NOW. 
  • Two sign estimates last year: 17,000 & 24,000
• Scoopie Night
  • Made over 700$ :) 727.23$
• Box Tops for Education: ongoing collection, can scan receipts now (box top App), drop box in the office 
• Amazon Smile: select our school for a kickback. May want to promote again with the holidays coming up 
• General expenses update: 
  • Banking and legal fees: 10$ fee for annual report for tax exempt, 50/50 raffle fee, 
  • Stoughton Dancers 250$
  • UW-Whitewater Wheelchair Basketball deposit 825$, 
  • Five Staff Requests so far (cut-off is Dec. 15 to turn these in)
• Update on online membership options: Venmo, Paypal (look to do this next year)

Upcoming Events

• PTO Membership - going out at conferences
• Halloween Party-Nov. 1 5:30-7:00
  • 20 Craig Students coming to volunteer for games. Need 3 Adult Volunteers. Volunteers are arriving at 5:00
  • Will Contact the Art Honor Society advisor to ask for 4 kids to do face painting 
  • Spooktacular walk: use candy instead of cupcakes 
  • Cupcakes, snacks and food needed to be donated for the food table
  • Bethel church collecting candy donations for us. Only 5 bags donated so far
  • Dojo to contact Jodi to volunteer for Halloween Party, Sign up at conferences for treats: 4 categories: Cupcakes, Bars, Individual Snacks, Napkins 
  • Klawitter: Orange cones and sound system
  • Boombox needed for spooktacular walk
• Conference Dinner-Thursday
• Book Fair- PTO funding teacher purchases
  • Homeroom teachers x 14
  • Special Ed teachers x 4
  • Reading Interventionist x 1
  • Academic Learning Coach x 1
  • EL x 1

Parent Questions/Concerns

• Family Book Club? Families read books and get together in the winter. Maybe read the book at home and come to Harrison and watch the movie. Will talk about it and come back next time.
• BINGO night?

NEXT MEETING MONDAY NOVEMBER 18, 6:30

 

Harrison PTO Notes

11/18/19

 

Members Present:

Brittany Luchterhand

Sarah Binversie

Lynn Sarauer

Jessica Grandt

Stacy Jersild

Monica Kubala

Nikki Tourdot

Erin Stacey

Jodi Adler

Mary Westness

 

 

Principal Update:

●     No School Nov 22 (professional development for staff) , 27-29 (Thanksgiving)

●     Report cards will come home on December 2nd (Monday)

●     Staff had optional listening session with the superintendent

○     Looking for subs for teachers and paras-Can get a bump in pay if they attend prof development. Please pass on the word to anyone who might be interested

 

Grade updates:

 

K/1:

●     Kinder: KBSA (assessment) going on in Kindergarten, great progress gingerbread unit coming up, attended UW Whitewater wheelchair bball

●     1st grade: Wheelchair basketball assembly-loved the message. Word detective unit went well, starting new unit on nonfiction, and doing a germ unit

 

2nd/3rd

●     2 writing nonfiction, peer editing, working with innovation specialist

●     Global Read Aloud, also loved wheel chair bball

●     2/3  going to Milwaukee public museum Tuesday

 

4th/5th

●     4th grade doing nonfiction unit; K-kids has begun-service organization, helping the little ones with rollerblading

●     5th:non fiction in reading; Biztown field trip a success, Chicago field trip coming up

○     Chicago Field Trip Lunch: $300 budgeted for lunch. Sarah and Morgan will look for a parent to coordinate

●     Career fair for 4th and 5th coming Tuesday

 

Halloween Party Feedback:

 

●     Great turn out

●     not having raffles was less planning

●     lots and lots of treats donated

●     Amount of candy fine

●     Only got 8 of the 18 volunteers from Craig that we were supposed to get. Did not have enough people.

●     Next year: no dance corner-made the games too congested and shoved together.

●     Possibly have the K-kids run the games?

 

Treasurer’s Report:

 

Update on Revenue:

●     Total income of 1,194.30 between Amazon Smiles, Color run (South Padre Seafood), Scoopie night, membership dues, school store

 

Purchases:

●     Bank fees, box top expenses, fine arts assemblies, staff appreciation dinner, staff requests for reimbursement, book fair expenses, color run expenses Total: 1,797.28

 

Chase bank balance as of 11/18/2019 16,680.44

 

Still have not received the check from Kona for the color run. Jessica will follow up again.

 

Upcoming Events

 

●     Scoopie Night Dec 17th-Teachers staffing

●     Family Game Night: Friday February 7th 5:30-6:30

●     Family book club update:

○     School wide, possible movie at the end,

○     kids can bring in answers to questions or activities to earn tickets,

○     Question about funding? Purchase the books? Possible read aloud on facebook live-each teacher would read one chapter? Have books on hand from public libary?

○     To pick a book: narrow it down to 3-4 titles and have the kids vote

○     Nikki and Erin will report out with an update/plan at the January meeting

 

Spirit Wear

New designs from soccer direct will be available soon to order by the holidays

Joggers, new logo for shirts

 

Parent Questions or Concerns:

 

●     GRs Sandwich shop fundraiser? Stacy will call GRs to find out. Made 255$ last year for two days

●     Other ideas for the future: Buffalo Wild Wings, mod pizza, chipotle, QDOBA

 

No Meeting in December

 

Next PTO Meeting: January 13th 6:30 PM

PTO Minutes

January 13, 2020

 

Members Present: Jodi Adler, Shawn Hamilton, Jessica Grandt, Stacy Jersild, Dave Martin, Erin Stacey, Ashley Fielhauer, Brittany Luchterhand, Margaret Lambert, Jane Anderson, Emily Arndt-Rein 

 

Principal Updates

a. No School - January 20th (MLK, Jr. Day)

b. Parent Satisfaction Survey Results

i. Mrs. Grandt shared out the results from the Parent Satisfaction Survey that was taken at the fall conferences. Harrison scored 4.66 out of 5.00!

ii.Top three item scores for Harrison:

1. 2. 2. 1. This school is clean and well-maintained. (4.84)
         2. The teachers, staff, and administration at this school demonstrate a genuine concern for my child. (4.83)
         3. This school provides a safe environment for my child to learn. (4.79)

iii.Lowest three item scores for Harrison:

1. 2. 3. 1. The Superintendent is an effective leader. (4.26)
         2. The Superintendent makes decisions that are in the best interest of children and parents in the district. (4.26)
         3. I receive positive phone calls, emails, or notes about my child from school. (4.48)

iv.One area of concern from the comment section continues to be pick up and drop off. One suggestion was to have teachers send home another Dojo message.

c. Fundraiser for former Harrison student

 .The K-Kids (Harrison’s student service organization) is hoping to do a coin war to benefit a former Harrison student who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. That student is now in 8th grade at Marshall. Stay tuned for more information coming home soon.

 

Teacher Updates

a. Primary Unit

i.Teachers are working with students to do middle of the year re-checks.

ii.Incorporating performance tasks and number talks in math.

b. Intermediate Unit

 .Teachers are also doing middle of the year re-checks.

i.After school clubs starting for K-5 students on January 27th.

c. Upper Unit

 .4th grade: engineering unit, fractions

i.5th grade: fantasy unit, fractions

 

3. Treasurer’s Report (Phil)

a. General revenue and expenses update was given for November and December

b. Balance as of 12/16/19: $17,277.07

 

Upcoming Events

a. Family Game Night - Friday, February 7th from 6:00-7:00 (Erin)

i.Come play board games with your family!

ii.If you have any games she can borrow, let her know!

b. Scoopie Night - Wednesday, February 19th (Lynn)

c. Possible GR Night (1/24 or 1/31?)

 .Stacy will get more info. We will communicate out when it is set.

 

Family Book Club Update (Erin/ Nikki/Brittany)

a. Erin is going to put together a survey to send home to determine how many families might be interested in participating. She will report out at the next meeting.

b. The group discussed a variety of ways to run the book club:

i.Facebook live option

ii.Ask for donations

iii.Have each grade level do a different book (then we could get more from the public library)

iv.Pick a genre and then let families pick any book to read within that genre

 

Parent Questions/Concerns

Next Meeting: Monday, February 17th at 6:30

• Book Club follow-up
• Conference Dinner planning