PTO Meeting Agenda

Monday, September 28th, 2020

6:30pm

 

Attendees: Phil Moore, Sarah Smith, Stephanie Eddy, Jamie LaVelle, Erin Stacey, Ali Houchin, Jodi Adler, Nikki Tourdot, Sarah Binversie, Jessica Grandt

 

1.    Welcome and Introductions

 

2.    Principal Update

a.    Dr. Grandt thanked the parents for their incredible support to start the school year and briefly updated the group on the changes that have been implemented to keep students and staff as safe as possible given the current pandemic. She also thanked the PTO for their support of the electronic sign, which was installed in front of the school last week.

b.    Parent/teacher conferences will be held on Oct 21 and 22. There will be no school on Oct 22 and 23. This year parents will sign up for a conference slot using sign-up genius. More info will be coming home on that soon. Families will also have the option to do their child’s conference virtually, face to face or by phone. Note: the book fair that we usually hold during conferences will take place solely online this year for safety reasons.

c.     Our first Scoopie night of the year will take place on Oct 28. For health/safety reasons, staff will not be working in the restaurant. However, Culver’s is still going to give 10% of sales that night between 4-8pm to Harrison School, so please consider picking up an order to go that night. The class with the highest percentage of participation will still receive a prize from Culver’s.

d.    Picture Day will be Jan. 26. Yearbook orders will be done online through Lifetouch.

 

3.    Staff Updates

a.    Mrs. Adler, Mrs. Tourdot, and Ms. Binversie each gave a brief update on the start the of school year. Each teacher commented on how well the students have adjusted to the changes for this year and how grateful we all are to be back doing face to face instruction with our kiddos.

 

4.    Membership

a.    The PTO membership form will be going home soon. Membership is $5.00 per family and includes a student directory. Erin Stacey has offered to help with membership and the directory.

 

5.    Treasurer’s Report

a.    Phil Moore is the PTO treasurer. He shared that the PTO’s current balance is $12,543. However, we have not yet received the bill for PTO’s portion of the sign purchase.

b.    Dr. Grandt and Mr. Moore will meet before the October PTO meeting to review expenses and revenue and put together a draft of a 2020-21 PTO budget to share with the group.

c.     Mr. Moore submitted paperwork to renew Harrison PTO’s raffle license and our annual 501c(3) report. 

d.    Two budget items were approved by the PTO members in attendance:

        i.    $50 reimbursement to staff for purchases they have made for their classroom. Teachers need to submit receipts to Mr. Moore by December 1 for reimbursement. Staff eligible for reimbursement are: the homeroom teachers (12), Special Area Teachers (4), English Language teacher (1), Special Ed Teachers (4), Academic Learning Coach (1), Interventionist (1), and Innovation Specialist (1). This item will cost $1200.

          ii.    A boxed lunch from GRs was approved to serve staff during conferences. Approximate cost will be $200.

6.    Fundraising

a.    Historically we have had one major fundraiser each year. Last year that was our incredibly successful Color Run. For health/safety reasons, we can’t do that this year. However, there are other options that we could do instead if fundraising is needed this year (e.g. a family scavenger hunt that is completed on their own time). We will review fundraising ideas again next month once we have a better sense of the budget and what the expenses for this year might be.

b.    We will be asking parents to submit their box tops online again this year, which is a great fundraiser for us. Jenny Kallio will be putting together a note about this to go home to parents. A parent mentioned that there is a way for families to scan their online receipts, as well.

c.     A parent suggested that Dr. Grandt add a reminder to our FB page about our Amazon Smile account as this is another simple fundraising idea.

 

7.    New Event Ideas for this year?

a.    Several of our usual PTO events will not be held this year due for health/safety reasons (e.g. the Halloween Party). Please feel free to share other ideas that you think would be fun for us to do virtually this year, instead.

 

8.    Odds/ Ends

a.    Dr. Grandt reminded the group that the SDJ has two referendum questions on the November 3rd ballot, a capital referendum and an operational referendum. Neither of these are “bells and whistles” referendums, but more maintenance in nature. For example, new boilers for Harrison are on the list of improvements if the referendum passes.

b.    In order to communicate with parents and the community about the ever-changing health situation, the SDJ has added a Covid-19 dashboard to their website. It is updated weekly.

 

Next Meeting: October 19 at 6:30pm

 

PTO Meeting Minutes

Monday, October 19th, 2020

6:30pm

 

Welcome and Introductions

1. Members in attendance: Phil Moore, Jamie LaVelle, Jessica Grandt, Megan Schultz, Dave Martin, Andrea Schmaling

 

2. Principal Update

a.Parent/teacher conferences are this week, October 21 and 22. Due to the pivot, all of the conferences will be held virtually or by phone.

b.Scoopie Night will be October 28th at the Milton Ave Culver’s. We get 10% of all drive-thru sales, so please make sure to stop by!

i. 

3.Staff Updates

 .Primary Unit (Mrs.Schultz)

a.Intermediate Unit (Mr. Martin)

b.Upper Unit (Ms. Schmaling)

 

4.Membership/ Directory Update

a.So far we have 49 families who have joined the PTO. We will do one last reminder the week of 11/2 to see if we can get any more families with a deadline of Nov. 6. We budgeted $250 for membership, and so far we are at $245. So this is good!

b.Mrs. Wellnitz will be putting together the directory for any of the families who joined, and we will get that out to families after Nov. 6th. 

 

5.Treasurer’s Report

a. Phil and Jessica worked on a draft of the budget, which was shared out at the meeting. Based on current projected expenses and revenue, we are at a deficit of $1,250. The biggest reason for the projected shortfall is because we were not able to have our Color Run this year, which is the biggest fundraiser we have. The budget was approved as is, knowing that adjustments can be made mid-year if needed.

b. Phil paid out $227.12 for the GRs conference meal for teachers.

c. We are awaiting the bill for the sign from the SDJ.

 

6. Fundraising

a. Since we do currently have a budget deficit, we do need to get creative about fundraising. The group talked about adding some more restaurant fundraisers since takeout is still something that families can do safely.

i.MOD Pizza - Ms. Schmaling looking into this

ii.GRs - Ms. Schmaling looking into this

iii.Papa Murphy’s - Mrs. Eddy looking into this

b.We also talked about looking back into Scrip cards since they now do them more online. Mrs. LaVelle is looking into this.

c. We also really need to publicize the fundraisers we are doing:

 .Scoopie night next week

i.Amazon Smile

ii.Box Tops

 

7. Interactive Scavenger Hunt Fundraiser

a. The group liked the idea of doing an interactive family scavenger hunt as a spring fundraiser. We are looking for two people to co-chair this committee.

 

8.Parent Questions

 

9.Adjourn Meeting

 

Next Meeting: November 16 at 6:30pm

 

PTO Meeting Minutes

Monday, November 16th, 2020

6:30pm

 

Members present: Phil Moore, Sarah Smith, Jamie LaVelle, Erin Stacey, Ali Houchin, Stacey Starks, Ashley Fielhauer, Jessica Grandt

 

1. Principal Items

1. 1. Virtual Conferences

1. 1. 1. Thank you to PTO for the amazing conference dinner from GR’s!
      2. Parents shared the following feedback from the virtual conferences:
         1. It was nice that parents didn’t have to wait. They simply logged in at their scheduled time.
         2. The virtual conferences made it easier for parents to attend in terms of not needing to find childcare and even being able to Zoom in from their workplace during the day.
         3. There were a few technical difficulties, but these were problem-solved fairly quickly.
         4. One parent mentioned being a little sad to not be able to see her child’s classroom like she would’ve been able to if the conferences were held F2F. 
   2. Pivot to Virtual Learning

1. 1. 1. Parents shared the following feedback from our October pivot to virtual learning:

1. 2. 0. 1. There was consensus from the parents that the virtual learning provided this year was an improvement over the emergency distance learning that we provided last spring.
         2. Parents really liked the set schedule because they could plan when their child would need their assistance and when they would be able to work independently.
         3. Ending at 1:45 each day was mentioned as a benefit of this schedule so kids weren’t in front of their screens for the whole day.
         4. Parents also liked that all students ate lunch at the same time. This was really helpful for families with more than one Harrison student.
         5. One suggestion was to make the lunch hour a little bit longer. If parents were helping their kids right up until lunch time, then they weren’t able to prepare lunch until ahead of time. And then this resulted in kiddos sometimes still eating when their afternoon classes started.

a.    A related suggestion was to have the afternoon start with an independent activity instead of direct instruction. That way if a student needed a little more time to finish eating, s/he could do that and then just do the independent activity later without missing the instruction.

6.    Parents were very happy to have the live instruction pieces and that teachers were available for questions and assistance as needed.

7.    Kids did a great job of navigating the technology.

                                  i.    HUGE thank you to our parents, families, grandparents, and other childcare providers who partnered with us to help make our short pivot to virtual learning such a success!

c.     Online Book Fair

                                  i.    Our online Scholastic Book Fair is now open. Books will be shipped directly to your house and should arrive in plenty of time for the holidays. Harrison receives 25% of the sales, so this is a great way to encourage students reading and support our school at the same time!

d.    There is no PTO meeting in December. The next virtual meeting will be on January 11th.

e.    Our first Scoopie Night will be held on December 15th at the Milton Ave. Culver’s from 4-8pm. We will receive 15% of all sales during this time frame, so please come out and support Harrison School! (Note: for safety reasons, staff will not be serving in the restaurant this year.)

f.      Parents should have received an email in Infinite Campus on 11/16 re: their selection for their child’s education setting for second semester. The window to request changes is open now and will close on December 4th.

g.    Rock County has recently moved back into Phase 1. The SDJ Board of Education will convene in a special meeting on Wednesday, 11/18, at 6pm to discuss what this means for our district. Parents and staff are encouraged to tune into that meeting which is broadcasted live. The link can be found on the SDJ webpage.

 

2.            Staff Updates

2. 1. Mrs. Houchin provided academic updates from the primary unit. Our kinder and 1st grade students are finishing up their trimester one checks and are learning about safety in guidance.
   2. Mrs. Starks provided academic updates from the intermediate unit. Our 2nd and 3rd grade students are working on their opinion and persuasive writing. Mrs. Tourdot’s class even persuaded Dr. Grandt to give them an extra recess last week because their arguments were written so well!
   3. Ms. Fielhauer provided academic updates from the upper unit. Our 4th and 5th graders have also been working very hard on writing, editing, and publishing. 

 

3.            Membership/ Directory Update

3. 1. 61 families joined our PTO, which raised $305 for the PTO.
   2. Mrs. Wellnitz created and distributed the PTO directory to members earlier this week.

 

4.            Treasurer’s Report

4. 1. Phil share out revenue/expenses from the last month

4. 1. 1. For revenue, the PTO collected $305 from members.
      2. For expenses, the PTO paid out two teacher reimbursements for a total of $100.

4. 1. 1. 1. Receipts for teacher reimbursements are due on December 1st. Any money in this account that is not spent will be reallocated to other PTO expenses after that time.

a.            Budget requests

4. 1. 1. There were no budget requests at this time.

 

5.            Fundraising

5. 1. The group discussed the various restaurant fundraisers that are available in addition to Scoopie night. After the discussion, the group decided to move forward with setting up additional fundraisers at GRs and Papa Murphy’s. Dr. Grandt will follow up with those establishments and add them to our Harrison 
   2. Jamie has collected some initial info on Scrip, but will continue to research this idea and then report back to the group.

 

6.            Parent Pot Pourri

6. 1. A parent mentioned that she has noticed the new features on Harrison’s FB page, like the #throwbackthursday and #wednesdayrewind, and she thinks they are great.
   2. A parent reminded the group that box tops can be “collected” even when you grocery shop online. This is a great way to raise money for our school.
   3. Another parents reminded the group about how easy it is to sign up for Amazon Smile, which is another great way to support our school.
   4. A parent asked if there will be spring sings this year. At this point, due to the CDC safety recommendations, students are not able to sing here at school for health reasons. But if this changes, we will definitely let families know!

 

Next Meeting: January 11th at 6:30pm

PTO Meeting Notes

Monday, January 11, 2021

6:30pm

 

Members Present: Sarah Smith, Emily Arndt-Rein, Erin Stacey, Jane Anderson, Phil Moore. Gina Heine, Jenny Kallio, Lynn Sarauer, Jessica Grandt

 

 

1. Principal Update
   1. December Scoopie Night proceeds were almost $1000! YAY! The next Scoopie night is scheduled for 1/12/21.
   2. GRs Update - Two GRs nights have been scheduled: 3/10/21 and 5/12/21. Harrison will get a percentage of sales from 4-8pm on those dates.
   3. Papa Murphy’s Update - Two Papa Murphy’s days have been scheduled: 1/21/21 and 4/29/21. Harrison will get a percentage of sales from all day on these two dates.
   4. Picture day will be held on January 26th. All orders must be done through Lifetouch online. We cannot accept any payment here at school.
   5. Mrs. Adler has accepted a position as a reading interventionist at another school. However, she will stay on at Harrison until a replacement for her has been hired. Mrs. Adler is a fantastic teacher and a wonderful person who will be truly missed. We wish her the best in her new role.
   6. Parent/teacher conferences will again be virtual for health/safety reasons. These will take place on March 3rd and March 4th. There will be no school for students March 4th and 5th.

 

2. Staff Updates
   1. Mrs. Sarauer and Ms. Kallio provided teacher updates. All grade levels are in the process of doing mid-year checks as a way to monitor student progress. Examples of these checks include the winter STAR assessment and running records.

 

3. Treasurer’s Report
   1. Total revenue from the last month was $1397. The bulk of this revenue was brought in from the Scoopie Night.
   2. Total expenses from the last month was $585. Staff reimbursement requests accounted for the majority of these expenses.
   3. There are two bills that PTO is still waiting to receive, one for the electronic sign and one for the technology subscriptions. Dr. Grandt will check on these and pass the information along to Mr. Moore, treasurer.
   4. Dr. Grandt asked the group if the PTO would be willing to sponsor a conference dinner again for staff on March 3rd. This item was approved.
      1. A Hawaiian theme of decorations was suggested as a way to brighten up the lounge and staff spirits. This was approved, as well.
4. Fun (and safe) Family Events
   1. The group started brainstorming fun family events that the PTO could safely provide this spring. This item will appear on next month’s agenda, as well.
   2. A suggestion was made to do the spring book fair closer to the summer. Since it will be virtual anyway there is no need to time it with March conferences. Parents may be more likely to participate in the book fair as a way to stock up on books for summer reading.

 

 Next Meeting: February 15th at 6:30pm